Running for Bennett

A few months ago, my friend Mickey asked me if I would run the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon with her. After I laughed for awhile, I realized that she was being serious. This is what flew through my mind:
I'm not a runner.
I'm not athletic.
I'm not even sure that I can run for a solid 2 minutes.
I can't do it.

After praying about it, I told her I would run with her. I'm pretty sure at this point, I thought I had lost my mind. Over the last few weeks, I've been looking for a "reason" to run. One thought was to tell myself it's something that I should do before I turn 30 (about 2 weeks after the race). Another thought was to lose weight and get in shape (which is a huge motivator). At the end of the day, none of it felt like enough for me to push through 13.1 miles on April 26.

My brain keeps telling my body "you can't do this..." or maybe vice versa, depending on the day.

Right before Christmas, my sweet friends Ben and Megan Coleman were given a piece of news that no parents ever want to hear - Bennett has a tumor on his liver. Bennett is 19 months old and is at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, and he's going to be there for awhile. He's already in his second round of chemotherapy, and his parents are trading off being with him in Memphis and being with their other two kiddos (Davis and Reide) in Lafayette, Louisiana.

I kept asking the Lord for a reason bigger than myself to run, and he gave it to me in the form of a precious baby boy. Every time I don't want to wake up and run, I'm going to remember that I'm running for Bennett. When my feet and legs start hurting and I'm just not sure I can do it, I'm going to picture Bennett fighting for his life, and I'm going to keep running.

I recently found out that the half marathon is a St. Jude Children's Hospital race and you can run as a St. Jude Hero and raise money for all of the kids who are receiving treatment at St. Jude.

I'm running for Bennett.

Here's where you come in...

• More than anything, would you pray with me for Bennett and his family? I'm praying for complete healing for this sweet boy. Will you commit to pray with me? If you want to read his story and see updates, visit www.just30days.org. Ben and Megan have been dear friends for a long time - we've served 2 churches together, and they were like family to me when we all lived in Austin. I'm so grateful for how they are walking this out with incredible faith and grace. 
• My goal is to raise $500 for St. Jude Children's Hospital - they make sure that no family ever has to pay for treatment. Would you consider supporting me as I run for Bennett? You can visit http://heroes.stjude.org/marymargaretc to make a donation to St. Jude.

Thanks for your encouragement as I run for Bennett!