Get Your Mind Right

 It would turn out to be a marathon day. A day that started around 1:00 a.m. I awoke unexpectedly and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to get up to pray and then drifted back to sleep around 4:30 a.m. Brenda and I had a fast trip to Lubbock later that day. We were headed to watch Turner run at a track meet hosted by Texas Tech. We knew we could not spend the night, so our hearts sank when Turner informed us they moved the start of the meet back due to high winds. He was not running until 8:25 that night. 

People who really know me understand I normally am in bed by 9:00 p.m. I have not slept with an alarm clock in over 30 years. I get up when God wakes me up. Knowing his event was scheduled around the time I normally go to bed meant it was going to be a late night. Not something to get excited about. 

Sure enough the 400 started at 8:25 p.m. What has to be taken into consideration is that is the time the girls started running. They had six heats for the girls before the men started running their heats. Thankfully Turner ran in the second heat. 

It was close to 9:00 p.m. before he finished, gathered his gear, and made his way back to us. I had to hike a country mile to get the vehicle from the parking lot to come meet Brenda and Turner. Together they hatched a plan to go get ice cream at Dairy Queen located near Turner's campus. I think most of Lubbock must have showed up at the same time we did. It literally took over 20 minutes to get cups of ice cream. The whole time I was calculating our estimated time of arrival back home impatiently. Brenda commented about my impatience. 

That is when I made a decision. I was not going to complain or dread the four hour drive back home. I knew Brenda needed to sleep. I solicited some prayer, nabbed a bag of sun flower seeds and hit the road headed east at around 9:30. I prayed multiple times for God to give me strength and keep me awake. 

I threw back a handful of sun flower seeds and started our drive. The CD player is broken in my car and the radio is so old I do not have a way to connect to my phone for music. That left radio stations out of Snyder, Sweetwater, and eventually Abilene. Brenda slept until Abilene and stayed up like a trooper the rest of the way home. 

We pulled in at 1:45 a.m. and were both in the bed by 2:00 a.m. I thanked God as my head hit the pillow for keeping me awake, for the car working properly, for the lite traffic on the way home, and for the chance to see Turner again. 

We have made that same drive from west Texas to Weatherford multiple times over the past six years. I have dreaded that drive most of them. Late nights after football games or track meets. Driving from the plains of west Texas back to the edge of the DFW metroplex does not get any shorter. It is four hours and fifteen minutes just about any way you slice it. 

Last night it seemed much shorter. I know God kept me awake. I am sure of that. I never even got drowsy. That could only be God. How do we account for the trip seeming shorter. It took the same four hours and fifteen minutes. Attitude. The task was the same. The mindset was different. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I had to get my mind right to staying up later driving so Brenda could sleep what little she could. 

It is amazing what people can do when they get their mind right. The mind is powerful. When our mindset is negative and we dread certain tasks, it makes them seem longer and harder. Just ask anyone punching a clock at work. Sometimes it might seem like the clock is slowly ticking when in reality it is ticking at the same speed. It is our attitude that makes the difference. 

When people get their mind right and determine they will finish writing the paper, mow the yard, do the workout, get up earlier to pray, put in a little overtime, and all the rest that life demands from time to time the tasks get done. The tasks may still be hard. The body and mind may weary. When the mind is right things still get done. 

For centuries everyone said no human being could run a mile in under four minutes. Doctors said it was physiologically impossible. That is until one blustery day in England Roger Bannister broke the four minute barrier. Want to know something interesting? After Bannister broke that barrier, multiple other people soon did the same. Today the world record for the mile is 3:43.13. Just think for centuries people said that could not be done. Not only has it been done thousands of times now, but they exceeded that mark by 17 seconds. Once the mind set is in the right place people believed it was possible. The right mind set can make a world a difference. 

I don't know what difficult thing you may be facing, but I hope you will get your mind right and tackle it with fresh vigor and the right attitude. No telling what you can accomplish when your mind is in the right place to take on hard challenges. Truly Jesus gives us strength to do the hard things.