Several weeks ago the Detroit Free Press Marathon swept across the city on a surprisingly warm Sunday morning. I used to run distance, and have participated in the Free Press races many times. As such, I felt the draw of the race. Even now, mentally reflecting on those races sparks a bodily memory of those Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n
I went to cheer at the sideline. By myself. In Southwest, I stood near the 10.5 mile marker, with a group of \u201cofficial cheerers\u201d across the street from me. For hours, we yelled:<\/p>\n
YOU CAN DO IT
\nJUST KEEP GOING
\nYES, YOU CAN
\nYOU\u2019RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE
\nONE STEP AT A TIME
\nYOU\u2019RE DOING A GREAT JOB<\/p>\n
There\u2019s something about the rote repetition of those phrases that choked me up. To offer encouragement when I know the pain that\u2019s inevitably on their path. To know that they have already experienced the ache of exhaustion and yet they continue to press forward.<\/p>\n
Endurance athletics are mysterious. At the intersection of impossibility and endurance, they meet you.<\/p>\n
On a Sunday morning, I cheered for the runners. I cheered and I cried. In hope for them, and in hope for their perseverance through the struggle. To see the thousands of runners weave their way through the city was like an homage to the people who live here every day.<\/p>\n
After very successfully losing my voice, I went to church on the east side with a friend. We gathered, the local residents and visitors alike, and listened to a message of perseverance, endurance, and hope. How serendipitous.<\/p>\n
Hope is mysterious. It\u2019s waiting on that intersection of impossibility. Hand-in-hand with suffering, it waits.<\/p>\n
And we sang. \u201cif I never knew the struggle, then I wouldn\u2019t know just how I am Loved\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A few weeks ago Stephen Henderson charged this Challenge cohort to \u201cbe apostles of hope\u201d. & honestly, I\u2019ve learned immensely about hope from the people of this City.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t give what you don\u2019t have. So, I\u2019ll sing, listen, and dwell in the moments of silence after the song has ended when the last note still bounces around the church ceiling\u2026where hope shines quietly like the sun-kissed dew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Several weeks ago the Detroit Free Press Marathon swept across the city on a surprisingly warm Sunday morning. I used to run distance, and have participated in the Free Press races many times. As such, I felt the draw of the race. Even now, mentally reflecting on those races sparks a bodily memory of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}