Psalm 51:15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
This is what 51 and 15 years look like. The last marathon I ran I was pregnant with Reece and didn’t know it. If you can ever be kinda pregnant, and you can’t, it would have been my status. I ran in the L.A. Marathon with A.J. She had graciously invited me to come and join their fun and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to run and to run with my friend in a new and different place. That was in 2007. That run was really fun and blazing hot. It was record breaking temperatures for the marathon. We ran and finished and felt like we had not only survived a marathon but also a heat stroke. Every single run and runner comes and goes with its own memories and story. I left that race thankful for running and friends and protection. We ran and God protected us and protected my unknown unborn babe in some serious conditions.
Running Everywhere
I didn’t run any more marathons after the one in LA. I never ran to compete, I’m the least competitive person you will ever meet, other than my sister Shauna maybe. I just loved that so many different ages, shapes and sizes were on the same course. I just liked running and it was good for me. I ran because it was community and goals, enjoyment, beauty, relationship, prayers and health. I loved that I could run everywhere I went, and everywhere I went I could run. I learned to see things in new ways and learned to see new places by running through it.
Speed Chasing Life
Life got crazy in 2007. I mean it’s always a little crazy, but it grabbed another gear and felt like it was flying out of control in every area. For the following 16 years, my life was no longer conducive for planned courses or long runs. Those years felt like a series of long wild sprints with high winds, scorching heat and swirling blizzards. We had 3 more babies, adopted 2 kids, and went through some major love and loss in church and ministries we were part of. We buried loved ones and four of our children got married over that period of time. We went through major business and financial stresses that went on for a big chunk of those years. We topped it off with a major move that had us starting over in almost every way we knew. It all happened in those years, not in any sort of order, which I know is how life rolls on. Life and death, ups and downs. Life was rolling faster than I could keep running.
Learning God’s Faithfulness
Charsie and I did a Beth Moore Bible Study on the Fruit of the Spirit, in 2015, right after I had Cellie. During that study, the Lord gave me an amazing gift that changed my walk with Him forever. He clearly showed me that each of my kids represent a fruit of the spirit in my life. Each child teaches me something deeper and different about God and grows something new in me that can only come from the Spirit of God. Reece is “faithfulness”. God has shown me His faithfulness through the life and lifetime of Reece in sweet and profound ways.
Believing God
Many things seemed to be falling apart for us when I was pregnant with Reece and at the same time God was growing my faith and teaching me about His faithfulness, in a very personal way. God has always been faithful, it is Who He is, but my eyes and heart began to be opened to see it and trust it. Reece’s life birthed new eyes for me. It took a lot of time and trials but I can point to that year when I began to know and believe in God’s faithfulness in my own life.
Running a marathon with Reece, or I should say, the same marathon as Reece, since he ran much faster, was another milestone reminder of God’s faithfulness to me. God knew my desire to run another one, and He had a better course and plan, time and place all mapped out. He had a training plan that would take a lot of years and patience and trials and miles of conversations to get my heart ready to run with a new view and appreciation of His faithfulness.
Faithfulness In Trials and In Nonsense
God didn’t become more faithful when Reece was born, or when I began to see it, I did. Faithful is who He is. He can’t become more or less of who He is. He is always the same yesterday, today, and forever. I have seen God be faithful in trials and in complete silly joy. The difference is, now I look for it and anticipate it. I look back and see God and His faithfulness in my life, even before I believed it.
Being able to run a marathon in Hawaii with my dearest friend since childhood, Kyle, my nephew Hunter, his friend Bryan, and my 15 year old son Reece all at our own pace, but very much together was a gift and blessing to my heart and soul.
Blessing Socks and Toenails Off
God is faithful. He is faithful in the hard parts of life and the ridiculous fun parts of life. He will bless your socks off and sometimes your toenails too.
