Reflecting

Indulge me now as I share what I just thought about for the last hour in the first run after a great race yesterday.

I know what it's like to be injured. I know what it's like to train extremely hard and be disappointed by a race. I've also experienced and tasted some success in the past and even more recently like yesterday. I now have gone to a new place in my running in terms of my level and expectations. But here's the thing, if my running is supposed to be my ultimate source of happiness I will be forever disappointed. I don't take any of this for granted, anything can happen. You can trip on a crack on the side walk and break your ankle (it happens). Directly after the race I went to work at my church where I'm a pastor. We were singing a song that really struck me and the words said "and all the praise and glory to God we sing hallelujah." I had just experienced a certain level of praise and glory from friends, from you, from my wife etc. But every breath that I have the privilege to breathe, every stride that these legs can take come from the giver of all gifts. My prayer with my life is that I give all of this to God and that He is glorified. God does not care about who wins and loses in sports. Teams that pray that they will win are just being stupid. (this reassures me because otherwise I would figure that He has something against Cleveland...still not convinced that this isn't true :P) But God does care about us using every ounce of gifting that He's given us to the maximum as worship to Him. Ryan Hall is such a great example to me in this way. So, when I run harder and harder I really do believe that I'm offering my body as a sacrifice and as "spiritual worship" to Him. This doesn't mean faster runners are doing this better, it's all about using whatever you've got in that fragile body. My prayer going forward comes from an old hymn that says "take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee."

Thanks for indulging the pastor today. Have a great one!