LOOKING Over your Shoulder

  For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Romans 12:3

I have been asked to speak this Wednesday for a group of ladies. Talking seems to be something I can do quite well. If I ran like I talk I would totally be sponsored!

God has given me the gift of encouragement. That is one of the reasons that I started blogging. I wanted to be an encouragement to others. I love people. I get so excited to love ON people. Especially people that don't always feel loved.

But in order to be an encouragement I am reminded that I need to be HUMBLE.

I have had many circumstances that have humbled me. Little reminders that my S&*!! does stink.

Situations that have not been trophy moments. In Running and in LIFE.

This is another reason why running is so great. In the grand scheme of life most people shun when you mention you just peed your pants.

They would choke on their air if you whispered, "OOPS, sorry I had oatmeal for breakfast." Toot Toot.

Today, I was cracking up at myself when I spit and ran right into it.

I love the time I called Andy begging him to bring me toilet paper as I hid behind a bush about to poo my pants.

RUNNING is HUMBLING.

The older I get the more humbled I am. Especially, because the older I get the harder I need to work  to just maintain my athleticism.

Looking Over Your Shoulder.

With another dreary day, I struggled to lace up my shoes. 10 miles of hills was on the schedule. After yesterdays 19 miler, I just wanted to take it easy, REALLY easy.

I headed down E. Holly RD. Not real sure what route my legs were going to take me.

The chatter between my ears was deafening. The voices were arguing about pace, distance and direction. And the painful voice of yesterdays run was overpowering all the other voices. It was chaos.

My legs turned off of the main road and I found myself hidden in the comforts of the backroads. A place I was once scared of. I could hardly run forward because I was always looking over my shoulder.

There is not a lot of traffic on the backroads. This is one of the reasons that I enjoy them so much. It is also a reason I get leery when running on them.

With my music in my ears, I do not always hear cars coming. Running on the side of the road towards oncoming traffic is proper etiquette.

But with yesterdays showers, a rough winter and heavy mud, running in the middle of the road was the easiest path.

The road narrowed, barely allowing for 1 car to get through. It winded, curved and declined restricting my view of any oncoming cars.

Multiple times I turned my HEAD OVER MY SHOULDER to look behind me.

It got me thinking. You think a lot running for 10 miles.

Sometimes Life is like running the Backroads. There are times you can hardly see what is in front of you. You don't know what is coming at you. But you are moving forward, trying to be alert and prepared.

But even more alarming is not seeing what is coming BEHIND you. We don't have eyes in the back of our head.

There are some things we just NEVER see coming no matter how many times we look over our shoulder.

No matter how many times I looked behind me, today I NEVER heard or saw that truck coming. I was so startled that I jumped. He came within inches of me. I had gotten to comfortable and was closer to the center than I should have been. He was kind and waved at me.

No matter how you prepare, or think you are prepared, sometimes we just get caught from behind.

Sometimes our past catches up with us, or bad decisions, or unfortunate circumstances catch us off guard. Sometimes we just NEVER see them coming.

It can be heartbreaking and it can be humbling.

For me it was another reminder that God SEE'S everything. No matter how many times I look over my shoulder, how prepared I think I am, I am humbled to know that there is way more I will never know.

And I am grateful he DOES.

Anita