Live Life Inspired

A little over a year ago, I suddenly started receiving emails from Zondervan, a Christian publishing organization. I get a Daily Inspiration email and a NIV Daily Bible Verse email. I was perplexed because I didn't remember signing up for such emails, and it came in my "real" email address, not the one I use for shopping / signing up for lists. But I didn't stop the emails, because I enjoyed them and they helped me. Zondervan started a blog, so I went there and checked it out. As soon as I got there, I was delighted. The design and color schemes were simple and welcoming. And the title of the blog? "Live Life Inspired". Kinda describes how I feel about life, both spiritually and artistically. I like it! Then I scrolled down and found this post by Keith Finnegan, "Grieving With Hope", which floored me. It describes exactly that Steven Curtis Chapman song which surrendipitously played on my iPod that one day when I went running. I talked about it here a month ago. It's like God is steadily reassuring me of His hope as I go through the grief of losing my mom. God is SO good and amazing! Another obervation hit me this morning... I went running because I am SO close to a certain goal I had set for myself. (I will probably achieve the goal this Sat, so stay tuned.) I decided to reverse part of my regular route because I was lazy. My regular route had a big hill towards the end and I thought if I reversed that part, the run would be easier. I was wrong! All kinds of hills during the route surprised me. I've run this route many times and I had never noticed when I was going downhill. But in reverse, I sure noticed the UPHILL parts! As I struggled uphill for almost one kilometer, I thought to myself, "Why don't we ever notice the downhills and only the uphills?" Then I thought, this applies not only to running, but to our spiritual life as well. When things are going great for us and we're coasting downhill, we don't tend to stop and thank God for those moments. Then when things turn uphill and we're struggling a little bit, all of a sudden we notice and we go back to God and pray, give thanks, ask for strength, draw closer to Him. So my goal is to start noticing the "downhills" and enjoy them and thank God for them! :-)