Sunday, May 8, 2011

7 Days

I'm not a Biblical Literalist! Yes, I believe that God created the Heavens and the Earths, but not in literally 7 days, more like 7 of God's days...or a few million years or so. But that's not my point in this blog. No, I'm thinking of 7 days as in one week before the next test..."Pittsburgh." Next Sunday is the Pittsburgh Marathon, and I'll be there for the second time.

Back in 2001, I ran the race...and a few months later...Bin Laden launched his attack on the United States, that changed my life dramatically. Over the past 10 years, I have spent over 700 days in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Now this year the idea hit me that again, my life could be very different. I’m nearing retirement from the Air Force in the next few months or years. And I’ve wondered will this “Pittsburgh Marathon” once again mark a major shift in my life and my work? My gut tells me that it just might. Bin Laden is dead, and I think this is shifting our worldview again. The economy is not in the best shape and will be challenging for the next several years. So it is inevitable that the times they are a changing.

So in 7 days, how different will my life be? Will I have finished my 26th marathon? Will I be looking at a world that might once again be attacked by fanatics? Will I be one step closer to retirement from the Air Force? Will life be once again, a scary place?

But then I think…of that passage in Genesis…you know where God creates the world in seven days…but my attention is drawn towards those little words at the end of each day… “And God saw that it was good.” Yea…life might be scary and always changing…but God sees that it is “Good.”

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