A Prayer for Anyone In the Homestretch

I am not a finisher.

This year I have read nine books-I’ve finished one. Even with those “can’t-put-it-down” bangers, I could put it down 6 pages to the end and by the next day completely forget. I know, I have a problem. I remember the months I spent working on my thesis in college. Hours of research. Even more hours of writing. And if you go back and read the final pages-they will sound as if a third grader wrote them. All of that work. For a splat finish.

This is not something I’m proud of. But since college I’ve at least learned to taper it to things like my personal reading lists and not research documents-so I count that as an improvement.

While you may be counting me as a psychopath at this point, I think we all struggle to the finish in some regard. Whoever they is, lied when they said the endorphins will take you to the end. The one and only time I ran a half-marathon, the endorphins hit about 3/4 of the way to the end. That last 1/4 was all foot pain and, “I can’t afford an ambulance bill so I might as well keep on running.” And I think life is like that too-no matter how hard we try to romanticize it. In the day-to-day, it can be tough to make it all the way, even if you have worked hard to get there.

I am feeling this now more than ever standing at 27 days away from starting a marriage. Every moment of hard work, selflessness, growing pains, premarital classes, give and take, puppy love to heartbreak- it’s all been for this moment. And the dreams of a huge celebration for where we’ve come from, the walking down the aisle moment, the getting to feel like a princess moment, the having our union covered by all of our friends and family before God-all those dreams don’t get to happen right now. And even if they did-it might not make it “easy”. I know someone is counting me as shallow right now, and honey don’t worry. The marriage ahead is what we’re after, but I’m not going to lie and say a few magic parts of your heart die a little bit when you’re opening boxes of wedding dresses you ordered from a store that also sells sweatpants and crop tops.

Finishing feels even harder when the finishline doesn’t look at all like you planned. And I know it’s not just me. My little brother’s senior year of high school was basically eliminated this year. So many friends who had dream jobs lined up have watched those opportunities evaporate. The giant waving checkpoint flags that we’ve all be hustling towards have transformed before our eyes.

Because whether we admit it or not, we all have an idea of what’s at the end of the rainbow waiting for us. The reward for our persistence. What do you do when the pot of gold begins to come into focus and it doesn’t appear as a pot of gold at all? And what does that do to our hearts?

I was feeling the weight of this more this week. One night as Camilo left for his house, I offered up a bit of a half-hearted prayer for his safety as he went. I genuinely try to pray for him anytime he is on the road. For protection. If I can’t protect him from the craziness of this life, the least I could do was pray for a safe drive home.

“Lord, protect that man on his way home.”

And like a tidal wave of understanding, I knew in that moment, this is the prayer all of us need to make it to the end. This is the prayer I am to pray over my fiancé.

Lord, protect her on her way home. Lord protect me on my way home. In other words, Lord protect us from the disillusionment, the disappointment, plans of the enemy and fatigue. Shield us as we near the end. Shield us as we fight to make it home. Home to our future spouse. Home to the calling on our lives. And eventually, home to you Jesus.

John said it like this (17:15), “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

He knew the roads here weren’t safe. He knew the roads to our ministries, our callings, our love, our dreams would be marked by thorn and disappointment. He also knew those weren’t signs to stop running-just that we would need protection.

And this is what we should be praying for each other. All of us. This is a prayer best prayed for someone else because it’s nearly impossible to build a hedge of protection around yourself from a place of disappointment. Have you ever seen yourself when you’re logging sad hours? You’re only capable of picking opening the Uber Eats app and placing a milkshake in your lap (me). But that’s what the body of believers is for. Like beavers working together to piece together lodges within the rocks and the water. We are to build spiritual safe spaces for one another. And like the triggering thought to bless my fiance on a drive home, this can be the way we begin to build communal safety by building walls around each other slowly: “Lord, protect them on their way home.”

Who do you know is close to the end, and needs some supernatural juice to keep running well?