Pride Aside

June 25, 2008
So I am away from my home, my familiar neighborhood, which means I must modify my morning workout routine. I am in a hotel this morning, in a city I have never been, and when I glance out the window from the 11th floor, (I showed up in the dark last night in the back of a taxi cab) it appears I am going to have to use the "fitness room". Which immediately gets my stomach in knots, because I am not coordinated enough to use "fitness equipment", I just got comfortable running and listening to my MP3 player at the same time! So I dress in my very humble workout clothes which include the white handkerchief rag I use on my head (it helps with the sweat and also the fact that the hair is not brushed) and make the trek to the "fitness room" which I am unsure of its location, but luckily as I exit the elevator on the first floor I see another girl in her "perfect" matching cute workout clothes! I follow her, thinking "oh great" I already feel like a "not so good enough" and I haven’t even made it to the "fitness room". So she (experienced treadmill girl) picks her treadmill and because I am not feeling bad enough yet standing next to her in my hillbilly workout clothes, I pick the one right next to her. I climb and stare at the digital readout screen in front of me, praying to Dear Jesus that He will highlight the buttons that I need to press in order for the machine to turn on. I get the belt to start moving, woo-hoo, so I turn on my MP3 player (I know you can already see I should have waited for day two to add the MP3 player!) I step on to the belt and get my feel for this. I got! I got it! So I start to increase the speed. Feeling very confident at this point I glance over to see what the digital readout screen says on for experienced treadmill girl. She has more miles ran than me and is moving faster, which immediately sparks a flame of competition in me, which I a normally not a competitive person, but I already have one mark against me since I am wearing the hillbilly workout clothes, I must take the lead in the best performance! So I bump up my speed. I am doing just fine, as long as I keep looking forward and up! Doing good! Keep going! So my left tennis shoe is all of a sudden feeling a little loose, so I look down to check it out, and in a matter of a second I am on my backside, feet in the air on the carpet of the "fitness room". I pull myself back up with a new shade of red on my face (not one of physical exertion) and the experienced treadmill girl looks over and asks me "are you okay?", to which I respond, "oh yeah my shoe was coming un-tied and I didn’t want to get it caught in the treadmill" That was my pride answering, right?! So I climb back on and get quickly back in the comparing and competing game with my experienced treadmill neighbor, keep in mind she is NOT competing with me, it’s a one side competition and the only prize is mine! Well I am happy to report I did not come flying off the treadmill and that I finished strong! So strong that I didn’t even get my whole lesson from God til hours later.
My lesson in this, is that when I take my eyes off God as the filler of who I am and when I "think" I can do it all on my own (pride) and that I don’t need Him, I will fall on my backside every time!