Keep Pace While Celebrating The Marker

A lot of attention right now is on Christmas Eve at the Fairgrounds, with that said, it’s still important that we continue with pace for the next series. I look at this time of year like I’m approaching the 13th mile of a marathon. When I’m coming up on the 13th mile of a marathon I’m excited, because it signifies a huge marker in the race, but I’ve gotten consumed with making a good half marathon time that I forget about the rest of the race…which tends to be a little harder. I made a little diagram that shows hills and where things fall:

In the past it was easy to push hard to make the fall season full of awesome series, yeah you are facing obstacles but it’s fun people are excited and you head a great pace for Christmas. Then you celebrate Christmas and you keep going because you are flying high; however, things start to get a little tough and you start to remember the long haul of Lent ahead of you. Lent’s emotional, it’s exhausting; yet, fulfilling but you can be tired if you pushed yourself in the fall and you can find telling yourself is, “All I have to do is get to Easter.” And you get to Easter and it’s like getting to the 20 mile marker or the top of the hill and it seems like things are a little more relaxed, but the last 10K of any race is all adrenaline.
So where am I going with all of this? I could break the diagram down into great detail, but what I’m trying to say is that during Christmas (a mid point for a lot of people in life) the pacing needs to be steady. It’s great to celebrate the big event, but it’s also important not to get lost in it. After doing a huge Christmas Eve Mass, the people I work with are good and keeping pace. Because we are all fully aware that we still have a lot more ahead of us.