I grew up running. When I was eight years old my mom and dad signed me up for a track team and I ran competitively for the next thirteen years. There is something runners call the second wind. It’s that moment where your body somehow digs from the depths of your energy reserve and you feel lighter, breathe easier, and the running feels less like your feet hitting earth and more like wings carrying you through a dream. It is one of the reasons running is addicting. There is a spiritual and emotional high when you push yourself beyond what you think your body can do and feel what it was made to do: persevere.
Lately around here, life has been a long, low grind. It would be difficult (not to mention complicated) to point a finger and say what specifically has caused us all to be so tired and at the end of ourselves, but we certainly are just that. Tonight I was looking through some photos of our family during this grind-it-out season and I thought of this scripture:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” -James1:2
In the photos, I see only joy in each of us. My camera can so easily capture all the best moments that I am most grateful to have lived. The grind is nowhere to be seen. There is just a wonderful man and woman in love with four little darlings tagging along, enveloped in grace and mercy.
My soul is learning from my camera. Joy lives in the grind, much to my amazement. There are moments full of blessings that will pass whether I notice them or not. I can gather the moments of joy as I march on developing perseverance. Faith and trials will grow my perseverance, but awareness and gratitude can grow my joy even when the trials are most difficult.
So here they are. A few snapshots of joy. This is the source of my second wind; the part of life that is addictive and keeps me coming back for more. I will do what I was made to do, I will persevere, because the God who asks me to is worthy, and has given me moments like these:
What do your moments of joy look like?
