I ran this morning and listened to music and thought. That’s what I do when I run. I think.
John Mayer’s song “Stop this Train” came on and I listened … and thought. He sings about how the world isn’t always the most ideal place, especially as you get older and watch the generation ahead of you get older. And I thought. And I agree.
The world is not an easy place and the longer you live the higher the chance that you will experience something that is hard. It is hard to watch your parents grow older or even to lose them. It is hard to know and experience that you are not always the awesome husband or father or friend or employee that you thought you were. It’s hard to watch people around you suffer. It is easy to look around and read the news and listen to people talk and know that the world is a messed up place. All of it makes me want to sing “Stop this train. I want to get off and go home again. I can’t take the speed its moving in. I know I can’t. So honestly won’t someone stop this train.”
And then the song takes a turn:
Once in a while when it’s good
It’ll feel like it should
And they’re all still around
And you’re still safe and sound.
There is the hope. The world is messed up. Heck I am messed up. But at the worst there are still glimpses of how it is supposed to be. How it is getting fixed even though I can’t always see it. At my most broken is where redemption has the most potential. It can be fixed and made new.
I know that redemption won’t be fully realized until the other side of time. But somehow I know it can get better here too. And that is my hope. To be redeemed. To be made new. To be a part of that process and not just hope it happens without my participation.
“If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, old things are passing away and all things are being made new…”
In other news I am training to run Mount Taylor 50k. It is a race in the mountains outside of Grants, New Mexico. The entire race is above 9000 feet and tops out at 11,305 feet at the summit of Mount Taylor with 7000 feet of elevation gain.
I haven’t run anything longer than a half marathon since my last marathon in Singapore in June of 2013.
What am I doing to train for altitude? Nothing really, just running miles at sea level.
What am I doing to train for running up and down mountains? Nothing really, just running miles in pancake flat south Texas.
It may sound cliché – but really, my only goal is to finish. And I am looking forward to the race very much.
