As a former Division I college basketball player who’d been playing the game ever since he was a little kid, Doug Elks is no stranger to physical exertion or the sacrifices athletes make. Even with that in mind, though, running 100 miles wearing a weighted 20-pound vest—as Doug, an avid long-distance runner, plans to do this December—might sound extreme. But he says he’s doing it to symbolize the weight many men carry around on their souls every day, weight we were never intended to carry. And whether our suffering comes from an ultramarathon or any of the other challenges we might face in life, there’s meaning in it if we’re willing to look for it. Doug, who founded the Ambition In Mind (AIM) ministry in 2020, talks with Nate Dewberry this week about his own spiritual awakening, finding the true meaning in suffering, and how our spiritual journey can go from a trudge to a sprint if we find the right people to walk with us.

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