It hurts so good.

So I decided about two weeks ago that I was really going to get serious about exercising. I created my own little routine and everything. There is a basketball court down the street from my house, so I walk 5 laps around it, run 5 laps, and then do 20 sit ups. I repeat this process 2-4 times, depending on how I feel.

I really hate running. It hurts every part of my body. My lungs want to collapse and it feels like someone is chipping away at my shin bones with an ice pick. It's always been this way, since I was a wee child. I can walk briskly, do cart wheels, lift weights, swim for hours, roller blade up a steep hill, bike from eureka to the intersection of ludlam and bird and back..... but running. it sucks.

So why, you ask, am I choosing to partake in such an activity as running, if I don't enjoy it?

Well, because I know it's good for me. I know that it will better my health and overall well being. It may not feel good at the time and at moments be outright painful, but the results are so rewarding. At the end of that fifth lap, I am breathless and in pathetic pain but at the same time joyful because I am experiencing a glimpse of the end result.

Which brings me to the life lesson. God has a paradise waiting for us, but we choose to play in the puddle ( illustration often used by Jesse Carbo). The decision to go after Paradise is so often unattractive, and we feel the work we must do to get there will be too hard, so we settle. The puddle may not necessarily be bad; in fact it could be good. But it's not great. It's not best. I'ts not paradise.

So what is the solution for this situation, this lack of motivation? (I think that's a John Reuben lyric- ha)

Well the best answer I have come up with is to ask God for the motivation.

Perhaps the most obvious of answers. But then, if so obvious, why don't we partake in such a beautiful action as entering into conversation with the creator of motivation itself who loves us and delights in doing us good? He wants more than anything for us to fully experience the Paradise, so why wouldn't He do everything in His power to help us get there?

Oh it is so simple. But we have to want it. We have to love Him with a wholeness that is not afraid of the sweat and tears that may result from the hard work. the pain.


So this is for you Mary. And for me. This is for all of my friends and everyone I love. It's for everyone who I am working on loving. It's for anyone who reads.

You can do it. For the Bible tells us so.



I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:!3