Ouch & more Ouch

So ~ yesterday I thought I would give it a try. I wanted to run 20 miles. Never done it before. But now that I think I am Superman, I thought that I would give it a try. I had the perfect afternoon (low temps & low humidity). My first 12 miles went fantastic ("I'm the king of the world," moment), but I made one very serious mistake. I failed to drink water along the course. Ooops. On mile 13 the body screamed, "stop." I started cramping up in the legs and I started experiencing cold chills. Yep - I was a mess. They call this being "dehydrated." Some of my running friends told me the day before that every 6 or 7 miles I should be consuming liquids. But did I listen to them? Nope. I felt too good. I was in a groove. Who needs water?

Our spiritual journey can resemble this scenerio as well. We cruising along in life at Mach 6 speed, the RPM's are in the red zone, we're making great time, and ~ pow! Ouch & more ouch. We run right through the pit stop. We fail to see that the fuel light is on.

In the gospels Jesus proclaims, "I am the life giving water." He later goes on to say that if we drink from him "we will no longer thirst." It surprising how many times we think we can go without this life giving water. We get to church once a month (at best), we go another month without a quiet time with our Creator, and then we wonder why we feel empty and dry inside.

I want to encourage you from my poor example of running to stop frequently to be refueld spiritually. Get involved in a small group. Go to church often. Make God your number one priority. Because if he's not your number one - you will experience, like me, ouch and more ouch! Water anyone???

See you on Sunday.

By the way.... I'm stoked about this Sunday. My Pastor friend from Ukraine, Sergei, will be joining us in the service! Don't miss out!