Running Stinks

Running is boredom and pain mixed together. Please don't tell me about endorphins or a runner's high. I do not experience such things, and as a result I consider all discussion of them highly dubious. They are probably lies created in order to see how far runners can push people like me before they break down and beg for the sweet merciful release of death.

I guess that is why scriptures about running haven't always resonated with me. You know, finish the race and all that. I don't like running, and I really don't want to consider life as one big experience in running. However, there is a phrase that has stuck with me since I re-read it a few weeks ago, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us.."(Hebrews 12:1).

I suppose it jumped out at me because the words "run" and "patience" don't normally go in the same sentence, at least not for me. Running for me is moving faster than you need to, and I really don't want to engage in such nonsense. In fact, the only time I do run is when i am impatient. So what on earth does Paul mean by saying we should run with patience?

My crazy brother Stan, who runs marathons, told me that when he started running he could barely make it to the mailbox, but he kept going until he lost his mind and started running marathons. To run with patience is to accept that life will at times be difficult, that we might get winded easily, that there will be times when we need to walk, time to rest, time to take care of sore muscles, but taking those rests and slowing down will never stop us from continuing the race. To run with patience is to never give up. It is to start where we are and continue forward until we become what we want to be.

To run with patience is to pace ourselves, to not be so focused on finishing the race that we miss the scenery that we are running past. It is to not run faster than our strength. Am I going too fast? Will I burn out all my strength before the race is over? Am I too focused on the next stage of life? Or am I fully enjoying where I am? Eternity is now, and really the only step of a race that matters is the next one. Have a goal, but don't forget that some gaps can only be closed by time, and no one can move faster than one step at a time.

I will never run a real race (probably) but I am determined to continue life with more patience, to recognize and embrace my limitations as I push on, sometimes through the pain, to become stronger, with more endurance, and the ability to reach that final goal, taking one step at a time.