feeling on a run-cation

This past week I embarked on a run-cation.  A week of guilt free runlessness.  (Yes, I realize I just made up at least two words.)  The only problem with a run-cation is that running helps me deal with my emotions.  I am a very emotional person.  Sometimes my emotions get the better of me, be it sadness, anger, depression, what-have-you.  Running is a release of those feelings.  I can be a more pleasant person when I am running on a consistent basis.  For you non-runners out there I'm sure you have something that helps you deal with sometimes overwhelming emotions.  For me, running it out is better than talking it out, therefore better (and cheaper!) than therapy.

This week on my run-cation, Friday specifically, I was feeling particularly vulnerable to some heart-wrenching news.  There are things that go on that are simply Not. Fair.  Friends are struggling with horrible things and all I can do is watch and pray for them.  It feels so incredibly passive...  So after getting some rather dismal news in an email, I switched over to checking the world news (my news of choice comes from msnbc.com in case you're curious).  Turns out there was another mine collapse, this time in New Zealand.  Scrolling down the page led to more headlines of not-good news.  So I went upstairs to collect my mail and received a letter from World Vision telling me (and showing me pictures, the nerve!) of children who are living in countries around the world, barely surviving.  My friends, I was so overwhelmed with grief, I didn't know what to do.  My heart literally felt like it was breaking...  

I should have gone for a run right then and there...but I didn't.  I let my heart break for all the tragedy and injustice in the world because too often I don't.  I sit in my warm home with too much food to eat, not feeling or caring about those outside my small circle.

I didn't wallow though, I kept replaying in my head, over and over and over, this verse:  "In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world!" John 16:33b

He has overcome this world and "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John 4:4  


For these reasons, not because I went for a run and forgot about it, I am feeling much better today.  And now I am off to worship God with my church family.  God is good, All the time.