The Whole Works

“Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (The Message)

The whole works. Fibromyalgia and all, it is God’s. The tender points that just feel bruised all the time, the over sensitivity to everything, the foggy brain that struggles to communicate a complete thought or remember names, events and the entire to-do list. Every single joint from my shoulders to my toes that scream when the weather changes, stress gets to be too much or sleep is disturbed. All of it is His, as he created it to be. The whole works.

As you have perhaps read in previous posts, I am running a half marathon in October. A marathon is 26.2 miles, half of that is 13.1. I’m breaking that down so you see that A.) ½ is still a whole lot and B.) I’m not as crazy as I potentially could be. This morning’s jaunt was 4.1 miles and it took me 59 minutes. There was pain every time a foot hit the pavement, from the very first step. I completed 7 miles on Saturday and still haven’t recovered from it. Part of the whole works, Fibromyalgia is with me every step of the way. On October 9th, I will venture out among ‘real runners’ certain I can complete 13.1 miles, however slow I might be.

We are created in God’s own image (Genesis 2:27) and I know that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), so surely I can make it 13.1 miles on my feet. I am running to raise money with the American Cancer Society’s DetermiNation program, but that’s not the only reason I am pushing myself. My Fibro places limits on how I do things, but not so much on what I do. We can learn to manage and accept the hand we’ve been dealt and still push to reach new goals. I want to be an example of that, to let people ‘see God in and through my body’. The whole works.