Setting the Bar

Genesis

The beginning of Advent (and beginning of a new Church year) seems as good a time as any to start a blog on spirituality and running—two topics I try to refrain from boring people to death with, and I hope not to do that here either. But I must confess that even though we’re only in Advent, my mind is already looking to Easter. Why the jump? I’m training for the 2014 Boston Marathon and it falls on the Monday after Easter which seems Providential to me (although last year I ran the Cleveland marathon on Pentecost Sunday which I also thought Providential and I pulled my calf really bad with 2 miles to go—this led to several puzzled journal entries about Providence and makes me wonder what this run will bring).

As you can see, running and spirituality are inextricably linked in my mind and experience and as I set out on another marathon training journey I thought I would share some of my running inspired reflections on the spiritual life with any interested person, runner or not, with the hope you will find them interesting and maybe even beneficial on your own journey to Easter (after all, although Christmas is great, its really all about Easter).

First Week of Advent

Saturday’s long run wasn’t what I consider a particularly long run—13 miles—but, it was supposed to be a challenging one as I was supposed to start out an easy pace and increase it aggressively throughout, never slowing down. I had hoped to do really well, which would be a needed confidence boost as I’ll be running a half marathon in a few weeks. But, when I woke up that morning, I knew I should rein in my expectations because I could hear the wind howling outside and could imagine the added challenge this would pose.

But I couldn’t help myself—I still wanted to do well. So even though I knew I should start out easier than planned, that I should probably increase the pace only slowly so as to last the whole run without slowing down, there I was, charging along early and ignoring that voice that said ‘slow down!’. What was I thinking! With the wind, by mile 8 I was struggling to keep up let alone go faster. As I pushed to finish that last mile at a good pace, I was sorry I hadn’t adjusted my expectations at the start.

Or was I? In the back of my mind, when I set out for such runs, I remember something my coach told me about pushing yourself (paraphrasing here): so you push and you either find you could do it or you fail; if you do it, great, and if you fail, so what? You’ll never know what kind of potential you have unless you push and stretch yourself.

As I reflect on this, its interesting to me that I am so willing to set high expectations for myself when it comes to running, that I push through when I want to quit, that I rally after miles in which my effort has lessened, yet, when it comes to the spiritual life… its not that I don’t try, but, I tend to go for what I know I can do rather than try to stretch myself the way I do with running. And I know why I do this—I have this philosophy that, when it comes to the spiritual life, its better, smarter, to go for those theoretically achievable goals which, when reached, offer that boost and encouragement to set the next goal or at least keep trying.

That’s all well and good, but, isn’t there a point at which we should also go for it in the spiritual life? A point at which its time to set the bar high, expect the best, give it your real, best, effort, even if you end up failing? And what is failing in the spiritual life anyway? Isn’t it not trying? With Christ as our guide and our strength, how can we fail?

I don’t know. There seems to be a dozen other questions, thoughts and arguments back and forth coming to mind. And maybe its not a bad thing, to sit with a question, take the time to ponder it. After all, it is Advent and such pondering seems appropriate for the season.

What thoughts and questions are you pondering and sitting with this Advent season?