by Trish Krider
I started running last year. What I like most about it is when I am done. I don’t seem to ever achieve that “runner’s high” that people talk about. I struggle every time to reach my goal – often not succeeding. You see, for me, running is as much a challenge for my mind as it is for my body. I can always convince myself that “I can’t run another step”.
Today was just such a day. I was running along Bayshore and had reached that point where I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I could see my goal in the distance – far in the distance – but I didn’t believe that I had it in myself to run that far. That’s when I started thinking, “Really, Trish, how hard is it?”
Could it be any harder than the day earlier this year when my friend had to bury her baby? Could it be any harder than the job my daughter has as a social worker helping struggling families or that my son has as a pilot in the military? Could it be any harder than a mother struggling to repair a relationship with her grown child? Could it be any harder than handling those dark secrets with which the person next to you is struggling? Could anything be harder than Christ giving his life for us?
While I continued to run, I began to thank God. I thanked him for legs that are strong enough to allow me to run, unlike the person I passed who struggled with a walker. I thanked him for the home I was running to, unlike those whose homes are the benches I passed. I thanked him for strong lungs and health, unlike those lying in the beds at the hospital just across the water.
As I crossed the final bridge, the dorsal fin of a dolphin sliced through the sun-glinted water of the bay and I knew that God had been speaking to me. And for the first time in a long time, I had been listening.
Philippians 4:13 – I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
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