I used to run between 20 to 40 miles a week until I ripped my hamstring in a waterskiing accident. That was over a year ago, and I still cannot run like I used to.

The loss of running has caused me to truly appreciate running like never before. It got me to thinking about that old adage – we don’t really appreciate what we have until we lose it.

I wonder if that is how it is with God and life? If God is permanency in everything, how can it know what it is? How can it appreciate being it all? There is nothing to compare itself to. There is no loss to appreciate what it has/is.

Maybe that’s where life comes in. Through life God can experience loss through the process of change and death. And in experiencing change and death, God can appreciate what it is – everything and permanency – because it is allowed to experience what it is not.

Just like it took losing running for me to truly appreciate running, maybe life (loss of permanency) is what God created to allow itself to truly appreciate what it is (permanency). Maybe God created life to know it is alive.

Timothy Velner is a husband, father, attorney and author living in Minneapolis. You can follow his daily blog – a series of discussions between the worry-self and the present-self at – thespiritualgym.me