By the Pool of Bethseda there were a great many people;
blind, lame, paralyzed and sick waiting for the water to rise in the hopes it
would reach them so they could be healed. When Jesus encounters the man that
had been lying there for 38 years he cuts straight to the point and asks him a
simple question, “Do you want to be well?” You see Jesus already knows this
man’s story, he knows the man’s heart and he also knows what great plans he had
for him, just he knows our story and everything about us. It is a simple
question, direct to the point, and Jesus is asking it of you and me. Jesus died
for us. This means our debt is paid, that we are the free, forgiven and
justified children of God. This freedom and redemption means we are no longer
victims of circumstance. We need to make what Jesus has done for us bigger then
what has been does to us. Jesus is telling us to take up our mat and walk.
We all have a story to tell, the question is will you turn
over your life in order to have a better story? This is a part of my story.
Jesus Christ is the author, it’s a riveting tale, the final chapters are still
under construction, but the ending is sure to be the happiest of all; eternal
life, seated at the right hand of my God.
Before I started running, I could never run and I hated it.
It was hard, I was fat and I always got that shooting pain in my side. Growing
up I had to overcome trials that strengthened me and gaveme the tools I would
need for the life I was set to lead. By the time I got to high school I had a
big chip on my shoulder and didn’t want to be there or anywhere for that
matter. I had made a friend who was in most of my classes and lived up the
street from me; she was always urging me to go to Wednesday night youth group
at her church. I wanted nothing to do with it because I wanted nothing to do
with God, but she would not let up. She was also on the cross-country team and
when I asked her about it she encouraged me to give it a try. I don’t know what
I was thinking but I decided to give it a go. Much like I do with most things
in my life, I then became instantly obsessed with running. If I had a bad day,
I’d go for a run. If got into a fight or
was angry or depressed, I’d go for a run. Soon I began waking up very early
before school to run in addition to my afterschool training for the team. As
time progressed, I spent time with my friend’s family and it became a family
effort to try and get to me go to church. I eventually gave in and began going
to not only youth group on Wednesday, but also Sunday school and church services
every Sunday. This was just the beginning of the better story God had in story
for me as God and running would become the two biggest passions in my
life. And running would be the very
thing that would connect me to God.
In the summer of 2000 before my senior year of high school
when I was 16, I was baptized with my boyfriend. I was surrounded by friends,
family and loved ones sharing this special day with my boyfriend who I thought
I’d be marrying and spending the rest of my life with. A short time later one
darkest days in my life occurred. On September 29, 2000, when I was 17, before
school while running on the treadmill listening to the news when I heard the
news report that would forever change my life. My boyfriend had been in a fatal
car accident. My life came crashing down around me. At first I reached out to
God and my church family but it quickly became too painful for me to be in the
place where we would stand hand in hand worshiping without him. Even my release
of running began to fail me as I would run by spots where my boyfriend would
have waited for me early in the morning to surprise me just so he could see me
before school. Nothing could comfort my pain, nothing could stop the hurt; I
was angry and broken. I became a victim of circumstance. I turned my back on
God because that is what I felt like he did to me. My grades fell and I wasn’t
able to participate on the cross-country team, I dropped out of school because
I didn’t see a future for myself. All I wanted was for things to end; I even
made a feeble attempt at suicide.
That chip on my shoulder was back, it was big and heavy and
it was weighing me down. I had a death wish and I lived my life recklessly. In
2003, God had had enough of my hijinx and answered this wish, in his loving
all-knowing power. He knew what was really in my heart, and death was not the
answer. God had bigger plans for me; He was not done shaping me yet to do His
work. It was time for me to stop lying by my pool of misery and get well.
I have a crystal clear memory of that late Saturday night,
when I was 19, on February 9th on the way home from Hollywood with a couple of
friends, me in the back seat. The car we were in had a mechanical failure and
shut down. There was no place to pull over where two freeways come together, no
way to get to the shoulder, so we were stopped in the gore point, the tiny
island between the merger of two freeways. We were scared. I reached for my
purse to grab my phone instinctively feeling the need to call my parents.
That’s when I saw the headlights coming right for us. They tell you if you are
more relaxed you tend not to get as injured in a car accident. I saw those
headlights I froze with fear, I stiffened up and I called out to my friends,
“Oh God a car!” In that moment I was calling out to God also. There was a
bright light and it was loud as we were spinning across the freeway. It
happened so fast, and when it was over both of my friends in the front were
unconscious. I remember instantly thinking they were dead. I tried to reach
down to unbuckle myself and I was screaming at them to wake up. The driver woke
up first and then the passenger. That’s when the pain set in. When I had seen
the lights and stiffened up it caused me to break out and up through the rear
window, saving my life. The car that hit us had been coming full speed and
rear-ended us. I could have shot straight up to the ceiling and fatally broken
my neck, but that was not supposed to be my story.
