Stretching

Stretching. It has always been something I haven’t done enough of—never really felt I needed to do that activity which the running books always encouraged, or rather mandated for one’s basic health. But the situation is different now. I’m a bit older. Life is a bit different. It seems I must keep stretching these days if I want stay healthy—every good runner needs to stretch in order to care for their body, to continue healing and growing from the daily wear of life.

Jim, my dear friend and everyone’s favorite Australian priest, visited this week. I never expected things to be different from when we last met, and thankfully it wasn’t. Yet his visit reminded me that much had changed since we first said goodbye from Folly Beach, SC two years ago. The time had changed me in many ways. Physically, I’d stopped running entirely for a six month period because of injury—sadly I’d stopped stretching too. So when Jim asked me to run a half marathon with him the morning of graduation last Sunday, my immediate reaction was “I’ll never walk again.” Apart from my complete lack of training, it was graduation morning—why punish oneself?!

Yet something told me I needed to do it. And so, it's Thursday evening as I stretch my still tight hamstrings on the floor of the airplane, somewhere over the Atlantic between Detroit and Amsterdam, and I'm contemplating the resiliency of the human body, and the spiritual benefit of that half-marathon Sunday morning. During that run I recognized that I’d finally been prioritizing my spiritual well-being ahead of my physical well-being and it has paid dividends in my overall health.

Our bodies and our spirits are so intrinsically connected. They both need stretching and care. Jesus seemed to demonstrate that in his own physical and spiritual journey into the wilderness—“tempted (both physically and spiritually) by the one opposed to God. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished… Then the one opposed to God left Jesus, and suddenly angels came and waited on him” (Matthew 3:1,11).

The Spirit drives all of us into the wilderness at times. Not to punish us or make us miserable, but rather to offer us opportunities to be stretched—to provide time to grow both physically and spiritually. Jesus knew this and he knew the wilderness journey was for his own benefit. And so by biking throughout Turkey and Greece, I begin a very intentional spiritual and physical journey into the wilderness (even if my wilderness offers free Wi-fi, breakfast and AMAZING Turkish coffee). The angels will always be ready to wait on me (and us) when we’ve reached our fill of growth for the day. I pray God give me, and each of us, the courage to be vulnerable and experience something new, challenging and life changing every day. May the angels guide and guard you as you journey and grow with God today.