Target Heart Rate

Today, my 14 year old daughter received her homework assignment via email from her Fitness & Nutrition teacher. Because she is homeschooled, the homework assignment is her responsibility to complete between now and the next time her class meets. We have to find ways of working in Fitness (P.E.) and Nutrition (eating healthy) into our everyday lives. The assignment for this week was to:

Run/walk a mile and time it.

Immediately after finishing your mile count your heart rate

Find your target heart rate and target heart rate range

So, we went as a family tonight to 24 Hour Fitness (for the first time with everyone together I might add) and we proceeded to do our own workouts. My hubby and daughter ran side by side on their respective treadmills working on making that one mile benchmark.

I was on an elliptical machine that put my back to them but every now and then I would glance back to see how they were doing. Realizing that my daughter kept reaching for her neck to find her pulse, I worried for a brief second that something was wrong. But then...I understood. She was trying to keep a tab on her pulse while she ran. Funny, you would think that a person running a mile would only be focused on the mile...not their pulse during the mile. You would think that the focus would be on putting one foot in front of the other, keeping one's breathing rhythmic, and inhaling deeply. But oh no, this girl had her hand on her neck.

I find this funny because in the Christian walk, there are so many measurements of how well we are doing in our journey. We want to make sure we are having devotions every morning. We try to make our Sunday morning worship services at all costs (even if we make it late). We even tithe to our local church EXACTLY 10%. We are keeping our fingers on the "pulse" of our Christianity.

But the real measure of our walk with Christ is whether or not we are keeping one foot in front of the other, walking with Him and talking with Him, believing, by faith, that He will help us finish the race that He asked us to run.

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. - Philippians 1:6 (NIV)

The real measure of our walk with Christ is being able to hear his voice clearly along the way. Our conversion with him should be a vibrant prayer life - one that is not confined to a certain time of the day but is like air in that we need it throughout our day to sustain us.

Pray without ceasing. - I Thessalonians 5:17 (NASB)

The real measure of our walk with Christ is how much of Him we "inhale" and receive deep, deep within our souls until it is not us powering our life but His glorious resurrection power seeping through our pores.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

The challenge of this walk of faith is to make sure that our focus is in the right place. Although the "pulse" or indicators that Christians are accustomed to looking at are real, and do provide a gage of what is going on inside of a person, they are NOT the end all.

We have a God and Savior who wants us to WALK with HIM. He wants a relationship with us that transcends measurements and benchmarks. He wants us to KNOW Him. Isn't that somethin'!

I've seen many a runner take a towel and cover up the treadmill "dashboard" that details the distance run, time remaining, and calories burned. Why? Because they don't want to focus on their stats....they want to enjoy the run.

My hope for my daughter is that in the midst of taking her pulse and meeting her class requirements...she would learn to ENJOY THE RUN!!!

That is also my hope for you!

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