What do you do when you feel like you are running on empty?  What do you do when you feel like your only option is to give up?  What do you do when it seems like you have nothing more to give?  This is a question that plagues us all; make no mistake, you’re not alone.  The marines have a saying: once you feel like you have given everything you have (that is to the point of exhaustion), then you can give 10% more.  They figured this out by conducting studies, and they did indeed learn that once we are to the point of running on empty, we have 10% more.  I think this same mentality is given to us in Hebrews 12:1:

… Let us run the race with endurance.

Having run track in high school, I can tell you that endurance is a hard thing.  I was a sprinter; I was fast; I was through after 10 seconds of running.  The endurance runners had to go on for what seemed like hours.  They could not simply give up once they got tired, they had to keep on going.  And more often than not, they kept on going until they finished the race.  Even if they told themselves they were through, they still finished.  Such is the case for us.  Keep on running!  Don’t give up!  Don’t let yourself give up…