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Stepping back

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I just completed the first week of the Couch 2 5K running program…again.

It’s the program that I used back in April 2008 when I literally went from the couch to a 5k a few months later. It’s the program that eventually led me to…

More 5ks…

Some 10ks…

6 half-marathons…

4 marathons, and…

4 ultras, including 50 miles on my 50th birthday.

But after a season of injury after a pandemic full of crises, loss, and stress, I found myself hitting the start button on Week 1, Day 1 of the C25K app at the beginning of the week.

And I’ve never felt better.

Jesus spoke these words to the church in Ephesus: “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first…” (‭‭Revelation‬ ‭2:5‬ ‭NIV, emphasis added)

This was after He had listed all the impressive things that they had done – kind of like my list of running accomplishments – and told them that the one thing He found lacking was the love they’d had at the beginning. The verse quoted above was His prescription: stop what you’re doing now, and go back to what you were doing before.

See, a step back isn’t failure if it’s a step back to where we should have been all along.

A step back isn’t failure if it’s a step back to where we should have been all along. Share on X

Sometimes, the only way to find the love you had at the beginning is by going back to the beginning. The reason stepping back can rekindle our first love is simple: our first love, Jesus, is waiting for us there.

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April 8, 2022by Paul Jenkins
Written by Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins is lead pastor of The Gathering, a community church located in beautiful downtown Albemarle, North Carolina. He's the author of God is My Air Traffic Controller and My Name's Not Lou. Paul is passionate about his wife, his 3 children, running, reading, coaching, leading people who are following Jesus, Swedish Fish and the Carolina Panthers.