today was a good day for an early morning run….
i had gone to sleep rereading one of my favorite memoirs, A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas, in which she very honestly shares the unexpected, jarring journey she found herself in when her husband suddenly suffered a catastrophic accident while walking their dog. He suffered irreparable brain injuries and required full time care until his early death.
as she envisions a new life weaving in this tragedy amidst all that still remains…she writes, “It was a long time before I realized that you don’t have to start right, you just have to start.”
i love that sentence cause it helps free me to run…not fast, not impressive, not out front – a mere, clean, simple start.
and when i run, that silly ole ticking of that silly ole clock that i previously mentioned seems to fade further and further from my head and is much more easily replaced by stronger, truer voices…
“you are loved. you are purposed. you can set your own pace. you can choose your running partners. you are alive. time isn’t the issue. your heart is.”
and those truths along with a simple start is the first sound step of coaching….
it is lacing up running shoes together and simply beginning…
there is such a rush of power in first steps headed in a great direction….
i think it must be why jesus so often began his day so very early…off he would go…on an early morning run to the hills…i’m not sure he was all that athletic but he i think he just loved the sure movement…the not standing still….and off he would go….not aimlessly but intentionally to see his Abba…his father…to fill his tank before offering it to the crowd of other needy runners, small children, quarreling grown ups, and dangerous government agents…
just an early morning run….a first step…and power came rushing in…..
it could be we have simply missed too many early morning runs to the hills…so busy are we hurrying to get where we have believed we must be….too weary to ever believe any longer in any sort of power, any sort of invisible grace, any sort of worth in awkward beginnings…
but we are mistaken….
it is the power of those first steps – awkward or not – that open the floodgates to voices of truth that become symphonies in our heads….beautifully, mysteriously, boldly eliminating the bothersome ticking of a bothersome clock that never should have mattered anyway….
it’s my favorite invitation from jesus to me….just as he is tying those laces….”come, come away with me….”
