My time in Swaziland so far has been great. Our ministry has gone well, I’ve been connecting with different people on my squad, I’ve been getting much needed rest, and I’ve been finding more peace and solace within God. At home, I make it a priority to exercise daily, and I’ve even been able to keep up this habit here. I have been running early in the mornings with Anna, one of my squadmates. You would think that the heat in Swaziland would be the biggest challenge to physical activity, but the hardest thing to overcome is the hills. I have yet to find flat ground that spans more than 50 feet.
Last Sunday there was a 10k (6.1 miles) and half marathon (13.1 miles) race that was held about 5 minutes from the house we are staying in. Anna and I (as well as 4 other members of our squad) decided to sign up to run the 10k race. On an early morning run about a week before the race, Anna and I impulsively changed our minds and decided that we were going to sign up to run the half marathon instead. We had not been training for this but we thought, “Why not? We’ll do it for the free shirt.”
Race day arrives, and at 5 AM we stumble out of bed. All six of us eventually clamber into the van that is taking us to the race, arriving about 5 minutes before the race begins. We set off and are immediately met with the upward battle of running uphill. There are so many hills in Swaziland, and I am convinced the route of the race was mapped out to include all of them. 60 minutes into the race, Anna and I were met with a hill that didn’t seem to end. We decided to walk. We then realized that we weren’t walking up a hill- we were actually climbing up a mountain.
You may think I’m exaggerating, but I kid you not, we were climbing a literal mountain. Instead of crying, we decided to joke and laugh about the situation, questioning whether or not our impulsive decision was actually an idiotic one. It was too late to turn around, and if we quit then there was no way we would get a shirt. Our only option was to keep going.
Once we reached the top of the mountain, my perspective shifted. We looked out and could see the green expanse of Swaziland. We could see the town below and more mountains in the distance. We could see lush trees and rich grasses that coated the earth. We could almost touch the rolling clouds and the blue sky peering out from behind their peaks. All I could think was, “Wow. Look at what God has created.”
I was no longer breathless from the race, but became breathless with wonder. The God of the universe created everything I was seeing by using only his voice. His words are powerful enough to form the entirety of the world. And I was given the opportunity to run alongside it. I was given the chance to glorify God with my body, praising him for the strength and health he has given me, while reveling in the beauty of his earthly kingdom. 1 Corinthians 8:6 states, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”
Oftentimes I find myself asking God to reveal himself to me, but I forget that if I need to see him, I can just look out a window. He shows himself to us through his creation. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” (Romans 1:20). By viewing nature with this mindset, I’m reminded that everything and everyday is equally sacred as well as ordinary.
Running that half marathon was probably the most mentally and physically challenging thing I’ve ever done. I was tired, hot, and sore, but I don’t regret a second of it. Through it God gave me a reminder of who he is, of how he has the ultimate domain over his creation, and of how he has given us time on the earth to enjoy the magnificence of what he has made. Everything, including ourselves, has been made to worship and glorify God. Even though we struggled through the run, Anna and I made it to the end joyfully and without any regrets. As our time in Swazi comes to an end, I hope to take all the reminders God has given me this month and carry them with me for the remainder of this journey.
