Fun Run

     
      It get's really easy to forget why running is fun.  Perhaps you've never gotten to the place where it is fun, and I don't think that can happen on purpose. It just occurs, and just as slowly it occurs that running is no longer enjoyable and is just about goals.  Doing the run is no longer the goal, it is no longer an end in itself. When we first start, that's all it is, to be able to complete a 3 mile run is the accomplishment and that's when running is fun. Then after a while it becomes a means to a different end, and that is when the run is no longer fun.
        That's how a lot of things are.  At first I read my Bible and that is the accomplishment, then after a while I do it because I need something from it - character change, comfort, solace.  Then when it doesn't happen, reading my Bible is no longer enjoyable, but I keep doing it because I know I need to. Or some of us just stop.
        I started trying to do one run a week that has nothing to do with pace, time, or distance. I leave the head phones at home, because I want to be in the moment of the run - thinking about breathing and form.  When I notice I'm getting done, I turn around and head home.  Accidentally, these have become my most anticipated runs of the week.  I call them my fun runs, even though they frequently end up being fairly long and fast.  Giving myself the freedom to set the goals down and just run for the sake of doing the run, enjoying how God has made the human body to move, work, sweat, and exert itself has helped me enter into doing runs for a better reason.
        Being in full-time ministry it becomes very easy to do devotions just for an end purpose. I want to be able to challenge others with what I have learned. I need to have integrity when I tell others they should do the same.  Not until recently has it been about fun.  Entering into a space where I can enjoy the process of learning God's Word, hearing his voice call out, and then notice how it interacts with my soul.  These are fun run quiet times because there is no expectation about frequency, length, number, or even content. The only goal is that I'll show-up and allow God to take the lead and I'll sit as long as he wants to keep going.
      

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