My Spiritual Walk as a Runner, Week 1

Warm Up:  1 John 3: 2:  Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 
 Stretching:  Read Luke 24: 36-44.
 Run:  I’m not the runner I once was.  Age and injuries have taken their toll on me. Back in the day, I could hold my own, although I was never an elite runner.  I was young and I ran a lot.  Additionally, I do a lot more cross training now since I’m not running races.   But the joy of running is that it really is a life sport and so I’ve tried to keep an exercise program that allows me to run 35-40 minutes at a steady pace whenever I run.   Still, because I don’t run everyday, I do feel the aches and pains of muscles that have gone unused and the chaffing of skin in places that isn’t hardened from a rigid running regime.  I wish I could fly across the hills again or experience that ‘runner’s high’ from taking long runs and feeling like I was invincible.  I’ve thought about ‘getting back into it’ and training for road races and maybe even a marathon.  At my age, it would be an accomplishment to get back into running shape.  But aching joints and pulled muscles remind me that it won’t be easy.
In today’s passage, John reminds us that those who are in Christ will be transformed to be like him.  We get a glimpse of what that might be like when we see Jesus after his resurrection.  We know that he could eat food, walk through walls, and he had recognizable shape and form.  He knew his friends and they knew him.  My favorite thing is that he could apparently ‘fly’ from place to place. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20, 21)  I read that to mean my glorified body will put me back into running shape and even better.  Think about it:  No more stretching, warming up or cooling down.  No ice downs, bandaging, or chaffing.  No more irritants!  Just run like the wind without getting winded.
Cool Down:  “Lord, thank you for the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ and the hope of a resurrected body.  I know that everything you have planned for me in this life and the next is more wonderful than I can even imagine.  Help me let go of the things in this world through the renewing of my mind, so that I might see things in the light of eternity.   In Jesus’ name, Amen”
​"When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.”  Proverbs 4:12

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