Run with the Wind
Written by Heather Norgren on September 24, 2019
As I ventured out for a run this morning, God decided to show me an amazing analogy by using the physical realm to illustrate the spiritual. Starting out on my run, I put in my ear buds to block out the noise and keep the wind that was pushing against me out of my ears. I turned on a podcast that encourages interval training and motivates me to keep going when it gets hard, to push through even when I want to quit.
As I was beginning to grow weary, I tried to focus on taking deep, slow breaths and breathe through it, however the smell of freshly spread manure in the fields quite literally smelt like crap! Now, trying to not inhale to avoid the smell, the exhaustion was not the only thing trying to get me to quit… I told myself, “Just make it to that stop sign up there and then you can stop. Just a little bit further Heather.” After I made it to the stop sign, I began to fix my focus on the next sign and told myself, “keep going to that one. Little bits at a time. A little bit further.” By this time, I realized that the wind had shifted its direction from going against me to now pushing me into the storm clouds up ahead. With the lightning flashing and rain pouring down, I think to myself, "You have time, just keep going, it's just rain."
I am now starting to realize that this run is starting to resemble a similar journey that so many of us experience in life. We begin to lace up our shoes, determined to start heading towards a destination, only to start out with the wind pushing against us, encouraging us to give up before we even go a short distance.
Then, we begin to talk to ourselves through it by fixing our eyes on the next sign to make it to. And then the next. As we keep going further, we realize we made it farther than we initially thought we could. Only to be surrounded by the foul stench of crap all around us. We try to hold our breath, but cannot in order to keep progressing. For me, those foul odors in my life have been the healing of my soul. The smell of coming face to face with your own weaknesses and wounds are awful and in the midst of it you would do anything to escape the stench!
So there I was on my run, surrounded by the smell of manure, having a choice to make. Do I turn around and cover my nose from the stench around me or do I allow the wind to continue pushing me towards the storm ahead? I see the wind as the Holy Spirit, guiding us on our journey of life and sometimes leading us toward the storms. I've realized that so many times in my life I've turned to run in the opposite direction of the storms because I wanted to escape any discomfort that it might cause me. To refuse to look within myself and deal with the "manure" that surrounds me and avoid experiencing that which the storm might bring.
Right now, God has me on a journey, requiring me to deal with myself, so that I can run into the storm with strength and confidence. I have found myself, so many times, wanting to run away from the life that God has given me. And yet, I’ve learned, all this does is prolong the pain and discomfort in my life. Instead I am training myself to use the wind at my back to push me into the storm, to persevere long enough to realize why I’m here; long enough to get to see an attribute of God that I’ve never seen before and let it wash over me, quite literally like rain.
I made the choice to continue onward into the storm. It started out as light sprinkles for a short while only then to turn into an unexpected torrential downpour! So much so that I actually tried to find refuge from the rain under some trees, but even they could not provide the shelter I needed. I thought for a brief second to maybe text my husband to come get me but my stubbornness told me “no”. Have you ever been there before? Stuck in a storm, drenched, trying to seek shelter, but cannot escape it?
I wanted to be able to finish my run. I wanted to do it on my own. I tried to convince myself that I could finish the last two miles but as I pulled out my phone to see if it was completely ruined from the rain I see a message pop up from none-other than my sweet husband asking if I needed a ride. I smiled and laughed out loud, knowing in that moment that God was teaching me yet another lesson.
In my life, I have always hated asking people for help. I push so far and persevere so much on my own, always thinking that I can complete it on my own. There are times in life when you have been brought into a storm and you are enduring, pushing, and learning so many things. It is through these storms that God reveals to us a version of Himself that we may not have seen before. However, He was also showing me that there are times in life when the storm is too much and too damaging to do on your own.
So, I waited for my husband to come and find me in storm. How beautiful is that? To think that I would have missed out on yet another beautiful illustration had I allowed my stubbornness to take over. That there are those closest to us who are eager to help and by not allowing them to help, we rob them of the opportunity to show us love, when we need them the most.
As he pulled up alongside me on the road, he had a towel laid out on the seat and towel for me to dry off with. Oh Lord, how you are so gentle with us to illustrate your great love for us. That when life is sometimes too much for us to endure on our own You send someone to rescue us!
With a huge smile on my face, we drove home through the storm together. I now was out of the rain and had someone to be with. Someone that brought me what I needed and helped me when the storm was too much. I would have missed out on that, had I refused the ride from him.
Don’t miss out on the ways that the Lord so desperately wants to reveal Himself to you, as your Rescuer, simply because you feel you have to be strong enough to do it on your own. I can’t imagine how many times I have let the help of God pass by because of my own unwillingness to admit I need help. This doesn’t show weakness, this shows humility because it gives others the permission to ask for help as well.
In Psalm 46 it states that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Let Him be your help, let Him be your refuge... let Him be your Rescuer.