Stretching: Physical and Spiritual

I'm training for my first marathon this fall. It has been a lifelong dream since I was a little girl. I was watching Jean Benoit win the first woman's marathon at the Olympics when this dream was born.

Along the way I have run into some bumps and bobbles. Recently, I was concerned about a month ago when I thought I might be stumbling onto another bump. My calf was really really hurting. I could feel this weird knot in the middle of my calf. Took some time off and it came back. Kept icing it, stretching it, wearing compression socks, self messaging it, and praying that it would get better.

Of course I did the typical google search to self diagnose what was wrong and how to treat. I came upon something interesting. A man with the same symptoms had asked a doctor on one of those expert pages if he should be stretching. My first thought in the less than the second it takes to scroll down the page to find his answer was of course. Always stretch. It is always the best. But to my surprise, his answer was just the opposite. The doctor said the calf was probably stretched to the limit to where it took him down. What? Overstretching took him down. The solution: don't stretch until you can run without pain, then light stretching.

Sure enough I bought it, cause you know, I found it on the Internet. It has to be right. So, I've left it mostly alone for a couple of weeks. Today I was checking out my calf muscle to see if the asymmetrical bump was still there. Gone!

So I started thinking. How often in my spiritual life am I stretching myself to love God more deeply through worship, prayer, reading the Word, confessing sin, and to have Christlike character, do I stretch too far and hurt myself? I get sad and depressed that I can't "run" as fast or as much with God as my heart wants to just like I do when I can't physically run. What if the solution is to not stretch for a couple of weeks until the "bump" is gone? I don't mean drop the disciplines. I mean let go of my expectations and allow myself to sit at the feet of the One who can heal. Allow Him time to massage my "calf." Allow Him time to take my pain, until I'm ready to stretch again. Then to my surprise the "bump" goes away. I can run and stretch again. I can have a great long run with Him, my best friend, again without the pain.

I'm not depressed or sad for months on end because I didn't stretch myself or expect to stretch when God wasn't trying to stretch me either. I become at peace with who I am in Christ through the process. Sticking to the perfect "marathon" schedule is no longer the goal. It's to finish the race well and enjoy it along the way, with the One I love.