Part 2 of "Off My Pace" by Gina Garrett

And here is the conversation Gina had on her morning run..............

It was right then that The Lord spoke.

"My love, why is it good that you are off pace?"

     "Huh? It's not! I'm trying to catch up, push harder!"

"Did I ask you to push harder?"

     "Um, well, no, but I should......"

"No, My love, I am trying to teach you something this morning."

     "Another lesson, Lord? Really? Do I really have to learn another lesson?"

"Yes, My child, you do. Why is it good that you are off pace?"

     "Sigh. I know, 'Give thanks in all circumstances.'"

"Yes, you should do that. But that is not what I am trying to teach you this morning. Why is it good that you are off pace?"

     "Sigh. Okay, Father, I'll think about it. Well, it will take more time for me to complete my walk. More  sunshine and vitamin D." (I am vitamin D deficient)

"Good. What else."

     "More? Sigh. Longer to pump endorphins?"

"Good. What else?"

     "Longer to sweat out toxins?"

"Yes. What else?"

     "Longer to work my arms, additional strength and toning. Changing up my walking style since my pace is off so that I am lunging more, working a whole different set of muscles harder than normal."

"Excellent. What else?"

     "A slower pace lets me observe more of the beauty around me. Things I hadn't noticed on my head-down-focused-on-pace walks."

"Excellent. Apply these things to your life, My love. You laid a route, set a pace, and have been upset that I have taken you outside that route and pace."

    (Head cocked to one side, eyebrow raised) "Yes, Lord, I have been upset. Very!"

"You have pushed. Tried to force the pace. Set the goal yourself. Tried to force the path to bend and curve, climb, descend, and have flat resting stretches where you felt they were needed."

     (Head hung) "Yes, Father, I have."

"Do you believe I love you? Have your best interest in mind? Know what is best for you?"

    "Yes, Father."

"Then let Me set the path. Let Me place the difficult terrain where it needs to be. Let Me give you the flat path when I know you need the rest. Let Me work the muscles harder that need to be worked. Let Me sweat out the toxins of this world from your spirit and give you spiritual health. Let Me give you the emotions I want you to have - and remove them in My time. Let Me shine the light of my glory and grace on you. You will reach the goal - Heaven, service to Me - much more efficiently if you do!"

     "Oh, Daddy God! I never thought of it that way! I trust You, Lord! I will let You set the pace! I will let You form the path! Thank You for showing me!"

"...and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times."

                                                                                                  ~~Ephesians 1:8 TLB~~ n

Copyright 2014 Gina Garrett. Used by permission. Visit Gina's blog herehttp://ginasmusing.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50

More from Gina

Today is Part 1 - after reading it, I know you will return tomorrow for Part 2!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Off my pace

 Every evening, I walk three miles as part of my daily workout. I carry weights so that my arms are also getting a workout. I am slowly inching my way toward five miles. I will be increasing my route by a half mile on Monday. My current best average pace is 15 minutes even per mile and I am now consistently keeping within a few seconds either way of that pace. My goal is 12 minutes per mile.

Now, I am not a morning person. At all! That is why I workout in the evenings. I used to workout with someone who was a morning person and did his workout as soon as he finished his morning prayers. I enjoyed the together part so I did it, but I HATED working out in the morning. My body just doesn't like to move that fast in the mornings! It wants to be fully awake and it does that slowly! So, when it became clear that the together part was over, my broken heart and ecstatic body went back to evening workouts.

But this morning, I woke feeling really down so I decided to walk early for the endorphin rush. Off I went, my body saying, "Huh??? What are you doing?" I pushed myself to go my normal pace, but even before my adorable phone app made its first five minute announcement of my distance and current pace, I knew I was off. So I pushed harder, tried to make my body go faster. Its response? "DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS????????" But I kept pushing.

In every walk, their comes that point when I wonder if it's really that big a deal to go the whole distance. Normally, I hit that spot somewhere between 1.5 and two miles. You

know. That point where I really don't have a choice any more - thankfully! Stopping is not an option. I'm in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the road, surrounded by weeds. Turning around won't help, it is just as far, or farther, to go back at that point, there are no fewer hills, and the "big one" is part of my second double back so I will have it to climb either way. So I push forward. At about 3/4 of a mile into my current route, I complete my first double back and pass my street again. Today, that's where I first wondered. But those endorphins. I ignored my body screaming "GO! HOME! GO! HOME! GO! HOME!" and kept pushing. About 1.3 miles in, I face my steepest, longest climb. I wondered again. I kept on going.

