Chronicles of Running: Week 2 (Life Lessons)

As I was leaving for my run one day this week, Brandon said "Run hard, think little." Ironically, that's just not quite how I operate. My plan was to 'survive, and think about everything I could to take my mind off the running part'. There are so many life lessons that can be extracted and paralleled with running and I don't want to miss them! There was still ice and snow on the ground but it's mostly gone. I saw this part of the ice that had begun to melt and it formed a perfect heart. It was an instant reminder to me of God's love for me. I love the way that He speaks through nature and there are signs of Him everywhere if we choose to look. It is such a beautiful illustration of how God melts away the coldness and cleanses the dirt in our hearts, and He is the only one who can.

I have a vague plan in my mind of where I will run each time, and it's always different. This is another 'keep my mind off the actual running part' tactic. If I'm thinking about which path I will take, then I'm distracted from my aching muscles and shortness of breath. I found a path that I love, so I try to incorporate it into my run somehow. I love that it's not a street but a trail and that it has a gorgeous view of the snow-covered mountains. The only problem I have found with it is that it's uphill. So, one day I was contemplating running the route backwards so I could go downhill. This brought about some problems. If I was running in the other direction, I missed the view. Also, I usually like to challenge myself, so did I really want to go the opposite direction so it would be easier? Then, my sister-in-law said something that I hadn't considered before. If you end up where you started, then the amount of uphill and downhill you go is the same. That's true, and it's like my relationship with God often goes. In the end, I'm going to end up in the same place, but how I get there is a result of the choices I make. If I choose the easier, for the moment, route, then it may take longer to get there and I might really miss out on some things along the way. If I go downhill, then I miss the view. If I avoid the obstacles in my path, then I miss out on what God wants to teach me through the struggle. Eventually, I'll get there, but in the end, the path may be longer and more painful. Sometimes a short steep hill is really the best way and worth the temporary pain to obtain an eternal perspective.

I have a friend whose husband was running his first 5K race. Her dad (his father-in-law) was there to see it and made an interesting comment to him after the race. He said "You still had a lot of gas left there at the end. Are you sure you ran hard enough?" Hearing this made me contemplate how I run my race in life everyday. Am I really giving it all I've got? Do I make the most of every opportunity or do I squander time and resources. If so, what am I saving up for? At the end of our race, whatever we have left is wasted, because we don't get to take it with us. What an inspiration to live every day to the hilt and to 'leave it all on the track' at the end of every day. This is my hope and prayer...that I will truly live each moment, not passively, but passionately. That I will truly love the precious people God has given me to love, not just sufficiently, but sacrificially. That I will truly serve my Savior and take every thought, word and action captive for His glory, not for the recognition, but for the reward to which I have been called to receive.

"Do you not know that in a race, all runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it." 1 Corinthians 9:24