Running with Christ

I ran a 10-K race today (6.2 miles) with 10,000 other people in Central Park. People were all running for different reasons, fundraisers, fun, health, and the likes. But today, with good reminder from Hebrews 12, I decided that I would run for God. That this run would teach me about life, discipline and what it means to persevere through tribulation. As a Christian, I view my life as a long race, and like a real long-distance race, it's not easy.

During my last mile of the race, I started to tire out and slow down. As I was reminding myself in my head repeating, "this is for God, for God, for God," I saw a man in front of me with a sign on the back of his shirt. It said, "Running with Christ." I smiled and I ran up next to him, put my hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm running with Christ too." He looked at me, smiled and said, "Nice to have you join us. Pray for me."

I smiled, because then, I realized that I wasn't alone in my run for God; Christ was running with me, and with him, my fellow believers in Christ.

I ran forward with a renewed sense of energy and as I crossed the finish line, let out a nice sigh. I couldn't have done it without Christ.

-- Mr. "Running with Christ" man, your shirt made a difference in how I viewed life today. I am praying for you tonight :-). Thank you

God speaks to me in weird ways

So over the course of my last semester in college, I've been praying for a few people I met while flyering for my Christian fellowship at Penn. I met a lot of people who were interested in learning about God or who were curious in some way or another, and I always hoped that God would bring them to church or introduce them to the God that I know, the God that loves abundantly.

There was one girl in particular who I'd pray for alot because I could just see that she was curious about God and that all she needed was an opportunity. I spent the semester randomly shooting emails back and forth getting to know her situation a little and asking her to come out to our events. We'd remember her when we sent out care packages, but for some reason, she'd never be home when we dropped them off, and we'd get an email back saying thanks. And she almost went to our retreat and I thought God would surely help her at least experience God in some way if she came. But nothing ever really worked out, and I always wondered if praying for these people consistently would ever help?

I stopped praying for her and for these people. I remember at the end of the year when I was moving out of my room, instead of keeping all the post-its with the names of people who I'd pray for, I just thought to myself, "Nah...there are too many names, and no answers. I'm moving out, got to throw it out." So I threw them out.

It's been two months since that happened, and I'm quite ashamed that I gave up so easily. I had totally forgotten about those names with no faces, and I just passed along the name of the girl to the new leaders in my fellowship to keep an eye out for.

Today, in New York (out of everywhere, New York!), I ran into her at church. The connections are crazy. But another guy from my fellowship who had just joined my senior year, had invited her to the church that I was going to in NY, and she came. I was so shocked.

God really spoke to me today. He told me to never give up on prayer and on His people. My prayer was answered today, she's experienced God in some way, and now we'll see how God works. But the lesson of the day is, God listens, and He wants me to know that :-D.

I'm ashamed that it took this to awaken me, but I'm grateful for such an awesome, mysterious God.

Home

When I was leaving Vegas, I literally said bye to my bedroom. Funny how something not alive can have such a special place in my heart. Then, as my plane took off, I said bye to Las Vegas and God blessed me with a wonderful aerial view of the Las Vegas strip as my flight flew over the city. I felt a little weird. I was leaving home.

Now that I'm in the process of moving into my apartment in New York, things are fun but different. I'm getting adjusted to the noise outside my window, the fight to get places through Times Square, the marked up food prices, and the confusion in the subway systems depending on the time of day. Everything is so different when I think about home now.

But there's one thing that's not different, and that's the comfort and the "home" I have in God. Even though everything around me is unfamiliar, I am familiar with the peace I have in God to the point where it feels like another home. It's been a nice reminder that my true home, my citizenship, is in God's nation. That's home. My true home has not changed and although there is the pressure for me to conform to the ways of the city, I can't do that fully, because I am living as a citizen of God.

"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." - 1 Peter 2:2:11-12

It's funny how Peter refers to us as aliens and strangers to the world. The initial feeling I get from that passage is that we don't belong here. But in actuality, I think we do. I think that this is a temporary place that God has placed us in to call home, but our true home - the home that we will long for, and the home that all of us will and should remember and look forward to in our lives, is God's home. We're here representing Christ :-).