Like the wind

In High School, it seems that everybody finds their niche. I was a teenage drama queen, which essentially means that I was in school plays AND over-dramatized everything in real life. But before the stage bug bit me, I ran track.

As hard as this is to believe now, and to quote Forrest Gump, I could run like the wind blows when I was young. I was the anchor on both the 400m and 800m relay teams – which means I brought up the rear. My mother drove all over the countryside taking me to track meets, the ultimate goal being the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Our team had a great coach who spent hours training us in technique and endurance, and I can remember the pep talk he gave before we ran that day.

Running the last leg has both its advantages and disadvantages. If your teammates get your team out in front – you know it – and if you are way behind – you know that too. So, as the baton finally reached me at the Penn Relays, I knew we were in dead last place with a huge distance between us and every other team on the track.

My parents still have the trophy we won. It clearly says we came in 7th place, but it’s been saved for another reason, because when I grabbed the baton that day I ran so hard and made up so much distance, that I passed ONE other runner. I kept us out of 8th and my mother and coach cheered me all the way in, because there were only 8 teams. We didn’t altogether lose.
I can still remember that great passing feeling, sort of like leaving the other runner in the dust (which was really only a nose at the finish line). The feeling was an entity in and of itself, the fact that we didn’t win was secondary, you know?

I think that’s what it means in the Bible when it talks about the PEACE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING. When we are so trusting of God, so sure that He is good, the feeling of peace within us takes precedent over the desire to understand everything – even the tough stuff. It does not mean that we are naïve or simple-minded. I am not afraid to ask God very hard questions, yet even the things that I do not understand or the questions He refuses to answer cannot shake my sense of surety and faith.

There are many moments when understanding seems to be left in the dust, but peace is its own entity – not dependent on what I do or do not know. So, even though I don’t always know which way the wind blows, peace passes my need to – and I never altogether lose.