I Can Only Imagine

I love the trail that I run on.  It's a beautiful little trail that runs along Lake Minnetonka for a little ways and is mostly tree-covered.  It's well kept and well used and a lovely place to spend a few of life's miles.  If I were a painter, I'd try to paint a landscape of what I see when I step out my door for a run.  At first it would be a little Norman Rockwell-ish and then it might become rather more like a Bob Ross, with happy little trees and happy little rocks here and there.  But I'm not a painter, so this will have to do.

When I first step out the door, I generally pause to stretch my legs and then I'm off.  I run past the dentist office and barber shop right next door, past the house with the year-round yard sale.  I go by the old, creepy-looking duplex that nearly constantly has a For Rent sign in front of one side of the house and almost as constantly has old furniture with a FREE sign in the yard of the other side.  I go by the BP gas station, where the employees have now come to recognize me when I run past and will keep me accountable when I stop in if they haven't seen me go by in a few days.  I run past the post office and dash through the insane six-way intersection.  Insane for Excelsior, anyway.   This intersection is somewhat like an initiation for anyone entering town who is not from Excelsior.  I know of people who will go out of their way to come into town from the other direction in order to avoid this particular intersection.  It's an all-way stop, and one thing I've learned about Minnesota drivers is that no one knows how to work an all-way stop intersection.  Either no one wants to go or everyone wants to go, and generally everyone gets squinty-eyed trying to read the expression of the other drivers so as not to offend anyone before accelerating - craziness, I tell you.  Thankfully, as I'm not operating a motor vehicle, I can simply dash across the two streets I have to get through as long as there are no cars waiting on those sides.  I run past Maynards and Bayview - two restaurants on the lake.  For my own convenience, I'm going to pull a Hollywood name mash-up and call these two restaurants Mayview for the time being.  Depending on the time of day, getting past Mayview can be far more chaotic than getting through the six-way intersection.  Both restaurants have limited parking and most of the parking they do have is valet.  In the morning, it's no problem at all.  If I run after work or in the evening, though, I feel like the frog in the game Frogger.  Run, stop, wait for a car, run a couple more steps, stop, the driver waives me by, run, stop, wait for the valet to move the car, run, stop, give someone directions, then run the last few steps to freedom!  Geesh.  But it was all worth it because I've finally reached the trail, my quiet place.  I turn off the side walk and onto the trail, and it's like I've entered another world - a much more peaceful and quiet world.  Everything I see as I run down the trail are like pictures you might see hanging in a doctor's office.  I run past the marina.  I run over the foot bridge, and I can hear the sound of my hollow footsteps echoing below me.  The view of the bay from the bridge is fantastic, no matter what time of year.  Right now, the bay is full of sail boats and motor boats and yachts.  It's quite a sight, and somewhere in the midst of all those big, shiny boats is a little, tiny fishing boat that belongs to the Nix's.  Like a shack in the middle of a neighborhood of mansions, but it's a good little shack...um, boat, so who cares.
There are three points on the trail that I would say are my favorites.  The first is a set of trees that grow on either side of the path.  They aren't really huge trees.  They grow right across from each other and sort of bend toward one another, as though they are leaning.  Maybe I'll name them Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman.  The frame that these two trees create as I approach them is subtle but amazing.  I feel like I'm entering the pages of a book as I run past them.  Also, they always make me think of Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken, and I don't necessarily know why because it is a single path.  There isn't a fork in the road anywhere along the trail...maybe there should be.  Anyway, I go past Sandra and Bill, past the Old Log Theatre, and around the very tree-covered curve that is dark even in daylight.  Then I get to a point where I once saw a rabbit and turtle on the trail at the same time within about 10 feet of one another.  I'm sure you recognize the significance of this as I did - Aesop's The Tortoise and the Hare!  Turns out they are not fabled but live on the trail in Excelsior, Minnesota.  And if you ask me, it looked like the tortoise was in the lead.
I run past several large houses on the lake and then I get to my absolutely favorite part of the trail.  I run for a ways under trees and behind houses, but then the trees break and the trail comes out running right along the lake for about 200 yards.  I love those 200 yards.  The view of the lake is unbelievable.  I'm well beyond the bay at this point so aside from an occasional fishing boat, it's just me looking out over water and sky.  It's breathtaking.  When I used to listen to my ipod while running, I'd try to time a particular song in my playlist to this point on the trail - I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me:


   Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
   Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
   Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
   Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
   I can only imagine


Once I've passed this point on the trail, I've just about reached the four mile turn around.  I pass by everything again, heading home.  
There are many reasons to run, but it has to be something more than fitness to keep a person stepping out each day to run for years and years and a lifetime.  There is solitude, stillness, clarity of thought, rejuvenation, and worship woven into those miles and breathes.  The rhythm of footfalls and breathing re-aligns thoughts and makes sense of things that make no sense in the rush of day-to-day activities. 

 In this life, we will never know what it was like to be in the Garden of Eden, but if anything could be like those walks with God in the cool of the day, I think it would be going for a run.