Today I want to talk to you about something I hated, then wished for, taken for granted and then became thankful for - running.
I can already hear many of the people who read this blog saying something along the lines of, "I could never be thankful for running. I hate that stuff and having to run is a curse." I can certainly understand how you feel. While I have mentioned this in earlier blogs, I think, it's worth repeating.
When I was in high school, I was on the football team and I "played" offensive lineman. For those of you who don't know, that means we didn't run very far. We only ran 10 or 15 yards at most normally. Even during practice, we didn't have to run very far. We did have to run sprints after practice and I hated them with a passion. They were supposed to be the conditioning part of our workout and I can tell you I was in no condition to do them. We only had to run across the field for each sprint and I hated it. I was in the slowest group and I came in dead last in that group. Running was definitely not something to be thankful for. Then I went to TCU and my hate for running continued. We had to run longer and I still hated it.
Then the day came when I was 350 pounds. Now at this point, I couldn't run 50 yards if I had to. I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath at the top much less run. Now back then, I was my own worst enemy. I went on many diets without any success. My favorite was the seefood diet. I was quite successful on it. It was pretty simple. I see food. I eat it. A lot of it. I managed to stay on this diet until I got so big that when I stepped on a weight scale instead of a number it read, "To be continued...." At that time I would go into Starbucks and order a Carmel Frappucino to drink in the morning. For those of you who don't know, it's a fancy word for milk shake. I would go into Starbucks and see people I despised. You know the type. They were fit and they stood there ordered all those coffee drinks. What made it worse was they wore workout clothes. They had on running shorts, running shirts, and during the winter even running tights. Many times they were laughing and talking among themselves about running and how this part was hard or that part was easy. I really hated it. In reality, I was just extremely jealous. I was in shape if you consider round a shape. Literally, I was 67 inches tall and 58 inches around. I knew I would never be able to do that and it hurt because it reminded me of just how far out of shape I have become. At this pace, I was killing myself one pepperoni pizza at a time.
Let me stop right here for a minute and tell you a bible story. See one time Jesus was walking through a city. As he was going through the city, he came upon a funeral procession. I don't know much about the Jewish culture but apparently they carry the body on their shoulders from point A to point B and this is what he saw. This was a young man they were carrying and he was certainly too young to have died. His mother was walking with the procession full of grief. Jesus saw this and told the procession to stop. That must have taken guts and I bet many of the people were furious because he was being very insensitive, or so they thought.
Think for a minute about some of the crazy things that have went on in this country. There is that nut job church that goes around protesting funerals of our dead heroes who gave this country the ultimate sacrifice - their lives. I certainly think you have a right to protest anything you want and the worst part about this type of protest is that the man or woman in that coffin took an oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic. They were like so many others who died to protect those people's right to protest. I can feel my blood starting to boil and maybe I will save this for another post but remember this.
So now we have this preacher stopping a funeral procession to do what? Well much to the surprise of everyone, he raised that young man from the dead. All of the sudden, these people got a brother, a son, and a friend back. Mom went from grief to joy and the funeral went from death to a party. When Jesus touches your coffin, your life and those around you is changed forever. That's exactly what happened to me. Jesus touched my life and I went from 350 pounds to 190. I went from a life headed for an early grave to a celebration.
Part of this change involved running. I became and still am a runner. It started during my weight loss period. At the end of the weight loss period, I ran my first marathon. It is a moment I will never forget. Jesus had literally turned my life right side up. The marathon was in Fort Worth, Texas. I was under trained for my first one and it was a cool, overcast, drizzly day in February. The race started and ended in downtown Fort Worth. As I turned to corner and started the last quarter mile, it was one of the most difficult and easy of my life. The run wasn't hard but I was overcome with emotion. I had tears in my eyes as I crossed the finish line because I knew how far I had come because of what God did in my life. Thank you Lord, I will never forget.
After that running became pretty routine and I got pretty good at it. I ran one more marathon and have done a bunch of 5Ks and 10Ks. I have even managed to win my age group a few times.
Then one day, I was going into Starbucks again for tea. This time was different from the time above because I was one of those people who was in shape. I had lost a lot of weight and generally felt great. This particular morning, I was frustrated about my run. I think I ran slower that I would like or something and I was complaining on the inside about it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man sitting in a wheel chair and part of his legs were missing. I didn't think much of it at first but then the Lord arrested me. He said to me, "Do you see that man? He would almost kill someone to be able to do what you are complaining about doing." That humbled me. It made me really appreciate my legs and being able to walk/run.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
I can already hear many of the people who read this blog saying something along the lines of, "I could never be thankful for running. I hate that stuff and having to run is a curse." I can certainly understand how you feel. While I have mentioned this in earlier blogs, I think, it's worth repeating.
