How do you stand the hills?

About twenty years ago now when I first started to run, I pushed myself to my absolute limit.  I ran to the end of the block.

And then, I walked a block.

I kept up that pattern for an endless number of weeks, one block at a time, one day at a time, and then very gradually, I ran a little more.  One of our daughters set the timer on my watch to buzz every two minutes.  Run two minutes, walk two minutes.  Repeat.  I was not sure that it qualified as "running," but it was a huge first step for me.

I pulled on my running clothes first thing in the morning to get ahead of any flimsy excuses.  I walked our youngest daughter to the corner to catch the bus.  As soon as the bus passed out of sight around the corner, I began running. In the deepest part of those cold Ohio winters, it was still  barely light, and early enough that there was not much traffic. I liked the anonymity of that time.  There was no one around to question what exactly I was doing.

As my route became a little longer, one more block, one extra telephone pole, and then after many long weeks, I veered out of our immediate neighborhood and over to a nearby park.  Eventually, I followed the sidewalk around to the stoplight a mile away.  My turnaround point was the drive-through at McDonald's.

Outside our neighborhood, I encountered the dreaded hills, when often it felt like I was running in place and not moving at all.  At the time, one of our daughters was running cross country for her high school team.  "How do you stand the hills?" I asked her.  "What is your trick?"

"It all depends on what you are thinking about," she laughed.  "Sometimes I don't even notice them."

We all have steep hills in our lives
                in one form or another.
 How do we face them?

It all depends on what we are thinking about.
It all depends on what we are praying about.

Yet
    I will rejoice in the LORD,
    I will joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
He makes my feet like hind's feet,
He makes me tread upon my high places.

                      Habakkuk 3. 18-19

The word "tread" is commonly defined as "to walk," but it can also be translated "to dance."  I like the vision of dancing upon the steep places in my life.

Don't just slog uphill,
                            dance upon it.

It's not just how we view it,
     but the reality of His Presence even in the hard stuff. 

What is His way in this steep situation?
What is His way in this difficult task or relationship?

Teach me Your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path...

                            Psalm 27. 11
 

Lead me on the hills, O LORD.