Not My Own

Last week Shannon (my boss) showed me a picture of her on facebook from before she started making a habit out of walking.  She pointed out how her whole body has slimmed down, even her face.  I hadn't really looked at my face as any different from a few years ago so I looked at some pictures of myself.

Before

After

I have definitely slimmed down.  Which is great.  I am healthier than I have ever been.  My "stats" are all great.  My BMI is a low normal, my blood pressure is awesome, my heart rate is lower than average.
But.
Because I am now considered an "athletic" person I am asked about my routine and what I feel about food and exercise a lot.  And I talk about it a lot.  When it becomes a part of your daily life it becomes a big part of who you are and that inevitably ends up in conversation.  I want to make sure that I am open about my beliefs on health and fitness without isolating it from an even bigger part of my life.  So I want to share a bigger picture idea today.

My health, as much as I work on it, is not my own.  Ultimately, as with everything else in this life, my health belongs to God.  Everything I have is on loan from Him and can be taken from me at any time.  My God has blessed me with good health and has allowed the benefits of my caring for my health.  At any given moment, He can decide He wants something different for my life that could take that all away and I have to be okay with that, because He is All Powerful and All Knowing.

He allows the stomach flu to hit us hard simply by touching the wrong door handle.  He allows missed steps to blow out knees.  He isn't in the habit of looking away only to look back and see someone was hit by a bus.  He knew it was happening, He made it to be.  He isn't surprised when the dianosis is cancer.  And any of this could easily happen to me.

It is by the grace of God I am where I am, and it will be by the grace of God if any of these things were too happen.  I have to be able to accept what He has in store for me because His plans are better than my own.

This isn't to say that I will stop working diligently on my health, but I will rejoice in it.  Every run is God given!  And I will pray that if the time ever comes, I can rejoice in whatever other circumstances come my way, even if it means I never run again.