Running the Race
I've only been running now for about a month and a half. I had one small somewhat notable stint with running before when I was on an exercise kick and decided that was the best way to lose calories. As you might have guessed that didn't last. So at the ripe age of almost 32, I've been taking up running. I was a chunky kid in my primary education. I think I wear about the same pant size now that I entered into High School with, which naturally might suggest that running and I weren't acquainted. There was some running around the field on football practice which I hated every minute of and always gave me shin splints. After that, I quickly decided that I would run outside of practice to make it easier on me in practice. Being disillusioned about my prowess and about distance measurements I decided to try and run to the end of the road, which as luck would have it is about a half a mile. I also had not much of an idea about pacing. In the end, I didn't make it, and wondered how a person could ever force themselves to do such a thing at twice the speed I was theoretically capable of. (The reality is that someone could have done it thrice the speed, but I was blissfully ignorant of such a thing at that point.) That was my running legacy for over a decade. Fast forward to today and I've just finished out the month with 24.6 miles on record.
The pertinent question in this part of these types of stories is "What happened?" while I'm glad you asked that question, I'm actually going to skip that part for now. Suffice it to say that I have found myself motivated for the task at hand. My initial impression is that running is difficult. That might not come as a surprise to you, but like a good optimist, I had expected at one point that running would get easier as I continued to engage in it. Like learning an instrument, driving a manual car, or a million other skills out there; hard work is supposed to give way to an eventual reflex-like mastery of the basic concepts of said skills. Running on the other hand is primarily about managing discomfort. I can run farther than I could before and I can run that distance faster than I could before. But even if I only run half a mile my body is asking for me to stop. A backseat complainer that finds engaging in such an activity unnecessary. And that voice doesn't go away- You just get better at ignoring it. Your threshold for discomfort changes and your brain starts to key in on the delayed gratification of finishing what you started and finishing well all the while someone is kicking the back of your seat asking "Are we there yet?"
Thankfully, God grants me the power to run. The physical health to propel my body and indeed every breath that goes in and out. I can remember distinctly asking God to sustain me to the end of the mile, in the same way, he will sustain me in the faith to the end of my life. And he did, and he will. There are a myriad of examples that can draw a correlation between running and faith, but here in the early stages, I have been struck by the difficulty of running. The fact that it's an act of discomfort through which we must persevere. And through my faith, there is a path of growth in which God will sustain me as I grow towards my perfection in Christ as a citizen of the new Zion. But now I am running the race, and it's a path of discomfort. God doesn't call us to be comfortable but rather calls us to follow him, which can be uncomfortable, even through torture, rape, and murder for some of our brothers and sisters who are warriors in the faith. It is my hope then that I can grow in the faith in such a manner that my threshold for discomfort changes. That I can ignore and crucify the flesh kicking the back of my spiritual seat asking if we can be done because God is in the driver's seat.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
To God be the glory through these things. And my prayer is that he engenders in every corner of me the spirt of power, love and a sound mind. A power that arrives as my every breath does, from God. To those of you who are reading and in the faith, may God grant you whatever you ask in the name of Christ and the production of his kingdom. And to those who are not, there is a deep abiding unsurpassable joy in the Lord. Trials you will always have in life, no matter where you are in regards to God, but the joy of the Lord that perseveres comes through the Christ our King Jesus.
Amen.
