Lessons From Running…

When I started running for extended periods on the treadmill I was often encouraged when I remembered Isaiah 40: 31 – “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
…they will run and not be weary…those who hope.

And then there’s Psalm 37: 3–7, but especially the “wait patiently for Him” of verse 7. And then Hebrews 12: 1 – “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.”

Many times while running on the treadmill and in the shoulder I have wanted to stop, feeling pain and my body was screaming. And I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 9:27 – “I beat my body and make it my slave so that…I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” I have only discovered in the past three weeks when I could only find time to run on Saturdays, and even then only two out of the three Saturdays that running is how I remember to put to death my flesh; not to give in to what it asks. I die to self. I need that reminder more often than I run.

Then there was the time I was doing a speed workout, running four or five sets of 1200s (3 laps around a track). I was coming around the last corner of a 1200, wanting to stop when I heard the words, “how much do you want it?” in my head.
How badly do you want to reach that finish line? I accelerated. I was going faster than I thought possible moments before. “I’ll show you how bad I want it.”
And I wonder how often in my life I hold back because I don’t know what will happen. I hold back words or actions in relationships or in my work because I don’t want to give that much of me…it hurts. I hold back. And a voice says, “show me how badly you want it” and I am reminded to go with my whole heart, don’t hesitate.

Another time, on a long Saturday run I was about half-way through when I heard a voice behind me ask for directions. I looked back to see another runner catching up to me. He explained that he had lost his way in the park and wondered where the bike trail was. I told him where it was and we ran together to his car. He was going much faster than I, and it was difficult keeping up with him for a while. I was thankful at first because I tend to run better when I am with someone, and he gave me strength to continue where I wanted to stop. We ran to his car and parted ways and I stopped to walk. I had another 1.5 miles to go but I couldn’t. I used all of my energy keeping up with “mystery runner.”
As I thought about the timing of this encounter I realized that I was also trying to compare myself with other students and trying to work at their pace and not my own. I wasn’t running my race. If I had kept my pace and just let him go, I may have been able to go the distance…maybe. But I’ll never know. But I know the pace I need to be an effective graduate student, and that wasn't what I was doing.

Run your race. Throw off all that hinders. Put to death the flesh.
Go at it with your whole heart.
Wait on the Lord and He will renew your strength.

Running

I love to run. Yes, I did use that word “love”. It started in high school when I was on the track team because the baseball team was pointless. My goal was to stay in shape for soccer season and baseball just wasn’t doing it. Besides, I wasn’t all that good at baseball and most of my good friends were on the track team. So I ran the 400m and threw shot put. I never won a race and I never placed in shot but I did push myself. My first year of track was probably the biggest challenge I had faced in my young life: showing up after school to cause your body pain.
Fun times!!

I think one of the reasons that I never won a race, nor even crossed the line in front of another runner is because I wanted to run well, I wanted to do my best and I would come out of the blocks ahead, but about halfway through the race my body would seize up and everyone else would pass me and I just wanted to get to the finish. I didn’t know how to settle down and just run. I couldn't enjoy it.

In college I tried to keep up with running. One of my friends (you know who you are :0) and I would get up early during the winter of our senior year and go running through the Ohio snow, as the moisture of our breath froze and formed frost on our hats and “ski masks”. But it was fun because we were running and we were together and sharing this common life.

When I was in Beijing I also tried to keep up with running but only short distances around the campus of the university where I taught. Running the short distances continued when I got to Auburn until one of my friends (you know who you are :0) started training for a half marathon and I challenged myself to running 5 miles one morning. So I ran 5 miles. And I rediscovered the love of running that I learned in high school. This time there was no pressure to cross the finish line first; there was just me and the treadmill. The joy of training.

These times when I run have become very special to me because I have time to clear my head, to think about life or nothing at all; to just focus on my breathing and my strides. I also have time to focus on God. During my times on the treadmill and later running on the road I have been taught a number of lessons. Running has become a metaphor, if not THE metaphor of my life.

I would write more but I planned to go running now...
Tune in next time for: Lessons from Running....

Of Clouds and Stones…

The other day I was reading Warren Wiersbe’s “A Gallery of Grace.” I was reading the chapter about a stone in God’s Building, and that stones that work to edify or build one–another up. We love one–another and spur each other on to maturity.

Hebrews 5:6 b says, “We are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

We – each believer – is a brick in the house of faith. Those believers who have come before us are the foundation; they have left a legacy for us to follow. Hebrews 11 tells about many of the people who set the foundation of faith for God’s building. It is because of these people – this “great cloud of witnesses” – that we can also stand in faith, throwing off sin. And Jesus is forming us to be the stones to fit in our place to be built upon in the future. We are being shaped as we also work to help shape others.

And still, Jesus is the cornerstone; the chief foundation rock that gives strength and form to the foundation. We are built together to be a dwelling place for God, united in our purpose to serve and praise God to the glory of His Name (Ephesians 2:19–20; 1 Peter 2:4–10).

But I can't help but ask, are we building? And are we building on Jesus, our foundation?

Playing in the Band

This is from the archives. The spring break during my senior year in college was spent with the Cedarville University Brass Choir. I play trombone.
We went to Greece for 10 days. We went to Athens, Corinth, and Thessaloniki playing for evangelical churches, accompanying a Greek evangelist who has a ministry in New York City. We were witness to so many things. This is a passage from my journal in the days followed our return to the United States.

"Reflecting on Greece, I think the experience helped me to realize how much we really need to depend on God for everything. Through the whole week we needed God for strength and intervention when we could do nothing. He was with us the whole time. He is truly there working, and though He could bring a revival through His own strength, He chooses us as instruments to sound His praise, and His message. But we must be obedient to the message and His prompting to play."

Rain in Auburn

I love rain. Most people think it’s dreary. I don’t think so.
I think it invites you to stay in a warm and comfortable place with a good book and a cup of coffee, and enjoy peace for a while.
I like rain because it rinses the dirt and dust off of my car and other things.
Sure it makes it muddy, but how often do you walk in the dirt.
Rain refreshes the earth; it makes things green. It refreshes my soul as well.
Somehow, as the dust is rinsed off my car, the dirt and grime of so many days of striving is rinsed off of my spirit. I can sit and watch the rain, listen to the gentle drops and feel a coolness in the air.

I love autumn too. For me, it isn’t autumn unless it rains about as much as it doesn’t. That’s what happens when you grow up in New York (state) and go to college in Ohio; two places not known for sunny weather. (Or is it just me?)
Rain in autumn mixes with the layer of multi-colored leaves and gives off that smell that only comes in autumn. The smell of playing in a pile of dead leaves, the smell of playing football in the backyard with the guys, the smell of soccer games and soccer practice.

Rain is also a good way to mark the days. So many sunny days run together, but each drop of rain evokes a different memory. A Memory Walk during college, a soccer game in high school, the return trip from the Great Wall, a hostel in Kunming; a flood of memories.

Maybe I have been daydreaming a lot…no, I know I have been.
I have been reminded of so many things lately and I don’t know why.
I might be because it’s autumn