Weathering the Storm

Last night, I went running in a giant storm. And I liked it. . .sort of. Why did I do this? Well. . . it wasn't storming when I left my house. I had gotten home from work and for whatever strange reason I felt great, which is a rare rare occurrence. I decided to take advantage of this and get in my long run for the week. It was a little drippy when I started, but a little rain never hurt anyone. Right?

The majority of the run was beautiful. The temperature was perfect. It rained off and on, sometimes it rained pretty hard and I did get wet, but the wind wasn't blowing and it wasn't cold enough that I couldn't stay warm from my own physical effort. I watched the sun go down and was entertained by Bella trying to splash through all the puddles.

In one word, it was

BLISSFUL.

Oh how quickly things can change.

I was on my way home, about ten minutes from my house. It was getting very very dark. All of a sudden the wind started to blow and the sky opened up and HAIL started pelting down on me. The bad news was (no, I haven't even gotten to the bad news part yet!) the wind was blowing in my face and the hail was pelting my eyes out. Bella started running BEHIND me so I could block her from the storm, I felt bad I had taken her with me. To make things worse I was back on Main street and it was unusually busy for nine at night. I was running into the traffic so the cars headlights were blinding me. There wasn't much room on the shoulder and I was really nervous the cars wouldn't be able to see me.

In one word, the next 10 minutes were complete MISERY.

I was soaked to the bone, freezing, and I couldn't see a thing. I just wanted to quit. But I knew the only way I would get home, was to keep going. So I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and I did keep going. After what seemed like forever, but was really only ten minutes, I did get home. And it was warm and safe and Jentry had a big plate of warm bacon waiting for me. I was so HAPPY.

I really enjoyed this little experience. Well. . . I'm not sure if enjoy is exactly the right word, because I wasn't really enjoying myself at the time, but you will see what I mean.

One of the things I love about running is that pretty much everything about it can be related to the Gospel and Spirituality. I do like to have runs like this occasionally, because it strengthens my testimony of my Heavenly Father and His LOVE for me. This experience reminded me that no matter how bad the storm of life may get, even when it's dark and cold and windy and hail is pelting me in the face and care headlights are blinding me, no matter how miserable I am, no matter how much I really want to quit, if I just focus on putting one foot in front of the other like I did when I was running, and have faith, Heavenly Father will lead me home to his presence. And it will be warm. It will be safe. And there will be a plate of warm bacon waiting for me.

Maybe.

Okay i'm not sure about the bacon part, but the rest of it I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW is absolutely TRUE without a doubt!