Get out of your box. Free yourself.
Something I enjoy about trail running and running in general are the mental lessons. Listening to your body instead of your mind. I'll never forget the summer I started running. It was 2012. I started at 2 miles. That was FAR. I remember deciding to keep running. I never liked running. It sucked. Most people think running sucks. Because you're doing it wrong. Most likely. It's in your mind. Free your mind, free your body. I remember when I went from 2 miles to 4 miles. Something really clicked when I hit 5. Then I began to wonder just how far I could go. Then 6 miles came and went. Onto 8, then 10. Then came my first half marathon in September. But the day before I ran my fastest 5k in 24:30. Then I ran my first half marathon in a little over 2 hours. But that wasn't the end of it. Why stop there? Why not go for a marathon? Because we could go 5 more miles and say we ran and ULTRA Marathon! Right Chris? Sounded fantastic. So I signed up for my first 50k, just months after I started running. Didn't train worth a lick, ran a long run of 16 miles about a month prior. This wasn't the greatest decision. But I finished my first 50k on the trails in Allison Park in Pittsburgh in just about 8 hours. It was the best worst day of my life. And I was hooked. I signed up for another 50k in April of the following year only to finish the 15k due to a knee injury. And then my running slowed. Until this year when I felt I needed to ramp things up and run 77 miles this September for my 33rd birthday.
ANYWAY, I wasn't expecting to give you the recap of my running history. But here's what you need to know. Around a mile, assuming you have no other physical limitation you'll think you are going to die. You won't (although I can't guarantee that, I don't know your personal health). But if you push a little further, you'll learn that things don't get much worse. They don't get that much better either though. But you can continue, that's the important part. If you are ready to quit at 2 miles, you can go 4. At the end of 4, you will be ready to be done. But the important thing is that you proved that most of the work to continue lies in your mind. Your body can handle it.
How often to we have a predetermined mindset on the parameters in which God can work? Pretty often if you ask me. If you let your mind go, and let God work, He can do infinitely greater things then we ever thought possible. Paul tells us this in the book of Ephesians. That even the LOVE of Christ surpasses knowledge. So even if you think you know how deep the Fathers love is, it's deeper. So deep we'll never be able to fully comprehend the depths.
Let go of the framework that you've put God in. Just let it go. Any comparison we have that shows the love doesn't compare. When we begin to think what God would do, or how God would work, or what is sin and what isn't sin, just let it go. Our minds don't work that way. But you know what we can do? LOVE. Cast aside judgements. Cast aside preconceived notions. Cast aside your need to be right. And just LOVE. Love Never Fails.
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