'Time for a Liddell something...'

There seems to be a direct correlation: When I run, I write. Something about putting one foot in front of the other in the open air gets my mind moving, as well as my muscles.

“Waddle on, friends!” I heard John Bingham say this morning. (I really was waddling.)

“…throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…” the ancient words I learned as an adolescent often come to me when I run (“…with perseverance the race marked out for us…”)

The to-do list intimidates me less. Anxieties fade away with each steady puff of breath … in-n-n-n, out-t-t-t, in-n-n-n, out-t-t-t …

I remember something cute my sweet son said a few weeks ago. I keep meaning to write it down, and now I finally am:

Tom took the kids to the circus – the older three. Reuben, age 7 ½, observed his 6-year-old sister and her friend laughing heartily at the slap-stick antics of the clowns. He turned to his dad and said knowingly, “The young children are really enjoying this!”

I suspect that what my father said is true: Exercise is the fountain of youth. And, I would add, vitality. For as long as I live, I want to really live. I relate to the runner-missionary Eric Liddell: “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”