Awkward Runner

I feel like one of those awkward runners. I have bee thinking a lot about running recently, and about running in a race. I want so badly to just put on my running shoes, turn on my iPOD and just go, just run. But my body disagrees with this. Since injuring my left knee this past summer and my chronic flare up of my bursitis in my left hip I feel like my body is against me. I am trying to find the balance between pushing my body when there is pain, and not hurting myself further, or permanently. How do you find balance? This is also causing me to feel unmotivated because I know it is going to hurt, and then I get frustrated and feel defeated. 

This has got me to thinking about running in a different race as well.  As Christians, we have a race to be run. 

Hebrews 12:1

 ¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

1 Corinthians 9:24

 ²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Galatians 5:7

 ⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?

So am I running in a race with perseverance, and in such a way to get the prize? There are so many parallels for me with physically being able to go for a run, and being able to run the race set out before me in my Christian life. I feel awkward and frustrated by my earthly body not allowing me to run the race like I would like to, and I often get frustrated by myself and my mind for getting so easily "entangled in the sin that hinders".

I need to persevere and not allow myself to get frustrated. I am only human, and I am a sinner, but I need to just keep running the good race. As Christians we need to keep running the race, even when there is pain. We are told that the race will not be easy, and there will be trials and pain along the road, but the prize is worth every bit of pain, and Jesus runs along the whole way, right beside us, and may even carry us on his back at some points along the way when the pain from the race feels like too much for us to handle. Isn't that an amazing gift? The gift of Grace, that Jesus will carry us, undeserving, sinners like me when the race gets too tough. I need to remember this gift of Grace, and just persevere in my earthly racing goals, and in my heavenly ones as well. 

New Year

Well, it is a new year, and therefore time for new years resolutions. I am not big on making New Years resolutions, when they seem to be easily forgotten and abandoned once February hits. But I have been thinking recently about making some important changes in my life.

One of them is to blog more. I have not written a blog post in over a year. I hadn't realized it had been that long. But what I did realize was that blogging about my life etc was an important outlet for me to be able to process my thoughts, share my experiences and struggles in my daily life and also share snippets of my experiences from my job.

So because it is the new year, I am going to blog more and hopefully regain my outlet for "processing" and sharing about my life.

I have also been thinking a lot about contentment recently. I think it is one of the life lessons God is trying to teach me. Along with having patience, being content in my life has been a struggle for me. I am always looking to the next thing instead of enjoying what I have and living in the moment. So I hope to share about my journey as I continue to learn patience and contentment.

And finally, I want to reclaim my ability to run. My body has been fighting me on this during the past year and I am working to over come this. I have been experiencing hip pain and residual effects in my left knee after an injury in which I tore the lateral meniscus last summer. It healed well, so I thought, but it has been causing me some pain over the past few months. Both my hip and my knee have severely hindered my ability to run, and have made me feel discouraged. So I am resolving to push through and over come this. I long to be able to run another 10k race, and will be training once again to hopefully complete the Sun Run this May.

So there you have it folks, my "resolutions" as such for 2012. I think it is going to be a great year, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me this year!!