Late in the evening of Sunday, March 11th something bizarre and uncharacteristic happened to me. By 10 PM that evening I found myself done with all my homework and duties; I was sort of ambling about the house, not too sure how to spend my night. I typically am in bed at midnight during the week, so going to bed early was a strange prospect to me, and I wasn’t really tired. I didn’t want to cook or watch a movie, and homework was out of the question. I turned to my laptop and began to look up images of the Grand Canyon…
Let me preface this by saying the infamous “travel bug” has bitten me since I came to IHOPU. In the next six months I’ll be going on at least four trips—to La Crosse, Wisconsin and Dallas, Texas for ministry trips, back home to Minnesota to visit family and for my dear friend Christa’s wedding, then at the end of summer off to Michigan for one of my housemate’s wedding… The bittersweet thing is that all of these trips are just taking me around the Midwest, which is where I’ve been my entire life. This is not to say I disdain the Midwest—I love it here; however, there has been something growing within me over the past few months… a desire to see something truly epic, and photographs can’t satisfy this desire anymore!
So late Sunday night I found myself looking at images of the Grand Canyon and Havasu falls and hiking trails… and at one point I started to cry! There is a deep desire within me to see these places for myself! I want to worship God in His magnificent creation! I am yearningto travel… I want to see mountains, canyons, caves and oceans. I want to see the northern lights. I want to raft down a gorgeous river. I want to see the splendor of nature! With this in mind, I was meandering websites and clicking on every link I could find, but I also pulled up a website that I never thought I would ever go to—the Couch-to-5k Running Plan. WHAAAAAAT?!
As I was looking at the Grand Canyon websites, I saw it all revolved largely around hiking. And that’s what I desire to do—I want to get down in the canyon and hike to the remote, beautiful, non-touristy spots… But I have never, ever, ever done anything to pursue fitness/hiking in my life. Upon realizing that I would need to be active and fit to truly experience the Grand Canyon how I want to, I realized it would be obviously necessary to train, so I started looking into that. Again, I must say I was baffling myself with the vivacity and excitement in me! THIS IS NOT NORMAL FOR ME.
After looking at pictures, running around the kitchen a bit in order to get my excited energy out, and ranting on Facebook I chose to go to bed… but I couldn’t get the canyon out of my mind. I was still floored by my willingness to even think about training to run a 5k. The thought of it didn’t seem that bad, though, when I looked at the possible reward of my efforts. If training for a 5k could make my dream to hike around the Grand Canyon true, then I would be MORE than willing to sign up in a heartbeat to do so! The outcome would make the training so worth it! The Grand Canyon. The beauty. The experience. The nature. The marvelous splendor of it all! AAAAH! My mind is bursting at the thought of this! I would train and plan and get ready however I needed to…
Then the thought hit me while I was lying in my bed: how much more should I be desiring the Lord? If the Grand Canyon is just a broken section of earth that will one day probably be wiped away and replaced with something more glorious, and if the Lord is eternal and the pleasures of His presence are boundless, how much more should I be desiring Him? If He has every pleasure within Himself, and in Him is the pleasures that don’t require a plane ticket or hotel fees or whatnot, and if I have full access into everything of Him… I SHOULD BE PURSUING HIM RELENTLESSLY. The Lord is going to one-day pour out His Spirit on all flesh (Acts 2:17) and a great revival will sweep the earth before His return. I need to be training for that. I need to be preparing, and not just physically.
Just as a person who desires to get off the couch to run a 5k sets his mind to train and prepare, so I must do so. I need to discipline my body and my soul! I need to get into the mindset of rigorous, disciplined fasting, prayer, reading the word and evangelizing. I need to do the spiritual disciplines that scare me now, so that when the time for the “race” comes, I can do them with ease…
First Corinthians 9:25-27 “Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither. Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary. But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].” (Amplified Version)
This is blowing my mind, guys. All this desire welling up within me and this willingness to train for something as fleeting as hiking in the Grand Canyon… Aaaah!!! My mind is so floored by this! I need to train! Physically, spiritually and mentally! Who knows what the Lord will do in 2012, but I know I must be prepared for it. I MUST.
I don’t know when I’ll see the Grand Canyon. Maybe this desire in my spirit came just so that I could come to this revelation of needing to train in more ways than just physical. I’m still aspiring to run a 5k this summer… And see the Grand Canyon whenever the Lord wills it… This is an epic revelation. And I’m glad to get it out in writing. I’d been feeling bad for not blogging in about a month, so here’s this! Wheeeeeew… The Lord is good!
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (ESV)
Be blessed! I'm so encouraged to know that there are others around me who are also training--spiritually and physically! Train with me, guys!
Rachel
