Running in Circles

      The devil is in the details, or so the saying goes. I would agree with that. Details are not my favorite thing. I prefer to dwell on big ideas and concepts, to dream and imagine what has never been thought of.  

       But I am continually faced with details. This past month especially, as I've been preparing to leave.  For a while it felt like I added 5 items to my to-do list for everyone one I completed. One of the biggest tasks, has been completing the editing of the projects from this summer. Approximately 80 hours of work. By itself not that difficult but when you add in all the other work and the pressing deadline, it came down to the wire.

       And so through a series of events far too complicated and exhausting, I found my self running around Dubai International Airport trying to find a courier service to mail out the last edited piece of this project.  Misinformation was the name of the game. First one person and then another gave me the wrong information and so I would have to back track and try a different route. In the space of about 90 minutes, I walked the length of the Dubai Airport 3 times, took a taxi to the offsite cargo facilities, walked back to the airport on the side of the superhighway, went through at least 6 security checkpoints, and still made it to my flight on time.  

       And somewhere in the midst of all this running back and forth, I thought, "How pointless this all is. I'm just going in circles, not really getting anywhere. I should just give up." I didn't of course, but now as I look back I see an interesting lesson.

       Some people love running. They love the planning, the preparing, the reading about strides and diet plans, the sweat and the pain of exhausted muscles. I'm not one of those people. I don't like running, but I do it because it's good for me. I do it because it gets me in shape for days like today. I do it because it helps me get where I need to be. 

       Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own... But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12+14 ESV)

       So I keep running to reach my goal. I keep working at the details, crossing each item off my list, and always learning how to take the next step. The running in the airport this morning wasn't pointless circles, it was circuit training for what lies ahead.