Happy news from me- finals are over! Summer is here! We can all go outside now without five layers of clothes on!
If any of you follow me on Pinterest, you probably have noticed that among the Harry Potter and Frozen pins, I've also been pinning an ample amount of things associated with running. (Namely cute outfits from Nike. Because they're adorable and they make me feel fitnessy while I'm sitting on the couch.). But I have been actually running too. I promise.
Anyways, now that the weather isn't 70 below, I can finally start running outside more often. Yay! In just a few weeks I hope to have the tennis shoe tan line that either pegs you as a trail blazer or someone who just got back from band camp. (I say this because the majority of my friends went to band camp in high school, and trust me, I've seen the funky line that stops right at the ankle on just about all of em.)
So, Monday this week I decided to go on a new route I'd made up. Everything is going swell, I'm keeping good time, waving at everyone who passes me by (halfway to be friendly, the other half to say "Look! I'm right here! Please don't accidently hit me with your car!") However, as I'm finishing up my third mile, my ankle rolls. Shoot.
I started not feeling super good after that. Ankle problems have been my nemesis for the past six years of my running life- taking me out of races, causing me to get crutches, making me down ibuprofen, all of that fun stuff. However, I was determined to finish my savy new route, and I was barely halfway done. So, *cue motivational music* I pressed on.
I noticed after that my face started to get really, really attractive. (This is sarcasm.) My eyes became squinty and my forehead got all wrinkling, and then I started slouching and favoring my right side a bit more. As cars passed me by, I stopped waving. I was embarrassed. And that also ticked me off because I was thinking "You'd be so impressed if you knew that my ankle hurts and I'm still running on it! This is the best I can do right now!" But they didn't know that. All they knew was that they saw some short slow girl running up a hill.
And then I started thinking (heck, I needed something to get my mind off my ankle) how many times have I seen someone running, slower than me, who probably had a lot father to run? Or who had just gotten out of surgery? Or maybe they had done a leg workout already, and this was their cool down? Or, like this would ever happen, just rolled their ankle?
So, after that realization finally hit, God kind of pieced things together for me. It was like He was saying, "Hey. You know when you think "How can somebody act that rude?" Alonnah, you have no idea what other things you don't see that they are dealing with." It's like, all I see is some slow person running up a hill, when really, because of a different part during their run, it's the best they can do.
The more I think about it, the weirder it seems to think that a person would actually wake up and decide "Aha! I'm going to be hard to deal with today!" No way. I think most everyone really is doing the best they can, on what they've been given.
And that includes non-Christians. Sometimes I get a little frustrated when I see people acting ways they totally shouldn't. I'm like Jonah and ask God "Can't you just smite them? They are literally driving me nuts." But recently God's been telling me, over and over, that they're doing the best they can- with the info they've been given.I was reading in 1 Corinthians a few days ago, where Paul is talking about spiritual wisdom. He mentions in 2:8- "None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
It just made me think, they didn't know. They seriously just didn't get it. Paul even says, if they'd known they wouldn't have done it! (This isn't to say Jesus's hadn't tried to tell them, I'm not sure where that fits in.) But, it really made me think, when people treat me poorly- I just need to try loving on them. If they knew what I know about Christ, they probably wouldn't be treating me that way anyways.
And, like most things in my life, this ties back into my pride problem. Paul covers that a few chapters later. 1 Corinthians 4:7 "For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn't receive?"
It's like here I am thinking "Good job Alonnah! You were nice to that person and showed them God's love! Gold star for you."
Good grief. I'm sickening. God has, very lovingly, been convicting me that the only reason I am able to do any good thing, any decent thing at all, is because of what He's shown me. That's it.
We're all on different races in life. God has given some people a trail that seems to change direction constantly, some people are on a run that's a little boring right now, and some people are rolling their ankles every other mile. So when we see each other running, and one of us is a little more out of breath than the other, instead of judging how they're handling their race (sadly like I tend to do) we should give them words of encouragement, and if we've got the energy, a high five.
Live without pretense. Love. Drink more water. Help the other runners.
A. Diez
