GO! GO! GO!

I'm training for a half marathon. I'm crazy, I know, this has been established. Actually, I really enjoy running. However, I tend to be injury prone. Sprained ankles, stress fractures, and the like. We were supposed to run 6 miles today...I didn't finish my 6 miles. This was really hard for me. I was running, chugging along at my own little pace, and pain started shooting through my leg. I tried to push through, but couldn't, I knew I was injured. 


So - I had a 2 mile walk back to my car...and I had to walk slow. Thus I took time to contemplate.(I was actually really annoyed at first because it was just another thing to add to the list of bad things happening)


The trail we run is alongside a river. I began to contemplate this and came to the realization that God's grace is like the river, it's slow, steady constant. When there's a disruption (sin, distraction) the river flows differently, and seemingly faster. I applied this to God's grace -when we are struggling God's grace is poured out more fervently. 


This struck me in a profound way because the past two days have been filled with suffering for me, and I was beginning to feel frustrated and overwhelmed. Then I realized - God is with me, in this moment, in this trial His grace is being poured in great abundance unto my soul, and he is strengthening me.


 After realizing this, it started snowing. This was a wet, cold snow. It caused my sweatshirt to be damp. But I ended up looking at the snow as God's grace. The snow was a literal, physical, tangible (metaphorically) representation of God's grace. 
In the time of suffering I was gifted today, I was able to grow by contemplating God's grace. If I hadn't been forced to stop, I never would have taken the time to think about God's grace in my life. 


As a college student my life is a constant go, go, go. Work. Class. Homework. Meeting. Social event. Coffee date. Home. Prayer. Mass. go. go. go. There's little time to stop. There's little time to contemplate. It's easy to overlook the little blessings in day to day life. 


As I reflected on my time being forced to stop and slow down, I am thankful.
In addition, I realized how we need to stop more in our lives. Life is filled with little blessings. Will we keep overlooking them or will we stop to notice the way God's grace is a constant presence in our life? Will we stop so we can find the grace to remain joyful?


God speaks to us in the silence of our hearts. May seek quiet moments in our lives, so we may contemplate God's grace. 


Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you remember Christ crucified and be silent. 
-St. John of the Cross


What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love. 
-St John of the Cross

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

-Mother Teresa