Have you ever watched rust as it eats?
For whatever reason, it has a never ending appetite for metal.
Personally, I don't understand why it likes the stuff so much.
Hard on the teeth.
Maybe that's why God didn't give rust teeth.
Leave a nice looking, garage-kept car sitting on a patch of green, fertile ground over just one winter and see what happens. This nice, garage-kept car will emerge from the moisture-saturated ground with reddish-brown little speckles all along the underneath. It doesn't take much. And once it begins, it's almost impossible to stop.
Now, leave a human body, built for movement, infused with hundreds of muscles complimenting its neighbor, in a house over one long cold winter and see what happens. This human body built for movement will grow soft. His or her body will grow speckles of rust on those spectacular muscles. This is what happened to me this past winter. I grew soft. Rusty. Way out of shape. Even work, throughout the season, wasn't enough to keep the rust away.
So begins Project:Rust Off. As the temperature rises, as the sun peeks its glorious round shining face, I am making myself knock the rust off. Monday started it all off. Low 50's with a slight breeze out of the west. Jogged two miles down the country road. Then walked a mile to loosen those spectacular muscles God embedded inside. Yesterday was cold again. So I gave my legs a day to recover from Day 1. But today, as I returned from work around 3 in the afternoon, I couldn't help but get the running itch once again. Mid-50's with a lesser wind than Monday. I pulled my car into the driveway. Booked it down the stairs to my room. Tore off my work clothes, replacing them with basketball shorts, a long-sleeve undershirt, and a t-shirt. I laced up my neon green and white New Balance running shoes, titled Zips, and headed outside. Taking a deep breath and stretching my tight legs, I examined the road which would be my path for the next few minutes. Then, with little warning, my body took off. Maybe before my mind could even mutter the phrase: "Hold on!" There I went... my soft body bouncing down the gravel road, heading west into the breeze.
Day 2 of Project:Rust Off was, as expected, more difficult. Though the same two miles beckoned me on from Monday, I could tell early that this battle would be won or lost in my mind. My mind didn't want to do this. It wanted to stop, turn around, walk back home, and chomp down on one of those tasty glazed donuts. It seemed an every-second war with stopping. But I set my eyes on the ground right before me and attempted to distract my mind with thoughts of this coming summer. Reaching the one mile turnaround point, all the gravel roads here are exactly one mile apart, the arrows flinging at my will increased. It was there, that I came so close to putting the brakes on. If it wasn't for the car steaming down the road, causing me to shift my position, I probably would have stopped there. But I came to the intersection and began heading back east. The arrows continued to fly. My body did not like this at all. But I kept going. And going. And going. Until... I pulled to a halt back in my driveway, grabbed my water bottle from next to my car, and collapsed to the ground. I know it isn't good to lay down immediately after running, but it was all I knew to do. I had fought the battle. I saw my run through. And now I needed to rest. I breathed hard. My lungs wrenching from the drama I just put them through. I dumped half the water bottle down my neck and back. It felt good, like jumping into a cool spring after hiking 10 miles on a humid day. After sitting for a few minutes, listening to the flies wake up from their winter slumber and buzz loudly behind me, I stood up to feel the damage. Surprisingly, I could move. To finish the days activities, I decided to shoot hoops for about 40 minutes. With each bounce of the ball, more and more of that rust shed from my skin. I moved swifter. More intentional. It all felt very good. Very, very good.
I will continue.
For whatever reason, it has a never ending appetite for metal.
Personally, I don't understand why it likes the stuff so much.
Hard on the teeth.
Maybe that's why God didn't give rust teeth.
Leave a nice looking, garage-kept car sitting on a patch of green, fertile ground over just one winter and see what happens. This nice, garage-kept car will emerge from the moisture-saturated ground with reddish-brown little speckles all along the underneath. It doesn't take much. And once it begins, it's almost impossible to stop.
Now, leave a human body, built for movement, infused with hundreds of muscles complimenting its neighbor, in a house over one long cold winter and see what happens. This human body built for movement will grow soft. His or her body will grow speckles of rust on those spectacular muscles. This is what happened to me this past winter. I grew soft. Rusty. Way out of shape. Even work, throughout the season, wasn't enough to keep the rust away.
So begins Project:Rust Off. As the temperature rises, as the sun peeks its glorious round shining face, I am making myself knock the rust off. Monday started it all off. Low 50's with a slight breeze out of the west. Jogged two miles down the country road. Then walked a mile to loosen those spectacular muscles God embedded inside. Yesterday was cold again. So I gave my legs a day to recover from Day 1. But today, as I returned from work around 3 in the afternoon, I couldn't help but get the running itch once again. Mid-50's with a lesser wind than Monday. I pulled my car into the driveway. Booked it down the stairs to my room. Tore off my work clothes, replacing them with basketball shorts, a long-sleeve undershirt, and a t-shirt. I laced up my neon green and white New Balance running shoes, titled Zips, and headed outside. Taking a deep breath and stretching my tight legs, I examined the road which would be my path for the next few minutes. Then, with little warning, my body took off. Maybe before my mind could even mutter the phrase: "Hold on!" There I went... my soft body bouncing down the gravel road, heading west into the breeze.
Day 2 of Project:Rust Off was, as expected, more difficult. Though the same two miles beckoned me on from Monday, I could tell early that this battle would be won or lost in my mind. My mind didn't want to do this. It wanted to stop, turn around, walk back home, and chomp down on one of those tasty glazed donuts. It seemed an every-second war with stopping. But I set my eyes on the ground right before me and attempted to distract my mind with thoughts of this coming summer. Reaching the one mile turnaround point, all the gravel roads here are exactly one mile apart, the arrows flinging at my will increased. It was there, that I came so close to putting the brakes on. If it wasn't for the car steaming down the road, causing me to shift my position, I probably would have stopped there. But I came to the intersection and began heading back east. The arrows continued to fly. My body did not like this at all. But I kept going. And going. And going. Until... I pulled to a halt back in my driveway, grabbed my water bottle from next to my car, and collapsed to the ground. I know it isn't good to lay down immediately after running, but it was all I knew to do. I had fought the battle. I saw my run through. And now I needed to rest. I breathed hard. My lungs wrenching from the drama I just put them through. I dumped half the water bottle down my neck and back. It felt good, like jumping into a cool spring after hiking 10 miles on a humid day. After sitting for a few minutes, listening to the flies wake up from their winter slumber and buzz loudly behind me, I stood up to feel the damage. Surprisingly, I could move. To finish the days activities, I decided to shoot hoops for about 40 minutes. With each bounce of the ball, more and more of that rust shed from my skin. I moved swifter. More intentional. It all felt very good. Very, very good.
I will continue.
1 comment:
Good for you, keep up the running……aw man, now I feel guilty for not running myself. I procrastinate too well sometimes. Ok, you've inspired (or shamed) me, today I will run. :P
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