Saturday morning....the alarm went off at 3:45 so I could get on the path by 5 am for a 13.1 (half marathon) distance run with my faithful friend. We don't typically run so early on a Saturday, but today we needed to. I half dreaded that, half thrilled off of it. I love to run, but I hadn't gotten the sleep I needed the night before. Anyway, we met up at 5 and started off by her getting out of her car into a puddle (it was very dark.) We laughed hysterically...most likely because we were both tired. anyway, we set off. It became a very fun, very therapeutic run. We are both experiencing some really deep life experiences, so We have some in depth talks when we run. We also laugh when we run-we've been friends for years. Anyway, it was very dark. I mean, we couldn't see 100 yards ahead of us because this path is a bit woodsy. A lot of times, that could be unsafe. But we have run the path enough times, we know it by heart. However, what you cannot predict are some of the things we "bumped " into on the path as we went along. Like a pile of horse crap that was completely hidden by the dark. Or some sticks consuming the path in certain areas. Or even animals. But we were having a great time.
As we hit the halfway point, ( a little before) the sun started coming out. As we doubled back and ran back toward our cars, we could see the things we ran "through and into". the sticks were actually pretty large branches. The horse crap was....definitly horse crap. We actually laughed hysterically as we passed by that point, seeing the shoe print I'd left in it. I told her ....this is going into my blog. There is a life analogy in that. (And I'm getting to that.) It was an amazing run. We saw the sun rise. We saw a few random snow flakes. We laughed. We shared. We ran our little hearts out. One step closer to our goal.
But as we ran, and we compared how the path was the very same path we were on in both directions (to and then back ), we talked about how very true it is that something that is the same one hour to the next can be totally different in dark vs. light. Our point was proven as we could easily see the branches and horse poo the way back. We couldn't see those things on our first half.
In life, that is true. Sometimes choosing the light is hard. It's not always the easy choice. In fact, it sometimes is the harder choice. But it is the choice God calls us to make. He is our light. And when we choose Him, we can see things so much better. The dark is sometimes the path we want to choose, however, we run into a lot of crap when we choose that path. There are also so many obstacles unseen. however, when God shines His light on those things-when we choose to let Him do so-we can not be hurt by them. Life is so much like that. When I choose to let God guide my way with His light, my path is so much easier. I can see what would hurt me and I can avoid that by following Him. If or when I have chosen the darker way....inevitably I get dirty or messy or hurt. It's not worth it. His Word offers me light every day, if I choose to open it up and use it. Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." to stay on the right path, I need His word.
It was sort of an analogy "oh yeah, duh!" kind of reminder moment for me. By the very last mile, we had just gotten silly. It was no longer a serious run for us. It was a good time. Somehow, we ended up singing silly camp songs from our childhood , laughing so hard we almost couldn't' even run. That's where Homegrown Tomatoes comes in. It was the dumbest camp song ever, but it came to her mind and the words came back to us ....not that it would make any sense to you unless you once graced the campus of Scioto Hills Camp, but a few of the silly words were "Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes, aint nothing like homegrown tomatoes, only 2 things money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes." It goes on even sillier. The point is, talking about camp and remembering that silly song not only provided some laughter, but reminded us of some of the more important camp songs and moments. It was a really good run-horse crap, branches, dark, light and all. And I am so thankful we ended in the light! I hope every day I start and end there.
This month is a challenging month in some aspects, as it will mark the one year date of my mom's passing. It is difficult to believe that it has almost been a year. I have a lot rumbling through my mind on that topic, too, but I will post later this week on that.
In the meantime, I am going to make every effort to choose the light-one step, one day at a time.
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