"God told me to run"

Ed shares about God encouraging him to run. Starting in 1997 God had me start getting in better conditon, including learning to racewalk. After racewalking my first three marathons (26.2 miles) starting in 2002, God told me to strart running. The following is a story how God visited me in an unusual way during my 4th marathon in 2004 and helped me know how serious He was about my running.

The Visit

This was my first marathon to run some. Around mile 7 1/2, a man dressed in street clothes and appearing slightly overweight, started running along side me for a few hundred yards. He asked me several questions about marathons and the only question I remember was when he asked how long I had been training and I remember responding, "all year" (as I had been working on learning how to run correctly all year, sorta).

When he stopped running along side me, he intimated that he would see me again. He showed up around mile 9 1/2 and I remember thinking that there were no parking lots close by and wondered how he got there so easily. After running along side me for a short distance, he stopped and indicated he would see me again. This time I expected to see him again.

Around mile 11, I got the most awful abdominal pain. The man showed up again around mile 12. I was wearing a fuel belt and I told him I only had a short distance to the turn around (1 1/2 miles) and asked him if he would hold my fuel belt for me until I came back that way, hoping that would give me relief from the pain. I was in such pain that I remember thinking that, if he left with the fuel belt, I would buy another one. I passed the turn around, visited a porta-potty hoping that would give me relief and ran back still in pain. I encountered him on the course around mile 15 holding my fuel belt. I thanked him for holding my fuel belt and he told me he had put some water in the 7 oz bottles that I had emptied of sports drink previously (to my regret later, I poured them out after he was out of sight). I told him I was still in pain and that I was going to visit the small park restroom (2 people size) up ahead. As I sat in the back part of the restroom in pain, thinking that it was only a couple of miles back to my car and I could quit, a man I couldn't see walked in singing a beautiful hymn. He had an awsome, rich voice that filled the whole cinder block restroom and I was trying to hear the words of a very familiar hymn (the acoustics were terrible). Finally I made out the words "He was bruised for my transgressions" just before the voice went out the door and disappeared. I remember thinking that if Jesus went through that much pain for me, that I could walk the last 11 miles. I still finished 20 minutes ahead of the previous year and it was a PR (a personal record) in 2004.

Later I though about how that man had run along side me in street shoes and was never out of breath. How he appeared at places that were not near parking lots. I don't know if he was an angel or just a man sent by God. I don't even know if that was him singing. I do know that I became under conviction about telling him that I had been preparing to run in the Marathon all year, because I had also prepared for and competed in 2 triathlons, several bike time trials, a few swim meets and some racquetball tournaments in 2004. One thing I definitely know is that God never intervened in my behalf in any of these other sports. I entered 2005 determined to focus just on improving my running.

Today, I can run faster and farther than ever in my life. My weight is significantly less than when I started. Thanks to God's encouragement and sometimes pushing me, my body is in better physical condition than any time in my life.

In 2008, I finished my twelfth and fastest (a new PR in 2008) marthon in Tiberias, Israel, combining running and racewalking.

Please go to Jesus Center's Facebook page to see a picture of me running in 2004 with a fuel belt

The above is a miracle story that we are sharing so that others may be blessed by what the one true God, who has a son named Jesus, is doing in people's lives.

for questions Email to Ed@jesuscenter.net