When my brain was screaming, "Enough! Enough! Enough!" I should have listened.
Instead, I kept going. It was my first run of the year, and it felt SO good. What was supposed to be a nice and easy mile quickly turned into three. Finally, at the top of my street, I slowed to a walk.
I almost didn't make it any further.
Buzzing zipped through my head, clouding my vision. My legs felt like rubber and my lips and tongue vibrated eerily. My first thought was, "I'm not going to make it home."
My second was, "God, please help me make it home."
By God's grace, putting one foot in front of another, I made it to my house. I'd tried in vain to call my husband for help, but I couldn't get the phone to work. Nothing made sense in my head.
Steve ushered me inside quickly and gave me water and a stern look. (Not in that order.) Though I started to feel better, dizziness and nausea soon crashed over me. As Steve ushered me into the van to drive to the Emergency Room, I knew I was in trouble.
By the time I reached the ER, my heart rate was 133. My legs were cramped into knots, my body was shaking violently, and I couldn't open my eyes without the room swimming.
"We're going to start an IV, this looks like a pretty bad case of dehydration," the nurse murmured as he connected electrodes to my chest. "That heart rate needs to come down."
So I did the only thing I knew I could do to calm my heart: I prayed. The words came to me effortlessly, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7)
Over and over again I prayed that verse. As I prayed, my heart slowed down...130, 122, 118, 109...
"Excuse me," another nurse interrupted, preparing me for the IV fluids.
Immediately my heart raced again.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
133, 127, 115, 108...
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything...
114, 107, 101...
Be anxious for nothing...
105, 98, 93...
And the peace of God...
96, 92, 85...
I fell asleep in that hospital bed praying that verse. God's peace, the peace He promises us even though it surpasses any understanding, washed over me. When I woke up, I felt so much better.
Apparently, we shouldn't run long distances when we are dehydrated. I learned that lesson the hard way.
We also shouldn't run the roads of life without being hydrated with God's Word. I didn't have time to grab my Bible on the way to the hospital. Even if I'd had it, I couldn't open my eyes to read it. But I didn't need to; I had His Word hidden in my heart.
We need to read it, meditate on it, memorize it. We don't know when something might happen where we need His promises planted within us.
When we hydrate with the Living Water, our thirst will truly be quenched.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:10-14)
