The other day, I was out for a run. About halfway through, my body felt like quitting. My lungs hurt, my legs were tight and my knees were popping. So I stared at the ground, or at a tree, or at the stretch of road ahead of me….whatever was needed to distract from the pain.
I pushed myself that day to not concentrate on the run in it’s entirety, but to focus on each step. So I kept running, one foot in front of the other. As I was pushing through, sweating, dreaming of sitting on the couch in my warm home, I began to paint a picture in my mind. It was more of a comparison actually. My struggle through that run was quite similar to our day-to-day encounters with life in general.
Many days, we feel as though we are defeated before our feet even hit the ground. It takes everything within us to face the day. It could be a lack of motivation, boredom, sadness, depression, fear, anxiety, hopelessness, or whatever. Some days are just tough.
As a Christian, I feel this way with my faith at times. There are days where the feelings aren’t there. I don’t feel God’s presence like I would like. I don’t feel of use. I feel inadequate. I just feel offbeat. It’s ok, I’m human and I’m fickle, what can I say.
So, what the heck are we to do when there is no choice but to move forward? When we can’t see the big picture? Well, we put our heads down, and observe our feet taking one step in front of the other. Sometimes that’s all we can do.
As we are attempting to move forward, we all may look in different places for help and inspiration. We look to friends, coffee, drugs, alcohol, relationships, religion, our own skills and abilities, hobbies, sports, Oprah…the list could go on. We look everywhere, trying to find a motivator. We are trying to fill a void, but we don’t understand exactly what that void is or what’s missing.
So, we continue to struggle. We may not be suffering greatly, but we just get by. Swerving away from obstacles, solving problems, waking, eating, working, watching TV, sleeping….then we wake, eat, work, watch TV and sleep again…then we….you get the point. It’s a pretty mundane cycle really, let’s be honest here.
It doesn’t have to be that way. We were created to be in relationship, not only with each other, but with God. He is the meaning of life, not our busy schedules. Don’t get me wrong, I fail daily at keeping my focus on God. It’s easy to lose it.
When I’m actually in right relationship with God is when all seems right in the world. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter what’s crashing down around me. I’m serving a God who’s in control, so I don’t need to control everything….man, what a relief that is. Even in the most redundant of days, I can be thankful that I’m alive. That I’m breathing. That, sometime soon, whenever “soon” is, I will get to spend eternity with my God and Creator! There’s nothing like it. Nor was there ever supposed to be anything like it.
We have a choice though. It’s not up to me to convince you or anybody that God is real. That’s between you and God. I do encourage you to ask Him a few questions….play along with me here. Even if you deny His existence, I ask you, in your quiet time today, whenever that is, to just ask God to show you who He is. Ask him what it means to be in relationship with Him. Ask Him to show you that He’s real. If he’s just a figment of your imagination, there’s no harm, right? If you truly ask with a sincere heart, out of a desire to learn and know Him more, He will speak to you in a way that you would never expect. It might be through a circumstance, or a friend, or a song…who knows. If that happens though, please let me know. I would love to hear your story.
It’s a cool thing to follow God. It takes faith, courage, humbleness and a whole bunch of stuff that I suck at, we all do. God does have a way of looking past our shortcomings though. He has an even greater way of turning our daily steps into a continual skip.
How do you battle through the day-to-day grind of life? Where do you find your inspiration?
God Bless,
Paul
Meat n' Potatoes 
There was a point in my life when I was waiting. I won’t go into what for, because it is private and a long story. But I was going through the motions, and I would hear that song “It’s Just Another Day” by Paul McCartney, and that was totally it. Strangely that comforted me. I couldn’t tell you why.
Just yesterday I was driving across Wyoming AGAIN and just bored silly. Watching the GPS tick the miles down. Wishing I could wake Collin up for his shift. Then I started looking around. REALLY looking around in wonder at God’s creation. Wyoming is starkly beautiful. Even after several thousand times across it. (Well, I’m sure I’ve driven across it at LEAST 30 times in the last three years.) I just had to take my mind off of whatever else I wanted to be doing, and focus on THIS moment, God’s ‘present’ to me. It helps.
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Awesome Kristi. It’s so easy to get distracted with the “something else” of life isn’t it? Great reminder of stopping, observing, listening and enjoying the moment for what it is. Thank you for sharing!
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Baby steps… It’s a good reminder. Even as a believer, life often feels like a huge marathon. I needed to hear this today. Thanks Hun.
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You’re right Pammers, life does seem like a marathon, especially in the area of faith. As I wrote this, it was a reminder to myself as well. Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and re-focus. Thanks for your thoughts.
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