cross blogging @ StraightUp

I wrote a blog post for our church conference, StraightUp. It's called "Help for the Race" and it's an encouragement for people to come to the conference. Here's an excerpt:

Momma ran her first 5K race this summer.

And as her two sons and I waiting near the final turn, I could see her long before she could see me. Her head was down, and too be honest she didn't look good. The race was being held on the worst possible day of the summer. The heat and humidity were slowing down the winning times by almost two minutes from last year.

But Momma wasn't really concerned with the winning times. They had past at least 20 minutes ago, and it seemed her energy had gone with it. In a way that was very different from the when she started, running had become hard.

I've been on staff in Harvest's worship ministry for almost nine years, and this I know a lot more now than when I started: ministry is hard. I mean really hard. I mean "so hard I feel like I'm dying" hard (2 Corinithians 4:11).

You can read the rest here.