Wide Awake - Run for LIFE 2013 Devotion #1

Less than four weeks from the start of the Pinhoti 100!  Training has gone quite well, and other than a few minor aches and pains I'm feeling good.  Some of you have asked about the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim run last month.  Hopefully I'll get some pictures on here soon enough.

Last year I ran the Pinhoti 100 to raise funds for LIFE Ministries, a local ministry here in Birmingham that is committed to helping individuals and couples in their walks with Christ.  I am doing the same this year, along with a team of others running various races this fall.  Run for LIFE Team Members are: Will Harris, Lisa Brush, David and Miles Brush, Blair Canale, Randy & Melody Hemphill, Michael & Mandy Jeffcoat, Robert & Sasha Johns, Dana Pate, and Andrew Varvoutis. See their bios or donate at www.runforlifenow.com.

Similar to last year, each week leading up to the race, I am writing a devotion that brings spiritual application from the world of running and life. This week's devotion is below.

Please consider sponsoring me or any of the other team members by visiting www.runforlifenow.com.

Thank you for supporting an amazing ministry!

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October 8, 2013 – Wide Awake by Chris Dollar

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead.  Then Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14

Having a full-time job, a wife and kids, most of my training runs begin early in the morning.  I’ve found this to be the best way for me to get in my training while having the least impact on my family.  While I have grown somewhat accustomed to the middle of the night/early morning pre-dawn runs, I’m not sure I can ever get fully used to it, and most days it remains extremely tough to roll out of bed when that alarm clock rings. 

My routine at that point is simple enough.  Begin stretching in complete darkness, hoping this will somehow awaken my body to the point where it is ready to make it a few steps downstairs to continue stretching with the lights on.  I also have a small bite to eat before beginning the miles for that day, usually 30 minutes or so after the alarm clock rings. 

Despite the 30 minutes, stretching, food, water and movement, my first few miles are usually the worst of my run.  It takes me a while to get going.  As the training load increases for a big race like the Pinhoti 100, the time it takes me to warm-up and feel functional in the morning gets longer and longer.  There are many times when it feels like I’m sleep-running, just drifting along in the dark, knowing that I’m awake, but still part of me wondering if it is a dream. 

I never know when it will finally click on a particular day, but it inevitably does.  Could be after just 15 minutes and sometimes it has been two hours, but at some point my body and mind click into gear, I feel like myself, and the miles suddenly seem easy.  I can’t explain why the transformation happens when it does, but it is always a great feeling.

I hate to admit it, but many times my life feels like the beginning of these runs.  Like I’m in some strange sleepwalking (or running) state.  I know things are happening all around me, but I have this sense that all is not as it should be.  I just don’t feel like myself.  John Ortberg describes it as a “state of dis-appointment”, meaning that we remove God from the central, appointed role He desires to play in our life and have instead replaced him with ourselves.  I know I am guilty of this.  I replace God with me…my flawed worldly desires, aspirations, idols and plans.  The funny part is that God knows me better than I know myself, so truly turning my life and desires over to Him would allow me to truly experience life to the fullest through God.  After all, if God had a plan for me from the beginning, would it not make sense to allow Him to work that plan in me?

I know this to be true, so why is it so hard to “Take the Leap” and fully trust in God?  Being alive in Christ and leading a life full of desire, hope and joy sounds far better than anything I have tried to create for myself.  I need this full transformation, but instead of taking the leap I keep my feet firmly planted on the less desirable life I’ve created for myself.  I want to feel like the miles when I’m wide awake and all is clicking that is possible through Christ, rather than the dreary state that I have created for myself.  In Christ I find freedom and power and joy.  True spiritual growth produces this transformation, and the good news is that it is possible for us all to experience it through the power of God. 

 

"Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.”  -Soren Kierkegaard