No Good Thing Does He Withhold

I am still in the waiting time with a prayer request I have. I am still reminding myself of the facts: God loves me, God has heard my prayers, and God knows my need. I have mostly good days, but every once in awhile, my flesh gets the best of me and I began to doubt. I start questioning myself. What if, what I’m praying for is not a need? But then, in the midst of that doubtful question, I found a scripture that gave me comfort:

Psalms 84:11 “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.“

Then I remembered an instant when God satisfied my desires. It wasn’t a need, it was just a desire.

Back in 2012, I decided I needed to start running. I wanted to combat my aging body, by getting into shape. I decided to run a tri-sprint. It’s a race where you swim a half mile, bike for 14 miles, and then run a 5K at the end. It was not an iron man race, it was just a sprint. It was doable. I began to train. I’m not a great swimmer, so they had an option to run a mile, rather than swim. They called it the dry-tri. That’s what I would do. Run, bike, run. I began training for this thing. I even talked a friend into doing it too. It was all exciting and something to look forward to.

The race would be in October, in Palm Springs. I was training faithfully, five days a week. I wasn’t fast on my running, but I was consistent. I felt like I was taking on old age, head on. My legs started getting muscly. I was sleeping well at night.

The day of the race arrived. With it, I came down with a scratchy throat. I usually drink a lot of water, but the day before the race I didn’t feel like it. My throat burned and felt scratchy. I was nervous about the race and didn’t think about the consequences of not drinking water. I also didn’t consider the consequences of running a race in Palm Springs, a very hot desert, even in October. The morning of the race came, and I woke up to a full on sore throat and congestion. I didn’t sleep well the night before, so I was feeling exhausted already.

I arrived at the race, stood at the line, waiting for them to blow the horn, so we can start. I was already dehydrated. My throat still burned. I felt heat already. The horn blew, and I began to run. My legs felt like iron poles that weighed a million pounds each. I could barely move. The heat bore down on my head like an unwelcome heater. I finished the one mile run, but barely. I wasn’t sweating, but I felt soooo unbelievable hot. I went to get my bike, but still no water. My throat hurt too bad to drink. As I took off on my bike, the sun felt like hell had opened its doors and was pouring heat upon my head. I started to get dizzy. I was hallucinating. I had to stop because I felt like I was going to pass out. I had heat stroke, but didn’t know it. I was not sweating.

After 3/4 of the bike ride I had to stop. In fact, a policeman asked me to stop and not to push myself. He could tell I wasn’t doing well. He said, one of the race organizers would be along and could take me back in his truck. I waited and the truck arrived. I climbed into the truck cab to a blast of air conditioning. He handed me an iced cold bottle of water. I drank it down. I felt relief, instantly. He gave me another bottle of water. It wasn’t cold, but I drank that down too. I barely moved, as I sat in that air conditioned truck.

He brought me back to the race and I felt better. I didn’t want to quit. I wanted to keep going. But I didn’t know if I could. I parked my bike, and moved towards the last leg of the race. I still battled in my mind whether I should keep going or quit. As I was thinking, a hummingbird, flew into my line of sight. I’ve always loved hummingbirds. He hovered in front of me, then moved a little forward. I followed him. He would hover in front of me, then move a little forward. I was so taken by this little guy, I didn’t realize I was moving well into the race. Then he flew away. Suddenly, a woman appeared next to me. She was running, but stopped and started walking along side me. She was super friendly and said she wasn’t in the race, she just decided to run for the fun of it. She kept encouraging me to keep going. She said she would walk with me the whole way. She had a bottle of water in her hand and gave it to me. This woman provided me water and companionship. I made it almost to the end, when I looked up and saw my daughter waving at me. The lady asked if that was my family. I said yes, and moved forward towards my daughter. The lady disappeared. I never saw where she went.

I finished the race. I crossed the finish line and finished the race. This wasn’t a need. It was a desire. I wanted to finish. God knew that. He gave ma a hummingbird and a stranger to lead me to the finish line. I crossed the line, grabbed the medal they handed me and felt elation. I almost didn’t do it, but I did. “…No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”