Running Straight Into Ordinary.

Today was supposed to be a day of adventure and new experiences. But it didn’t exactly turn out how I’d planned. So after abandoning an icy hike, Eric dropped me off on the side of the road a few miles from our house, so I could get a nice run in.

I love to run. As soon as my feet leave the pavement everything fades into the background. It’s like a bath for my soul. Many of my favorite memories are the times I spent with myself and a pair of sneakers on an open road. My feet hitting the pavement in a controlled rhythm; everything at my command. There’s no other place in life where I have that freedom, that solitude, that excitement.

There’s always something to be seen that fills me with awe and gratitude. Today as a I ran I kept looking down into the frozen river, mesmerized by the glittering lid of ice covering the top. It’s not like I’ve never seen ice before. Or even a frozen river. I have many times. But for some reason, today, in that space, I was mesmerized.

I love those moments when the simple pieces of life make you catch your breath. When something you have seem so many times before suddenly has new meaning and new beauty. Beauty out of the ordinary; there is something so Christ-like about that. He gives meaning to the things we find to be dull, redundant, things we think we’ve seen, things we think we know.

How many secrets are hidden in our every day lives. How much beauty surrounds us that we are too blind to see. Just how much of this beautiful creation are we seeing? Can we find the ice on a run?

When I choose to see the beauty in the ordinary, I feel like I am sitting in the hands of Christ. I don’t want to wait for what I deem interesting to excite me. I want to run straight into ordinary and find the jewel waiting for me there.

-Psalm 19:1-6-

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.