You see, I woke up this morning, prepared to continue studying for my physics midterm (which is tonight, and God has given me a lot of peace for that too), but for some reason or another, I decided I also wanted to take out around one and half hours of my completely free morning to go on a run too. I remembered how I saw the sidewalks wet on my walk home last night and stuck my hand out my apartment's "balcony" window to feel a light sprinkle, but I decided that it wasn't going to stop me, so I quickly changed and prepared to leave.
Backtrack to last Tuesday as I was frantically trying to finish my History paper, in a dizzy headache, I decided I needed a break and was going to run to Indian Rock and do my devos to detox. I have never been to Indian Rock before, so I looked it up before I left and saw that it was a few blocks north of Safeway on Shattuck and decided that was enough information for me to find my way there, but within five minutes of setting out from my apartment, the flimsy drawstring backpack I put my Bible in decided to give out. I stood there for a few minutes, contemplating what to do now, disappointed that I couldn't finish what I had set out to do (unless I was planning on running 5 miles with a broken drawstring backpack......). So that day, I settled to just do my devos near Kroeber Fountain and went home afterwards.
However, today, I was determined (and also didn't have any baggage weighing me down). Without checking again where Indian Rock was (I trust my memory, right...?), I set out along the east edge of campus, rounded the corner on Hearst, and as I approached Shattuck, I decided to turn on a street called The Arch, because I prefer running through residential areas. But soon, I realized that I had no idea where Shattuck was in relation to all these hilly residential streets, but I pressed on and continued in a general northwest trajectory. After a bit, I realized I hit the most west I could go (@Henry Street), and I became a little concerned that I still hadn't seen Shattuck at all. But I continued Northward nonetheless. Soon, I saw a tunnel, and at this point, I was pretty convinced that I wasn't going to get to Indian Rock, but I was content that I simply found the will to go on a run.
As I approached the tunnel, I saw stairs to the right. Seeing as I probably couldn't run through the tunnel itself, I ran up the stairs and found myself at The Circle, which I'm kinda familiar with because of all the "走 local" drives to 99 Ranch. I ran around the western edge of The Circle, trying to find Shattuck to no avail. So I decided to go down Marin Avenue, but soon realized (yes, this might be TMI) that I kinda had to poo... I was going to push onwards, but soon decided that no... I had to head back and find a bathroom. As I made my way back around the eastern perimeter of The Circle, my eyes caught a glance of something out of the corner of my eye—"Indian Rock Avenue."
"Hm... sounds promising."
And that is the story of how I unexpectedly found Indian Rock.
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I knew where Indian Rock was, and I knew the general direction I had to go to get there, but honestly, I didn't actually know how to get there. I realized that there are a lot of situations in my life right now, where I see an end goal (and I pray fervently for those things to come to fruition!), but I look towards those goals right now, and I honestly have no idea how God is going to bring me or the people involved there. I look at the hearts of some of those around me and feel like things are futile and the chance of things looking up seems fairly bleak. But God really showed me that He is the one that will be leading the way. I may not know securely in my heart that I'm going the right way, but I have to trust that He is leading me the right way and to therefore obey Him. Even something so insignificant like the natural need to use the restroom can somehow lead you down the right path. Of course, to extend this metaphor, this means that even when I feel like I don't know which way I'm going, I still have to run. I still have to press onward, and somehow, even in my lack of faith (when I decided that I was not running to Indian Rock anymore and was just going on a nice, brisk jog around North Berkeley this gloomy, rainy morning), God will prove again and again that He is faithful even when I am not. And there is such peace, security, and joy in re-realizing this truth! Abba Father, how You care for us. How You tend to your flocks, even in our ignorance, our weaknesses, our faithlessness. You are worthy of praise.
P.S. Also, random blessing, even though at certain points the rain started to get a little heavier than a light sprinkle, my headphones (which I wore the whole run) and iTouch were completely fine. Divine favor? Maybe, idk, but a small thing to be grateful for. :)
