A New Passion

In the past few months, I've developed a new passion. It didn't happen over night. In fact, I absolutely dreaded it each morning for awhile, because it was hard work. For me, jogging has been almost like a spirtual experience as I've been learning many lessons along the way that relate to my walk with Christ.

First, I've learned a lot about HUMILITY! I didn't start jogging because I love it, in fact quite the opposite would be true. One might ask then, why the heck did you start jogging? Good question. Well, if you are 35 or older reading this, you can probably relate to the problem of slowed metabolism! Another words, unwanted pounds of flesh start accumulating onto your body even if your not eating any extra and trying to watch some of those carbs. My Doctor flat out told me, if you really want to lose weight, then you need to do 20-30 min. of aerobic exercise everyday. Thus, I started to jog. I couldn't even jog a 1/2 mile when I started, and had to walk up the hill most days. I was out of breath and kept praying, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." I called it my humility jog each morning as I felt so out of shape. Even now, that jogging has gotten easier for me, whenever I add another lap or increase my speed, I'm reminded of humility. It's a humbling experience jogging up the big hill at times. Humility is important though, because Christ was full of humility. He was born in the most humble of circumstances, a manger. Jogging reminds me that I'm truely nothing without Christ in my life and I need his help not only for jogging, but also in every area of my life.

As jogging got easier for me, it was easier to look about and not watch my steps as carefully. But when the rain came and the leaves blew down, not being as diligent in my jogging wasn't such a good thing. One early morning (5:30 am), leaves covered a crevice that my right foot got caught in and I took a fall with the impact scraping the back of my left hand just above the wrist joint. Not only was I reminded of the need for humility but also the need for diligence. Isn't this true of our spiritual lives? Sometimes, we have a "spiritual high" or feel like things are going great, then maybe we get a little busy and skip our devotional or Bible study time. Then boom, some leaves cover up a problem we would normally be able to handle or step over, but we are unprepared spirtually to handle it. When I see that crevice now each morning when jogging, I pray, a verse in the psalms that says, Lord though I at times stumble, never let me fall from your grace and provisions for me. (this is a picture of the wound; a third degree road burn-ouch!)

There are days that I still don't feel like jogging. Sometimes, I'm tired and sore. Or when my hand was injured, I could have not finished my laps because my hand was throbbing and actually continued to throb for several weeks. But, I finished my laps, praying the whole way, " I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." My hand actually ended up getting infected, seen by 2 doctors, and diagnosed as a 3rd degree road burn with full thickness removal. When we as people get wounded, it's all too easy to play the sympathy card, "woe is me" and I can't do that because I'm wounded. Now I'll admit, it felt good to get some sympathy and get out of doing the dishes for a week. My hand was very painful for several weeks. It would have been easy to wallow in self-pity and play the sympathy card. But instead, I found ways to do the dishes, work, and perform other tasks, and continue to jog while my hand was healing. Many times people have wounds that go way deeper than the skin! Emotional wounds are much harder to heal and more prone to self-pity! Only when we bring these wounds to God for cleansing, can we get back to our spiritual jog & purpose in life. It's important not to allow a wound to stand in the way of God's healing.

Currently, I'm up to 3 miles of jogging. My passion for jogging is really a deeper passion for Christ and the lessons I learn from Him. What lessons are you learning these days? What wounds are standing in the way? Do you need to be reminded of Christ's humility and if so, how? What healing do you need to receive from Him? Blog here or e-mail me at cambria71@verizon.net

Freedom found in an unexpected way

Sunday morning we went to church as usual to EastHill, a mega church in our community. Pastor Jason gave a message on forgiveness. While it was a good message, I didn't really have anyone or anything to forgive at the time and wasn't expecting the need to apply it that particular day. After all, later that day, my family and I were going to go to a fun baseball game, which someone had given us 5 free infield tickets, a $13.00/each value. Earlier in the week, we had told our daughter, she could bring a friend, since we also had library tickets for a free baseball game with a paying adult. So after church, we loaded everyone into the minivan with water bottles and headed downtown. That day, the Beavers were playing LA. It took us awhile to find parking, but finally we were on our way to the ticket booths, which is when we saw the SIGN: NO BEVERAGES ALLOWED. Oh well, so we had to pour the water out, a minor detail. We could always refill them at the water fountain. Smiling, we handed the Lady at the ticket booth our tickets, but not for long. She apologized to us but informed us that we had to have a paying adult for the free ticket. I couldn't believe it, and so nicely explained to her that we had 5 paying tickets already. When she said she would call the manager, I breathed a quick prayer for justice and mercy. But, when she returned the answer was the same. Apparently pre-bought tickets isn't the same. Unfortuanately, I had just done bills that friday revealing our money was tight and didn't have much more than grocery money for the next 3 weeks. Because we had already paid for parking, we opted for the $8.00 general admit ticket for all of us to save $5.00. The view was okay except for the beam that more than once blocked our view in outfield. While seating there, I began to grumble about PGE who had to make a lousey extra 8 bucks. In fact, had I known, I could have brought more library tickets from home, and got all the kids in for free with 1 paying adult, while saving our other tickets. It was just biting away at me, and then it hit me. PGE's injustice was not worth losing my joy over and ruining my day with my family. In fact maybe I could apply Pastor Jason's message after all. I made a choice right then and there to forgive. By the time evening came and we went to a 101 class at EastHill, I forgot to mention it to Pastor Jason and his wife Nikki about how his sermon came in handy. I guess Forgiveness helps us to forget those injustices and enjoy Freedom found in our God.

----Posted by Cambria

Questions to think about:

1. Do you struggle with forgiveness or does forgiveness come easy for you?

2. Who is God asking you to forgive today?

3. Do you need to experience a deeper freedom found in God who gives you the ability to forgive?

Marriage as a Roadway

Have you ever thought of marriage as a roadway? Every marriage is on a road. Some hit a few more potholes and oil slick spots than others. Some even get on the wrong road. Is your marriage struggling? Then maybe you can relate to driving down a beat-up road. A rocky road with lots of potholes and not maintained can make for a bumpy marriage. Lets say you continue on this roadway for years, it's going to take a lot of backtracking to get back to the correct road and you'll probably hit some of those same potholes on your way back. Bob and I drove down the wrong road during our first year of marriage, and we hit quite a few bumps on the way back to the right road. But, don't get discouraged, it's worth turning your car around to make it to the sunset drive. It's a lot of driving work, but well worth the view. Just think, had we not kept up the hard work, we could have been 1/4 a mile from the paved road, and turned around, missing our exit forever. But, thankfully we kept driving to make it to that paved road.

Remember, just like a road needs maintaince, so does the car. So take time for each other. Go to a marriage confernce and read a mariage book once a year. Pray for one another and give each other a little grace. Life's to long to drive down the wrong bumpy, rocky, pot-holed road!

written by Cambria Hunter,

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