Running 26 miles "personal" are you crazy?

“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done.” 1 Chronicles 16:8 NLT

This seems like a verse that should make sense right off, yet I don't understand. I still think it's not that simple. Thanksgiving is over, or is it? Back to work today, I'm thankful I have a job. Surprisedly I've kept through this recession, barely. Tired this morning, Shayne crashed pretty quick last night but still woke up 4 hours later. She slept with mommy, I moved to the couch. Now we're both up and she's sleeping, figures. Sip some coffee, I read and think. I can only say, this is all after that fact. It's like asking a runner, how they feel after the race. How do I think they would feel?  Actually in reality it would be too soon. Ask them the next day or a few days later. They probably feel relieved. My brother just ran a "personal" 26 miles yesterday, a "PERSONAL". All he could say was "that book about running I read, is a bunch of crap". I told him "at least the weather was nice". Am I thankful? I mean, am I really thankful? Or do I just say it, because I'm supposed to. Majority of the time, I don't out of fear that something bad will happen and I'll jinks myself. I'm reminded of a conversation I had at a wedding last year at this time. I was shooting a wedding for a dear friend from elementary school. It was nostalgic, it just meant so much to me to be able to be a part of the day. I was determined to make it go perfectly. Only one problem, I knew this girl from elementary and those years were my hardest years of rejection. So I was scared to death of who would be there, and their reaction to my choice of career or my state of life. I prayed and prayed that everything would be ok. As the ceremony began and I ran into old friends, things seem to go well. Then we got to the reception. I began to notice old friends entering the room that I hadn't seen in almost 20 years, (they won't recognize me) I thought. I'm thinking "Nathan, you still haven't made your rounds to the tables for other shots". So I began getting my table shots and began to bumping to old friends, I made sure to keep the conversations short, everything seemed to go well. As the night progressed and slowly came to an end, I walked outside and began to say goodbyes when someone grabbed my arm to speak to me. She was someone I only remember annoying back in High School, but had known since elementary. She began to tell me what an impact I had made on her life back when we were kids, how rejected she remembered I was, and how I was picked on. I was fighting back the tears, I wasn't expecting this. I had no idea she dealt with the same stuff, and she wanted to tell me she made it through, just like I did, how God had sent me to that public school, I was caught off guard, I didn't know what to say. It was God, she told me. I still didn't know what to say. As the conversation ended, I said my goodbyes to everyone, packed my truck up and just didn't know what to think. You don't have conversations like that everyday. It's not often someone from your past, that was there, comes forward with their view. After many tears on the way home and the days that followed, that conversation reassured all these doubts of God I had for so many years. I couldn't believe of how captive I had been to those years in elementary school. God was working, He was there. We were watching "He just not that into you" this weekend and I'm reminded of how contrasting we as kids are to each other. If a boy likes a girl, usually he's mean? I can't but laugh at the realism. I've always been hooked on my past years, namely my elementary and High School. I don't know why. I feel everyone's true self starts there, not where we're at today. Not that I dwell in my past, but I can't forget it. I remember mostly everything, and I feel everyone else does to for the most part. At that wedding most of my peers had stuck together over the years, most of them still lived in the area, where we all grew up. I read and think, I've always thought the bible and God would be a thing of the past one day, they would be old news because everything was changing. These days I find its the other way around. We've tried everything but still I come back alone to His word, the one thing I at times dread. When will it end. He only show's me how great He is, even when in my darkest of moments back in those days way long ago, it seemed like He wasn't there. It only gives me reason to proclaim Him, maybe not in words, it might just be in recognizing someone at a wedding that I was scared of because I was annoying to them so long ago.   Those days that I wanted to erase so badly are now days that I can't but be thankful for and proclaim His Greatness. My brother ran 26 miles at the age of 33, wasn't as easy at it would have been when was 17, like for me it wasn't easy facing those fears at the wedding but I find I wouldn't have changed a thing.