Welcome to My Blog, Let’s Run Free

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog, “Let’s Run Free”.

My name is Alannah Faith, and I am so excited to be starting my blogging journey with you. I hope that what I share here will fill you with encouragement and point you to Christ. 

The inspiration for this blog came from some verses that deeply spoke to me:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

~Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

As I read these verses, I can’t help but wonder: “How different would my life look if I truly let go of ‘everything that hinders’? What would it look like to fully embrace the freedom that is found in Christ?”

Running the race of life, well… It’s a tough course. We live in a broken world that is full of so many things to weigh us down. Anxiety. Depression. Shame. Grief. Temptations. Loneliness. Pressure. Stress. 

But what would happen if we could leave that all behind us?

What would happen if we could truly run free?

In the spring of 2022, I went through a phase of my life when I was carrying a lot of weight—anxiety, especially. 

It was the beginning of my eighth-grade track season, and I began to fall apart. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. I felt alone, I felt anxious, and I felt empty—like I was just going through the motions. I didn’t feel like myself anymore, and I didn’t know who I was anymore.

Just a few months before I had been able to run ten miles, but at my lowest point that spring I could barely even jog a mile. I came in last in so many races, and racing left me with so much anxiety and discouragement. Hitting my rock bottom like that… it hurt. I didn’t know if I would ever feel strong again. 

And I didn’t know what had happened.

Turns out, I had some health issues that were affecting my performance, an iron-deficiency being one of them.

As all of this went down, God just seemed… distant. On an especially hard day, I remember that I called out to God—through a blur of tears—and asked why He had abandoned me. 

But He had always been there; I had just never taken the time to notice Him. And I think it’s in those moments when we come to God as our messy, heartbroken, doubting selves, with all our tears and fears and questions, that we truly become closer to Him. Those moments are the ones essential for our faith—They’re the ones when we choose to trust in God, to cry out to Him, to believe that He’s our Father, even when it seems like He’s not there.

It’s in those moments when we come to God as our messy, heartbroken, doubting selves, with all our tears and fears and questions, that we truly become closer to Him.

But He had always been there, and I’m able to see that now.

I was blessed to go to a Christian camp over the summer, and it was there, away from the noise of everyday life, up in the beauty of the mountains and in the fellowship of a Christian community, that I found God again.

Or maybe, He found me.

One of my favorite memories from this camp was waking up at dawn to go on these early morning runs. Running down that winding mountain road, underneath a beautiful sunrise, felt amazing. My health was getting better, and I was feeling stronger again, and I finally felt some peace.

But even more amazing was the realization that dawned over me during one of the chapel sermons. It was the realization that I don’t have to hold onto God, because He’s holding onto me. 

As a perfectionist, as someone struggling with anxiety, as someone who mistakenly connects her worth to her performance… hearing that truth just felt so freeing.

And I want you to feel freed by this truth, too, reader. You don’t have to hold onto God, because He’s holding onto you.

You don’t have to earn His love, because God loves you just the way you are—even with your struggles. And He sent His son to die for you. He’s given you the opportunity to leave your struggles at the foot of the cross.

You can leave your struggles at the foot of the cross and run free. 

And you never know where life’s road is going to take you. Life is a road full of bends and dips and peaks, and that’s part of what makes it so exciting. But sometimes, you may find yourself lost in the darkness of a deep valley, unsure if you can keep running on. 

This reminds me of a few lines from a poem I wrote:

but carry on, warrior,

and know that when you can’t carry on,

Someone else

will carry you.

You’re not running this race alone—you have the Creator of the Universe on your side. And you have many other believers who are running this race with you, ready to lift you up when you fall and cheer you on when you keep going.

You can run free. Your fears and failures and faults don’t matter anymore. Because your identity is in Christ, and that’s all that matters.

It’s by embracing your identity in Him that you can fully experience the freedom that He has to offer. 

So join me, as we run this race of life together, and run it free. I’m so excited to be able to run alongside you!