Going Nowhere

I can’t run on a treadmill. At all. It’s true!

It’s not just that I don’t like running on a treadmill, or I find it hard to run on a treadmill. I actually can’t run on a treadmill. At all. I find it impossible!

Don’t believe me? Ask the guy at the running shop where I bought my trainers! I felt like a right wally that day! I don’t know what was worse…demonstrating my complete lack of ability to run on a treadmill, or running up and down the street outside with my trousers tucked in my socks so that the guy (and everyone else sitting in the traffic) could watch me run!

I’m not sure if it’s a mental thing. You see, I don’t really see the point of running on a treadmill. It seems a little unnatural to me to run and not go anywhere. For the ‘ground’ to be moving but you’re staying still. To be working so hard and going great distances, but be inside and surrounded by the same things.

When I run I like to run outside, I like to take in the surroundings and enjoy the view. Even though I start and finish at the same place I like to feel that I have been somewhere. I like to see my progress in physical terms, in relation to landmarks. I like to run with friends, to have a natter and a giggle and enjoy the company.

I’m not a massive runner. I trained for 5 months to run 5.5 miles of the Edinburgh marathon last year. And that was an effort. Then I got pregnant and just getting out of bed became my daily exercise!!!

Anyway, I was thinking about some of the recent teaching at church on flying. Or rather the bit about not flying but ‘taxiing’. The idea that we have the potential to fly, we know about flight, but we spend our life sat on the runway not actually flying.

This really struck a chord with me. Well actually, it really hurt to hear it. To know that this is how I feel and that, to be honest, it sucks. But it also hurt because I feel like I have been working hard trying to fly but not really getting anywhere. A bit like an aeroplane ‘flapping’ its wings to get off the ground! Totally ridiculous!

God spoke to me in the last few days. He showed me a picture of someone running on a treadmill. I laughed as I thought about my inability to do such a simple thing and God spoke to me some more.

I was not created to run on a treadmill (thank goodness!). I was not created to work so hard and yet not go anywhere. And I was not created to wear myself out trying!

I was created to fly! I was created to go somewhere, see some things and have some great company along the way.
But with God being my energy, power, strength, lift, ability, source, guide and pilot, not me.