Running, Faith & Spirituality

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.  ~Hebrews 12:1

I recently picked up the habit of running again. Waaay back in the day, I used to run about 3 or 4 miles a day. But I got married, got a real job and the next thing you know, one year later… no more running and I’m 45 pounds heavier. Yikes! That was the heaviest I have ever been in my life! Well, fast forward 10 years and I’m almost there again. So, I am really trying to be committed to getting back in good physical condition.

But as I’ve been running (right now only 2.5 miles), I’ve had A LOT of really good contemplation time with God. He seems to speak to me or help me see things and make connections while I’m running. In fact, I’ve noticed a lot of really interesting analogies or metaphors to things I encounter while running with things I encounter in my faith and spirituality. I’ve been meaning to start writing about these, if for no other reason than to have them down somewhere so I don’t forget them. But maybe they’ll be encouraging for the 10 or 12 of you who stop by and read. So…

The first thing I noticed is how hard it is find the umph or momentum again to get up and run every day when it’s been so long since doing it. It’s painful… LITERALLY. Everything inside of me was coming up with good excuses why I shouldn’t/didn’t have to run today. I’m tired, I didn’t sleep good, my allergies are killing me and I’ll just end up coughing my brains out, my running shoes are too old, my iPod needs to be recharged… are you nauseas yet? Bottom line was, it was hard and I was lazy.

I thought about this in depth as I chugged along my dizzying 11.5 minute mile (stop laughing — how far did you run today). Then I realized how much this reminded me of certain areas in my faith over time. Especially those areas in our lives that require discipline to overcome or get control of.

I could see how easy it was to come up with some pretty decent excuses but underneath it all…. they were just excuses. I just didn’t want to put in the hard work required to develop some consistency in that part of my life. I was happy being mediocre. I was comfortable. Throbbing shins and thighs are not comfortable. Cutting things out of my life that are not necessarily bad but are currently hindering my spiritual growth isn’t comfortable either. It’s hard… It takes commitment… It is a sacrifice… Short term pain, long term gain.

Here’s what shocked me… My progress! My first day out was brutal. How many times did I have to stop and walk to catch my breath? Sheesh! I don’t think I even made it 1 mile before having to stop and walk. But then next day, I was able to run almost twice as far and by the end of the week I had run all but 1/4 mile of the whole distance. Of course the whole time, I’m telling myself each morning, “I SO don’t want to run this morning!” But each day I do, I don’t regret it.

Growing in our faith and becoming more like Jesus as one of His disciples is a lot like that first week. We come across an area of life that requires some “shaping up.” We have excuses as to why we can/should maintain the status quo. The first time we try to move out of this rut is painful and seemingly uneventful… even brutal at times. But looking further down the road we see that without that first day… that first step… that first ten feet… there wouldn’t be any future. And the opportunity for growth is exponential. It may not come as fast as we’d like, but it will come.

The first part of getting back into running and growing in our faith and spirituality is… JUST GET STARTED AND WORK ON CONSISTENCY. Chew on that with me for a couple days and I’ll throw a few more of these metaphors up later. Peace!