"Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying..."

That's one of my favorite movie quotes, and it's from the movie "Shawshank Redemption." Last night while running, that quote hit me. Guess a lot of things "hit you" when you're running 5 miles. I thought about why I'm doing this and how I got to this point. I guess my friend Jason was my inspiration back in December.

Like I said in my first post, I had received some interesting health news last summer. I realized that even though my mind felt young (crazy as that sounds), my body wasn't in the shape it needed to be. So I started becoming serious about my health. Last year I started taking daily medications for high blood pressure (it was 170/110 instead of 120/80), Triglycerides (743... should be less than 150), and cholesterol (382... should be around 175).

Realizing that medication wasn't the only thing I needed, I started making healthier choices with my meals. Fish and vegetables became more appealing, I started portioning the sizes better, and I reduced the amount of "bad stuff" in my diet. That helped a lot, but it still wasn't enough. I was missing the third component: Exercise. Uugh!!!

Enter Jason. As everyone knows, as you're heading to the end of a year and the beginning of a new one, you start to evaluate where you are and where you want to go. Jason started talking up a fitness program for himself, as well as setting a goal to run a marathon. He even suggested a half marathon, and encouraged me to sign up for the Nashville Country Music 1/2 Marathon. So on December 31, that's what I did.

Last night as I was running, I thought about where I've been in all of these miles. And it hit me: "Get busy living!" I guess I haven't been doing that in the past several years. Now I'm invigorated with new goals for the year, and I can see myself achieving them!

Life will come at you with a lot of disappointments. Believe me, I know. You can choose to sit and dwell on the ugliness, or you can choose to go out and change your circumstances. To me, the most miserable "life" is one in which you don't see hope... or change. We'll go through many trials, but I truly believe that at the end of a trial we'll emerge stronger and changed for the better!

It's like running. When you go out for a run at a distance that you've never run before, it's a mini-trial. "Can I do this? How am I going to make it? Oh it's going to be painful!" Yet, when I complete a run that I've never completed before, I feel awesome! "Wow, I did it! I made it!" And you know what? I'm stronger for doing it.

Plus, like any trial, God isn't going to put you into something that He doesn't believe you're ready for. And the same goes for running. If I've followed my training schedule, then when it's time to make a difficult run I'll be prepared for it. Physically, I'm all over it! Mentally, that's where the problem is. And I think that's what happens to a lot of us as we go through life.

This Sunday I've got another milestone: 8 miles. Seriously, can you picture yourself doing 8 miles? Well, a few short months ago I couldn't. I guess I wasn't "living." Now, I'm LIVING so much it hurts! Literally! Ha! So that's my encouraging word to everyone today: GET BUSY LIVING!!!