Unexpected Answer to Prayer

Perhaps you aren't the "praying type."

Perhaps you didn't know you can have a relationship with God.

Perhaps you do and you did, but its hard to wrap your head around the fact that He cares about all the details of your life, even the ones that you think fall short of "worthy of God's time."

I struggle sometimes with that last one. Sure I pray over and for the small stuff, but I tend to forget God in the dailiness of life once in awhile.

More than once, He has reminded me He indeed cares and in fact delights in me.

This morning was one of those times.

The past few weeks I've had some dull knee pain, some hints of shin spints both growing more and more prevalent with every run. Glance at my training log and you'll see the culprit. Its time for new shoes. 400+ miles in my Mizunos and they are ready. My last pair I wore to threads to the point when I brought them into Fleet Feet to trade up, the salesman (whom I know) insisted I never put the old ones on again "not another step in those!"

New shoes. I drool at the thought. I've worked hard in my running, building up consistency. I'm 3 weeks into training for my first half marathon, and 5 mos. from my first full, both registered. I'm on a roll. A talk with the hubs and he confirms what I feared. "$100 shoes are not in the budget right now." We are scrambling to save for a trip to Maine for my SIL's wedding, me and my three daughters are all in it so its not exactly a trip we put off.
Last night we sat talking, "I can't take one more run in them, I can't risk an injury if I push too far, and not be able to run for who knows how long." I tell him as I knead the outside of my throbbing knee. "I don't know what to tell you Jes." "I know, I know, I just have to drop the running." just saying it outloud I feel the slightest threat of tears. That night I lay in bed praying. See, I'm not fast, or strong, by anyones standards, but running is no less a passion. And for months now, I've felt like I should be using this passion to glorify God, even though it completely escapes me how to do this. A 8mm pace doesn't quite have the same impact as say Ryan Hall's. But the pull towards this is unmistakeable. I can completely relate to Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire when he says, "When I run I feel His pleasure." Still, like everything else, I must leave it up to God. "If You really want this for me, then You'll have to provide the way, cuz I have no clue what to do next. And if you don't want this for me, then I'll just have to be ok with that too."

Then there was evening, and then there was morning, the next day. LOL. I get up, and check my email, and RIGHT THERE on the top is a message from pebaxpowered.com "Congratulations, you are the winner of a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 12 running shoes." HA! Cool, right? Some sweepstakes I haphazardly entered in months ago and promptly forgot about. I think I clicked on some ad here on RW. Please know I am not exaggerating when I tell you I have NEVER won a stinkin' thing in my entire 27 years. I don't even know why I enter.

:) Now, some might call it all coincidence, and I sincerely hope you don't take this as any sort of negative way when I say "but I know better." Answers from God aren't always that obvious, nor do they seem to come that fast most of the time, nor are they always answered the way I want, but its happened often enough to squelch any doubt. And even those NOT answered how I'd like, are ALWAYS proved to be for the best.