Well Brad and Perry have both talked about it today, so i guess i will fall in line and talk about it as well. This morning the 'NewSpring runners' met up at anmed and i enjoyed/suffered through a 7.2 mile run. Let me qualify that by saying that i have never really ran for any distance until the end of this may, and until this morning the longest i have ran at one time is 5 miles...........so saying that i was proud of my time of 59 minutes (told myself i had to do it under an hour) even though i physically don't think i could've ran another hundred yards - 26 miles seems nearly impossible at this point......so saying that, here is the spiritual stuff i got from today

(let me just take a break to address what some of you may be thinking....this is getting dangerously close to becoming a blog about running, and even though that is not my ambition i'm sure i will write about it a lot and here is why....when you are running for an hour straight you gotta come up with stuff to think about so you don't focus on how hard it is to breathe or how badly your legs hurt....so this stuff i think of while i run will probably end up on the blog..........)

ok - here is what hit me this morning as i was running, first let me lay this out there...our route was to begin running in front of anmed, down 81 towards NewSpring until you get to a shell gas station, then turn around and repeat the exact path.....here is why that is hard, because the whole time you are running further from your start/end point you are thinking, "all this ground that i'm covering, i'm going to have to run it all again, and the further i get the harder it will be." this thought was in my mind all the way to the shell station, and all the way back i just thought, "why did i ever do this to myself, it would have been so much easier had i turned back sooner."

so, what is my point?

aren't we supposed to follow Christ? the word 'follow' implies direction, there is a direction toward God we are moving, but how many of us are moving in a different direction from where we should be (whether it is what you would consider completely the wrong direction, or veering to the left or right), so often we begin to lose focus and head in a different direction - here is where the analogy breaks down - running further might have been a good thing for my training whereas moving away from God is never for the overall good - just wanted to clear that up...here we go

seriously how many of us have allowed circumstances in our lives that are taking us in the wrong direction, think about that right now...are you following Christ, or going some other direction because whatever way you are going you are certainly not standing still, and if we are headed the wrong way what should we do?

STOP!!!! STOP moving in the wrong direction, turn around, and begin to cover lost ground, seriously - while running anytime i needed to get back to the point i need to be, all i had to do was stop and turn, and run the other way.........but understandably that is easier said than done, i mean after all that thing we need to stop might be an addiction, a relationship, laziness, gluttony, pride, etc. - and those things are hard to stop, but this is why it is so important we see these things and make necessary changes....

just like with running, the further you run away from the point you need to be, the harder it is to cover all that ground - hey, some of you may feel so far that you don't even think there is a point to turning around because it's going to be so hard to get back (not a good excuse) and if that is not you, are you going to let yourself get to that point? seriously - the longer you let an addiction take you further away, the harder it will be to turn around and cover the ground again by beating the addiction....are you in a relationship that is taking you away? the longer you let it continue the harder it will be to turn around, the harder it will be for you to pull away from what is taking you away from God.........you have to STOP, TURN AROUND, AND BEGIN TO MOVE BACK TOWARDS GOD

Want help? ask God, spend time with God, he created you and knows how to give you the strength you need, he wants you to be close to Him, He is for you, consider that your training, he will help you make that run, i'll tell you from my experience this morning....the run to the finish line was not fun - it was actually one of the hardest things i have ever done - but it was necessary in order for me to get to where i needed to be

and once you recover your ground, or if you are currently on the right path following god, which i'm sure many of you are - make it a point to train to keep your eyes on Christ so that you will not swerve to the side and take yourself to a place that is so difficult to work back from, what steps do you need to take?

sorry this is soooooooooo long, but i was running i just felt like it was something i needed to write about, maybe it helped you, maybe not.........if not then i'm sorry for your time - anyways, see everyone at FUSE tonight cuz b.coop is gonna BRING IT for sure