This week my brother completed his 3rd marathon (26.2 miles), running the Chicago Marathon. Number 3 in a year. This one allowed him to gain his best personal time. (5:0:25)And I, of course am proud of him.

How does one run a marathon? I am sure there are multitudes of great books, web sites and blogs that help the individual who wants to run. But at the core of it, there are the following. A decision. Training. Practice. Food. A place to run it. I am sure there are some nuances, some tweaks and some fine tuning but that is it in a nutshell.

What is it that drives you? What is the decision that guides your steps, your willingness to not quit? You have to find that. Life is much like a marathon. You have to make the decision to be in it and to be in it for the long run.I am not making light of my brother’s decision to run, but for him it was to live. To change the outcome of his life. To say “enough is enough” and believe this is what I am going to do. Life is like that. You can have “magical thinking” and think it is all going to work out, but if you do not immerse your self in the process, it will not happen.

All life and process begins with a decision. Too many want to float through life or choose the sidelines. That too, is a choice.

After my brother’s initial decision to run, he had to change some things. Getting out of the hospital bed, change his eating and leaving the remote for others.

He had to change his lifestyle to accommodate his decision. No more fast food meals. Eat better. Life is like that. What you “feed” on has a lot to do with determining the quality of your life. How you eat, what you eat and when you eat are all contributing factors to your life (Or lack of.)and its quality. And not everyone is going to appreciate your choices, your decisions. (They say that the desire to overcome something is usually challenged more by friends and family than anything else.) Each week, I have conversations with people who “want” what I have but do not want to pay the price that I did. I can want to have the results of “marathon running” but to accomplish that I will have t change how I do things.

Training is the part that I think is one of the hardest. Sometimes, perhaps often, you are out there after dark or before light, just you and the sound of your feet. In life we all are “training” for something.Sometimes that is “alone” time where doubts and fears work to creep in and undermine our decisions. Other times it is you and folks next you who have the same goal, to be across that finish line.

Life is a marathon. It by no means is a sprint. If you run the first mile like there is not others you will have pretty much “finished” your race. Marathoners develop a pace, a rhythm that shapes their time running. In life you and I must look for that pace. Sometimes it may feel like it is all “downhill” and other times it may seem to be like you will never get there. One foot in front of another.

Despite some thinking along the lines of “life demands a response” more than anything life is to be lived and to be lived in an overcoming lifestyle. Taking control of your thoughts and decisions have more to do with the outcome than anything.

One of the greatest deficits I have seen in American parenting is the willingness to take short cuts on a child’s behalf, with the thought you are helping them. It really is okay if they “lose” if you have a plan of change and encouragement. It will do them no good if you simply say, “sure, be a sideline person”. That kind of parenting is doing nothing to reveal the gift of God. It is sprint thinking in a marathon life. Detrimental to the child, his or her future and the community they end up in.

I am not going to run a marathon like my brother, despite his cajoling. But, I do approach life as a marathon. Making plans for tomorrow and many years beyond. Setting my sail with the knowledge of destination and the pace for arriving there.

You don’t have to run a race to be a “winner” but to have the quality of life you envision (Joy, peace and love) you will have to approach life like a marathon. You may have to get up earlier, “feed differently” and walk with purpose, but you can get there. Marathoning brings new meaning to one step at a time.