This week I've begun a "Couch to 5K" running program. I'm not quite at the couch point, as in I can successfully, not necessarily easily, walk 3 miles. But I want to get to where I can run them.
Walking 3 miles certainly takes a lot longer than running them. If you know me, you know that I'm an extremely competitive, impatient, and fast paced person. Therefore, training to run only seems logical.
Something else I've noticed about myself in my bouts of exercise is that it's very hard for me to do anything without technology (hence the "Generation Connected"). Now, I do remember life before the Internet. I had a computer in my room that was not hooked to the World Wide Web and I used the card catalog in the library for my 5th grade Washington D.C. project.
However, as I've grown up in times of ever increasing technology, I find it hard to ignore. I have to be playing a game on my phone while watching a movie, or watching TV while I wash the dishes, or, heaven forbid, listening to music while I run.
All of this stimulus had lead to a lot of noise in my life and I found myself unable to enjoy silence!
Job 6:24 says, "Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong."
Lamentations 3:26, 28 says, "It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord...Let him sit along in silence when it is laid upon him."
1 Thessalonians 4:11, "...aspire to live quietly..."
So you see, silence is importance if we are seeking to learn from God. How will we ever hear his voice if there is always something else filling our ears? We need to unplug and be able to just listen for that still small voice.
I'm taking on this challenge by not listening to music while I exercise, but instead I will use that time to think, pray, and listen.
