Everyday, I walk roughly 40 mins to work and back, I had the option of using the bus, but seeing how many times it made me late, I resorted to walking.

At first I was terribly exhausted after every walk but I actually got used to it after the first week, and now, it’s such an important aspect of my day cause I use the time to meditate and talk to myself and seeing how noisy the world is, I can’t tell you how much I cherish those moments.

Now, on my journey to walk everyday, there are at least 3 regularly people I see every day, like Monday through to Friday. I think they work close to my office to so we kinda know ourselves but don’t know ourselves. You know what I mean!

Those people you see a lot but have never had a proper conversation with, that’s the nature of my relationship with these people. So among the 4 of us, there’s this guy that always gets to our destination before either of us, but he is almost always the last to get off the train.

The other 3 of us always have a head start with the walk to the business area and the last guy always seems to catch up and pass us. Literally like every single day. I’ve attempted catching up severally but I’ve given up and in the process, learnt a valid lesson that the world should know about.

When I started trying to go at his pace, I noticed that I could do it!, I was actually meeting his pace but he would still pass me and give me quite a distance.

The next day, I was measuring his pace and stride with my eyes and that’s when I realised what was going on, I could go at the same pace with him but his strides were wider than mine, so even if our pace was equal, his greater strides created the distance.

So, the next day, I came ready to open my legs as wide as I could to meet his strides too, but I was looking really silly walking because moving with the pace I was moving with and taking the strides he was taking looked funny cause he was quite taller than I was and while he could comfortably move at that pace and stride, I couldn’t, without looking the way I did.

This happened for like a week by the way, I was so determined to get to the office area before this guy, even if it was for just one day!

I noticed how I began getting to work panting and dehydrated everyday in that week because I was trying to catch up or not even let him pass me at all.

The following week, nothing told me to but I returned to my conformable stride and pace that still got me to work in good time and shape and I felt God speaking so strongly to my heart on the issue.

I didn’t even take it too seriously until yesterday when I was watching a clip from a sermon and the preacher was using a thread mill to explain how God sets paces and strides for us as individuals but in an attempt to get to the places we want to get to quickly or before someone else, we outdo ourselves and end up either getting hurt or too tired to finish and then we turn around and blame God for not seeing us through when we ourselves decided to go faster than his pace and wider than His set strides for us.

The big lesson here is not even competition, I think we get to certain points in life when we realise that everyone’s course is different and the harder you try to run another person’s course, the more you derail from yours and hurt yourself.

So no, I’m least worried about the competing part. And you should be to.

What is pertinent is the reality that you have a pace and stride God has designed for you. In some seasons, He’ll intentionally leave it slow and in other seasons, you’ll notice it’ll be so fast. We need to recognise these seasons and be accommodating to them.

If God has set you to go on a 7 now and you’re trying to go on a 10, chances are you are hurting yourself without realising or getting more tired than you should.

God recognises the abilities He’s placed on you and I and that is why His word tells us that He will never give any of us more than we can carry.

In the next few days, I need you to get back to God and ask Him to align you to where His plans want you to be at this phase of your life. We can only go fast and far when were where He wants us.

His Hand will never take us where His grace is not.

Stay the course Foch woman! Stay YOUR course. Move with your pace and your stride and watch God make beauty of you.

Ps. This was me in the first week of catching up with the fast guy.