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| People always ask me, why do you like to run? Then when they hear I run marathons (26.2 miles) they are even more confused. There are many reasons why I like to run and honestly many reasons why I do not like to run. Sometimes when I think of running another marathon I want to barf...seriously. But then i think of the last marathon I ran 5 years ago and I get excited.
It was my senior year in college and I was about to run the Chicago marathon. I was at the starting line waiting for the gun to go off when two women in their 50s approached me. They pointed to the back of my shirt and said great verse! I had Philippians 4:13 taped onto my back. “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” They then turned around and showed me the same verse that had been neatly ironed onto the backs of their shirts. We chatted a bit; they were old friends from Michigan and had been running this race together for years. It turned out that a couple years back a gentleman approached them before a race and said that the previous year he ran the entire race behind them and the verse was the only thing that got him through it. The next year he too had the verse on the back of his shirt. Before I knew it the gun had gone off and we quickly said our goodbyes. That year I had great hopes for myself..I was trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I was looking pretty good until I got to mile 10. I hit a wall. It was the worst I had ever experienced, my legs were cramping, I felt like I was going to die. So at mile 11 I started to walk. After 5mins of walking I heard two voices behind me….HEY REMEMBER YOUR VERSE! Before I knew it I felt two bodies next to me, they both linked my arms and I was running again. One of the ladies had me repeat the verse over and over again, while the other dug through he fanny pack to get me some Motrin. They ran with me for 2 miles. Encouraging me, repeating our verse. After 2 miles I had a second wind, they encouraged me to go ahead. After I finished the race I looked for them. In the crowds of thousands of ppl I found them in less than 10 mins….I couldn’t stop hugging them. I didn’t qualify for Boston that year, but it was seriously by Gods grace that I finished in the time that I did…or finished at all. To this day it’s my best marathon time.
It took 5 long years but I am once again getting ready to return to good old Chicago for the marathon. Only this time I'm training hard, still hoping to qualify for Boston, but running for a greater purpose. 14 members from my church in NJ and I are teaming up with World Vision to raise money for children, families and communities in need. But we can't do it without your help! Every little bit counts ;) If you'd like to contribute please visit my site.
http://www.firstgiving.com/theresaha
THANKS EVERYONE! :)
"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish
the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of
testifying to the gospel of God's grace." -Acts 20:24
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| If you’ve had the pleasure of talking to me the past week or so…I apologize. This week has been a pity feast for me. Woe is me! I’m such a drama queen. But then today God blessed me. Floods of scripture and blessings throughout the week that I totally took advantage of, God showed me that He is good…He has a plan and as long as I’m fighting to stay on His path...I’m all good ☺
Ive been trying to read through the bible chronologically and come on lets all be honest, there are some books in the OT you just want to skip. Sadly I have reached that part ….yes I’m talking about Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. UGH! I thought reading through Job was hard. But then the other day I came upon a passage that made me realize how important it is for me to read everything. I read Leviticus 15:25-28. Basically the Lord was giving Moses and Aaron directions to give to the Israelites about discharge causing uncleanness. In verses 25-28, it goes into depth about a woman’s discharge and that she will be unclean as long as she has it. Any bed she lies...anything she sits on...whoever touches her will become unclean. Its not until 7days after she is cleansed from her discharge that she will be ceremonially clean. Basically no one will want to go near her or touch anything she touches because then they too will be unclean. If they do, they must wash their clothes, bathe with water and will be unclean till evening.
After reading this I flipped to Matthew 9:18-22.
“Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years came up behind him (Jesus) and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.’ Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Take heart daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed from that moment.”
We’ve all heard this passage before and I know I speak for all sisters when you hear bleeding for 12 years you immediately think…ugh that’s a bummer! And your heart goes out to the gal and think, that Jesus... so awesome! But it wasn’t until I read Lev that I realized just how much this woman was suffering. Not only was she bleeding physically for TWELVE years! But for 12 years no one wanted anything to do with her. Socially she was an outcast, considered dirty. Then came a man named Jesus who in a second healed her…physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Jesus literally gave her life. Throughout the book of John, all the miracles Jesus performs he meets ALL the ppls needs. He feeds them, gave them sight, teaches them. He always meets their physical need, but he doesn’t stop there. He empowers them with more. He gives them a purpose…a life of worshiping God. In John 9 Jesus heals a man who was blind since birth, in verse 38 the man declares “Lord I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Today God fed me physically, emotionally and spiritually. My amazing sister called me around 11am and told me she had all my meals covered for the day. She called local restaurants and paid for my meals, all I had to do was go pick them up. Today God used my sister to feed me physically. The past couple days ppl have been emailing, texting, calling, sending me packages and praying for me…telling me that I’ll be fine on my boards….that God is in control. I took it for granted but now I realize I am so blessed. So loved…more than I deserve. My mom called last night and left me a message that everyone, including Ella and Ryan, are praying for me, made me happy. Today God fed me emotionally. After I hung up with my sister I did my quiet time in John. Jesus just received word that Lazarus was sick.
