a lesson from a new runner

found this email i sent my friend charlotte last week (pre-race) and thought i'd post it...

I ran 5K again last night (Eric ran most of it but had to leave early to be home by 10) and am really getting stoked about the run this weekend. (Never thought I'd actually write such words about a month ago). It's so neat to see how far God brings us when we give something to Him--from barely being able to run 1 mile to being able to run 3.1 and still have energy for more. God is using this to teach me lessons about how we are capable of FAR more than we think we are...He created us to do so much more than we do, in the physical realm AND in the spiritual realm...yet we should never be overwhelmed by making it seem so huge, looming over our heads. Rather, we should take it one step at a time and trust that the Lord, the Living God, Immanuel, God with us, will give us every strength & every grace from His abundance of it to get us through each step, taking us a little further each time. I think I tend to get overwhelmed when I think of where I want to be spiritually and where I'm at now, seeing such a huge distance between the two. And God says, just like with running, "Steven, I created you to be able to run marathons, but you sure can't just up and do it without the proper training, the proper practice; Steven, I created you to be able to do amazing things spiritually, to perform miracles, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to be bold and courageous in sharing My love with others, but you can't just up and do it without taking the time to get to know Me more, to love Me more, to believe Me more." One step at a time...the 5K is just one in many. My next step is the Bolder Boulder at the end of May! 10K is not so bad when you consider training and consistency...

a word from the Lord

my foot's been hurting like crazy for a week now. i have no clue what is wrong with it, but it started hurting a couple of days before the 5k last saturday and has been hurting on and off ever since. amazingly (should i be so amazed at God's power, though?) it stopped hurting on the day of the race and i ran with the most energy and best time ever, without a problem.

but it came back shortly after the race. so i've been asking God to show me why it's hurting and haven't been getting any answers. i've prayed for healing and had people pray for healing as well. i was getting ready to go see the doctor if it didn't go away in another week, when i got this word from the Lord today through my dear friend charlotte, whom God uses in radical ways to bring all sorts of healing to people...

from charlotte:
So you might not want to hear this, but God isn’t ready for your foot to be healed. I don’t know why. But I told you that I couldn’t pray for it to be healed Sunday night either....Maybe if I can pray for your foot in person, I will understand better. I will keep praying for it and it will happen when God is ready. Maybe it is a test for me???? Sorry you have to carry so many burdens for me. First your fast for the sell of my house and now a limping foot. Let’s pray for what God is trying to teach the two of us.

Father, Please show us what we need to know. Show us what you want us to learn from Steven’s foot. Lord, we know that you want him to run, to run for You. Please help us to understand what we need to do for his foot to be healed and for him to continue running for You. Lord, I ask that Steven remember to ask Jesus to run beside him every time he runs, to remember why he is running and to spend that time with You, Lord. Oh Lord, we thank You for the lessons You teach us and we are ready to accept Your message!! We love You and praise You and accept Your will!! Amen.

i think she hit the nail on the head with this: i hadn't been using my running to spend time with God, but rather simply as an exercise. and i know God told me from square one that my running was to be an offering to Him, a gift to Him, a means of intercession but also of just learning from Him what He wants me to learn. and this is yet another lesson: i need to spend more time with Him. especially while running. not spending that time thinking about things that need to be done or talking to running partners like eric. i need to let that be a sacred time with God.

i receive this word from You, God. show me what to do.

The first race...

On Saturday, I ran my first race, ever. It was HUGE. OK, so it was only a 5K, but still that was a big thing for someone who had never done any sort of race before (aside from Super Mario Kart, but that doesn't count, I'm guessing).

I had decided about a month ago that I was going to run the Denver Spring Fling after discovering it on www.runnersworld.com. (great site for runners, by the way!) So after praying about it, I felt the Lord telling me to go for it. He was going to be with me in every step of my training. I ran the idea by Eric, one of the high school guys in my discipleship group, and he got stoked about it pretty quick. For the next few weeks, we ran together about 5 times per week, mostly on the treadmill at the gym as we learned how to measure our speed and maintain control of it as well as our time. I did my first outdoor run the Thursday before the race and loved it. Not only was it a gorgeous day, but I ran around a beautiful lake in a park not far from where I live. This was the closest I felt to God yet while running. Being in nature, surrounded by His gorgeous creation, really connected me with Him in a new way as I ran.

The Denver Spring Fling was awesome. There were about 200 or so participants, so it wasn't an overwhelmingly large crowd. Denver City Park is an incredible place to hang out anyway, and running there was the icing on the cake. The weather was perfect--God's encouragement to Eric and me to just enjoy everything about the run. Especially Him.

We ran the race in our best time yet--30 minutes. That was a huge thing for me. I took the advice of Alice and maintained a steady pace (not too fast, not too slow), focusing more on the distance than on my speed. There is a GREAT spiritual lesson in that...focus simply on where you're headed one step at a time, NOT the amount of time it's taking you to get there; God will get you where you need to be at His pace, and a pace that He knows you can handle. Running too hard (harder than you can manage at the moment) will only pose a threat to you finishing the race.

Several times during the race, I pulled an index card out of my pocket that had a verse on it which Alice had referred me to. This verse was what gave me the encouragement not only to finish the race, but to desire to go even further and longer:

"But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not get tired, they will walk and not grow weary."
--Isaiah 40:31

a new hobby

a new thing is happening in me.

the story starts a couple of months ago, or actually way before that. my sister alice is one of my best friends on earth (though it wasn't always that way, i thank God for making us friends). she and her husband Sean (another of my best friends on earth) are missionaries in tokyo, japan. i live in denver. needless to say, i don't see them too often, unfortunately.

several years back, this huge passion birthed in alice to run. not just a jog here and there, but a full-blown, all-out romance with running that has since led to her running and winning numerous races of varying lengths and styles, as well as running 3 marathons and placing 26th out of 3000 people in an international japanese marathon last month.

in the meantime, i had never considered running, using the excuse that i had a bad knee, that i didn't have time or simply didn't feel like it. so alice told me a couple of months back that she was about to slow down and stop running so much in order to start trying to have a baby. to me, running seemed like a huge thing for her to give up, since she's into it so much. but i knew she would have to run a lot less if she were to get pregnant. last month, i got a call from alice & sean, letting me know that i am going to be an uncle in november. this was something i'd been hoping and praying for for some time now, so needless to say, i was ecstatic. it turned out she had run her last marathon while carrying her baby! the little butterbean will have been a runner before he/she's even born!

i was at the gym shortly after receiving this news, and out of nowhere i found myself climbing up on the treadmill (which i've never done before--always stuck to the bikes or elipticals or weights in the past) and starting to run. as i did this, i asked God, why am i doing this? the answer was so clear to me, coming from the Spirit of God in my heart: i want to teach you some new things about me, steven. it's time to run. it's also time to pick up the torch and carry it for alice and the baby.

so i ran. it's not a forrest gump thing, it's a God thing. i felt like running, so i did. and it has become a near obsession. a passion which goes unneglected, unforgotten in my heart and in my life each day. and God is teaching me HUGE lessons in all of this, about a relationship with Him, about dedication, perseverance, trust, accountability...

and as i run, i also think about my sister alice. i pray for her and the little butterbean in her belly. for his/her future, for health, for adventures, for life. and i just think about God.

it's a new hobby that promises to be so much more than just a hobby...