Running and The Man That Wasn't There

So as my mother informed me after reading my last post, "Wow, talk about depressing." So this blog is all about GOD.... and how can you be depressed about that? Ummm.... You can't!
      Lately my dog has been pretty mad at me... It all stems from me leaving him for two weeks to go to Colorado and St. Thomas, and then I have been working over 30 hours and school for 8 hours a week. He is feeling neglected. Yesterday I had some free time so I thought I would treat him to go play at the dog park...except I got super lazy and didn't want to drive to the dog park. Instead I decided I would take him on a run...which he LOVES to do. As many of you know, running is not my favorite thing in the world...understatment....I actually despise running unless there is a fire, eathquake, tsunami...you get the point...but on rare occasions, mostly when I am incredibly stressed or upset, I go for a run.
     This month has been loaded with challenges and stress and I reached the point where it was time for a run. I got Ditto ready and we went for a run....when I say run I mean like 15 minutes of alternating running and walking...don't go picturing me doing like a crazy hour run and loving it the whole time. No, running, even in the act of actually running, doesn't have any real appeal to me.
   Anyway, I am running through the neighborhood and get to a point where Ditto is tired...ok, if I am being honest, I am tired... and we start to head back to my apartment. We are about 500 feet away from my apartment and I break into this crazy sprint...Ditto loves sprinting and so do I. It's the point in the run where I am not focusing on breathing or proper running technique, we are just running as fast as we can....and I break into this crazy grin....like when PPheobe runs through the park and Rachel quotes, "She is like a cross between the 6 million dollar man and kermit the frog." I hope I don't look like that lol, but I really didn't care in the moment, for one brief moment I am just running to run...

That brings us to today... My church has these small groups called T2 groups (training trainers). They are groups that focus on stories in the Bible in which Jesus relates to man kind, so the woman at the well, Zaccheus, etc. After we break the story apart and pull out meanings and messages, we practice retelling the stories and learning how to minister through them. Such a cool experience....I am in a group and the big push has been to just get to know the people around you, share stories with them, and share the gospel. The main thing is that God reveals these people to us because they are desperately asking and seeking out God. We aren't trying to push anything on anyone, just meeting people where they are at and asking them if they want to hear a story about Jesus...and that's it...we let them and God lead the rest of the conversation.
    So, a lot of people around me have been putting this into practice, they have met people at grocery stores, by dumpsters, in apartment complexes, all over God has been working incredible works and people are coming to him daily. However, this has been a little bit of a struggle for me. There is one person that has been on myu heart constantly but I am at a loss as to how to reach them without them getting defensive.
   As I am driving to get coffee before church there is a man on the side of the curb just sitting and looking so hopeless. He had tattered clothing, a shoping cart full of random items and was staring blankly out at the parking lot. I heard the whisper and said, "ok God." I parked my car and met up with my friend Emily.I told her about the man. I told her I had a gift card to Whole Foods I had just found and wanted to buy the man breakfast and share hope with him. She happily agreed and we headed next door to shop for him.
   We put together a bag of apples and muffins and granola bars and went back to where the man was sitting earlier. I was so excited just to give him something, just to share with him the GOOD NEWS... and when we turned the corner he wasn't there...we looked around the parking lot, behind a couple buildings, but couldn't find a trace of the man. My heart sank, I just wanted to share the goodies with him and he was gone...and then I realized that above everything else, I finally obeyed...I don't know where the man is but I know that God is providing for both him and me...and I still have his bag of goodies in my car, just in case he shows up.

    I continued on to church and was surrounded by the Holy Spirit. There are times in a Believer's life when God just speaks so passionately to you, whether in church or on a mountain, or in a grocery store, all of a sudden you are overwhelmed by how much God loves you....how much he cares and how much he wants to give you EVERYTHING....that was today at church, during communion we start to sing "Oh How He Loves Us" and everyone is captured by the truth of the song, there's tears and praying and this amazing sense of peace throughout the entire congregation...one body singing to one God. And then the next song comes on and the chorus tied everything together so perfectly that all I could do was hold my hands up and bask in His love as tears ran down my face.

  I'm running to Your arms
I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
And nothing compares
To Your embrace
Light of the world
Forever reign

So yes, I hate running, and yes life gets hard and yes, sometimes even our best intentions don't pan out...but "Oh how HE loves us!" I cannot wait for the day when I get to meet our creator face to face and run as hard as I can straight into His arms....but for now I am going to just keeping running, day after day, with a giant goofy grin because I love a God that loves me.