Thursday, March 29, 2007

Running and Getting up early

I have to get up early in order to run before my husband leaves for work in the morning. Well, lately I’ve been praying for the Lord to help me get up early because it is really hard to get up at 6am to go running. God is so good! He has been helping me wake up (even if I don’t always get up) and this morning He woke me up extra early around 5:15am. When I woke up, I didn’t feel tired at all! It was awesome! So I laid there and talked to God (and fell in and out of sleep twice) until 5:45am.

Then a strange thing happened. Right after I got out of bed Mike says to me, “Don’t run the same route you always take.” I ask him, “What do you mean?” He replies with added emphasis, “Don’t go the same way you always do.” I’m thinking, “Is he awake?” But I couldn’t tell. Then it hit me that this could be from the Lord. It has crossed my mind a few times in the past weeks that it might not be the safest thing to go running in the dark at 6:00 in the morning.

So I get dressed and start warming up and all the while I’m thinking, “Lord, do you not want me to run the same route I normally take?” I wasn’t particularly thrilled about the notion because I had a route already mapped out that was exactly one mile and it was easy for me to measure how far I was running. Then I remembered a dream I had that night. In the dream, I was walking through the Shop ‘n Save parking lot at night when a man attacked me. That pretty much did it for me. I decided to run a different route altogether in the subdivision next to mine. I always run with a flashlight so I can see my watch and so cars can see me. About eight minutes into my run, the batteries went dead.

I didn’t “feel” like I was in danger to run the same route I usually took. I thought that I was probably being paranoid and the Lord wasn’t telling me to run a different route. But I decided that it is better to be safe than sorry so I took into counsel the dream and I heeded Mike’s advice. Right now I am safe and sound back at home and just maybe the Lord saved my life today. Maybe I could have been attacked or kidnapped. Maybe I was going to be hit by a car. I guess I’ll never truly know. However, I really liked my new route! I think I might keep it and alternate routes. God is so good!

2 comments:

Suzy O. said...

So did Mike ever say why he didn't want you to run the same route? Running in the dark is not much fun it is rather intimidating at times. Luckily it is staying light so long I can do most all my running in the daylight now. I have a reflective flashing arm band it helps the cars to see you. I'll bring it on Saturday for you to borrow if you'd like. I'm glad the Lord protected you on your run.

Marla said...

You should totally do the race in May with us. It's a lot of fun when there are more people than just yourself! :) And this one in May benefits cancer research. Do it. You'll be glad you did!