I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7

It’s been a bit since I added to this blog, and this is definitely not the post I wanted to write.  My brother Greg unexpectedly passed away last night. Greg is not supposed to be gone, not now.  We had a race to run – Greg, his wife, and me – the Piittsburgh Marathon, May 6, 2012.  That is why this blog started.  That is what we both were looking forward to.

You see, I have run marathons before – 7 in all.  But over the last 8 years I stopped running.  Yeah, life happened – 4 more kids, job changes, getting older. Got a bit out of shape too. And my knees hurt, really hurt – but not bad enough to impress the doctors to do anything drastic.  Then my sister-in-law Lynn, Greg’s wife started running.  She posted a lot on FaceBook – “ran this many miles, etc”  I was happy for her, but jealous.  I missed running.  Then a year or so ago Greg started running – lost a lot of weight and looked real good.  So proud of him. I was jealous enough to give running a try again – actually it was like God prompted me to get back, maybe to connect with Greg, maybe to write this blog.   But my knees! Almost a year later and the knees haven’t been a problem.  Greg says it was I who encouraged him to run the Pittsburgh Marathon, but actually dear brother; it was you who encouraged me.  I wish I could have told you.

Greg has been an encouragement to me.  He gave his life to Christ before me and helped lead me to Christ. In return, I introduced him to his wife.  We went to college together, lived on the same street for a few years while I was stationed in Florida.  Greg loved the Lord, and served Him well.  He fought the good fight, he finished the race – he kept the faith.  I will miss you brother – but we still have a race to run together – and I look forward to it.  Just let me know what kind of running shoes work best on streets of gold.  

Until then, I’ll keep running.