Good evening!

Hello, God, and thanks for an absolutely beautiful evening.  It's warm and sunny outside, and we're just enjoying the peaceful end to a relaxing day.  I want to thank you for this thing called spring break--it really is a necessary part of the school year.  I believe that I would be able to make it to the end of the year without the break, but it most certainly would be more difficult.

I also want to thank you for the opportunity that I have on Friday to run another 24-hour race.  I know that it isn't something that most people are interested in, but it is something that is a great challenge for me.  In our world these days we don't get too many chances to challenge ourselves well and fully, and this kind of race is  a great chance to do so.

I guess what puzzles me is the timing of my knee starting to give me problems three weeks ago, right before the race.  I was training really well, enjoying myself and building my endurance well, and then the trick knee returns after having been out of my life for many, many years.  I'll still be able to do the run this week, I'm sure, but probably not as effectively as I would have been able to do without a knee issue.

The thing that bothers me the most, though, is that I know that I should be able to focus my thoughts and energies elsewhere so that the knee doesn't bother me much--if at all--but now my mind is caught up in focusing on how the knee is, whether it's about to give me problems or not.  And I know that the more I focus on the knee, the more likely it is for the knee to give me problems.

So I'd like to ask you very clearly for the ability to shift my focus a bit, to be able to look elsewhere and think about other things instead of my knee.  Come what may, I want to do the run and finish it, and I want to do very well in it--so please help me to deal with this issue of my knee in an effective and positive way.  I want to think of other things; I want to stay focused on doing really, really well and not on whether or not my knee is going to be giving me problems.  I know that I can do this, but I would like to have some help with it.    This race represents a great opportunity for me to accomplish something that I'd like to accomplish; I've done all the preparation that I can for it, so please help me with the follow-through.

A reply:

Absolutely. You know that I'm there with you at all times, not just in your times of need, and I'm willing to help you at all times.  Usually, though, you wait until the times of need to ask me for my help, and that tendency is often rather self-defeating.

Give me your knee.  Put it in my care.  Completely and without reservation.  It would be nearly a miracle if you were able to do so--you know this just as well as I do.  But if it is in my hands, then I can contribute to it in positive ways.   If it's out of my hands, well then, guess what?

You are right--not too many people are into that kind of race.  But the fact that you're willing to do it means that you do look past the trappings of the world for challenges that will strengthen your character and help you to learn more about overcoming obstacles, working through difficulties and pain, and going further than you're being called to go.  In your teaching, you see regularly the positive effects of going further than you need to, and you see it in your coaching, too.

While you're out there running and walking, give me your knees for safe-keeping.  Give me your ankles, too, and your heart and lungs and arms and feet. . . everything.  I can't guarantee that everything will go perfectly, that there will be no pain, or that there won't be other issues to deal with.  But I can tell you that when you put things in my hands, things will turn out the way that they're supposed to turn out, even if they aren't the way you expected or wanted them to be.

And have fun--tons of fun--on the run.

Making the Most

Good morning, God, and thanks for this new day!  I'm awake, I'm healthy, I have a home to live in and food to eat and work that I enjoy doing, so I have very much to be thankful for, as you well know.  Now that this day has begun, I'm hoping to make the most of it, to enjoy it as much as I can and turn it into a beautiful day in every way that I can.  Of course, not everything is within my control (things like other people's actions), but I am able to do my best to make sure that my reactions to those things help to improve situations, and not make them worse.

I get to spend time with other people today, and I get to help young people learn things that hopefully will be useful to them in their futures.  I get to listen to music, I get to run, I get to work with a track team.  All in all, there are many things to look forward to today, and I hope that I'm able to make the most of them all.

My main hope, of course, is that I'm able to contribute in positive ways to other people's lives.  I hope that I'm not complacent and that I actively give to the world and face any problems productively and helpfully.  And I certainly could use your help in these things--when I focus on you and the peace and the hope that you promise, I'm able to give more freely and with more confidence.

But now I'm facing a glitch with the Blogger interface--how interesting to end a note to God with a comment about an Internet issue!  In any case, thanks--I have to end here!  Thanks for the new day!

Being Busy--for a Season

Good morning, God--and thanks for this new day.  I do appreciate it, and I appreciate the chance to be doing things that are enjoyable and challenging.  Things are keeping me very, very busy these days, but you and I both know that I do tend to thrive during such busy seasons--as long as I know that they're going to last only a short time, I'm able to do very well with them.  Right now I have school, track, and training for the long run that's coming up, and these things are keeping me occupied pretty much constantly.  But it's also true that the run will be done in less than two weeks, and track will be done in eight.  And heck, school will be done in ten weeks, so the busyness definitely will be diminishing soon enough.

