I've never been much of a runner. I'm very much a short sprint type of athlete. My brother on the other hand could run for days at a time. He's seriously amazing. I have absolutely no idea how he does it! I wish that I had his skill! He's built to be a runner. Me, not so much. I am proud to say that he is one of the top runners in his conference and possibly the state. Sorry, I had to brag on him for a minute.
There is a reason why I am talking about running. As a health and human performance major, there is a fitness test that has to be passed in order to be fully declared into the program. You'll never guess what a portion of this test contains, yep, running. There are no words for me to even begin to describe how much I hate running. I have been running like a mad woman the past few weeks, though. I have discovered that interesting things happen when I run. I don't know about you, but I tend to go through a period where I freak out because my breathing starts becoming irregular, thankfully, that's not as much of a problem anymore. Another thing I have discovered is that I am ALWAYS hungry after I run. It's kind of annoying, but another great thing about running all the time is that it helps body fat percentage get lower and lower! :) So, challenge for the week (or however long it is before I post again with a new challenge) go out and try to run a mile every single day. I recommend in the early mornings or evening. It's a great way to relax and make you feel good about yourself!
Running is a great stress reliever. It makes you stronger, helps you breathe better and it gives your heart a good workout. What about the spiritual aspect of running?
"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." -Romans 5:3-4
I know that when I get caught in a stressful situation, I tend to either a) run away from the situation or b) run to everyone who I think will give me sound advice. Sadly, sometimes one of those important people is not Jesus. Just like I have to make myself daily put on my shoes and run, I need to do that spiritually too. Why is it so easy just to forget about it and sit around just thinking, "I'll run tomorrow or I'm tired?" That mentality is getting me no where. It takes discipline. Sometimes spiritual discipline is even harder than physical discipline. My hearts desire is to run hard straight into Jesus' arms every single day. There are many days where there are big hurdles to jump over in order to get there, but Jesus always promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. He also promises not to give us more than we can handle. In every situation, there Jesus is, standing there with His arms out just waiting for us to call out and run straight towards Him. With that mentality of running towards Jesus every single day, we can never lose the race.
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