Running, Faith & Spirituality – Part 2

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.   ~1Corinthians 9:24

SHIN SPLITS!!! Have you ever had these before? Mine were cripplingly painful! I used to skateboard back in the day and I have to tell you… My shins haven’t hurt this bad since I tried to master the kick-flip (for those who don’t know what that is, you can check it out here… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubTl3iPPi2o).

What was the cause of this pain afflicting my shins? My running style…

First, I was striking my heal too hard on the stride and this causes “trauma” to the muscle. Second, I was running weird with me feet because I’m flat-footed. Some people run too much on the outside of their feet or too much on the inside. I was running too much on the inside (also called excessive pronation) and it was adding to the stress caused by the hard heal strikes.

The Solution: CHANGE MY RUNNING STYLE.

This didn’t take a lot of convincing to try since my shins were absolutely killing me. So after a little down time while letting my shins mend, off I went for my 2.5 miles of morning bliss. Here’s the thing… Changing your running style is hard. You REALLY have to think about it when you’re running. Now, I didn’t have to do this, but if I really wanted to make progress on my road to physical fitness and quit feeling the pain of shin splints, I needed to do this.

The Problem: My Calves were ON FIRE!

You see, another thing I learned about the way I was running is that by running too much on the inside of my feet, not only was I over-using my shin muscles, I was also UNDER-USING my calf muscles. So when I changed my style it was like starting my running journey ALL OVER AGAIN. I couldn’t make the progress I was making one week before. I was having to stop and walk… Not to catch my breath this time, but because my calves and parts of my thighs were absolutely ON FIRE. Because I changed the WAY I ran, my other muscles needed a chance to adjust.

I think the same can happen on our journey of faith. We can get going and as we are “walking out” our faith, red flags pop up and begin to notify us that something isn’t working right. There’s some “burning”  or pain somewhere. It’s frustrating because up to that point we were making good progress. And the challenge is, realistically, we could just go on with business as usual and do nothing about it. The problem, however, is it will stunt our growth as followers of Jesus. And so the challenge to change knocks on our door.

Lifestyle is a hard thing to change. You have to be super intentional about it. Your approach to relationships may need some radical adjusting. Your world-view may be holding you back (perspective is key to how we make decisions). Whatever it may be, we’ve probably been doing it for a looong time. It probably comes naturally, without even having to think about it (like my flat feet and pronating). And to really add to the challenge, I’m probably going to have to sacrifice some progress up front to make more in the future. Again; short-term pain, long-term gain. This is hard because most of us only do things well when we see the results. There’s going to be an element of delayed gratification on this one. It’s going to require discipline and intention. But if I don’t accept the challenge to change, I’m the one who will suffer the consequences.

So I’d ask you to ask yourself… Is there something in my lifestyle that is slowing down my progress along the journey of discipleship? Do I need to change my “running style”?