I am not generally a runner. It is not my favorite thing to do, but I will do it if I must. When I was in 8th grade I had a friend who talked me into joining the track team. She threatened to tell a certain boy that I had a crush on him if I didn’t do track. I hated every single minute of track. My mom talked to my coach and told him that I could run the mile and the two mile. As if being on the track team wasn’t bad enough, I ran the events that took the longest. Needless to say I was that kid who walked most of the way because I didn’t care and didn’t want to be there. I often cried when I was “running” because I didn’t want to be there. When I was finished I would collapse on the infield and just lay there and feel like I wanted to die. I wasn’t allowed to quit the team, so I finished the season. Occasionally I will go for a run, but I am not all about going every day.
So this song that has been in my head, “Marvelous Light” is really catching me off guard a little bit. I love this song. I love the meaning behind it. And this song inspires me to run for it. Run into the arms of my heavenly Father and just collapse. But it is collapsing in a good way. I am running into him away from these things that I have tied me down. I am running into him from the things that cause my pain. I am running into him from a lot of things. But I get to collapse in his mercy. Grace. Patience. Peace. I am learning what it means to be surrendered to him and to feel these things daily. I can’t wait to continue learning these things on the Race.
Jesus is where the finish line is. Although the journey seems so hard and I might cry and I might severely dislike it, when I come to that point where I cross that finish line and see why I was running all along everything else fades away. Everything else seems so far gone, so far faded into the darkness, so miniscule when I collapse at the end into the arms of my loving Abba. So for that I am okay with running. For that I will run hundreds of miles. For that I will cross the finish line. For that I will run the race set before me.
