It’s taken me a few days to be able to process this, let alone form any arrangement of remotely eloquent words to express the enormous amount of emotion captured in this photograph- 

but last week I ran, not for just a minute or two or down the road and back, but I ran- 5k non-stop in a little over half an hour.

Those friends who haven’t seen me for a while or those of you who may be old followers of my blog may be a little confused right now and wondering if this piccie is appearing on the right person’s feed.

But it’s true and you are.

There aren’t easy words to express what has happened over the last year or so.

All I know is that God is great, like really great. He is amazing and has answered prayers.

Prayers that someone has dedicated to offering on my behalf day in and day out for months on end.

Prayers that I have called out to Him in my darkest days and nights for 13 years since my car accident left me with my spinal injury and then the subsequent Arachnoiditis.

I have walked through a storm and at times those stormy days were far from easy, but one thing I know is that I was never alone.

I have grown through that storm. I have been shaped through that storm, and now I can say I am even grateful for that storm.

I am a different person for having walked through it.

God has given me far more than I could have ever asked or imagined.
He also blessed with the most incredible people to weather that storm with me.

Over the past year He has transformed me by the attitude of my mind and strengthened me to levels that defy logic or earthly understanding.

In the last twelve months I have skied, cycled, ridden horses and now I have run all with NO pain at all, (even the sking after not being on the slopes for 13 years!)- all thanks to God’s grace He has shown me.

Most importantly I’ve been able to be ‘Mummy’, in a way I have never been.

A way that has freedom and joy and abandonment.

A way that isn’t watching soft play from the sidelines in my wheelchair but jumping headfirst into the ball pool instead!

This incredible gift from God has even meant that I have been able to travel with my children- take them on a flight by myself and more recently on an epic five week adventure in our van.

Both things I felt called to do by God.

Taking time to listen to Him and his plans for me has given me confidence to step out and He will meet me there.

There is a verse I have come to hold very close to my heart- ‘For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you.’

Jeremiah 29:11.

I would have said I trusted God and had a seeking heart prior to this storm, but I didn’t have a relationship with Him like a do now.

There is another verse that I have come to hold even closer to my heart and I say this with my kids most days.

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In everything acknowledge Him and he WILL make your paths straight.’

Proverbs 3:5.

I trusted, even though in my own understanding it just didn’t make sense- and still doesn’t. I realised He was in all things and not just the easy days (in all things He works for the good of those who love Him. Romans 8:28) and He has definitely made my path straight- ready for me to run with perseverance the road He has marked our for me!

I’m a truly giddy with excitement! 

That road starts with a half marathon I am currently training you. Where it leads next I only know I need to trust the One who has healed me and made this all possible despite our worldly logic.

I understand that this is not easy reading for some.

If I’m completely honest with you it hasn’t been easy to write- not because I’m ashamed or embarrassed of my faith or love for my God, as that strikes me as so incredibly ungrateful after all He has done for me, but because our lives are so fast paced that generally society doesn’t give us the capacity or the inclination to have conversations about such things so they have become ‘not the done thing’- we are all too busy just surviving the day to day.

I know I was and still am on those days I forget to anchor myself.

I can’t give you neat and perfectly packaged answers that will fit well in this secular society, but I can give you what I have always believed but now know with All certainty in my heart and mind as I have lived it.

God is great. 

He has given me a new life and I intend to glorify Him with i