Run. We all know the word, we are all familiar with the action. We see sportsmen running after balls in different shapes and sizes. We marvel at the swift running of a gazelle over an open field. We listen to the smooth running of an expensive car and wish that we could be driving to work with that running sound in our ears. We know running.
I searched for a dictionary definition that would describe running in such a way that I would be able to identify with the term and here it is:
"To move swiftly on foot so that both feet leave the ground during each strike."
I took two things from this definition. Running should always be a swift movement - there should be a certain amount of grace attached to if. Secondly, the moment your foot leaves the ground completely, you are running - interesting thought.
We are all running each day, and by that I do not mean literally running. Yes, some of us who are more disciplined does put our Nike's on and do a few kilometers. But even those of us who are more lazy know what it means to run.
So often we have to run through each day to get everything done. We run to meetings, try and run through traffic, we run our children to school, we run through to do lists in our brain. There are just so many things we have to run through. And slowly but surely we are not performing a swift action anymore. The running becomes more of a struggling motion.
This world is made for running. We know the feeling when you are so busy that it feels you are not touching the ground. Back to our definition it makes sense - when you are running you are practically in mid air most of the time.
My problem is not with running. It is a reality - I do not think we will be able to change the world overnight into a calmer, wheelchair friendly world.
But what can we change, to bring some serenity into our lives. How do we keep the daily running process swift? The secret lies in where we are running to.
You have to have an endpoint. The danger of exhaustion, of landing in the rat race arises the moment when we do not have anywhere to run to.
The moment the endpoint becomes undefined we loose our focus, we loose hope.
Some of us are running towards success, believing that the true answer lies in achievement. Others prefer to run to pleasure at the end of a busy day. Yet others run to their families.
All of these are valid places to run to, no problem. But what if those are taken away? What if the goal posts shift?
I kept on running, searching for answers. Then it came to me- Hebrew 12:1-2 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and run to him. Let him be our motivator, our strength to finish the race. With him as our focus we will not get tired, we will not run an aimless race and most of all we will lift our feet completely off the ground with grace and swiftness.
