{"id":440,"date":"2017-03-01T09:39:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T14:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=440"},"modified":"2017-03-01T09:43:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T14:43:50","slug":"the-runner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/01\/the-runner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Runner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/h6>\n
I’m going to be very transparent today…<\/h6>\n
There was a time in my life that I was a runner. Oh not the kind of runner who runs in marathons or sprint races\u2026No, not the honorable kind where you train for hours and at the end of the race you win a medal or a ribbon. I ran because I was scared.<\/h6>\n
I was scared to stop running because if I did I didn\u2019t know where I\u2019d end up; and so I ran and ran and ran. I\u2019d go to one place, hang out for a few months and then off to the races I\u2019d go again\u2026each time I stopped, I thought, this is the place I will settle down. This place will be home and I can finally get my life together and begin to live again. For fifteen years I ran. In fact I moved so much people told me I needed a house with wheels so all I needed to do was hook it up to my car and go. I was so tired of running\u2026but I could not stop.<\/h6>\n
I cried, I prayed, I begged, I pleaded\u2026but I could not find peace or rest for my weary soul. I couldn\u2019t go back to anywhere because anywhere was no longer there. I couldn\u2019t go forward because forward was not there yet; and I couldn\u2019t stay in the present because it was too painful to be still in one place for very long\u2026so I ran.<\/h6>\n
I ran from one miserable place to another\u2026but what I discovered was that the place was not miserable, I was.<\/h6>\n
My heart had been broken and it could not be mended. No matter how much Church I attended, no matter how utterly profound the message I heard was\u2026no matter how I begged God to forgive me and help me I could not find peace\u2026until one day\u2026<\/h6>\n
I began to say\u2026 \u201cGod, I forgive myself\u201d\u2026I knew God loved me. I knew I was His child\u2026but I could not forgive me\u2026maybe it stemmed from childhood upbringing\u2026dysfunctional living\u2026abuse\u2026abandonment\u2026all the ugly things we think are reasons\u2026I don\u2019t know\u2026all I know is that God forgives us when we ask Him too\u2026but He also tells us to forgive others and that includes ourselves.<\/h6>\n
You see, I didn\u2019t love me. I didn\u2019t think anyone else could love me either\u2026not even God. As years went by I began to understand that God\u2019s love isn\u2019t based on how good I am or how bad I am\u2026His love is unconditional and He forgives and forgets\u2026He doesn\u2019t hold grudges, He doesn\u2019t judge, He loves totally and completely with all His heart, mind, and soul\u2026God, IS, Love!<\/h6>\n
Are there things inside of you that keep you running away? Oh maybe you don\u2019t change your physical address, but you are running just the same. One job to another\u2026one person to another\u2026one habit to another\u2026.Are you tired of running to nowhere? When you get there you still have not arrived?<\/h6>\n
When you get sick-and-tired of being sick-and-tired\u2026and you come to the end of yourself\u2026and you see yourself\u2026that you are the mess that needs restoration\u2026then if you humble yourself before God, the running will end.<\/h6>\n
We all have a story. We are all flesh and blood. We have hurts and pain and heartaches and shame and guilt. I will tell you, at the end of the race there is a finish line of peace and grace and wholeness\u2026it is in the arms of Jesus, where He holds us, that we can receive true love. No matter how far you run, how fast, or how slow, you will never find contentment until you run to Him.<\/h6>\n
When I finally gave up, looked at myself and really saw me\u2026and that Jesus really saw me\u2026no pretense, I couldn\u2019t hide from His eyes\u2026and He loved me in spite of me and who I was and what I\u2019d done\u2026the hurts I\u2019d received, and the hurts I\u2019d caused, and He still loved and accepted me\u2026the running stopped. And the blessings of His grace came flooding into my heart and He gave me a brand new life and a brand new home\u2026I had finally gotten to somewhere. A place of love and happiness, I\u2019d never experienced before.<\/h6>\n
Stop running to nowhere\u2026just stop! Jesus is right before you, with arms stretched wide. Let Him hold you. Let Him wipe away the tears and all the pain. Then love Him totally and completely and love others and love yourself.<\/h6>\n
Forgiveness brings peace and rest\u2026it lets you breathe, clean, fresh, living air\u2026it frees you from chains of guilt, shame, hate, lusts, discontentment\u2026when you forgive others and yourself your lungs fill with good, wholesome joy that cannot be contained and you are FREE!!! Free to love, free to give, free to embrace what seemed just out of reach. Forgiveness brings healing. God knows that when you forgive you are forgiven!!!<\/h6>\n
Jesus said, Love your neighbor as you love yourself\u2026<\/em><\/h6>\n
Mark 12:30-31Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/h6>\n
\u201cThe second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n
–Marla Shaw O’Neill March 1, 2017<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m going to be very transparent today… There was a time in my life that I was a runner. Oh not the kind of runner who runs in marathons or sprint races\u2026No, not the honorable kind where you train for hours and at the end of the race you win a medal or a ribbon….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-76","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}