“Look up, not down. Relax your shoulders. Keep your back up straight. Unclench your fists. Stop looking down. Loosen up. Relax your shoulders. Look up!”
This was my self-talk the other day when I was out for a run. In fact, it’s a tape recorder going off in my brain on most days I lace my shoes up and kick myself out the door to run. On one particular run, I realized that the Lord was trying to teach me a valuable lesson.
One of the biggest mistakes a runner can make is to look down as he/she runs.
When you look down, the muscles in your neck and shoulders tense up (go ahead, try it.), causing tightness and, overall, more work for the rest of your body. As you run with your head looking even slightly down, your back is forced to work in a bent-forward position, thereby putting undue stress on your lower back. The weight of your whole upper body ends up pounding on your lower back repetitively with each step that you take. This sets the stage for a very painful lower back. You don’t need to ask me how I know this...;)
So why am I telling you all this? In doing what we’re doing (building our partnership team for our missionary assignment, raising funds, etc.), it is easy to look down and not straight ahead. We can lose focus and start to question, “God, what are You doing?” We start trying to work harder in our own strength, causing stress, “soreness”, and you guessed it...more work. We put ourselves at risk of great injury because we forget the one most important thing....to fix our eyes on Jesus. “...and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and perfecter of faith...” Heb. 12:1b-2a
Moral of the story...look straight ahead, and make sure you’ve got your eyes on the One who gives us life to the fullest. You certainly don’t want to miss a thing.
Click here to see how one of our friends combined her passion for running and her passion for bringing God’s Word to the Bibleless peoples around the world. If you’re a runner, seek the Lord in how He may be asking you to use your talent for running to partner in the work of Bible translation.
Sarah
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