When I was in high school, I was on the football team and I "played" offensive lineman. For those of you who don't know, that means we didn't run very far. We only ran 10 or 15 yards at most normally. Even during practice, we didn't have to run very far. We did have to run sprints after practice and I hated them with a passion. They were supposed to be the conditioning part of our workout and I can tell you I was in no condition to do them. We only had to run across the field for each sprint and I hated it. I was in the slowest group and I came in dead last in that group. Running was definitely not something to be thankful for. Then I went to TCU and my hate for running continued. We had to run longer and I still hated it.
Then the day came when I was 350 pounds. Now at this point, I couldn't run 50 yards if I had to. I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath at the top much less run. Now back then, I was my own worst enemy. I went on many diets without any success. My favorite was the seefood diet. I was quite successful on it. It was pretty simple. I see food. I eat it. A lot of it. I managed to stay on this diet until I got so big that when I stepped on a weight scale instead of a number it read, "To be continued...." At that time I would go into Starbucks and order a Carmel Frappucino to drink in the morning. For those of you who don't know, it's a fancy word for milk shake. I would go into Starbucks and see people I despised. You know the type. They were fit and they stood there ordered all those coffee drinks. What made it worse was they wore workout clothes. They had on running shorts, running shirts, and during the winter even running tights. Many times they were laughing and talking among themselves about running and how this part was hard or that part was easy. I really hated it. In reality, I was just extremely jealous. I was in shape if you consider round a shape. Literally, I was 67 inches tall and 58 inches around. I knew I would never be able to do that and it hurt because it reminded me of just how far out of shape I have become. At this pace, I was killing myself one pepperoni pizza at a time.
Let me stop right here for a minute and tell you a bible story. See one time Jesus was walking through a city. As he was going through the city, he came upon a funeral procession. I don't know much about the Jewish culture but apparently they carry the body on their shoulders from point A to point B and this is what he saw. This was a young man they were carrying and he was certainly too young to have died. His mother was walking with the procession full of grief. Jesus saw this and told the procession to stop. That must have taken guts and I bet many of the people were furious because he was being very insensitive, or so they thought.
Think for a minute about some of the crazy things that have went on in this country. There is that nut job church that goes around protesting funerals of our dead heroes who gave this country the ultimate sacrifice - their lives. I certainly think you have a right to protest anything you want and the worst part about this type of protest is that the man or woman in that coffin took an oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic. They were like so many others who died to protect those people's right to protest. I can feel my blood starting to boil and maybe I will save this for another post but remember this.
So now we have this preacher stopping a funeral procession to do what? Well much to the surprise of everyone, he raised that young man from the dead. All of the sudden, these people got a brother, a son, and a friend back. Mom went from grief to joy and the funeral went from death to a party. When Jesus touches your coffin, your life and those around you is changed forever. That's exactly what happened to me. Jesus touched my life and I went from 350 pounds to 190. I went from a life headed for an early grave to a celebration.
Part of this change involved running. I became and still am a runner. It started during my weight loss period. At the end of the weight loss period, I ran my first marathon. It is a moment I will never forget. Jesus had literally turned my life right side up. The marathon was in Fort Worth, Texas. I was under trained for my first one and it was a cool, overcast, drizzly day in February. The race started and ended in downtown Fort Worth. As I turned to corner and started the last quarter mile, it was one of the most difficult and easy of my life. The run wasn't hard but I was overcome with emotion. I had tears in my eyes as I crossed the finish line because I knew how far I had come because of what God did in my life. Thank you Lord, I will never forget.
After that running became pretty routine and I got pretty good at it. I ran one more marathon and have done a bunch of 5Ks and 10Ks. I have even managed to win my age group a few times.
Then one day, I was going into Starbucks again for tea. This time was different from the time above because I was one of those people who was in shape. I had lost a lot of weight and generally felt great. This particular morning, I was frustrated about my run. I think I ran slower that I would like or something and I was complaining on the inside about it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man sitting in a wheel chair and part of his legs were missing. I didn't think much of it at first but then the Lord arrested me. He said to me, "Do you see that man? He would almost kill someone to be able to do what you are complaining about doing." That humbled me. It made me really appreciate my legs and being able to walk/run.
That's another Opinion of the Minion
Dear Mr. Minion, I have known you pretty much all of your life and I feel more connected to you reading your blog than all the years of seeing you in person before. They say what's on the inside will come out. I really like "what's coming out." and that's my opinion of the "Opinion of the Minion."
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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