Gulp, gulp, guuuullllpppp!!!

Part II – Gulping Away!

A couple/three weeks ago our Bible lesson was on Jesus and the Woman at the well.  Can I secretly tell you that the story always annoyed me a bit? I thought it was cruel that this lady who is already the brunt of many jokes, ostracized and just trying to get some water would be teased with water that would make her thirst no more.  I felt that Jesus toyed with her emotions and that he took a truly broken woman and somehow abused the situation. 

God has constantly been working on me through that story.   He showed me that I am so consumed and obsessed with my current, physical, earthly needs…WANTS and He has to constantly get my attention. 

This woman would not have taken to a religious talk from a Jewish person.  She was already perplexed as to why he was at the well and especially why he was talking to her!  The first thing Jesus did was ask her for something.  The first thing Jesus did was show her that she provided value to Him.  Through being needed and having value, He was able to defuse a tense situation and enter into a bigger one. 

Jesus cares about me.  He cares about my needs….but they are not his primary focus!  His primary focus is only one thing.  Where. Will. I. spend. Eternity?  If that need is met, if that need is answered, then everything else will fall into place!  Seek first the Kingdom, THEN all these things will be added unto you …

If we look at people through Jesus’ eyes, we would see the need to strike at the eternal first and then focus on the consequential.  Sometimes God allows us to handle the consequential to get to the eternal. I find myself only meeting people’s consequential needs because I fail to be absorbed and properly hydrated in Jesus to see their needs (or them) through His eyes. 

I am like a wounded abandoned dog who has found food.  I have not been nourished in the Word enough.  I am starving and I hover over what I have carefully. Watching those that come near me asking for something or having a need then I lash out at them.  I guard my little bit of hydration and do not want to give up my little drops of God. 

Yet, God has a well full and over flowing.  He offers me WAY more than just drops or crumbs.  I just have to be willing to be there and take it!  (Seek and ye shall find!) When I seek and when I find, he restores my soul and gives me abundantly and I overflow!  Then I can give easily and without thought to those that surround me.  The joy of the Lord strengthens me and allows me to shine His light to those around me!

It is when I choose to drink in abundance and be filled to over-flowing that it will be seen by those around me.  They will come and God will be able to use me to meet their needs and expose or encourage them to drink from the well.  I will be an over-flowing mess of God’s hydrating goodness! 

I choose that!

In my running, I am a sweaty beast!  (can I get an amen?)  I love these ladies who can workout and they look like beauty queens after their run.  It amazes me!  I look as though I have come out of the shower and I am just GROSS!  I like to give credit to the fact that I am fully hydrated as a good person should be!  Yeah, that is just simply not always the case!  I do try to get in a boat load of water each day.  However, there are times that the sight of water just repulses me!  I just want to crawl under my desk to hide from the big bottle that is still full at 3 PM!  I just want sweet tea or root beer or….well anything but plain, bland, boring water!  Can anyone relate? 

Does it affect my general disposition for the day?  No!  I don’t see that it does.  BUT as I begin to have a craving in my gut and try to find everything to satisfy it, I know it is my body crying out for that water! 

Then the next day as I begin my run and I struggle, I remember the liter of water that I didn’t drink.  My mouth is dry, my pace begins to falter, my stamina is affected.  That boring, plain water is desired and flashing boldly in my mind!  Why didn’t I drink the stinking water!?  I even try to justify as I take small drinks of water along the way during my long runs!  I can hear my body laughing,  “I am crying out for water long before you started this run and you think a few drops is going to help NOW!?”  What? Your body does scream out to you?  Am I the only one?   

As I replenish my body after those runs, that water is no longer plain and boring.  It is the best tasting liquid that has ever entered my mouth!  I can almost feel it traveling throughout my exhausted wilted body and giving it life. 

If only I could recall those feelings and experiences, I would never hesitate to drink the needed water in a day. 

Today, I choose to drink my water!  Today, I choose to be hydrated so that my runs will recoup the benefits of their over flowing work in my body!  Today, I choose to gulp!

Join me!  Hydrate your body, mind and soul!  See what overflowing can look like in your life!  Be a hot sweaty mess in your run and for the Lord! 

Just one little photo!!  Check out this awesome MRTT morning running group!!  These ladies are so inspiring, so encouraging, so Ah- MAZING!  God is soo good!!!

What fuel do you put in a sports car? Does it matter?

I enjoy running.  I don’t know when that actually happened!  I can remember my first steps on the pavement and the agony that I felt as I put each foot painstakingly in front of the other.  I never thought I would actually RUN a full mile. I can remember the encouragement I got from my husband and his hand on my back telling me not to give up.  I can remember my first 5k, I think I walked over half of it.  It was the since of accomplishment as I crossed the finish line at Maclay gardens that first got me hooked.  I remember the first time I ran an entire 5k.  I felt as though I had just climbed Mt. Everest and the smile on my face lasted all day!  I can remember each and every personal best I received and the elation that happened when I cross that finish line.  It is exhilarating, it is addicting, it is a high that is not duplicated. 

BUT what happens when you begin to struggle and you begin to have difficulty reaching the goals you once regularly accomplished and maintained?  What happens when that spark that kept you moving forward seems to be dimming each day? What happens when the “funk” sets in?

I am a happy, go-lucky person 99.8% of the time!  I have been blessed beyond measure.  My life hasn’t been perfect or rosey but I haven’t found anyone that has experienced that so it is best to smile and make the best of every situation!  I run for exercise but I also run to clear my head and for the enjoyment I receive from it.  However, I have recently been really struggling.  On a recent run, God took the time to allow me to have a visual of my physical running with my spiritual running. It hasn’t caused me to bounce out of my funk but each time it allows me to evaluate both my physical and spiritual lives together and see how to navigate the path to victory!

