Spiritual Running

Have you ever considered that something you do for your body can have spiritual implications?  Perhaps it will allow you to see something the Lord is trying to show you a little clearer, and teach you something along the way.

Interesting perspective, huh?

In my attempt to be more consistent with my running (and I will continue to post my mileage log at the end of each month), I decided that perhaps I should change my route.

My old route was familiar.  I like it quite a bit.  It's a straight shot down a long road near our house, and doesn't require much turning corners or anything of that sort.  You just turn around and head back at a landmark that is a mile away from where I begin.

But it's a 2-mile route.

I want to push myself a little more than that on the mornings I go run.

A couple of years ago when I was training for the half marathon, Matt and I mapped out another route around our neighborhood.  There isn't much difference in the mileage, but it's a 2.5 mile route.  That, and maybe when I get a little quicker, a 3 mile route is about what I have time for in the mornings.

I ran the new route last week for the first time in ages and discovered something.

I didn't do as well on the new route.

It wasn't that much longer, but I seemed to tire easily, I wanted to slow down and/or even walk some (which I rarely allow myself to do - the walk part, not the slow down part).

As I thought about the reasons for this, I realized that perhaps it was precisely because it was unfamiliar that I struggled.

In my old route, I knew when I was a quarter of the way through.  I turned around and headed back at the halfway mark, and then knew I had a quarter mile left.  These mental markers were motivating to me, they allowed me to keep pushing, because I knew where I was on my journey.  It was familiar.

The new route wasn't familiar.  I didn't have my mental markers.  I had no idea when I was a quarter of the way through.  I had no idea when I was halfway done, because it's a large circular route and I don't actually turn around.

I simply didn't know what was around the next corner or how much longer I was going to have to keep going.

And the unknown zapped me of my strength and endurance.  Even though I was completely capable of running that 2.5 mile path.  Completely capable.

It would be so much easier to continue to run only my familiar path, but then I wouldn't stretch myself.  I wouldn't improve.

Isn't that the way it works in the spiritual realm?  Isn't that the way it works with assignments or directions God gives us?

It's easier for us to do our familiar thing - our familiar routine.  But many times God calls us to be stretched.  To improve ourselves.  To give more of ourselves.

It doesn't matter that we don't know where we are on the new path.  God does.

God knows every inch of our new journey, our new endeavor.  He's prepared and will continue to prepare us to be able to handle the new route.  He'll be with us every step of the way.  He'll give us the knowledge we need.  He'll give us the endurance to keep going, even when we don't know how much longer we'll be.  Through Him, we'll be completely capable.


I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.  Philippians 4:13 (KJV)


Armed with this realization, I ran this new route again this week.  And you know what, it was a great jog.  It was a great jog even in spite of being only 12+ hours out from the longest jog I had undertaken in over two years.  And I was reminded that with God, I was completely capable of finishing my new journey.


What new journey is He calling you to?