Running to Faith
I have been feeling quite out of sorts lately. I haven't gotten into a good groove this semester with my college classes, there seems to be quite a lot happening at church, and my family life has seemed complicated lately. Those are the three big areas of my life and I have trouble keeping them balanced on good days. When they are all out of sorts, I don't function very well.
So early last Wednesday morning I head to one of my high school small groups. I had ordered my breakfast and then prayed the Office of the Dawn while waiting for my students to show up. When they got there and got settled one of the first things one of them said was, "I wonder what I should give up for Lent?" I set down my coffee & realized that I had forgotten that it was Ash Wednesday. I also realized later that I had forgotten it was my wife's birthday, but that's a whole other story.
For the last few years I have given up drinking anything but water. The theology behind it seems good. Lent is about honoring the sacrifice Christ made for us, so we sacrifice something in remembrance. We do need water, but anything else is just flavoring, a craving of the flesh. You can talk all you want about "needing" a soda or coffee, but that is just simple desire or caffeine dependence. Either way, just cravings of the flesh. Water is all we need to keep us hydrated. Jesus also made a point of calling Himself "Living Water." I love it when a spiritual discipline can be expressed a bit poetically.
So I put my coffee aside and we talked about what they would be giving up and I explained my routine of water only. Then we got on the subject of running. A couple of them are in track and they talked about the various training for their distances. I used to run quite a bit, did many 5K's and even a mangled half-marathon that turned out to be very painful because of a lack of training right before the run. When I first started running seriously, I had to let my breathing dictate my pace. That helped reduce some of the pain and guided me toward adding mileage. I was up to about 35 per week for a brief period. From a spiritual standpoint I liked the focus and time for thought that running provided. I have even incorporated breath prayers into running, short spiritual phrases that you repeat over and over as you breathe.
We talked about a few other things, but after they headed to school, I thought more about running. My daughter is training to do a 5K at the end of next month and I was interested in running it with her, but had not started any training myself. So I decided to at least get started with a 20-minute easy run to at least begin the process.
I started off walking for a few minutes to warm up and then took off at an easy pace. I felt pretty good and went past 20 minutes and just kept on deciding to run a full 5K. I had done this before and even though I was moving slow, I thought I could do it. Kind of reminded me of how we can get out of sorts about things like faith and family and work, but we can get back in the groove easier than if we are just starting completely from scratch. I even asked God to have me end up right at 5K in front of my house. I don't think God minds showing us stuff when we ask. I felt like I should run a couple of blocks further than my usual turn around to do this. I second guessed and actually started to go even another block further, but them told myself to listen to what I felt like He told me originally and turned back. I ended up at just over 5K at the edge of my yard.
God is not so far away when we ask and listen and do things by faith.
So early last Wednesday morning I head to one of my high school small groups. I had ordered my breakfast and then prayed the Office of the Dawn while waiting for my students to show up. When they got there and got settled one of the first things one of them said was, "I wonder what I should give up for Lent?" I set down my coffee & realized that I had forgotten that it was Ash Wednesday. I also realized later that I had forgotten it was my wife's birthday, but that's a whole other story.
For the last few years I have given up drinking anything but water. The theology behind it seems good. Lent is about honoring the sacrifice Christ made for us, so we sacrifice something in remembrance. We do need water, but anything else is just flavoring, a craving of the flesh. You can talk all you want about "needing" a soda or coffee, but that is just simple desire or caffeine dependence. Either way, just cravings of the flesh. Water is all we need to keep us hydrated. Jesus also made a point of calling Himself "Living Water." I love it when a spiritual discipline can be expressed a bit poetically.
So I put my coffee aside and we talked about what they would be giving up and I explained my routine of water only. Then we got on the subject of running. A couple of them are in track and they talked about the various training for their distances. I used to run quite a bit, did many 5K's and even a mangled half-marathon that turned out to be very painful because of a lack of training right before the run. When I first started running seriously, I had to let my breathing dictate my pace. That helped reduce some of the pain and guided me toward adding mileage. I was up to about 35 per week for a brief period. From a spiritual standpoint I liked the focus and time for thought that running provided. I have even incorporated breath prayers into running, short spiritual phrases that you repeat over and over as you breathe.
We talked about a few other things, but after they headed to school, I thought more about running. My daughter is training to do a 5K at the end of next month and I was interested in running it with her, but had not started any training myself. So I decided to at least get started with a 20-minute easy run to at least begin the process.
I started off walking for a few minutes to warm up and then took off at an easy pace. I felt pretty good and went past 20 minutes and just kept on deciding to run a full 5K. I had done this before and even though I was moving slow, I thought I could do it. Kind of reminded me of how we can get out of sorts about things like faith and family and work, but we can get back in the groove easier than if we are just starting completely from scratch. I even asked God to have me end up right at 5K in front of my house. I don't think God minds showing us stuff when we ask. I felt like I should run a couple of blocks further than my usual turn around to do this. I second guessed and actually started to go even another block further, but them told myself to listen to what I felt like He told me originally and turned back. I ended up at just over 5K at the edge of my yard.
God is not so far away when we ask and listen and do things by faith.
posted by McHonza at 6:46 PM
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