Positively Positive

This is the second of three installments on running by my fellow WCS teacher/coach, Catherine Tinkler!
By nature I am an optimist, I continually look for something good in any situation.  But, these past few days my disposition has been tested as I continue to wake up and head to WCS an hour earlier than normal to run with the cross country team.  How can someone be sunny when the sun isn’t even up yet?  That question was answered this past week as I spent time with Vicki Wagner, the beautiful wife of colleague Nathan Wagner. 
Coach Wagner is the leader of the WCS cross country team, not Vicki but Nathan.  Yet, Vicki is out with the team every practice.  Vicki is a collegiate runner, strong Christian, and the most positive person I have met in my entire life.   I even have evidence that proves, at least in my mind, that she may be the most positive person on the planet.  Hyperbole you may say.  You decide …

Each morning for the past week and a half Vicki has been up before the sun with her running shoes tied on poised to deliver the right dose of encouragement to keep the team (and me) striving to do our best.  Can you believe she even smiles and talks while running?  I’m doing good to keep breathing in and out.  But there is Vicki running right beside me telling stories or asking questions to keep my mind off of the tedium of putting one foot in front of the other for what seems like millions of laps around the school.  Knowing she is there makes it easier to show up each morning.  With her running beside me I know I can say, “let’s walk a minute” and she will let me catch my breath.  Then, because I need it, she will give me a nudge and say “let’s keep going.” 

There is someone else with Vicki and me on our daily run.  Someone that I wish everyone had beside them – Christ.  We learn even as little children that if we will ask Him, Christ will walk beside us on our journey.  The story even goes that when we look at the footprints of our life and only see the outline of one set of feet in the sand that those are the moments when Christ is actually carrying us.  It’s not likely that Vicki will ever carry me on a lap around the school during practice.  But, I do know the One who will carry me through whatever hardships I may face in life. 
He is my real running partner.  Of that fact I am positively positive.
Catherine

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
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E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com