New Shoes and A New Perspective

Hey everyone! Emily here. This week has been really interesting for me. I haven't actually run barely at all this week. I did my long run on Saturday (8 miles) and by Sunday I was in SUPER amount of pain. My legs, my knees, my hips, and mostly the bottoms of my feet hurt super bad. I went to Body Pump on Monday, and then I tried to run and had to get off within the first 5 minutes because I hurt so bad. I tried the eliptical, which was better and I did 15 minutes, but still had to get off. Tuesday night I went to a youth group staff meeting and the staff prayed for me. I felt SO much better that night, and I went to the chiropractor and the running store and got all geared up with new shoes and insolse. The pain was pretty bad by this morning though. I went to Body Pump and the Abs class again today instead of cycling like I normally do to keep the focus on my legs for only a little bit. It was pretty good, but still hurt. Tonight at youth group we watched a video called The Finger of God, which is a documentary all about witnessing miracle healings throughout the world. It was so cool - definitely check it out. After the film our youth were asked to get in groups and pray for each other if there were any illnesses or injuries that needed healing. I asked my group to pray for my legs. Now, just so you know I am a pretty big skeptic when it comes to stuff like this (just ask Liesl.), mostly because of the amount of people I think fake it or make it mentally happen but it doesn't really happen. But, I really and truly hoped that God would heal my legs and it would stick this time. It was so cool though; I could feel heat starting on my left thigh, and it traveled all the way down my left leg down to my toes. Then it started at the right thigh, and traveled down to just above my foot. By this time all the warmth made my legs feel, for lack of a better word, "fuzzy" and my head was spinning. I seriously felt like I was falling over. (Apparently I wasn't). I guess a floating feeling would be a better way to describe it. When it stopped I felt like I heard God say "just one more". My friend Angie felt God pulling at her to read Psalm 63, which reads:

¹ O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

³ Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.

⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵ My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷ Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

⁸ My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

⁹ They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.

¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

I couldn't really hear the passage, though (which is why it was good to go back and read it later). I was remembering at the gym today this girl who was driving me NUTS. When she walked in to me everything about her seemed fake. Her hair was really damaged from the amount of color treatments on it, her boobs were way larger to the proportion of her body, and her butt crack stuck out of her pants every time she did a squat. Even her makeup was perfectly done (to go to the gym??). She kept doing her own thing instead of what the instructor told us to do and it drove me crazy for the whole class. By the end though I realized, who am I to judge her? Here I am trying to think I'm all good at exercise and stuff because I have been to a few classes and run a few miles. I watched the amount of weight she had on her bar (which was A LOT), and she did stretches in the "advanced" mode all the time, wheras I couldn't even stay in the plank position for more than a few seconds on my toes and she was doing it with one and one arm in the air like it was nothing. I realized two things: 1) that she could probably beat me up, and 2) I was no better than her and needed God too, in that moment especially as I was choosing to judge someone else on her appearance. Back to youth group, I felt my foot become warm and "fuzzy" too, and there was absolutely NO PAIN whatsoever in either one of my legs. I realized that I needed a new perspective, to be careful not to judge others and to trust God that He knows what He's doing, and that He knows that girl at the gym too and loves her. Maybe through this new perspective God will continue to heal my body and make it so that I can continue to run, uninjured.

Anyways, I am rambling, and it's very late. I just felt like sharing how awesome God is!!

Emily