distracting vs. strengthening

Yesterday on the way to church our whole family along with John's dad and wife, went to the Oasis house. It is a home that will be used as a resource/education center for the future as it sits right along the edge of the property where we are building and right next to the village.

Anyway, as we were driving in (which is an adventure to begin with) we came across a herd of cattle just meandering through the land. There are a group of people, the Falani, who typically travel along with them and this particular morning there were two men and one younger boy. I picture him to be no older than my son Gus (who is 9).

A thought that went through my mind yesterday was I wonder what they think about all day long. Where does their mind wander to...... do they get bored........ does it even cross their thoughts that this might be what they do for the next 40 years of their life.....

Anyway, it was a fleeting thought that I remembered this morning on mine and John's run. I was thinking about how I have chosen lately to not run with music or an iPod in my ear so I can just pray or talk to John, etc... Well, it has been a couple of grueling weeks now since I haven't run with the distraction, and this morning I found myself praying with John and being "intune" to what I was praying for and truly intent on what God was saying or leading....

I realized at that moment, that the music had become a distraction to me and I wasn't strengthening my mind with it and I now I am slowly allowing the retraining of my mind to take place again. I always say that the competition of a race takes place 90% in the mind and I also believe that to be true with the race of life. I had become weary of the mental battle so I started just distracting my mental thoughts verses strengthening them and joining in on the race again.

All of that to say is it brought me back to these Falani boys and men.... I have no idea what goes through their mind, but I do think that their distraction level might be less. I want to reenter the race. I want to retrain my thoughts to be that of Christ's and I want to enjoy the run again. So, here goes to the discipline of retraining the mind. I know in the end, I won't regret it.