Today I ran. It was really weird, because last week for the first time all fall I went a week completely without running. I had no idea what I'd feel like today, or how far I'd want to go, so I did something I just about never do- I just walked out my front door and started running. No plan, no distance, no route. The afternoon was gorgeous, a perfect temperature, and everywhere I went the beautiful colors of the fall leaves filled me with amazement.
I ran in a different direction than normal, and just picked random directions at each turn. It turned out to be lovely. And as I reflect on the afternoon, I am so overwhelmingly thankful both for beauty, and for the ability to run. I would never have thought to ask God to allow me to run like I've gotten to this semester, and yet He just randomly gave me the desire to run, and through that has blessed me in so many ways. It has given me such good times to think and pray and calm my mind, it has helped me to manage my time better because I have to plan ahead to fit my runs in, it has allowed me to be outside praising Jesus in His creation which I LOVE, it has sometimes given me the chance to have good fellowship running with my mom or different friends, it has helped to keep me from getting super antsy and frustrated from lack of adventure, and overall, it has just made me more thankful for a lot of things in my life, because God's goodness is what I meditate on often as I run.
And I think I'm finally starting to understand why my mom loves the running metaphors in the Bible so much. For part of my run, a section of Hebrews 12:1-2 kept pulsing through my head.
...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I love that, but I realized when I looked it up just now that I was forgetting the part that comes just before:
...let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us...
That idea off throwing off sin is something I've been thinking about for the last couple days because of a conversation with a lovely lady I just started meeting with for some intense discipleship (which is an answer to prayer and something I am SO excited about!). As I was running I went past or near a ton of places with old connections and connotations in my mind, which is kind of unavoidable for me in Blacksburg I suppose. But one place I ran past was the little high school I used to take some classes at and the soccer field we practiced on. It made me think about how much God has done in my life and heart since high school, how far He has brought me, especially in the area of fearing what other people think about me. And yet longing for people's (and especially guys') approval is still something I struggle with all the time. When I think about that, the visual picture of how sin entangles me and keeps me from running easily and with enjoyment, the way God created me to, becomes very vivid.
But God has been slowly crushing that sin, and by His grace I am going to keep striving to drop every chain that holds me down on the side of the road, and run free.
