Last February of this year, I began running on a regular basis for the first time in my life. Spurred on by my ever-supportive husband, I decided to try and make running a weekly habit, rather than the sporadic, every-once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence that running had been for me in the past. It has been a growing, rewarding, if challenging, experience. But then, if it were not challenging, I doubt there would be much growth or reward involved.
One of the challenges I have encountered, which all walkers, joggers, and runners face, and dread, is the sun. In those devoid-of-shade moments, my heavy breathing is made heavier by the weight of the sun's rays beating down upon by head. The comforting cool of the shade that was once mine is snatched away; at least, until I encounter the next shaded oasis that lies somewhere ahead of me, for however brief a time.
During one of these uncomfortable, shadeless moments, an encouraging thought--a running metaphor--came into my head. I began to consider that, as much as I disliked the sun in that instance, God is likened to the sun in the Bible, as in Psalm 84:11: "For the LORD God is a sun and shield."
It dawned on me as I ran that, while I am far less fond of the sunny portions of my runs than of the shaded portions, both are created by God, and both are representative of His presence in my life. Each pocket of shade through which I run, before and after encountering the sun's rays, is a shield that serves to prepare and strengthen me for those stretches of full exposure when my endurance is put to the test. In the same way, God is my shield--not always from, but certainly always through--the sun-scorched trials of my life.
There have been many times when God has protected me from trials that I might have faced were it not for His grace in my life, but there have also been many times when God has allowed the heat of life to beat down upon me. But I am not alone in those moments. God walks with me, even for me, when I am no longer able to stand, along those painful paths of life. And He allows those moments for my good.
Yes, as painful as they may be, they are for my good. Just as those heated moments of my runs draw me closer to God as I look to Him to sustain me through them, so the heated moments of my life serve to grow my faith and dependence on the Lord, and, consequently, my strength to endure those trials when they come. The sun's rays, the pain of life, though unpleasant and never looked for, are used by God to grow me in a way that those comfortable, shaded portions of my life--and of my runs--inevitably fall short of.
Another part of this running metaphor that ran through my mind was that, as I am running through the heat, it is largely the thought that another stretch of shade lies somewhere before me that gives me added endurance to keep moving forward, even as my strength is being put to the test. That "hope of the shade to come" is also representative of the fact that I am ultimately sustained through the scorched deserts of life by the eternal hope in Christ that lies before me.
No matter what difficulties I must endure, no matter for how long, eternity with my God awaits me, when I shall "shuffle off this mortal coil." That hope, firm and secure--not because of anything good I have done or may do, but because of the blood of Christ that washes away my sin--keeps me running, walking, even crawling at times, through this life, but ever forward. For I know that something far better is waiting for me, that "[my] light and momentary troubles are achieving for [me] an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor. 4:17, NIV).
Thus, on that one run, God graciously brought to my mind this running metaphor, to help me see my runs in a new and better light. I have come to the conclusion that while I may not like the heat of the sun and would much rather bask in the shade--during my runs as well as throughout my time on this earth--both are God's grace to me, for He is both my sun and my shield.
