Running with Heart

So today it begins. I decided to join the blogging world for 6 months and see where it goes.
The Challenge: to integrate two of my top three loves in life - running and God - every day.
How I plan to do it: I get up pretty early each morning and spend it with God, then run, so I plan to read one chapter from the Bible each morning and then figure out a way to integrate some part of it into my run. I want the things I am reading to really effect me and my day, and I am hoping that this little experiment may do just that.
I'm beginning in 1 Samuel with the story of David. Way back before Jesus' time, God's chosen people asked for a king. God told them He was their king but they persisted and He gave them Saul. A while later, a prophet named Samuel is asked by God to anoint a new king after Saul has been “rejected by God.” Samuel is afraid to obey since Saul is still king and he doesn't want to anger him, but he does what God asks. Samuel travels to Jesse's house and has each of his sons - he has a lot of them - walk before him but God rejects each one. Finally, somewhat confused I'm sure, Samuel asks Jesse if he has any other sons. He says there is still the youngest, David, but he is out tending the sheep. Apparently there was no way Jesse or any of his older sons thought David could be chosen so they didn't even bother bringing him in. Samuel calls him, God chooses him, Samuel annoints him to be king, and David goes back to tending sheep! Meanwhile Saul is suffering terribly from the tormenting of an evil spirit, and he asks for a harp player to be brought in to comfort him – ENTER David! Now the scene is set for David to begin his rise to king, all in God's timing and without any effort on David's part. To quote Andy Stanley, "He just kept doing what anyone would do who knew God was with him."
This story encourages me. It reminds me that God has a plan in motion well outside of me yet it includes me. He will work out whatever it is He has for me, I just need to keep trusting and living in the faith that He hasn't forgotten me. Samuel had to have his doubts when he was annointing some little shepherd boy to be king...but God didn't. He knew what was in David's heart. Samuel had to be almost laughing out loud at God's choice. Today on my run I will laugh at the ways God has chosen me for His purposes when there are so many others out there so much more "equipped." At each mile I will thank Him for the ways He has searched out my heart and ask Him for the patience to let Him set the pace.