There are simple things that came to mind as I struggle with my runs. 

·         Am I fueling my body with the proper foods?

·         Am I hydrating myself enough? What am I drinking?

·         Am I pushing myself too hard and not running my race?

·         Am I becoming discouraged because I am focused on the hills or distance ahead of me?

·         Am I training?

·         Am I focusing on my struggles thus further impacting my run?

Each run, I go through the questions as I struggle.  Each run I ask God to also be a light to my path so that I might better serve Him.  So I have been just taking notes in my journal as to the things He points out.  They are raw, they are painful.  I will choose not to disclose all of them but I thought maybe there are others that are struggling with their runs either physically or spiritually that might gain some insight from my ramblings.

Fueling the Body

Physically, I know that I can perform and do my best when I maintain a diet that resembles a strict paleo regime known as Whole 30. 

I knew I had been off the strict program for a bit.  It is not a hard program but with vacation and travels, I had allowed foods that negatively impact my body to sneak back into my life.  I had broken up with Starbucks in January but we are slowly reconnecting and having quite the budding relationship!

I LOVE dessert.  I don’t care what kind.  I don’t need a special occasion.  If I survived a day at work or my child smiled, that is reason enough to indulge in some sweet sugary goodness!  I had beaten that little devil of a thing called sugar in January but I slowly let an occasional sweet turn into an almost daily adventure! I caused my food dreams to burst into reality!

Breakfast is a must…but it is the meal that I can so easily give up.  I am never hungry in the morning.  As I would get hungry, I had not properly prepared foods that would fuel my body (please see starbucks relationship above) and thus I begin the day in a deficit.  This is especially a problem considering that I workout in the morning.  I had allowed a Larabar (oh my yumminess) to become my breakfast and justified it as enough.

I do well when I prep my food and have a plan.  However, I HATE grocery shopping and I am not a domestic goddess in the kitchen! As the funk set in, my desire to shop and prep went out the window.  This is a spiral effect that is deadly!  When I got home from my sweet lil girl’s activities, I just wanted food right now.  The smart choices I can usually make at eating establishments quickly give way to “it won’t hurt if I do this one time” foods….every night. (Please reference my love of desserts!)

With a day outlined as above, my body could power through for a bit but eventually it does not have the fuel to make the engine run properly!  I cannot put regular unleaded in this super powered machine! J  When I allow garbage to fuel my body, I cannot be surprised when garbage is the product that is seen in my performance.

Spiritually, it is easy to see the comparison. 

In my spiritual life, I perform best when I am on a strict diet of spending daily time in the Word, praying and surrounding myself with those who seek first His kingdom.

I teach a Sunday morning Bible Study.  Yes, you can feel sorry for them!  It should also not surprise you that this study began in Starbucks!  Ha! Slowly I have begun to allow my preparation time for my Sunday morning class to become my only quiet time with Christ.  Even that time had been negatively impacted by all the “stuff” I needed to do.  Thus, I was starving for the proper fuel and instead giving myself quick jolts of good stuff…but not the best stuff.  It was rushed.  It was not genuine.  It was a fast-food, drive-by fueling….

I LOVE music.  Each of us has different convictions in our life.  God has for a long time convicted me of the music in my life.  I am an audible learner.  I can memorize music and lyrics easily.  Therefore, when I listen to music that is not Christ-centered it impacts me.  I sing it all day long.  Honestly, I don’t even really pay attention to the lyrics.  That is until I hear them come out of my sweet lil girl’s mouth!  I am appalled and ask where she learned such songs…only to find myself humming right along with her!  I justify that I need a good beat to run.  Then, I just want to hear it on the radio one time.  Then, I just want to buy the MP3 to have for my running mix.  Then, I catch myself saying that there just isn’t any Christian music I like right now.    It is a slippery slope that simply pulls me away from my close walk with Christ. 

As I look over the last few months, I see that through small, seemingly minute, changes in my spiritual walk I have seen my communication with Christ dampened.  I am not running my race with the clarity and power that I once had.  I have been putting “fast food” or “artificial sweetners” in place of the real deal.  It will work for a short time but eventually the impact will be seen in my walk. 

In each of these scenarios, it is a personal decision as to if I want to change my fueling method.  If I don’t, I can just run each day and continually  justify my current behavior and try to have a mind game of how my fueling decisions cannot be the cause of the negative impact on my race.  It is a tool that has been effectively used by me for years!

I choose NOT to do that!  I am stubborn.  I choose to stand by the commitment to my body and my commitment to Christ and stop listening the lies and justifications.  It will be hard.  It will take dedication.  It will take saying NO.  I am happy that I have not gained back all that I have lost and that I am not in same valley spiritually that I have been in.  That is not good enough. If I do not strive to properly fuel myself, I will find myself there in no time.  I praise God that He used my running to gain my attention and allow me to see how to grow in my physical and spiritual race! 

This is so elementary….but so much easier to say (type) then live.  I praise God that he has surrounded me with a husband and a group of ladies that encourage me and help hold me accountable!  I never chat much about my struggles but it never fails that they will say something that is just what I needed!  God is an awesome God!  The funk remains BUT I will continue to push forward and I know that the victory ahead will be even sweeter because God isn’t finished with me yet!

I look forward to sharing more of my journey next time!!!  What am I drinking….gulp!!!!

APC