Go Runner Go!

​A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, February 25th, 2024:
Second Sunday of Lent

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Romans
8.31-35, 37

Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?

It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Several years ago I attempted to become a runner. But I always had an excuse:  

I’m tired.  
I don’t have any clean running clothes. 
My ankle is acting up. 
It’s too cold outside. 
It’s too hot outside. 
The sidewalks are hard on my knees. 
I need new sneakers. 
I just don’t wanna. 

I kept finding – or creating – obstacles before, and sometimes during, my runs. But I do remember an encounter during an early morning run as I was nearing a bus shelter. There was a child, maybe three or four years old, waiting for the bus with his mother. As I approached I heard mom say: “Oh look! There’s a runner.” 

The little boy eagerly looked my way, clapped his hands and cheered me on chanting: “Go runner go! Go runner go!”  I smiled. His mom smiled. And honestly, my stride and pace increased tenfold, the excuses fell away, and I felt like I could run a marathon. Well, at the very least I could go for a few more blocks. 

Something happens when we cheer one another onwards. For me, being cheered on helps me gain a sense of being seen, that someone’s got my back, that I’m loved, that I’m not running the race alone – whatever the “race” might be. I have often thought of that bus stop encounter. Just a simple action that meant more than I realized in the moment. 

And if a child can strengthen my resolve, imagine what God can do, and actually does! Saint Paul may be addressing the Romans, but he’s also talking to us when he says: “If God is for us, who is against us?” I don’t know about you, but I know in the busyness of my days, it can be a challenge to hear God cheering me on. But God wants to encounter me daily to love me, to transform me, to remind me that He’s got my back. Do I see it? Mostly. But often I am blinded by obstacles and excuses of my own making. Yet God patiently and consistently waits. He also continues to quietly cheer me on until I pay attention and open my heart to truly hear Him in those He puts around me. Like a small excited child. 

I am no longer a runner. Yet I still run a variety of “races” with work, family, friends – life! But I need to make space to see and hear the “Go runner go!” moments that God always provides for me, because in them He reminds me that: 
He sees me. 
He’s got me. 
He loves me. 
I am not alone. 

And in return, God calls me to witness these truths to others. We are all “running” in some form or another in this crazy world. So whatever situation you find yourself in this week, today, right now, may I humbly remind you that: You got this… because God’s got you. 

Go runner go! 




Aurea Sadi

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