a new pair of shoes

Today I am buying new running shoes. My current pair has 4 full months of marathon training and a marathon. Not only has the tread worn off the bottom but they look worn and feel worn. I can always tell when I need new shoes. It's not so much from the obvious physical appearance of the shoes, it's how they make my legs feel.

I can never part ways with my running shoes. They are a part of me. They symbolize way more than miles. They symbolize freedom. Those shoes take me places I've never been. I've learned how to overcome fear, how to love my husband more, how to love my kids more, how to trust. I've broken chains while running in those shoes. But it's time for a fresh pair. It's a new season, a new marathon and new revelations.

Today my running shoes will become shoes I leave in the garage for mowing the yard. Out with the old, in with the new. But I won't forget all that I learned while running in them. I won't forget the things my Heavenly Father told me. I won't forget the prayers I prayed, the tears I cried or the anger I released.

My new running shoes will serve a new purpose. Maybe a faster marathon time. Maybe a few new running routes. I learn new things about who I am. I will talk to God about the new chains to break. I will dream new dreams, meet new friends, sing new songs and experience God deeper. I will be refined, taught, and grow as I put on a new pair of shoes and run the race set before me.

Hebrews 12:1 (The Message)

Hebrews 12

Discipline in a Long-Distance Race

1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!