Thursday, October 7, 2010

This Is The Air I Breathe

As most of you know, I am in training for my next marathon. I run between 30 and 50 miles a week. My running happens on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. So what do I do for the rest of the week.
Recover!
Thursday is a total rest day from physical activity. This is to get ready for the double long runs. They are not as easy as one may think.
However, Sunday and Tuesday is active recovery. This means I cross train. Sunday, I do a show at my church (at 2 different campuses) called "The Big Attic". Don't be deceived, this is about 3 hours of mayhem. By the time I am finished, I want to lay down and die!
Tuesdays (and Fridays after my pace run), I swim.
I have a love/hate relationship with swimming.
I love the fact it is easy on my joints.
I love that it helps keep me loose.
I love the coolness of the pool that helps with recovery.
I love that it makes me stronger.
I love how it makes my arms look and helps me look like I have (at least) small guns.;-)
However, I have a small issue with swimming.
I cannot breathe under water.
So when I get out of breath, it does not work well for me. I'm really not good at swimming. Not kidding. Pregnant women and 85 year old men pass me. I timed my 100 yard swim the other day and it was around 2:30. That is embarrassing. I plod along, doing drills and such, to get around 2000 yards. Then I pull my tired and hungry body out of the water and smell of chlorine the rest of the day.
So what's the point?
Well, about 2 weeks ago, I was doing my "fast" swimming and working on breathing on both sides. As I turned to my right and gulped down a huge amount of air, I had a few thoughts.
First, I thought that I was going to die because I was not getting enough air at each breath.
Second, I thought about just standing up, quiting, and breathing.
Third, I thought about how much I needed this air and wanted it.
Fourth, I thought about this is how I need to want God.
I need to want God as much as I wanted the next breath of air. Is that how I long for Him?
The Bible talks about this in Psalm 42:1
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for Thee, O God
The picture in this Psalm is that of a deer longing for water in the midst of a prolonged drought.
But God had to show me physically what this verse means. So the picture in my life at that moment was me gasping for my next breath while swimming.
Needless to say, that has stuck with me. I think it is easy to say that we need God and want to have a relationship with Him. However, it is very difficult to really want Him like we want air. There are so many distractions. Distractions that don't matter.
So next time you are gasping for breath (due to physical exercise, having a cold, or just walking up the stairs) think about wanting God like you want your next breath.
This is the air I breathe!