Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Running


A little over a year ago, I started exercising again.  It had been so long... maybe the last time I'd exercised prior had been in between baby number 2 being born and being pregnant with baby number 3 -needless to say, it had been a while!
Well after walking each day for many months around the block, I eventually had to stop.  The mornings were getting darker and darker, I didn't always have a walking partner and the big stick I had, to fend of the unfriendly dogs, just wasn't enough to convince Dave that I could ever go out alone.  
And so, we scouted around for a treadmill and eventually found one discounted drastically at a big sports sale.
My treadmill and I have a love-hate relationship.  
While I'm working out, I have to force myself to think 'happy thoughts' and focus wholeheartedly on the uplifting music blaring from my laptop.  
But once I am finished, my attitude changes and I start to look at it with more gratitude and love, feeling ecstatic that I actually survived kept going and didn't give up.
For me personally, I prefer to run for a set amount of time and see how far I can go before the time runs out but tonight I realized that I only had 21 minutes battery life left on my laptop, so I set the distance that I wanted to run and spent the whole time sprinting to try to achieve my goal before the music stopped!
I like to play little mind games to try to motivate myself!!  
Sometimes when I start to feel the fatigue setting in and there's still a long way to go, instead of slowing down my speed I crank it up really high forcing my aching body to sprint for a minute or so then when I go back to the speed I was at, it doesn't seem nearly as bad as before. 
So anyway tonight, as I was sprinting to finish before my music stopped, I felt reminded about how similar 'life' is to running.
Sometimes we have tasks and we just keep going, not knowing how long it will take to complete them and other times, we have a deadline that we need to meet and we must sprint to make it before the music stops.
Right now, for Dave and I, we have a looming date in June when we are leaving to come back to Australia for 6 weeks.  We have so much to do before we leave and we need to sprint to get it all done in time.  
With other tasks, like raising our children, we must just keep on going, training them in the way they should go but never really knowing when they will master certain goals.

2012, 5km Run For Relief 
    
The bible also describes life like a race.  This version of Hebrews 12 is from The Message:

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. 
When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

I remember when one of the other volunteers, Denise Tang, when she was giving her speech at Graduation, she also referred to this passage saying,
"Paul reminds us that Jesus ran the race while he walked this earth.  It was difficult.  Jesus was scorned. Jesus was mocked. Jesus died on the cross.  But through His journey on earth, Jesus persevered.  Jesus fixed His eyes on God, knowing what was waiting for Him at the end of the race. 
This is what God wants of you!  God wants you to run the race set before YOU, fixing your eyes on Jesus. 
Do not look to the left.  Do not look to the right.  Fix your eyes straight on Jesus.  If you do this, you will truly finish the race God has set before you". 

And so each day we are faced with the challenge of whether we choose to even participate in this race... or are we content to sit on the couch and trade in God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy short-term comforts?I know for me, I don't want to miss out anything. 
I choose to race!
Watch this Nooma, Shells. It's powerful and left me mulling,
"What do I need to say "no" to make sure I achieve what I've said already said "yes" to?" Food for thought.



2 comments:

Mrs M said...

Good on you, I have lost my fitness mojo. I'm taking a break rather than forcing and hating it.
As for life and parenting, just when you master and achieve something, another task or need arises, it's never ending.

Cross Family said...

I agree Mandy. The journey of parenting is definitely a challenging and bumpy road. Thanks for stopping by. I'm sure your fitness mojo with return. I was inspired by your recent health challenge- very inspired!