Running Blindly

Yes, I actually prepared, cooked, served, ate, and survived my turkey! So did the rest of my family! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and I hope that y'all did, too! I absolutely loved the comments from my previous post on the ways you celebrated the day and the Bible verse that you were most thankful for. Thanks for sharing.

We began Thanksgiving Day with....a run!! Are you surprised? Hubby and I had already been up an hour or so with that silly turkey! An early morning run with a dozen other runners out in the country got the juices going! The sunrise was lovely. The conversation was fun. And the little boy who got separated from his mom was precious. When you start in the dark, and you're running in a new place--not me, the little boy!--it's easy to get caught up with the runners in front of you. You simply follow their lead. We all started together, and those running 5 mile loop turned down a road to get back to the YMCA. The rest of us kept on running the longer loop. This child was running a fast pace with some of the runners doing the longer route. On a long stretch toward the end of the run, Robin and I caught up with him--now walking. He had a side stitch--gotta hate those!-- and had slowed down. We told him that he was doing a great job for such a long distance--8 miles. Well, at that, he jerked up his little head, and his eyes filled with tears. His mouth quivered as he spoke. He said that he was only doing 5 miles, and his mom was right behind him. Robin and I looked at each other and realized that his mom had turned off with the others, and he was so far ahead that she thought he would be waiting for her in the parking lot. Not!

Y'all, our Mama hearts just broke with him. Bless his heart! He was running blindly--just trying to keep up with the runners in front of him. How many times in our daily routine do we"run blindly?" We're just trying to keep up with all of the things on our to-do list. We're trying to keep up with the latest and greatest stuff. We're trying to do things that the world deems important. We crowd out time with God to get the other important stuff done. In Titus 2:12, we see that we are taught "not to live against God nor to do the evil things the world wants to do. Instead, that grace teaches us to live in the present age in a wise and right way and in a way that shows we serve God." (New Century Version). Are we serving Him the way He desires--with our whole hearts? Is spending time with Him at the top of our to-do list?

Long story short, Robin and I ran with the little fellow to the next road where a "mama mini van" was headed toward us. A woman driver was waving, and the little boy said, "That's my mom!" She pulled over and lavished him with hugs and kisses. A simple mistake, but one that neither of them will forget. A nine year old needs to run with an adult on a course like the one we did. If the mom had asked who was running which distance and had paired him up with someone who ran his pace, things would have been fine. In the end, the mom and the son were simply giving thanks that they had found each other. How fitting a way to start their Thanksgiving holiday.

Many Blessings,