a running song of praise

Judges 5

"That day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song..." 5:1

After a victory, they sang praises to the Lord. They recounted all the Lord did for them. We should never forget to give thanks to the Lord for his mercies. Our praises are acceptable, pleasant, and profitable to the Lord when they come from a full heart of thanksgiving. When we share love and gratitude about what the Lord has done for us, it is deeply fixed in the hearts of believers and never get lost or forgotten. Whatever Deborah, Barak, or the army had done, the Lord was given all the praise. All success was from Him.

I remember so clearly this one day years ago. I was sitting in the room we used for middle school ministry at Ridgeland High School. It was the drama classroom, tucked away in a hall towards the back of the school. I had moved from the main campus of Pinelake over to the Madison campus, was serving in student ministry, and seeking the Lord in ways I had never thought possible. I can't tell you what the message was on that day, but I heard this song for the first time and it awakened something so deep in my soul that I was taken into a whole new place of worship with the Lord.

"Come away with me,
Come a way with me.
It's never to late,
it's not to late for you.
I have a plan for you,
I have a plan for you.
It's gonna be wild,
It's gonna be great,
It's gonna be full of me."

I had no idea what that plan was at the time, but I knew the words the Lord was singing over me....it was going to be wilder than I could have ever imagined. And it has been!

It was one day as I was running down Farish Street, when the song came on through my phone, that I was taken back to the day in the little classroom of the school, and I literally stopped in my tracks - remembered what the Lord sang over me, and was flooded with the love of Jesus as He showed me what that plan was. This is the picture I took from that day, so that I never forget the victory.

Over the last 4 years I have run so many days and miles through downtown. On streets I would have never even have driven down before. Through alleys that seem so scary in the daylight you wouldn't even dare them. But these times of running have always been so beautiful, and fun, and amazing, as I have used each one as a time to worship and pray and let the Lord love me so deeply and tenderly.

What I thought His plan for me was going to look like, was not even close to what it has been in His reality. It has been so much better, and more perfect, and just like He said.....it has been wild, and great, and full of Him.

Here are some of the places He has taken me, and with some of the ones He has let me go there with, singing and running with Him.