No pepper spray needed

During Christmas break, all of my formerly safe running routes were compromised, either by visiting dogs or dogs whose owners were home for the holidays and giving their pets extra freedom. Before my run on Saturday (Jan 4th) I was on edge at the thought of going out into that possible terror. I dreaded the jolts of fear from unknown/unexpected dogs jumping out at me on my run, so after I finally got out the door and started running, I prayed for peace and safety, specifically (audaciously) asking for no dogs to chase me or startle me.


About a mile into my run, I saw a loose dog trotting down a long driveway toward the road. I tensed up anxiously because I recognized the dog--it is usually fenced, and loves to snarl and bark and chase me as I run along its fence. I figured since it was not inside its fence, I was in for it. Right after the impulse to turn back this thought came: "have faith--you prayed for help!" As I ran past the driveway, the dog looked right at me, then quietly turned around and trotted away. The creature never even barked once. It was unheard of, and I was in awe. Prayers are answered.

That brief moment was a minuscule ten seconds of my day, but it stayed with me and I thought about it for the rest of my run. I know that prayers aren't always answered the way we want them to, but I felt all the more grateful for that silently retreating dog because my prayer was answered so specifically that I couldn't doubt the source of the calm.

Here on earth in mortal bodies we get to experience and learn things we cannot learn in any other way. First-hand, physical experience is a powerful teacher. Sometimes God doesn't calm the storm because he needs us to learn how to navigate better, (hello parenting Amber!) but other times he wants us to show our faith that he CAN calm the storm before he does it. Faith precedes the miracle, and so forth. Saturday was like that for me. During my run I thought to myself, "if God can calm the wind and the waves, he can calm mean dogs." It felt like a huge leap of faith to keep running and actually put my trust in that idea while running past a free-roaming dog--it's one thing to understand a principle intellectually, but to put the teaching into practice with life and limb on the line is another experience entirely!

I returned from my run an hour later feeling both physically and spiritually rejuvenated. Prayer is better than pepper spray! *

This flock of birds I ran past a few miles later kind of made my head spin as it swirled around the sky.

*FYI you'd better believe I will still be running with pepper spray in my pocket for those times where the storm does not get calmed exactly how I would like it to, haha.