I like to go running a few days a week. Generally, I like to wear either yoga pants and a short sleeved shirt, or a long sleeved shirt and shorts. On this particular day, I almost walked out of the house in shorts and a short sleeved shirt, but my instinct told me to put on a hoodie and pants. I quickly changed and went on my run.
Do you ever fall into a trance while you’re on your route, and by the time your mind brings you back you can’t remember anything you saw, or what happened along the way? On this particular day, I was definitely in a trance, and was quickly pulled back into my reality when I tripped over a miniature hill. This was something I could have easily hopped over. Instead, I nearly face planted. Hard. Fortunately I was able to rotate my body so that I landed more-so on my back as well as the side of my leg. I lied on the ground face up as the scrapes on the palms of my hands and the sting in my thigh pulsed. Thankfully, although my arms were covered in dirt, they had been protected. I told myself to get up and finish running, rather than walk the second half of the trail. I sat up and grabbed my phone and headphones which had fallen a few feet away from me, before standing to my feet. These are the times when I internally pray that only God and I saw what just happened, but sometimes, we need for others to see us fall too. I rose to my feet and locked eyes with the man walking in my direction.
He calmly said, “I bet you won’t do that again.”
I calmly responded, “No. I won’t.”
Instead of minding where I currently was each step of the way and paying attention to my surroundings, I allowed my run to become something that I merely “got through” as part of my day. In turn, while I was “getting through” I was taken down, but I was too determined to be defeated. I put my headphones back on, immediately picked my run back up and pushed myself to finish strong.
How often do we go through our daily routine, and look at it as something to “get through” rather than embracing and focusing on where we are, and the current obstacles we have to overcome, while staying cognizant of the final destination?
How often do we allow a fall and its’ embarrassment to serve us with defeat?
All too often we ignore our instinct, the Holy Spirit, and God telling us what we need to do, because we can’t see the reason behind it. On top of that, we tend to trip and fall over obstacles that we could have seen coming, if we were actually paying attention. Every instinct we have is intentional, and every fall we have isn’t failure; we just need to allow Him to guide us and to learn from our lessons along the way.
His Plan, My Purpose 