Thoughts on God and Jogging

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Note: The jog and thoughts described below actually occurred yesterday morning.  I wrote the majority of this post over my lunch break, then intended to finish it last night, but I ended up working until 10:00 pm so I didn't get to it.   I'm leaving it as is and just finishing up and posting today.  Needless to say, I did not run this morning...

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God and jogging? What does God have to do with jogging?  Well, based on my run this morning and the fact that my mind was going about as fast as my feet (ok, at times that wasn't so fast) on the subject, they have plenty to do with each other.  Here are the some of the connections I came up with:

~ Creation

Unless you have a treadmill or a gym membership, neither of which I can afford, you are jogging outside in God's creation.  Ok, the City of Waco built the paved road I run on, but you get my point.  Creation and nature were all around me this morning in the grass, trees, sky, barking dogs, chirping birds, etc.  One thing I love about running in the mornings is the chance to see the sun rise.  I don't run so early that it is too dark and I feel unsafe in our hood by myself, so I usually get out there right as the sun is coming up.  Here is the sunrise from this morning:

It's not the most spectacular sunrise I have ever seen but it was still really pretty and it put me in awe of God's creation, enough to stop and take a picture of it.  That's what started my mind going about how jogging and God might go hand in hand.

~Your body is a temple
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."  1 Corinthians 6:19-20
We are supposed to honor God with our body, which can be done by honoring our body itself, treating it as a temple, taking care of it.  Exercise = taking care of your body.  Jogging = exercise.   Therefore, jogging = honoring God!  Ok, ok, maybe that's a dorky connection to make, but at 6:38 this morning it was quite an epiphany to me.

~Finish the race
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."  2 Timothy 4:7
I started out this year with the goal of losing approximately 20 pounds.  Well, I've done it.  I'm there.  And it's great.  But I haven't made a big deal about it really because now I'm kind of stuck in a "now what?" phase...   That was a goal for me for 8 months.  Now what is my goal?  I've decided to focus on running as its own endeavor and accomplishment and let it also help me maintain my weight loss.  (I don't really want to lose more, then I'd have to buy all new clothes and that would be stupid)  My puny goal right now is to be able to run one mile without stopping.  Don't laugh.  It's true.  I positively stink at running and always have.  So that's my goal and I'm sticking to it.  I think it's important to have things in your life that you are purposeful and earnest about, things that push you to work hard, that require you to focus on sacrificing a little for the betterment of something, including yourself.  So maybe this is a bit of a loose connection between jogging and God, but I see my purposeful attempts and progress towards being able to run one mile as a way to honor God through just being intentional about something in my life, seeing it through, finishing the race.


Happy jogging!