I had a rough week.  Sometimes life hits you hard and leaves you spinning, right?  That might even be from a song…hmmm…  Anyway, this was one of those weeks and that’s how I felt anyway when Friday FINALLY decided to show up and save me!  As much as I wanted to run home, put a blanket over my head and hide, I decided to do something else instead.  I put on my running shoes and decided to go for a real run!  I love running! I know, I know…years ago I wrote a blog about hating running…but what can I say?  I’m changed!! Ha! Ha!

It’s not the running or exercise itself that I love (who likes to exercise?!?) …it’s that running gives me the chance to think and to process without any interruptions.  No one stops to talk to you when you’re running.  🙂  I can take off my “mom hat”, my “teacher hat”, my “wife, daughter, friend, and co-worker hats” and just be me.  I can tune out the world, and tune into God.  Yep!  He and I have had many good chats when I’m running!  Plus, it let’s me eat more chocolate, which as we all know, is never a bad thing! 🙂

Anyway, here’s how Friday’s conversation with God went down:

“God, I totally get that you love the whole ‘walk by faith’ thing and all.  I know you want me to trust You to work things out when I don’t see what you’re doing.  We do this a lot you and I…yep!  You love doing this to me, having me wait, having me pray about it, having me trust You…we’ve been down that road quite a lot, haven’t we!  I know You are big into that. Truly!  🙂 AND I totally trust You…You know that…but today, well, I sometimes wish you would just say something to me or speak a word to me!!”  God must have chuckled when I said that because instantly I remembered this thing I read in the mornings called the Bible!!!

“Oops!  My bad!  I forgot you gave me a whole lot of encouraging words in the Bible…your WORD!!!”   So I backpedalled, rephrased my plea and continued…

“I will start declaring those promises more…thank you for Your word…but I guess what I’m needing today then is just to know that You hear me…that You care…maybe just a bit of encouragement from You.  Things lately have been tough and I feel like I’m failing at well…everything!”

(Psst…I sound whiny, right?  You are right…I WAS whiny!  I should have titled this blog, “Tami’s Needy and Fussy Friday Run”).

However, no sooner had the words “encouragement from You” come out of my mouth than God gave me a picture in my mind.  I knew it was from Him, because not only did it come out of nowhere…with it came what I can only describe as a SUDDEN crashing wave of LOVE!  It was a picture of Him cupping my face in his hands, pulling it up close to His face and bringing it so that our foreheads were touching.  That was it.  With that two second picture,  God had brought me suddenly to tears and with it, the knowing that He cared…that He was THAT close to me…it was incredible.  He didn’t even have to say anything…that picture said it all!  He’s SO close!  It shut me up and left me speechless.  All I could do was cry as his love just took over my heart.

I slowed to a walk.  I dried my tears and found myself smiling!  I looked up and saw how big the sky was (I even stopped to take a picture of it).  I am SO small on this gigantic earth, and yet this amazing God of ALL of creation cares for me!  I suddenly knew everything was going to be okay.  I felt like a brand new person when I got home after my run.  You know, in only two seconds, God can do what might take man years or even a lifetime to fix! 🙂

Psalm 23:6 says “Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life…”  That’s a promise from God…He loves us so much He chases us with that love. 🙂  Let that thought just sink in for a second or two.  It’s HIS love that’s doing the chasing…not ours!   We love because He FIRST loved us.   I love that!

I started this blog with the sole purpose of sharing the good news of what life is like loving Jesus and being loved by Him..that’s why I share these stories about my own crazy and funny life…to encourage and bring hope to others who also go through similar things as me!  I know I’m not the only one who goes through stuff.  So here is YOUR good news for today:  God’s love chases after YOU too.  It’s not just my face He’s holding…it’s yours as well.  All you have to do is close your eyes, and see Him like that.  Or go on a run! 🙂  Invite Him into your heart, and I promise, you will never be the same again.