“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”
Psalm 17:15
The other morning, while enjoying an easy four miler, I noticed a farm truck approaching a two-way stop at an intersection, the same one I would soon be at. I am always leery as to whether I’ll make it to intersections first or at the same time, but this time I was able to quickly judge that I could make it in plenty of time to turn before the farm truck got to the stop sign, which would keep either of us from being confused.
I had judged correctly and by the time I had made my turn the guy had barely even pressed on the brakes. I knew his route and so didn’t turn around to see which way he was going but I smelled something that immediately triggered my brain and curiosity to look back at the truck. It was hot and smelled like burning rubber – hot brakes. The truck continued on as if everything was fine, so I did as well.
However as I continued running I realized how different circumstances and in this case, smells, can trigger memories in our mind. These triggers, within a flash, bring up memories from our past. Our minds are like the search engine on the internet, you type in some keywords and millions of things pop up within seconds. The reason those hot brakes triggered my memory was because one of my families vehicles at one point had a problem with sticky brakes. That smell of hot brakes was forever etched into my memory. The same thing happens when I smell a certain type of plastic, it brings back memories of a rain coat I wore to Kindergarten and I can remember hanging it up on the coat hook in the small classroom.
Our brains are amazing and can react in a flash. We think on average 50 thoughts per minute, 3,000 per hour and 70,000 per day. Most of these thoughts if you haven’t noticed are sub-conscience. We have no idea we are thinking them, it’s just a part of who we are. Last night as I thought about the Holy Spirit living inside of us, I was shocked by the realization that we literally have someone in us that knows every bit of wisdom and knowledge on this earth and in eternity, someone that knows every detail of every verse in scripture!
When I saw the verse above on a friends social media status I skimpy read over it and moved on. But my spirit seemed to repeat it to me word for word even after I had put my phone down. It intrigued me seeing as it was not a verse I had ever remembered reading and therefore had not memorized in any way, so I went back to the verse and read it again.
“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”
Psalm 17:15
Why did this strike me so much? It was the mere fact that I had previously been feeling down and under the weather, partly because it was cold, partly because my workouts have not been the greatest, but mostly because I had become unsatisfied. I had taken my eyes off of Jesus and started looking to other “things” to fulfill my deepest longings. I felt useless and purposeless again. Yesterday these feelings triggered thoughts in my memory – thoughts of my past when I was consistently looking to other things and other people to fulfill my soul’s desires. Then I began feeling a nudge from the Holy Spirit to look back to Jesus and stop looking at the world and everything I was trying to achieve.
Earlier this morning I read an article of running with Jesus, saved months earlier, that seemed to echo this very thing. The article was about what this lady had learned in training for her first 5k. The only one that really stuck with me was that she needed to keep her eyes on the finish line. She had experienced the same things I had and it brought those memories fresh to my mind. As we run with our eyes on ourselves, we struggle in pain to just put one foot in front of the other. But as soon as we put our eyes on Jesus, we run the fastest and most effortless mile of our entire race. It can’t be a coincidence.
I am grateful to God for reminding me to get back on track of looking to Jesus because He alone is my satisfaction. And to think that this reminder all started with the smell of hot brakes! What a creative God!
I pray that you find your satisfaction in Christ alone. Love ya’ll!
Until next time, Happy Running!
Be Still and Run 