All for Jesus and for His Glory

My life is continually being altered, changed, transformed. Recently the phrase "All for Jesus and for His glory" has been the one striking me more and more profoundly. Last Sunday I ran a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles. Through out this run, I suffered a lot. I have activity and allergy induced asthma...and I'm allergic to grass.  At the start of our run, I was with a group of six others. Now, I would not typically be one to sign up to run 13.1 miles, a 5k or 10k, a little more likely, but I haven't ran much since my sophomore year of high school (I just finished my freshman year of College). However, our friend's dad Robert Diller was diagnosed with lou gehrig disease and his daughter, Brooke, had run half marathon's before. They found the Flying Pig half marathon which takes place in Cincinnati, OH, and all proceeds go to fund research for ALS (lou gehrig disease). So I didn't sign up for a half marathon just to do it...that would be a funny joke...I signed up to support my friends and their family in this hard time, and to honor Mr. Robert Diller.

Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of meeting Robert, but he has been a man who has changed my life. He saw all suffering, as a blessing. When he developed diabetes, he saw it as a blessing. When he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, he saw it as a bless. When he was diagnosed with ALS, he saw it as a blessing. The night before our run, we watched a testimony given by Robert, about his life. He was Christ's shining light, and that's what he wanted all to be - a light of Christ shining in the darkness of this world!

Needless to say, we made our run a prayer. We started off by offering each mile for an apostle. During our run, as I was starting to "die" due to my asthma, my running partner started praying the litany of humility, one of my favorite prayers. Our course was very hilly, and every hill (at least in the beginning) resulted in my asthma flaring up. Damian (my running partner) talked me through each hill firstly in reminding me to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, to help the oxygen flow and prevent my asthma attack. Then he would talk about how Jesus was practically dead, but carried the cross up mount Calvary and this little hill was nothing compared to what Jesus had done for me (for us all). Each hill was like a little Calvary for me - I was suffering and drawing closer to Christ in my suffering.

Then we reached about mile 6ish and I'm running low. We have a hill that is forever long, and I have to stop going up it. Once I let myself stop running it's really hard for me to get going again. So in order to help, Damian decided we would do a rosary. Actually, we probably started the rosary around mile 7. My legs were starting to feel like lead weights and all I could think about was how much it hurt. So Damian said he would pray the rosary, and he wanted me to reflect on it while we ran and every time I stopped running, he stopped praying the rosary. And he would start up again once I started running again. It worked really well to keep me going, and keep my mind off my physical pain.

Upon completion of our rosary, we had about 2 miles left. I had told Damian that he had to keep talking because it helped me. So he would just ramble, and all the while I started saying to myself "all for Jesus and for his glory."

Reflecting on this phrase I came to realize how all we do is truly for Jesus, and for His glory. Literally all our lives need to be for Jesus and to be glorifying Him. The other night at work one of our managers and I were talking about work and he was like I'm just here for the money, isn't that what we're all here for? We had been talking about how it's important to do things the correct way, and to take care of customers etc. But then we were like what it all boils down to is Panera wouldn't exist without customers, so if our customers aren't happy then we're out of a job, which means no money. Which all makes sense, but I was a little stumped by his question. I honestly don't care how much money I make (at least most of the time).

Less and less I seem to care about the money; I'm learning to care more about customers, and making them happy. I work to have money, yes, but the money is used to pay for gas, for food, for retreats, for things that aide me in glorifying God all of my life. The money is needed to pay for my school, so I can fulfill my vocation as a student, and later in my life serve God through my work as a nurse - caring for people and serving them. And as a student, I glorify God by uniting my school work to Christ, striving to integrate Christ into every aspect of my life.

So, this is super long. But my point is - all we do needs to honor our Lord.

All I do is for God and for his glory. I ran my 13.1 miles because my friend's dad died of ALS and a group of us did it together, in honor of him and in support of his family. We all wore the same shirts. They were blue, said Robert's Runners on the front, and on the back there was a cross and a quote that "We all have a vocation, and I'm chasing after mine." People recognized our shirts, and asked about them. We were able to witness to others.

Robert wanted all to be a light, and a witness to the love of Christ. He taught many of us so much, and so much of what we learned is that everything is a blessing, though it may not seem it at the time. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, as the saying goes. And we're all striving for one goal - the goal of reaching heaven some day. We're in it together, and to reach that goal, we ought to strive to live our lives based on the saying "all for Jesus, and for His glory."

The next time you are suffering, I encourage you to recall this phrase, because in some way the Lord is going to bring light, joy, goodness, and love out of every situation.

God bless!