Meanwhile, my pace tracker app kept announcing my distance and pace every five minutes. Still off - by more than a minute. I push harder. At one point, it felt like I was trudging rather than walking. I pushed harder.

It was right then that The Lord spoke.

 

Wondering what she heard? Come back tomorrow - and in the meantime consider this, What would the Lord be saying to you in the same situation?

 

Copyright 2014 Gina Garrett. Used by permission. Visit Gina's blog here http://ginasmusing.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50

 

Sharing Gina Garrett's "Musings of a Middle Aged Woman"

Hello again dear ones! This week we are sharing two posts from Gina Garrett's "Musings of a Middle-Aged Woman" with you. Today she reflects on sunflowers and on Wednesday and Thursday a delightful encounter she had on a morning run. I pray you will be blessed in reading them - I certainly was. Linda

Thursday, August 21, 2014

This hasn't turned out like it was supposed to....

I started this blog intending it to be light-hearted and fun. But to be honest, I haven't had a lot of "light-hearted and fun" things to say and so, I haven't said anything. And yet, I feel compelled to write. More than in a long time. So, I will let the Lord lead the tone of my blog and blog whether the words are light-hearted or heavy; fun, funny, or sad; on-top-of-the-world or in the depths of despair. For that is life - for everyone - and certainly for those of us on a grief journey of any kind!

Today, I want to talk about the sunflowers in the gully behind my house.

We purchased this house just a couple months after Al's diagnosis. We sold our home of nearly 20 years and moved out here where we would be near our girls and where I would not have a house payment after his death. It was a good move, miraculously facilitated by God. Al and I lived here together for almost exactly six months. Then he was gone.

It was never really "our" home. It was the place where I brought him to die. In the early days after he was gone, I hated it here! I couldn't feel him or picture him except ill, fading away, dying. I wanted to go back to our home, where we had lived! At the very least, I wanted out of this horrible place of sorrow! I did a lot of running, trying to escape it, but the sorrow always followed me wherever I went. It still does.

I am making peace with my house though. I have changed some things. I rearranged the bedroom so that it was convenient for me rather than for my invalid husband. I got new furniture for my living area and office. I redid my kitchen. I am preparing to dismantle "his" room (painted the color he chose and set up with all the hobby things he loved, created for his enjoyment) and make it mine. Changes. They are part of the process. Some good, some not, but part of it.

One of the things that we enjoyed together though, in this house of death, was the sunflowers in the gully behind the house. In the early days, before the hospital bed took over the dining room, we would sit at the dining room table, looking out the wall of windows at the beautiful view of God's creation behind us. Most of the area where I live is flat. You can see for miles! But there are canyons and mesas dotted around and I live in one of those areas, on top of a hill with a fairly deep gully behind my house. There are lots of grasses and wild flowers, yucca plants, rocks, etc. and, at the bottom of the gully, sunflowers. Hundreds of sunflowers! At a time of pain, sadness, impending death, the happy, dancing sunflowers brought us joy. We used to sit and watch them bouncing happily in the breeze, their bright yellow heads dancing and swaying to the music of the wind. They were a happy sight! And we watched them for hours at a time. While eating. Or holding hands. Or talking. Or just sitting together.

Last year, the sunflowers didn't bloom. I waited for them. I wanted to see happy. It wasn't there. Anywhere. June. July. August. September. No happy sunflower dance. Somehow it was fitting.

This year, the sunflowers are back! I didn't think they were coming! I saw them growing, getting taller, but no evidence of blooms. Then, about two weeks ago, buds began to open. Just one or two at first. I wasn't really sure they were actually flowers. But, yes, they were. Then a few more. Then more. Now, long before they are done, for there are many, many more buds, there are hundreds of happy, dancing sunflowers in the gully behind my house.


Hope.


"So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in Him. May you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 NLT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2014 by Gina Garrett. Used by permission. Visit Gina's blog here http://ginasmusing.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50  to enjoy much more of her insightful writings.