Roll with the Punches

Recently, I got news that could affect my life forever.  I’ve wavered between dumbstruck, panicked and un-phased.  But at the present moment, I’m focused on not wasting any amount of time unhappy.

Four and a half years ago, with a deep breath and fingers crossed, I stepped out of the small town life I’d been born and raised in, to see what else life had to offer.  I’ve spent four and a half years and more money than I care to calculate chris-crossing the country, seeking the destination that would provide the life I want.  The life I have always wanted.  In retrospect, I can say that every day has taught me that life is not like Burger King – you can’t just “have it your way”.

Five days ago, I completed my first 5K(!!!!!).  It’s been almost two years since I injured myself preparing for what would have been my first 5K and had to bow out.  So, this time, my goal was simply to finish.  I asked a friend to join me, because I knew she’d done races before.  A few weeks before our race, she suggested we check out a local race, so I’d have some idea of what to expect at ours.  I learned about the registration table and the little tags you tie to your shoelace to track you time and that it’s ok to drop your little water cup on the ground and keep it moving...As we headed back to my friend’s apartment, we had to cross a street that was in the race route.  Waiting for a walk signal and a break in the runners had us standing there for a few minutes.  And that’s when I saw him.  At first, I was struck by the three people on a leisurely stroll right down the middle of the runner’s route.  What are they doing?!  Then, I could see one was a very old man (aaah, maybe a nursing home escapee...) and two women – one older than the other, but both younger then the man.  Intrigued, I watched them come closer and what I saw I never want to forget.  The man – easily pushing 90+ years old – was wearing a runner’s number on his chest.

I called my old and dear friend, The Hawaiian, 3,000 miles away, to help me process the news of my life’s recent twists and turns.  I desperately needed some of her insight and her island calm.  “It’s so cliché,” she said quietly, in her soothing calm voice that I knew she was pulling out especially for me, “but nobody said life would be easy, right?  If we’re going to make it through, we can’t stand all stiff and stubborn, we have to roll with it.”  I think the type of senior citizen who would participate in a 5k with a cane in one hand and two people holding him up, is the kind of person who has learned to roll with it.  Obviously he’s lived a long life and has experienced any number of things – good and bad.  He’s weathered the negative experiences, but hasn't let them define him.

I’ve come to realize, I suffer from a recurring case of whiplash.  When I see my life moving in one direction, I get comfortable and settle in for that ride.  Then, when my life zigs where I zag, I stumble and struggle to regain my balance.  God let’s that happen to me, to keep me on my toes and to help me remember that the only thing I can count on in this life, is Him.  This life isn’t what we want, but what we get.  And if life is what we get, then it’s what we do with it that matters.  What we think and what we believe is what we live out – it determines our actions.  So today, I am choosing not to waste any moment of happiness in despair.  Because even when the going gets tough, we are called to hang in there, and persevere.  To roll with the punches.  Because life is good, even when it’s bad – because I am in Christ Jesus.

 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

Love y'all!
 ~M~