This can’t be happening, I thought. Not with only three and a half weeks to go! But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t deny the worsening pain in my right shin. As soon as I got home from my 12-mile run, I collapsed into a chair and cried. Three months of marathon training were headed down the drain.

Following the advice of my running peers, I didn’t run for two days. I was going crazy. A friend noticed my distress and offered a challenge. She encouraged me to pray during the time I would have been running. “Don’t get out of the daily training habit, just train a different way,” she said.

The next morning, I woke up and prayed—and boy did God deal with me! He challenged me in so many ways regarding my training and the marathon. Why had it been so hard for me to handle the injury? It had become a priority above God. Had I been fully submitted to His will, I would have rested in knowing that even if I couldn’t run another step, I was still a dearly loved child of God.

Many of us have had to deal with injury while preparing for a big event. It’s hard to handle. It should be! We’ve worked hard to achieve a goal. But how important are our goals when measured against God? Has achieving them become more important than our Lord? We have to keep our goals in perspective. God says in Scripture not to hold anything above Him (Exodus 20:3). Only He can fulfill the deepest desires of our souls.