Something's Got To Give

by Sarah Austin

I never thought I'd be the girl who slacked on her quiet times, but ever since I married Chris and started grad school, I've struggled with consistency in that area. In the last month or so, the Lord's been convicting me, prodding me to get back in the saddle. For a few weeks, I tried reading my Bible before I went to sleep, which proved problematic because by the time I crawl into bed at 11 o'clock, I'm exhausted, and the last thing I want to do is read.

This week, I made a pact with myself and my community group that I would get up every morning at 5 to pray and study my Bible. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings were awesome, and the time I spent with the Lord was wonderful. Today, however, was a different story. Five o'clock rolled around, and I could not drag myself out of bed. Here's why:

• I can't go to bed much earlier than 11 o'clock any given night because Chris and I spend time together in the evenings.
• I'm training for a half marathon (about five hours a week)and will be training for a full marathon this winter (about ten hours a week). I run in the mornings before work, so I have to be up by 6 o'clock.
• Endurance sports require sleep. That's when the body recovers and repairs itself. I've studied myself, and I function best with 8–9 hours of sleep, especially when my weekly mileage increases.
• I also work eight hours a day and do the normal house-wifely things.

Something has to give, people. Now I know that being a Christ-follower requires sacrifice and discipline, and I want desperately to have the discipline of daily time with the Lord, and I'm ready to sacrifice to do that, but I don't know what to do with these other roles and responsibilities. I mean, it's good to spend time with my husband. That's pretty important. And it's good to sleep and exercise. When I don't sleep, I'm too tired to exercise. When I don't exercise, I don't manage stress well. When I'm not managing my stress, I overeat and gain weight, which is what happened to me in grad school and is why I got into running in the first place.

I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this. Everyone I know is busy. More than likely, I'm placing too much importance on the running and the sleep. It's just that the running is the one thing I have that is in no way related to LifePoint, and the people who I run with need Jesus. That certainly doesn't make the measuring of priorities any easier because we should all be both pouring our lives into people who don't know Jesus and spending daily time with him in addition to our other roles and responsibilities.

I'm curious to know how you, other LifePointers, handle this struggle. If I figure anything out, I'll let you know.