Fast Like Bunny

Have you ever raced ahead, dear reader, as though you were able to outrun God, maybe get to that finish line first and figuratively, shove him out of the way as you pass him? The thought makes me laugh as utterly ridiculous ... and yet ...

I have a lot of energy, and I am fast like bunny. I used to run outdoors with a good friend that I thought was slow, at first: I learned quickly, she wasn't slow, I was too 

fast. Shortly into a run, I would say, I gotta walk. Eventually, she was my pacer, my slow and steady wins the race running partner, and I discovered the only way to keep up, was to slow down. I needed an outside of me monitor, someone that knew this truth: The race, is not to the swift:

Ecclesiastes 9:11

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 

How annoying! This wisdom, the one from Solomon, is informative:

• Fast bunnies don't always beat slow turtles
• Flexed and massive muscles may not matter against the scrawny and seemingly weak
• Wise people may suffer hunger 
• Men of understanding aren't promised riches
• Skilled men aren't guaranteed favor, and;
• Time and chance happen to all of us - we are all subject to aging and decaying, plus the feeling of happenstance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or right place at the right time

Now if I were a pessimistic sort of person, I might shrug my shoulders and say, Why bother, if effort doesn't change my "fate"; maybe I need not run, need not grow my physical, mental, financial, skillful muscles. If this indeed was the approach I had to this existence, it would be a spiritual statement: that winning in this life is all that matters; being the fastest, strongest, wisest, richest, most talented, able to beat the odds like no one else can, to win against the wiles of time and the uncertainty of chance. But I am not a pessimist, I am, a believer. 

I believe that God made me, and that while I did not get godly leadership from the world, I tried desperately hard to lead myself, run to catch up, and at times, thought God was far to slow, meandering even. Lately, as my outside in moderator, he has taken me from a fast like bunny pace, to a slow as a snail glide. Even writing this has me hunching my back, as I try to hide from the truth, that man alive, any and all capability I have to run, to walk, to crawl, to stay still, come from him! 

Ability is a gift from God, dear reader. How delightful?! 

Realizing that all blessings, including learning that I am not the boss of me, are from the hand of God, is humbling. The lights in the sky, the air we breath, my ability to type my thoughts and your ability to soul brush with my concepts and perhaps agree ... feel the same spirit of godly love, is astounding. None of this has anything whatsoever to do with the psychical realm, and yet it impacts how we feel in our bodies. How magnificent, that thought and then our senses, are positively and gloriously impacted! I practice these words of wisdom, and I want them to be my daily reminder, to keep my eyes on what God wants me to see. 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8)

And, I shall.