Run

Kris and I took the boys to the Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge yesterday to walk around and basically, get me out of the house. We stopped by McDonald's on our way out to use our two free happy meal coupons. Got out of the house and had a cheap meal that I didn't have to prepare. I love it!

Once we got to the refuge, we walked around until we found a bench where we could sit and eat. I spent the entire meal looking for several things:

1. Alligators climbing out of the water to eat my babies.
2. Snakes trying to eat me.
3. Other visitors coming up on us who would think we were as ridiculous as I felt. Somehow it seemed wrong to be eating McDonald's at the most natural place in Volusia County.

After we finished our meal, we walked the trail on the perimeter of one of the marshes. The boys did great and enjoyed looking at all the different birds, alligators, fish and butterflies. We even saw a couple of bunnies.

We were heading to the exit when we decided to let Luke stretch his legs and run. Luke loves to run. He will run laps in our house, and when I ask him what he's doing he says, "I runnin'!" Kris assured me he would stay close and keep him safe. Luke would run and not look where he was going and inevitably veer off towards the water or snaky grass.

After grabbing him several times, Kris said, "Luke, man, watch where you're going!"

I laughed, "That's not his job. His job is to run."

After a few seconds, Kris made a comment about how that's just like God as our Shepherd and wouldn't it be nice if we trusted Him the way Luke trusted us. I've been thinking about that all day.

God is our Shepherd. His job is to mark out our path, lead us, keep us heading in the right direction, gently put His hand on our shoulder and redirect us when our souls are veering away from Him. Luke wasn't the least bit worried that while he wasn't looking we might forget to watch him. He didn't fret for one second that we might accidentally let him fall into the water or let him get lost. He was just enjoying the run. And you want to know what he was looking at? Us. All he needed to know is that we were there, so he kept turning his eyes on us.

God has put me on the ground. He's given me His promise. The only job left is for me to run.

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." Hebrews 12:1,2