I know I write the same things over and over, but I keep forgetting what I write, then the truth hits me again - hits me as if for the first time, and I can't help writing about it again. So here goes another song lyric and running narrative...
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In this posture let me live
and "hosannas" daily give
in this temper let me die
and "hosannas" ever cry
this is a favorite - it's the last verse from the Indelible Grace worship song "Jesus Cast A Look on Me". For some reason I really like the Christian life described here as a "posture" in which we daily live. I can't help but picture a confident, skinny, tall woman with fair skin, red lipstick and excellent posture. She's not a snob, but she's quiet, confident, disciplined... she's beautiful.
I've always been a bit of a sloucher. Sometimes I'll become cognizant of my hunched over state, and sit up straight for a moment, but gradually my shoulders fall forward again and my back begins to curve. I've heard that slouching is as much a cause as it is an effect - it is the result of having low self-confidence, and it also causes you to feel less confident - I think I read that in one of those teen magazines many years ago - so "shoulders back and chin up" Seventeen told its readers.
I started thinking of all this on my run last night. I started out very conscious of my running posture - trying to piece together all the tidbits of advice I've heard over the years - shoulders back, slight lean forward, lift your feet straight up to your knee, arms relaxed and parallel to your body, chin up - look ahead, not at your feet....then I started thinking about this whole posture thing - the Indelible Grace song above, Seventeen magazine... my mind started to wander and I realized that I was no longer thinking about my running posture. So I straightened up again, arms relaxed shoulders back... but shortly thereafter my mind began to wander, and again I forgot about my posture. In the course of that 30 minute run, my mind probably wandered off about 5 times - that's a pretty short attention span:)
Posture - good posture. I'm not just speaking of a straight spine. It is how one carries herself, her own weight and the weights placed on her, how one walks through life. Good posture is a mark of refinement and discipline - acquired with practice. I will occasionally forget, and my mind will frequently wander, in which case I will just sit up straight and straighten up again 'til it's all my body knows to do. Good posture is a mark of confidence. It says: "I am Beautiful" - not Seventeen beautiful... indelible grace beautiful. Good posture is the result of a life well lived and also the very thing that helps you to live well.
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Grace, she carries a world on her hips.
Grace makes beauty...
...out of ugly things.
U2