“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” – 1 John 3:1
I was practically raised at the track. Not the horse track- thankfully my parents did not rely on gambling as their means of income; I mean the running track.
Most of my early memories revolve around the feel of the track surface under my feet, repeat 200s, and the smell of cut grass. I ran competitively for twelve years of my life; second grade through my sophomore year of college.
Although I rarely go back, Mr. Fantastic frequently trains at the middle school by our house. Last Saturday I went with him.
The minute I stepped onto the spongy black surface, I felt transported in time. It was as if the years between myself and my track career vanished.
I was a teenager again, sprinting the curves and walking the straights. My arms and legs, my heart and lungs, they all seemed to be doing what they knew to do best.
When I turned the last curve, I saw the lane numbers sprawled out before me, and I thought my breath would never right itself. My soul soared and I had come home.
There are a lot of things I know about. But I realize that I know running and the track in a unique way. I am comfortable there, undaunted by rules or expectations, I feel at ease with myself and my surroundings, and peace reigns in that place.
This is how I know track, and this is how I want to know God’s love. The only way to know something or someone like that is by years and years of experience. I suppose that’s why each year with Him seems so important, so unique, and so precious.
I am ever going deeper, training my heart to love him when my lungs feel they may fail, and my soul wants to quit and lay down in defeat. I learn with falls and failures how to press past plateaus and weaknesses. Each step I take makes me stronger, and draws me further than I thought I could go.
I keep thinking of the line from Chariots of Fire, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” And I felt that, too, Saturday at the track. I felt His pleasure; as if He took all the love He has known for me all these years and poured it out right there at a middle school track.
What a gift it is to be loved by a God like ours. Today, may you feel His pleasure, too, and may it be glorious.
