Rain, Rain, go away

A couple of weeks ago I took up the initiative of trying to get back in shape. I don't know exactly where "back" is, but it sounds good because I remember being in fairly good physical condition in my high school years. I felt that the time was right for me to try to get back to that state.

Maybe it's better if I look at it as just getting in shape. After all, I can't really even remember how good or bad of shape I was in at any particular moment, i just remember feeling in shape. The point is, I wanted regular strenuous exercise to be a normal, re-occuring thing as I started out the new semester.

So I laced up the shoes and started out with some simple stretching exercises, realizing that it's pretty hard to be effective with any form of exercise if your muscles feel more like wooden boards than pliable tissue. After a few days of intense stretching I was ready to commence with the running.

And boy did it feel good. Running is just so good for so many different reasons. It satisfies that physical urge to feel utterly exhausted, but it also is just such a simple thing that it becomes an easy pleasure. I pushed myself, knowing that without goals my training would amount to nothing more than a series of let downs. If I've learned one thing in personal fitness, it's that you have to learn how to push your body, how to keep going, how to be disciplined.

Well, as I arrived back in birmingham, eager to continue the running, I was met with more rain in the past few days than I could have imagined possible. Seriously. Most of the last three days has been rainy, and not the kind where there is a break, but the kind of steady, sodden rain.

But while the rain has kept me indoors, it's been a good thing in many respects. It's in these kinds of situations where I learn again the truth of the verse that says "a man's heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps". The rainy days that keep me indoors remind me that I must not get so caught up in my daily schedules, my plans and schemes that I miss out on the things the Lord wants me to do, and the things He wants to teach me.

Indeed the Lord works in mysterious ways.