It's odd that I thrive during times like these, for I very much like my down time.  I like having time to sit and relax and have a cup of coffee.  I like having time to read a good book or watch good movies.  Instead, during times like these I'm training or grading papers or planning meets or taking care of logistical issues.  But somehow I do find the time for everything I need to do, and it all gets done on time (or at least, I think it does--who knows what I've missed?).  But I don't get extremely stressed out, and I don't actually miss the down times--probably because I build them into my schedules.  By the end of track season, I'm sure that I'll be missing the down time more, but I'll also know that the end of track season in very near so I'll also have a very important something to look forward to.

It's funny how life balances for us if we allow it to.  Before I commit to something like coaching track, I sometimes dread the loss of my time, yet when the season begins I hardly notice the loss at all.  Would I like to have a day when I come home and relax instead of heading up to the track to work with the students?  Absolutely.  But do I enjoy heading up to the track and working with the students, trying to help them to improve in what they're doing?  Absolutely.

I guess life is about doing things for seasons--there is a time for reaping, and a time for sowing.  I know that if I tried to extend my busy season for whatever reason, I would find that things aren't so positive.  But as it stands now, I'm glad that such busy seasons help me to see the beauty of the down times and help me to appreciate the times I have to spend simply being, with a good cup of hot coffee and maybe a doughnut or two.

A reply:

Seasons?  Absolutely.  And you've discovered one of the most important aspects of life--being aware of the seasons as they come, and accepting them completely for what they are.  The people who have the hardest time in their lives are those who fight against their situations instead of accepting them.  They resent the busy periods, and they get bored when they've been sent times of rest--so they fill their times of rest with artificial busyness because they can't stand relaxing, even though rest and relaxation is what they and their bodies and their minds need the most!

Enjoy the season that you have.  In track and in most sports, it's actually called a season.  (Unfortunately, there are some sports that are going into two or three seasons a year, and keeping people from learning new and different and complementary skills, but that's another issue entirely.)  You are busy for now.  But after next Saturday, when the run is over, you'll be much less busy.  Then you'll have just six weeks left of track, and then you'll be much less busy.  But don't worry--there will be something to pick up the slack.  You do have several novels that you've been working on, don't you?

Listening

Good morning, God, and thank you for giving me this new day, as well as the hours and days that I've had since the last time I said thanks. Spring is on its way and the days are warming up, and we're all looking forward to the better weather, the long walks, the sunshine and the warmth.  The changing seasons certainly are an amazing blessing, as they keep us looking forward in anticipation, and they give us something different to feel and to appreciate and to cherish each day.

It's also almost spring break, which will be a very nice week of resting and recovering from what has been quite a long year so far.  Not a terrible year by any means, but a very long year nonetheless.  I look forward to relaxing a bit and enjoying the down time.

In our speech class right now, we're discussing listening and its importance in our lives.  Sometimes I feel like the worst listener in the world though, and I know that I don't listen to you or for your voice nearly enough.  The day gets going and I get caught up in it, and I don't take advantage of the slow times to listen for your messages to me that could help me to deal with certain situations in different and better ways.  If I could ask for anything from you, it would be help in listening, and in recognizing those times when it's important for me to listen and not necessarily to speak.  I need to hear more than I say, but usually because I get caught up in the teacher side of who I am, I end up speaking much more than I listen.

I'll try to develop some strategies to remind me to listen, but I'd also like to ask for your help with reminders, preferably gentle ones. . . .

Today

Good morning, God, and thank you for this new day in my life.  I really do appreciate all that I have on this new day, all that I'll be able to do and to share and to give.  It's Friday, which is also a good thing, as the work week comes to an end and I'll have a couple of days to shift my focus to other things in my life.

Life keeps going on and on, you know, and the world keeps turning.  Things keep changing, and things keep being done the same ways by the same people.  It's interesting to watch and experience life, though sometimes I feel that I'm watching from the outside as simply an observer--but I certainly can't be the first person who's thought that, can I?

Perhaps that's my calling--to be able to observe the things that people do and don't do, the mistakes that they make and their triumphs, so that I can pass on the knowledge that I gain from what I see to the students in my classes.  I don't know if that's the case or not, but it certainly could be.  Or perhaps those lessons are supposed to show up in my writings. . . . I don't know.  If that's the case, then I'm certainly not writing enough, am I?  Maybe that's the discomfort that I've been feeling recently--the need to get back to the writing, rather than spending so much time on the website, which is where it is right now, and doesn't necessarily need the amount of time that I'm putting into it.   Hmm. . . .

In any case, thank you for this day and these new thoughts.  I'll ponder them and listen for your reply!  I hope I'll hear it when it comes!

A reply:

You will hear it.  Enjoy the day.