I had broken my hips, my pelvis, part of my lower spine; my
right hip had been shattered where a portion of it had come completely apart.
Instantly I had gone from having that death wish to begging God to save me. I
cried out to God and Jesus asked me, “Do you want to get well?”
On Valentine’s Day 2003, I had surgery on my hips; they
installed hardware to repair my right hip. They did an exploratory surgery on
my abdomen because my organs had gone into shock and my stomach had stopped
working. The doctors told me running would no longer be an option. I should be
thankful to be alive. They said my recovery was going to be a long and
difficult road. I spent my 20th birthday in the hospital. Although the pain
continued to be excruciating I was determined to prove those doctors wrong, I
vowed that I would run again someday, and I knew God would provide the way. I
was in the hospital for about a month and in that time I spent a lot of time
watching TV, and I came across an infomercial for a Pilates DVD. After viewing
a few times I ordered it because it looked like something I could do my hospital
bed. Once I got out of the hospital, I did my Pilates DVD morning and night,
coupled with my physical therapy and I was able to walk a couple months ahead
of the doctors’ time line. Hallelujah! Throughout my recovery I was constantly
reminded that God’s grace was sufficient for me, His strength was made perfect
in my weakness.
In the coming years I spent some time figuring things out, I
went back to college, I started going to church again and as time progressed
and my pain eventually became tolerable I began going to the gym. I turned my
life back to the LORD and trusted in his perfect plan for me. I still had it in
the back of my mind that I was going to one day run again. By 2006 I had
transferred from a junior college to a university and found the church where I
remain a member of to this day. I began regularly attending and rekindled the
joy I felt in worship, the strength I needed was not only physical but
spiritual as well. One summer afternoon I decided to try and go for a run,
praying God lead the way I laced up and went for a run. As I ran I experienced
no pain, only indescribable joy and freedom so I continued on and on. I think I
ran for almost an hour, long enough to get sunburnt.
After that day I continued with my running, completing my
first half marathon, the Santa Clarita Half Marathon in November of 2007. My
first full Marathon was in March of 2008. This year I hit my 50th half
marathon, and I’ll be running my 6th full marathon.
I continue to run with endurance the race set before us
looking to Jesus the author and finisher of my faith. Running is my way of
praising God; it is my personal time of worship with him. When suffering
becomes unbearable, fix your hope on future deliverance and future glory, the
things of this world are temporary. Take it from me and don’t become a victim
of circumstance and spend your life lying by the pool. Jesus is bigger than any
problem of this world. Choose to get well, chose life everlasting, choose
Christ. Any suffering we face will be far surpassed by the future glory that
awaits us; anything we know now is fleeting.
I chose to get well, and God chose to strengthen me to run
again. I choose to use my running, my story, as my testimony to spread the word
of Christ. I do not think that any of the things I have gone through have been
in vain. I realize now that the Lord has been spiritually training me, so that
I may use my gifts to reach out to others and share the gospel, for I know I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and you can too!
I have taken this wonderful gift the Lord has bestowed on me
and am using it to the best of my ability to bring glory to his name It has
recently been put on my heart to show mercy on some of the most vulnerable of
God’s creatures the way he has shown mercy to me. I have given up the use of
any animal products, in all aspects, including food, products that test on
animals and anything that exploits them for entertainment. I feel that this
decision helps me to further glorify God because I am able to show kindness,
compassion and mercy to all of his creatures. Jesus himself tells us in Matthew
5, “blessed are the merciful.” God is leading me down a new path of life and I
am fully embracing the work he is doing within me.
I am truly blessed now to take the things I am most
passionate about; my love for Jesus, running and animals and use them to help
spread the Good News. I have the honor of running the Berlin Marathon as a part
of Team Farm Sanctuary this September. I know that the Lord has given me this
wonderful opportunity so that I may declare all that he has done and continues
to do for me in this life. Farm Sanctuary is an organization which aims to
protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and
treats farm animals, and promote compassionate vegan living, ideals I hold very
dear to my heart. God has healed me and strengthened me to run my 6th marathon
for such a great cause. Countless animals will never be shown the love and
mercy they were intended for, they will never get a second chance like the one
I was given. Please consider making a donation to help the work of Farm
Sanctuary and together we can make a change in society.
Donate here, using the "Give now" button: https://give.everydayhero.com/us/miles-of-mercy-kilometers-of-kind-compassion#/?_k=2gi6qr
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