running

Running is for me the most deeply personal form of worship that I can express. It is complete worship for me, body, mind, soul and spirit. It is a total submission to God, a laying aside of myself that nothing else quite achieves. Which is, at the very heart of it, what worship truly is--surrender.

Running has shown me that it truly is possible to worship in every circumstance, in every state of mind, in every emotion because I have ran through all of them. I have ran through anger, despair, hurt, exhaustion, sorrow, anguish, pain, desperation, apathy, peace, joy, happiness. In everything I have found a place of worship through surrender in running.

Running has not only been worship for me, but it has been a working out of my salvation (Philippians 2:12). I have worked through some of my hardest questions and deepest issues while running. I have found deep healing through running. I have cried. I have laughed. I have probably cursed (just being honest here). And I have found deep peace.

I have had some amazing runs. I have had some truly horrible runs. I have had runs that were mediocre. But every single one of them was worship poured out before God, and by His grace I have finished strong every time, pressing forward to the end.

A wise man once told me that running is the act of continuously falling forward. It is my prayer that I many continuously fall forward into the arms of the One who loves me for all of my days, and that on that very last run, I shall press forward to the goal, finishing strong to the very end.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

belonging

I'm supposed to be writing a sermon for a baccalaureate service we are having at our church tomorrow night to celebrate our high school graduates. Don't worry. I'll get it finished. But as I'm thinking about what to say to young people who are getting ready to cross a threshold in our community and culture, I'm also processing words that were recently spoken at a college graduation at a private Catholic university.  Here's the thing. Harrison Butker is a phenomenal football kicker. Last year he missed two field goals the entire season. He was responsible for the Chiefs making it to overtime in the Super Bowl, setting a Super Bowl record for the longest field goal ever made. Without his work, the Chiefs would not have won the Super Bowl, but they also probably wouldn't have made it to the Super Bowl. Harrison is really good at his job, and as a Chiefs fan, I both respect and admire his work. I'm really glad he plays for the Chiefs. I don't know all th...
Read more

peace

I've thought a lot about peace this week, and all week I've tried to come up with the words to say what I feel in my soul. I am weary. My heart mourns because there is so much dissension and violence in our world. There is so little peace.  The hosts of heaven announced the arrival of the Messiah with shouts of Glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth. I think sometimes we forget that people during this time frame had a very different version of peace than we think of today. The shepherds who heard this announcement would have been well aware of the Pax Romana: the Peace of Rome.  You see, Rome had a great and terrible weapon to enforce their peace. You threaten the peace; you die. And not just any death, but a public, humiliating, and excruciatingly painful death. The Peace of Rome came at a great price to any who would stand in their way.  So I wonder if any of the shepherds had questions or doubts as they left their sheep and rushed off to find th...
Read more

accomplishment

You know that sense of accomplishment when it really sinks in that you actually just did whatever you did. Like the first time you tie your shoes all by yourself. Or when you ride your bike without training wheels for the first time. Or when you drive you car without your mom or dad in it. Or when you make your first flight by yourself. Or when you move to a city where nothing is familiar and start a life there. Or when you finish your last class of your undergraduate college. Yep...that's what I did about an hour ago. I finished my last college class. I have one paper and 2 finals standing between me and graduation, but I will be graduating (New Zealand here I come!!) in a week and a day. My family will be down here in a week. In a week I will have handed in my paper and finished my last final. This is the verse that has been rattling around in my exhausted brain all day: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and...
Read more