Running Rut

So, I've been in a running rut the last few months. There are several reasons: 1.) I'm trying to rehab a cranky knee 2.) tired of running the same old routes by myself 3.) BUSY 4.) just got out of my normal schedule. It's not that I haven't been running. I've just been going alot less frequently, and it has seemed alot less fun.

However, my love of running was reawakened today. I remembered why I run. Not for the speed, the time or the miles - I run for discovery. I went running in an area of town I had never been to before, and it was absolutely beautiful and fresh. What I like is finding new places, seeing new things. I run until I get myself lost. I have no idea how far I've gone or how fast I've gotten there. Accomplishment isn't my goal. Reckless joy in discoveries that have cost me some exertion to find is. But, you see, I'm an overacheiver. I feel like I have to do better, be better, work harder.......and the list goes on and on. So, because I tend to forget that I don't have kill myself just because I like something, I will lose my love, joy and passion for it.

As I ran today, along unfamiliar roads and sidewalks, over bridges and through neighborhoods (hoping I would eventually run into my car again), I discovered things about God and about myself. Sometimes, He allows us to lose things we love or our love of certain things to bring us back to the core of Who He is and who He has made us to be. We get in a rut. He becomes boring; we get busy; people need us; we're tired. Only by taking us on new paths to different places can He get our attention. He is God, and we are His.

And, as He so very often does, He reignites the love we hold for Him, and, for me, the love I have for running....... How come He loves us enough to give back what He sometimes has to take?

P.S. - I did find my car again.....