Jesus said,” This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” (4-6)
Jesus already had a plan. He loved them and yes he could have gone there immediately and healed Lazarus and spared Mary and Martha pain, but he had a plan and in the end God was glorified and more came to believe. Then God said to me, why are you stressing? Haven’t I always taken care of you? When you didn’t understand what I was doing in the past, didn’t I always bless you? My plan is always greater than yours so relax. Have faith. I love you and have you covered. Pass or fail, God has provided enough love, support and prayer to care for an army. I have nothing to worry about. Today God fed me spiritually.
Thanks everyone for everything. I’m gonna go into my exam tomorrow with confidence that God is in control and pass or fail…life will go on and that life is good. ☺
“O, Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.” –Psalm 84:12
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| Hello xanga world. Anyone out there?
I wish ppl would start writing again. I know I can’t say anything since I too have betrayed xanga and crossed over to the impersonal world of facebook. But I’m slowly beginning to see the loss of moving to facebook. I don’t know what ppl are thinking anymore. All I know is who poked who, how many friends someone has and endless amounts of pictures. Don’t get me wrong…pictures are nice, but I miss thoughts.
I realize I haven’t written much about my experiences in New York. I guess you can say that up until recently I didn’t feel that there was much to talk about. I don’t live the glamorous life many ppl go to New York to live. I live in Brooklyn, which I think is adorable and full of character, but not very glamorous. I basically spent the last 1.5 years going to school, studying and instead of going out to cool clubs and restaurants on the weekends…I go to church in New Jersey. But now as I sit in my kitchen…two bachelor degrees later and still no job….I cant help but feel that Gods timing and plan in our lives is so beautiful.
Tonight I went to a missions presentation at my church. My pastor and a member of my church recently went to Kosovo for a vision trip. Honestly I don’t have any real interest in Kosovo, but for some reason I wanted to go. The presentation was actually very interesting but nothing registered with me until the end of the slideshow when he showed a picture of the missionary with three other gentlemen. It turns out that as they were driving to a different city to meet another missionary, they stopped for gas and the 3 men spotted the missionary. They went up to him and said that they remembered him from 6 years ago when they were returning refugees…had nothing and he was there handing out blankets, water, basically anything he could give to help them. The two older gentlemen were nearly in tears because they were so thankful for his kindness 6 years ago. I got chills. Afterwards as I went to pray all I could do was think about the missionary in Kosovo. A regular Korean man who decided one day that he would obey Gods calling to go to a war torn Kosovo and faithfully serve the men, women and children there. Then I got all these flashes of faces of the missionaries I knew around the world. In Thailand, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, etc. and the ppl getting ready to leave....to risk their lives…the lives of their families to obey God….to make Jesus famous…to bring God worship around the world. Doesn’t get more beautiful than that! But if you really think about it….its scary!!! It takes a lot of faith to obey! Because after I got all blessed from thinking of all the ppl who have gone out to spread the gospel God asked me…will you go? If I asked you to leave everything behind and go to a war torn country would you go? Ummmmmmm…….yes? I hope its a yes.
Couple days ago I was talking to a friend who has a hard time believing that God is worth leaving everything behind esp his family. To him, his family has been there for him all his life and to put God above them makes no sense. I totally understood what he was talking about. Family is my life. Leaving my family and moving to New York was one of the hardest things I had to do. Sometimes I miss my family so much it hurts. Missing out in anything upsets me esp when it comes to my niece and nephew. I love going home for long periods of time and seeing them basically everyday, up until the point where they ask for me the moment they wake up. Makes me so happy….you have no idea! But now I’m beginning to see that God brought me out here not only to learn to live without my family but more importantly to learn that I cannot live without Him. Family is not less...God is becoming so much more.
For the last month or so I’ve been replaying a moment I had in the car with my sister, niece and nephew. We were driving from New York to Chicago. It was getting pretty late and grace and I couldn’t wait til the kids fell asleep. Because annoyingly Ryan and Ella insisted that we listen to the same two songs over and over again. For almost an hour straight Grace and I endured Take It All and One Way Jesus. Finally we put our foot down. By this time we thought Ella fell asleep and Ryan being 3, we were able to reason with him. Two more times and no more! It’s time for eemo and mommy music. He agreed. Finally after the last One Way Jesus, we were ready for another cd. Then in the quiet roads of Pennsylvania, Ella…barely 2…whispers from the back seat…..more Jesus. Our hearts melted....we listened to the songs like 10 more times.
I think about that a lot. When my heart grows weary, annoyed….just want to move onto something else. I hear Ella say, more Jesus. Cheesy…maybe. But I really do believe that through the lips of my less than 2-year-old niece God has given me my theme for 2008....more Jesus.
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| Today as i was walking down the street i overheard two boys talking.
boy#1: "which one do you like more, apple jacks or frosted flakes?"
boy#2: thought for a moment and confidently responded "apple jacks."
boy #1: smiled in approval. "i like to call them aj's."
made me laugh. | | |
| If youre in the New York area you should come out.
Civilians Under Fire from Iraq to Somalia:
The Struggle for "Humanitarian Space"
Wednesday, June 6, 2007, at 7 pm, Reception at 6 pm
Cooper Union – The Great Hall
7 East 7th St. at 3rd Ave., New York.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/education/speakers/events.cfm | | |
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