It is mid August and here in the south the heat is relentless. I have been training for a half marathon which means I am running 4 times per week. Recently I had put my run off for most of the day and when I realized I was out of excuses I laced up my shoes and hit the pavement. Did I mention it is August? Did I mention that it is HOT? Like crack an egg and watch it scramble on the street- HOT. It was towards the end of my run that I started ascending up a hill. My clothes were wet with sweat, my legs tired, my eyes were tired of squinting in the hot sun...I was spent. I forced myself to keep running I can only imagine that I must've looked like a garden snail, slowly & unenthusiastically trudging ahead. It was then when my tired self saw him. While I at best looked like a garden snail; he looked like a cheerful gazelle. I was heading up the hill and this man was heading down. Smiling so happy and his legs so graceful. I was jealous.
I was jealous that he was going down and I was going up. I was jealous that he was enjoying his run and I was suffering through mine. It was when I got to the top of the hill that I realized how wrong I was. You see at the top of the hill I had just climbed was a downhill slope for me to ease down much like he had just done. It also meant that the downhill slope I was going to enjoy had been an uphill slope for him. An uphill slope that had probably been difficult for him and that is why his cheer and grace was shining as he got to enjoy his downhill descent. You see if it weren't for the challenges of the big hills in a run we wouldn't appreciate the ease of the downhill descents.
Life. Our lives are full of hills and while currently I may be basking in the sunshine and rainbows of a current season; there is someone else struggling through a storm in theirs. It is so easy when in the midst of the struggle to look at someone else and see all the good things happening for them and wonder why our life can't be the same. The truth is we all have seasons that mirror the garden snail- seasons where we are fighting tooth and nail to make it another day. Wondering if the storm cloud over head will ever pass. Wondering where God is and why good things are happening for others while bad news continues to reign in your own life. It is in those moments that we compare our lives to others and lose all the joy inside of us. We find ourselves jealous of the graceful gazelle and forget that just a bit ago he was struggling too.
In this life we will face many hills. Some of those hills will feel so huge and unbearable that they will make us think we may not make it. While suffering on those hills we will look over to see someone smiling almost floating on air with the ease in their own life. But take heart...their smile comes from the joy and appreciation of the current ease because they too have faced some really big hills. If it weren't for the difficulty of going uphill we would never be able to bask and fully enjoy the downhill descent.
"Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises." James 5:13
Babbling Brooke
