A Season for Running

In March, Phoebe and I began running three times a week pushing our two kids in the stroller.  My pelvis was still sore and my muscles weak from the months of recovery of c. diff and a physically difficult pregnancy. We walked every hill and took frequent breaks while I built up some strength and stamina.

Yesterday we ran the 3.5 mile “Walmart loop” through the celery bog path up all the hills.  We each pushed roughly 80lbs of kids, strollers, and winter garb (blankets, rice bags, hats, coats, gloves) and ran around 10 minute miles.  There was no stopping, except for the occasional blanket tuck.  We’ve reached eight months of running three days a week.  I mentioned our routine to a mother I met at the park. She made a follow up comment, “You’ll understand as a fellow runner……”.  I’m a runner!!!!!

I love this season of running, grocery shopping, cooking, playing, cleaning, reaching out, going on adventures, waking up early, babysitting, teaching, serving, sharing, inviting, and storing.  It is a stark contrast to the previous 13 months of simply surviving with morning sickness, spd, and c.diff.  I feel immense gratitude with how God has walked me through the differing seasons of life.  I’ve also felt a slight sense of trepidation mixed with faith and hope about how this season of my life will change in the future and put me back into a surviving phase.

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly…But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season… and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalms 1:1-3).

An apple tree doesn’t always have apples on it!!! It is bare in the winter, full of fresh leaves and blossoms in the spring, apples growing in the summer, with beautiful fruit to pick in the fall and colorful leaves. It is always an apple tree, and no one thinks less of it it in the winter for not providing big, juicy apples.  So why on earth do I hold myself to the unrealistic standard of always producing fruit?

No matter what challenges I face, it is delighting daily in studying God’s word and applying it to my life that is going to put me in the ideal setting for growth.  It will not result in constant production of visible “fruit”, like I am enjoying now, but “whatever [I am able to do] shall prosper”.  Recognizing these simple truths removes the sting of anticipated disappointment and frustration with changing seasons.