Life Lessons from Pounding the Pavement

I had a very early morning this morning. Josiah had another tooth come in, so he was a cranky hot mess and was up three different times. Finally on the third time I said forget it, I'm just gonna go for a run if I'm gonna be up this early.

There's nothing like pounding some pavement under a dark, starry sky before the world wakes up. The only other thing teeming to life are sprinklers across the many lawns, anxious to water the ground before the hot Texas sun steals their drink.

When it's that dark, obviously I pay careful attention to the ground in front of me. It would be so easy to trip on a raised surface or a rock. Towards the end of my run I came around and up a steep hill, and at the end of that hill I noticed sprinklers spraying across the sidewalk. I thought Ah yes! Sweet relief is ahead! And in that split second of taking my eyes off the pavement in front me, I tripped on a raised area of the sidewalk and slammed into the ground.

I sat there for a minute, shocked that I actually fell, and then thankful no one was awake at that time of morning to see me fall! Then I just started laughing, and immediately saw the metaphor.

It's easy to look for the next best thing in our lives, or dream of what lies ahead. We can get so distracted that we forget how important it is to live in the present. We aren't promised tomorrow, and in a split second the very air we breathe can be taken from our lungs. I'm gonna blink one day and Josiah is gonna be graduating high school, or getting married, and I'll look back at these simple days and I'M GOING TO MISS IT.

Yesterday as I was driving home I had a moment that I became so utterly overwhelmed with God's love and goodness, and I just wept the whole drive home, so full of thankfulness. I don't want to miss out on the blessings I have right now, right in front of me.

You know, we learn some really good lessons when we fall flat on our face sometimes.