Those of you who know me are already aware, and those who don't really know me have likely not had any difficulty figuring out that I believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I believe that He is my Creator, my Savior, and my Intercessor. I believe that He is watching out for me and guiding me and directing me. I do not believe in coincidences. I believe that it is all according to His perfect plan.
I believe there are times when we are held up by what we consider an inconvenience and find out later there was a major accident that we may well have avoided as a result of being held up. I was told once, and I do not know how biblical it is, but I was told that if you are in a conversation with someone and you keep trying to say something, but you keep getting interrupted, or the conversation keeps getting redirected to another topic rendering your comment irrelevant, this is a sign that you should just drop it and not say the thing you were trying to say. Again, I am not certain of the biblical accuracy of such a situation, but that little tidbit has served me well several times, when I think of it.
Anyway, I find it amazing and wonderful that God would care enough about me to orchestrate even the most minute details of my life, although there are times when I struggle to discern the meaning behind some of the events that happen. For instance, have you ever noticed that EVERY TIME you are running and crossing the street or crossing an entry or exit to a commercial building, there is ALWAYS a car coming. They are almost NEVER paying attention to you. They always seem to pull into your way. Every time I run on a public street, cars come out of nowhere. The ones that don't see me, which is the vast majority of them, pull right into the sidewalk lane, forcing me to run around their car, behind them. Then they notice me, and instead of continuing to pull up so I don't have to run a mile around their car, they then stop, forcing me to GO... ALL.. THE... WAY... AROUND. It probably sounds like a small thing, but it is exhausting. Breaking rhythm and stride to basically stop and turn and stop and turn and stop and turn again, just to get around their car. Then, they take off and leave you gasping for air in their exhaust. If it were to happen once or twice a run, it would not be too big of a deal, but I swear it happens over and over again, like 10 times every time I run. And the few cars that actually DO see me, they are just as bad, trying to be friendly. They pull up, then see me, then slow down, then go a little, then stop, then pull up some, then stop, then pull up and wave you on. Stop, start, stop, start, stop, no you go, no you go, ok. go ahead, no you go. It is like stoping to dance with them in the middle of your run. And those are just the ones that are pulling into or out of a commercial building. The cars that are trying to drive through the intersection are even worse, because they get all peeved that they have to slow down to accommodate the stupid runner -- WHO HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY!!!. And those are the ones that even care if they are obeying the traffic laws or not. There are some that seem to believe that they are gonna get extra points if they actually run you over.
I make an effort to obey the traffic laws so I can carry on the illusion of safety. I sure do hate to stop at the traffic light though. Whenever I am forced to stop, I look around at the drivers in the cars and am always amazed. Normally they are all driving and looking at their phone, but when the runner has to stop at the light, they put their phones down and stare at the runner. Who knows what they are thinking or wondering, but they cannot stop staring at the strange runner on the side of the road who is not running. Now, let me clarify, I am not one of those runners who continues to run in place at the light. That is just strange, and I admit to looking at those people strangely myself. I just stand there trying to catch my breath and wait for the little white light walking man to show up on the screen, indicating that I can resume my run, feeling the eyes boring a hole in me.
I hate to stop at the light so much, that I sometimes redirect my run. If the light is green and I can just keep going, then I do, but if not, I might take a right, wherever right might take me. If I am at the cross-walk and I can make it, legally, across, and then the other cross street signal gives me the go, I might just cross that one too, because I can without stopping. It makes it interesting sometimes because I end up in these odd places with no sidewalks, or I get redirected back early. Which leads me to my question. What exactly is He trying to tell me when these things happen? Does this mean that He does not want me to run, or He wants me to go home early, or stay off the main streets? I should run through the neighbors grass, or into a forest or a field, or maybe He would rather I run on a treadmill at the gym? One of the problems that I have with running, is I have WAY too much time to think. Although I don't seem to spend too much time thinking about anything important. I am WAY TOO TIRED FOR THAT! I think about inane, little things, like how do I get across this intersection before the light turns red, or what if I turn here, will that give me the best way to get in my miles and still get me back home?
Oh, and while I am on a rant... the pedestrians are even worse than the drivers. The other day I was running and I saw a man riding his bike toward me. He had his helmet on riding 0.01 mph, very safety conscious. I saw him, literally a mile away. He was headed toward me and I was headed toward him. I was going maybe twice or three times his speed. As we got directly in front of each other, he SWERVED over toward me and forced me into a ditch. He yelled, "Oh... Sorry." Are you drunk or something? Where can I get me some of those drugs you are on? How is it even possible that you did not see me... for a mile. AND WHY?? WHY in the world did you have to swerve over at that exact moment? Yesterday, a lady was walking toward me with her two children. She saw me and moved over. As she moved over, her child was uncomfortable that she was now crowded, so she jumped out into what she thought would be clean air, directly in front of me. I had to hurdle her. And those are the ones that see you coming. Are the rest of them all deaf? I mean seriously hard of hearing? Every time I come up behind someone, they jump and scream as if I jumped out at them in the middle of the night in a dark alley with a bloody knife. It does not matter if I say, "on your left" or "excuse me" or run in the grass or whatever I do. And they always seem to NEED to "change lanes" right at the moment I am coming by. It is not like I am a stealthy ninja runner. I am clomping my feet and panting so loudly, one kid thought I was practicing for my audition as a beat box for the local rap group.
And don't even get me started on the dogs, well more like their owners, and then I could go on for days about 4-way stops. What exactly is He trying to tell me? I may never know.
BTW... I signed up for a local 5K, here in Brandon next Sunday. http://www.brandonrunning.com/brandon-half-marathon--5k-race-information.html
if anyone is interested in joining me. I was wanting to run a quick (for me) 5k that weekend anyway. The next (half marathon) race is the next weekend in Kiawah Island, SC.
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