who's gonna share the parable, me or you?

So my sis and I went for our run last night. As our commitment of 9:45 rolled by, and was followed by a 'getting-late' 10:15, I decided to give my sis a call, since my hubby still had to go out for his cardio after us. Calculate the time we all needed, and you've got yourself a late night.

ring ring

"hello?"

"You're still flippin there?"

"Well I can't find my mp3 player! I think some kid hid it!"

"Well get over here cuz we gotta go, it's flippin late man!"

"....fine...."

10:30, my sis shows up, lifts her leg, turns over her foot, and shows off the huge gaping hole in the bottom of her sole. She takes her shoe off, and sticks her hand through the hole, which is now dropping 'shoeness' all over my doorway.

"So yeah, can I borrow some shoes?"

"Here"

We finally leave the house, Sarah complains that my shoes are too small, and her toes hurt.

"Sigh/grrr......well do you wanna walk to dads and use his shoes?"

".....fine....."

Walk into dads, Sarah takes his shoes, dad complains that she'll stink them up, we leave.

We start walking, and in frustration begin to joke about how the sun will be rising soon.



So we run the strip, and at about the 3rd last lamp post, Sarah mentions that she feels she could go a few more past the end, I on the other hand, gasping for air, say I'm done, and can only make it to the end. We come to the last lamp post where it's time to sprint, and I quickly pass Sarah. It's at this moment that we realize that Sarah is way better at the long distance endurance running, and I am way better at the sprinting. This makes sense, as we reflect on all our runs, she has always been able to go longer and farther (and seems to reconver faster than me), and I have always left her in my sweaty dust durring the sprints. We started to think about this....

It made me think of the times my hubby and my dad have tried to race at red lights. We drive a VW golf, standard. My dad drives a V6 Pontiac GrandAm. While my hubby is working hard with our car, to rev it as high as it can, his arm shifting as fast as he can, His leg motoring on the clutch, with little to no effort, using no physical energy, my dad zips past, flashing us a nice blank stare.

I love my car. It is the most reliable car there is. It's a diesel, which means we can get to Winnipeg and back, and drive around for 4 days in the city, on $70. And with gas prices being as high as they are, my little Golf has saved our comfortable lives.
My dad's car on the other hand, can get from point A to point B faster then my car could honk. It's sporty, two door, slick, and as my nephew would say,
"it has 2 smokes!" (exaust pipes)

There are pros and cons to both cars. You can't have a car as good on gas as mine without sacrificing space. My car is so small, that we can't go grocery shopping if our big stroller is in the trunk. Where as my dads car is roomy enough to be able to take extra passangers, and carry more cargo. Then again, my dads car has given them much grief, and they're actually looking to get rid of it before it konks out on them, where as we anticipate on having our reliable VW around for while.

So what does all this have to do with us? It made us think about the different parts of the body, and how all have different strengths. We all need eachother, and when working together, we're able to accomplish great and wonderful things. Sometimes we need to get somewhere fast, we need a job done and we need it done now. Us v6's are called to jump in, and use our gifts to sprint that job into action, and watch it come together quickly and promptly. Other times, when the v6's are discouraged, worn out, feeling like throwing in the towel, the Golf's of the body need to jump in and press through! To encourage and build up those who are discouraged, to push them, and to ultimately finish the race that others had given up on.

I've tried running farther, but my body just gives up. Just as my sis has set it in her mind, "I am going to run as fast as her no matter what", but her body just won't listen.
How many times have we compared ourselves to others, and wondered,
"now why can't I get things done like that? I never seem as motivated or efficient as them. Why does it take me double the time to learn the things they seem to learn automatically? I must not have as much grace in my life."
Or, "now why can't I seem to press through like them? It seems like when things get hard I run away, how come they always seem to make it to the end and still be on top? I must not have as much faith in my life."
Our strengths and weaknesses are not better or worse, just different. God made us this way so that we can rely on one another for the different parts that we need to walk more efficiently.
My sister and I PUSH eachother like crazy when we run! She pushes me to go farther, and I push her to go harder. All in all, giving our bodies the cardio AND endurance that they need to become more healthy, more lean and more fit.

Of course, at the end of chewing on this parable, we realized that I am not a speeding v6 in my spiritual walk, and Sarah is not a reliable Golf. So, we decided to scrap the whole thing and wait for the next parable.