Finding Heaven

I found heaven today. I was on a treadmill. The treadmill seems a highly unlikely place to find heaven, unless of course you have a massive heart attack while running. I did not have a massive heart attack.

I had completed about 10 minutes on the elliptical and decided I just simply could not stand staring at that particular screen any longer. So I moved over to the treadmill. I set my time at 30 minutes and launched into an argument with myself. The argument went something like “I really only need to do this for 20 minutes. If I do 20 minutes then that will be 30 all together and since I can’t really stay on my plan here anyway, the whole point is simply to avoid gaining anything.” This argument was going on and on and on and I had just about bargained myself down to only staying for 10 minutes.

Then a song came on. The song was about how amazing life is. For just a minute instead of trying to trick myself I started listening. I listened to the words and melody and the rhythm. The music wrapped itself around me and I became fully involved in the moment I was living.  I could feel the tiredness in my legs. I could feel the air as it moved through nose, throat, lungs, and circled out. Following it I heard the tiny clicks of the treadmill as it went around and around and there on the wall in front of me I saw heaven.

This life lived abundantly is beautiful. What greater experience is there than to be totally in a place, totally surrounded by a moment. The words in my head changed from my frequent bargaining to a knowledge that God, the creator of the universe, is here right now with me.  That because Jesus died and rose again the walls that had separated us from our God were gone. That grace was here in this moment. Grace was personified in the movement of this body of mine that I have been given as a dwelling place for such a short time.

Heaven here and now not just heaven in some other place; there is more to life than just waiting to go on to the other world. There is heaven, life more abundantly, right here in this place.  What joy then washed over me and in the midst of my sweating, repetitive movements I caught a glimpse of the eternal.

I found heaven today, on the treadmill.