The first step feels good. The second step feels a little crazy. I wonder what I was thinking. How far will I make it. I reduce my goal for today. I just don’t think I am going to make it. Then I start to think about making it to the end of this street. Next up to the traffic light. On to a light 1/2 a mile away.
As I go, my thoughts and feelings change. I start noticing the scenery around me. Praying for friends and situations. Slowly I realize my legs are no longer burning and my lungs are not gasping for the energy to go on. And I begin moving my goal further out. No longer, will I make it another step, rather, can I go to the next goal. My feet no longer fight moving, instead they echo a refrain, “Thank you Lord for each step I take. Thank you for the doctors who believed in a better day for me. Thank you.”
Ten years ago I was in a wheelchair and on high doses of steroids just to keep functioning. The Multiple Sclerosis was interrupting more days than not. I began to resign myself to always being sick, always being dependent on medications that made me sicker even as they helped my body function. I didn’t dream of running. I dreamt of a day where I didn’t struggle to get from beginning to end.
The Lord used a brilliant doctor, some decent medications and the hormones of childbearing to bring me a healing I had decided was unlikely to be mine until I saw Him in Glory. Today and every day I endeavor to thank the Lord for the renewed strength my body has with my words, thoughts and deeds. Those thoughts and deeds are never as present as when I am running.
May I never stop thinking and thanking the Lord for His gift to myself and my family. I pray I am always like the one leper who came back and thanked Christ for healing him. I pray I use every opportunity to tell the reason for the hope I have been given.
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