3/12/2007 - As a Spokane resident since early grade school, my years in this city have followed essentially the same time line as the now famous "Bloomsday" road race. I was just a first grader when a teacher in my school, named Don Kardong, started this little event that would become the largest timed road race in the country. I've had the opportunity to run "Bloomsday" on several occasions, but over the past eight years, the Seattle Youth Rally has happened on the same weekend, thus preventing me from running. This year the Seattle Rally will be held the last weekend of April, which means I'll have a new opportunity to run "Bloomsday."

I don't know for sure if I'll participate, but this whole turn of events started me thinking about the race we run as Christians and the similarity between a believer's life and our great Spokane road race. Specifically, I've thought about the aid stations and loud music that show up occasionally during the race. These welcome sights and sounds provide great times of refreshing during what can be an otherwise grueling 7.46 miles.

Such moments of recharging remind me of the youth retreats and camps in which our teens participate. We recently returned from an amazing Portland Youth Rally, where 19 young people from the northwest were baptized into Christ. In approximately seven weeks, we'll head over to the Seattle Youth Rally. Soon after that, summer will kick off and we'll look forward to Clear Lake Christian Camp, the Nationwide Youth Roundup (NYR), and New Life Northwest. As we then move into fall, we'll host our own Spokane Youth Rally.

All of these larger, occasional events provide great times of refreshing during what can be an otherwise grueling race we call "the Christian life." I am so grateful for the opportunities we have to renew ourselves, and I ask that you keep all of these upcoming events in your prayers. Even more importantly, I ask for your prayers as we strive to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" and "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1, 2).