Chrystal Hurst tells the story of her cousin Winter, a 38-year-old mother and writer who died suddenly after realizing she was wasting her life comparing herself to others. A stranger's words during Hurst's marathon, "Run your race, girl," became her lesson: stop measuring yourself against others and embrace the life God gave you.
My cousin Winter, 38 years old. Her and her husband just celebrated a 15-year anniversary. 4 girls, 14, 11, and twins that are 9 years old. We were together for July the 4th. They sold their home in Dallas. He got a job in Nashville. They left us, drove to Nashville. She showed her girls the home, so excited about it. They left Nashville, drove to see their family in Iowa, his family. They came back to Dallas, she was living out of a suitcase, to take their kids to camp.
For the week that her kids were in camp, they were gonna go back to Nashville and move in.
They got back to Dallas on a Sunday, and on a Tuesday, her heart stopped. Stopped. Just stopped. There are so many amazing things. And when I talk about my cousin Winter, I'm not talking about a cousin around the way in the few states over and I saw her every— I'm talking about like a sister cousin. Anybody have a sister cousin? There's so many amazing things that we've talked about during the time of her passing, after her passing. One of the things that she and I used to joke about, 'cause I didn't understand how a girl who loved to nap all the time. You know, there are people in life who believe that napping is their ministry. It is their, you know what I mean? Like some people just, they can't make it without a nap. She was one of those kind of, She was just, every day she had to have a nap. I didn't understand. But in the last 5 years, I would joke and say, "Winter, I don't get it. I don't nap." In fact, I burn the midnight oil and get up early. Like, I'm that kind of extraterrestrial productive kind of, I just like doing stuff. I've written 1.5 books. You've written 8. I don't understand that. When she died, the day she died, she was finishing up the last 2,000 words of a book called I Am Yours. The day she died, her husband signed the release on a book they wrote together that will be released next year. About marriage. There are 2 more after that. And I would ask her, "How is it that you've been able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time?" She said, "You know, I was in a house asking God why it seemed like everybody else around me was able to accomplish and, and had things that I wanted. And I was frustrated because I had these 4 small kids at home, and I'd been to college to get a degree for what? And I didn't even know what I wanted to do, and I was overwhelmed and frustrated.
I was sick of being broke. I was just—
and the Lord said to me, you're missing your life. She was in the bed laying down trying to take a nap. And she said the Lord impressed upon her heart, as she could hear her kids in the living room with her husband, "You're in the bed crying about what you don't have, but you're missing your life. What if what I want to give you comes from you engaging in the life I've already given?" She has 4 girls. And she put on her wall the scripture, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." She remembers distinctly having that moment. And from that moment on, of course, not perfectly, none of us do it perfectly, but she had that on a wall and she kept saying, "I'm gonna quit doing this and I'm gonna look up and I'm gonna delight myself in him and what he's given to me." And all of her books are about mothering girls. Once she decided to look at what he'd given her to work out in her life, then things started to make sense. And she was so on fire to do what he'd put in her heart to do She didn't have time anymore to be concerned with what everybody else was doing. So when we look at Wynter's life, oh, we, we see the for. She was created in his image and he had a work for her to do.
It's very clear.
But it came because she said, "You know what? God has given me a life, and if I waste that life looking at everybody else's, then I'm not honoring the life he's given me." Choose freedom. Do you. Do you. I, 4 years ago, not since, ran a marathon. I ran the marathon and I ran right through the finish line and kept running, running right into Cracker Barrel.
Mama's pancake breakfast, please, extra pecans, scrambled eggs with cheese, thank you very much. Yes, still bring the biscuits, thank you. But I'll never forget one of the most demotivating moments in that race.
It was so hard, but then it was just extra hard because it rained and it was just whatever. But when I'm running, or doing what I think is running, and the walker lady passes me— That's demotivating. But here's what she said to me: Run your race, girl.
Run your race.
The way you do it is gonna look different. It is. But if you let the fact that somebody is running differently than you, may have more gear, may have more experience, may even move a little faster, if you let that keep you from running, you don't get the medal. When I finished, I got a medal. And they didn't ask me how long it took me. They just said, "Did you finish?
Did you finish?" When you get to heaven, God's not gonna say, you know, tell me all the reasons why you couldn't make it. He's gonna just say, I wanna say well done, give me a reason to say it. Did you finish? Did you do what I asked you to do? And your race is not going to look like hers. She's not married to your husband. She doesn't have your health challenges. She doesn't have your history. So stop trying to make her life your life. It's not going to be the same. So run your race.
