There is a quiet courage required to press on when things get hard. It’s called conviction, and it is one of the biggest separators between success and failure in life and ministry. At Highlands College, Character Formation is one of the Four Pillars of the holistic training model we’ve designed to develop leaders with everything they need to live a life of eternal impact. That includes conviction.
One of the ways our students develop this inner strength is through training for an annual half marathon and 10k, which is coming up on Saturday, April 10th. To protect our students and community, we’ve structured this year’s event as a virtual race. While hundreds of runners from across our community will be racing on the same day, the virtual format will require our students to dig deeper to find what it takes to finish. No crowds. No competition. Just conviction.
We’re encouraging our students, and everyone in our community that joins us for the virtual race with this truth from 1 Corinthians 9:24-25:
“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.”
Conviction isn’t developed on the day of the race, but in the training that a challenge like this requires. That’s why our Traditional Program students are now training with their intramurals teams and with one-on-one accountability partners. Through the training process, they’re learning they can depend on themselves, and on each other – a valuable lesson that will serve them long after graduation.
Ministry is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. It’s not enough for our students to start living out their calling. We want them to sustain a life of eternal impact and finish strong. The half marathon is designed to remind our students when things get hard, that they can complete their race. Here’s how we say it at Highlands College – “If we don’t quit, we win.”
