I have a friend who stays in great shape, yet she’s a busy work-at-home mom. Something clicked one day when I talked to her about her workout regimen — maybe this is how it feels when someone hears the Gospel and it finally makes sense.

She said she does three things to stay in shape:

1) She jogs three miles a day on her treadmill in 30 minutes.
2) She lines up nine 16-oz. bottles of water on her counter and drinks them throughout the day.
3) She keeps a food diary to record everything she eats if she ever needs to lose some weight.

I’ve made so many excuses about exercising — and mainly what it comes down to is that it’s VERY hard for me to get out of the house these days without kids. I can walk with a stroller outside, but I can’t run on a good, flat surface where I can maintain a steady pace and speed.

So I dusted off our treadmill and moved it near a window in the basement. I bought a cheap $10 headset, and I keep it tuned to our local Christian radio station, which plays Third Day, Nicole Nordeman, Steven Curtis Chapman, all these fun songs. I’m having a praise concert every time I get on that thing.

I can run first thing in the morning before the kids are up or at night after they’ve gone to bed. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold or dark outside — on my treadmill, I can run.

I got on last night after kissing owies, reading bedtime stories, drying and braiding little girls’ hair, then it was MY time to run. I plugged in my treadmill key, turned on the radio, and heard a well-known pastor give a sermon on his series, “Breaking Free from the Habits that Bind You.” HA! Was that a coincidence or what? I ran for 36 minutes and didn’t even realize it; his message completely captivated me.

I’ve never been a treadmill fan because of the extreme BOREDOM that sets in — but not since that day when it all clicked for me. Three miles a day. Three miles a day. If I want to find out where God is leading me next, I need to keep up this pace. Three miles a day.

If I run when it’s light outside, I look out the window for a while and see our pretty green pasture, mottled with red Georgia dirt — and then after about eight minutes, I’m bored enough to need my mind to transport me somewhere else. I’m not running on a treadmill in my basement; I’m … Mary running through the hills of southern France. Or Mary running through the suburbs of northern California. Or I’m jogging along the snow-white sandy beaches of Florida.

Today I discovered it takes exactly 12 minutes before my mind is clear. Those few minutes of running along my imaginary beach clear my mind so I can start thinking about what’s really important to me, what I want out of life, what my dreams are, what I need to be focusing on. After 13 minutes, I’m praying, God, show me what to do. Show me how to serve you. What do I need to be doing with my days?

One of my favorite verses is I Peter 4:7, which says, “Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” It takes a mile on a treadmill before my mind is decluttered enough to pray! When I was running the other night, I thought for a minute of all the million things I needed to be doing besides exercising. Then I heard God’s voice say to me, “You’re on the right track.” OK, Lord. I’ll keep running.

While I’m on the subject of staying focused, I recently read a book that helped make a few more things in my life crystal clear. I don’t want to review it because I read it for my own pure pleasure, but let me just tell you, if you’re in desperate need of a spiritual jump-start, get a copy of Joyce Meyer’s The Confident Woman.

This is a powerful book, so far above all the self-help JUNK that lines bookstore shelves. Joyce Meyer bases everything on Truth from scripture, and she doesn’t hold back sharing with you the pain she went through to get there. I don’t care what the critics say, her testimony is awesome. Our confidence comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing else.

One more thing Joyce Meyer says is that we women who have our hope in Christ are to be JOYFUL. We are also to be bearing much fruit in our life. If we’re not bearing fruit, then something needs to be pruned out. Something is choking the joyful fruit out of our life. Wow. I can’t get away from this thought.

It will take more than one week of 12-minute clear-minded praying to find out the things God wants me to prune from my life so I can bear more fruit. But I anxiously await His voice.

So it’s off to the treadmill I go.