Run, Mommy, Run!

"Run, Run; always run." - C. S. Lewis

In The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, we find young Shasta engaged in a race across desert, forest, and mountains to escape from his master and to warn King Lune of Archenland that evil Prince Rabadash of Calormen is bringing war against him. If this were not enough, Shasta and his friends are chased by a lion—which he confronts, no weapon in hand, to save his companion Aravis. Just when Shasta thinks he has finally reached shelter and rest, he finds he is mistaken…

“Are—are—are you,” panted Shasta. “Are you King Lune of Archenland?”

The old man shook his head. “No,” he replied in a quiet voice, “I am the Hermit of the Southern March. And now, my son, waste no time on questions, but obey. This damsel is wounded. Your horses are spent. Rabadash is at this moment finding the ford over the Winding Arrow. If you run now, without a moment’s rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.”

Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed, your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was:

“Where is the King?”

The Hermit turned at pointed with his staff. “Look,” he said. “There is another gate, right opposite to the one you entered by. Open it and go straight ahead, over level or steep, over smooth or rough, over dry or wet. I know by my art that you will find Kind Lune straight ahead. But run, run; always run.”

Shasta nodded his head, ran to the northern gate and disappeared beyond it.

(Lewis, C.S. The Horse and His Boy. New York: HarperCollins, 1982. Pp. 145-146)

What do Shasta and mothers have in common? They are both weary but bid to keep running!

The marathon nature of motherhood becomes apparent immediately after the birth of a child. With an infant, every need seems instant and urgent. Run, mommy, run! The diaper is messy and leaking. The fingernails are too long. The pacifier is lost. A blanket is needed. Food, food, always more food! Whoops—too much food. Burp cloth, quick! New onesie needed now! Another outfit into the laundry and in need of stain treatment… But mommy, I need to be held now! Always “now”!

Motherhood is one of the most challenging jobs you could ever find. The hours are horrible and the monetary compensation absent. If you do rise above the baseline survival into motherly feats of creativity, you are likely to find that your children don’t just thank you, but demand more. As Lewis writes, “if you do one good deed, your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.”

So, how are we to keep on running?

First, keep on running by looking to Jesus. “[L]et us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1b-2). When you are tempted to give up, look to Jesus. He was never a mother, but as a real Man He knows what it is to be weary. No one person as ever had so many demands put on him as Jesus did during His earthly ministry. Our Savior knows our burden.

Second, keep on running by trusting Jesus for grace. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8b). Every diaper, every meal, every load of laundry—these are the works of motherhood. Done in the right attitude, they can be good works of love offered as worship. They may seem menial tasks, but they are the necessary tasks of caring for eternal souls wrapped in human flesh. When you are tempted to despair at the endless, soon-unraveled household chores, pray for help and trust there will be grace to face the days as they come. Our Savior knows our weakness and supplies our needs.

Third, keep on running by looking at the prize. “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:8-10). God is at work in the world in ways we cannot see or imagine. He is at work in our homes, in our ordinary days. Do not grow weary. Work with all your heart at the vocation of motherhood, for there is a harvest coming. Do good to your husband and to your children. Do not underestimate the impact of a joyful, Christ-like mother on your family or the world.

Most people have never heard of Sarah Edwards. She lived in the colonial New England, the wife of Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards. She never published a book or spoke to an audience. Little is known about her except for letters she wrote to family and mentions of her in Jonathan’s journal. She was the mother of eleven children. That was the focus of her life and ministry until her death. 

In 1900, A.E. Winship tracked down the descendants of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards and what they had accomplished. This is what he found: “[W]hatever the family has done it has been ably and nobly… And much of the capacity and talent, intensity and character, of the more than 1,400 of the Edwards family is due to Mrs. Edwards.” This single marriage, this faithful mother and father, had produced:

“13 college presidents
65 professors
100 lawyers, and a dean of an outstanding law school
30 judges
66 physicians and the dean of a medical school
80 holders of public office:
three United States senators
mayors of three large cities
governors of three states
a Vice President of the United States
a controller of the United States Treasury

“Almost all the men had college degrees and many completed graduate work in a time when this was unusual. The women were repeatedly described as ‘great readers’ or ‘highly intelligent,’ although girls were not sent to college then. Members of the family wrote 135 books [...] They edited eighteen journals and periodicals. They entered the ministry in platoons and sent one hundred missionaries overseas, as well as stocking mission boards with lay trustees. One maverick married the daughter of a South Sea Island chieftain but even that branch reverted to type, and its son became a clergyman.

“As Winship put it: […]‘There is scarcely any great American industry that has not had one of this family among its chief promoters…. The family has cost the country nothing in pauperism, in crime, in hospital or asylum service; on the contrary, it represents its highest usefulness.’”

(Dodds, Elizabeth D. Marriage to a Difficult Man. Laurel: Audubon Press, 2003. Pp. 31-32)

Keep running. Look to Jesus. Pray and trust for grace. Pray and hope for the harvest ahead—that God will work in and through you beyond what you expect. Run, mommy, run! Your Savior beckons you on with His work.