One Step At A Time

Half marathons are for those crazy runners who train like crazy and have no time for anything else in life.  That’s what I thought for many years…before I became one of them!

Two years ago I took the first steps on a long journey.  My son Ben chose to go out for track and began doing a little running to prepare for it.  I decided to join him with the goal of running in the Eyota Days 5K race.  In those first months just running a couple miles nearly did me in.  My lungs ached as I gasped for air.  After a little running the breathing improved, only to be replaced by sore legs.  Running over a three mile race seemed nearly impossible, but I kept at it, running a few miles two to three times a week.  Little by little things felt better.  I felt a surge of pride as I crossed the finish line of the 2011 Eyota Days 5K race.  The training paid off.  I made it.

After that one race my competitive nature kicked in and I pushed myself harder in training.  I wanted to improve my race time!  I’d found a 2 ½ mile course to run on a regular basis.  A few months later I was pleased with my time in St. Charles’ Gladiolus Days race.  I’d grown to like this running thing!

The coming of winter cut back on my running plans until Ben invited me to join in the Dover-Eyota Winter Running Club, a group of teachers and students trying to keep in shape.  The group started by running three miles a time and I jumped in with enthusiasm.  I had three miles under control!  Anxiety hit when the group started moving up to five miles.  I hadn’t run five miles since high school…I didn’t know if I had it in me.  Thankfully I had a fellow slow runner that day and I made it!  Five miles still seemed an incredibly long way to run, but I knew I could do it if I pushed myself.

Little did I know that the Winter Running Club existed to help people train for a half marathon.  Ben eagerly signed up and invited me to join him at the Lace It Up run in Rochester.  I looked at the calendar and smiled.  The race was on a Sunday morning.  I had to work.  Darn!  :) I went to watch the end of Ben’s run and stood amazed that these people could run so far.  Thirteen miles…ufdah!  I could run five…I’d NEVER be able to do THAT!

This past summer I continued running my 2 ½ mile course, pushing myself harder and harder and watching my times improve.  Ben and I sought out as many 5K races as we could…and I actually won some medals in the ‘sort-of-geezer’ age group.  I started to see myself as a runner.

Late this fall Ben asked me to pull out my calendar.  “What do you have on January 26^th?”  The day looked wide open…until he mentioned, “That’s the day of the half marathon in St. Paul.  Run it with me!”  I couldn’t find any excuse not to other than a bit of fear.  Could a guy who felt anxiety about a five mile run find the strength to go thirteen?

Training quickly got underway.  No longer did the 2 ½ mile course suffice…I had to go further.  Little by little the runs lengthened…three miles…four miles…five miles.  I could do it (and it felt good)!  In mid-December I cranked out a seven mile run.  Success!  A few weeks ago I went for eight miles and felt pretty good.

Last Saturday the big day arrived.  I had a goal of finishing in less than two hours.  The experience of training convinced me that I would survive.  I made it in 1:59:35.  I could never have done it two years ago.  It felt WAY too intimidating.  I needed small changes to my running…and small successes to celebrate.  Little by little my running life changed to allow me to do what I’d thought impossible for me. I’d become one of those crazy half marathon people. 

Small steps (with celebrations at each step) allow for major, sustainable changes in life.  It's easy to feel intimidated by people who seem more ‘advanced’ in faith than we think we’ll ever be.  What things seem impossible to you? 

·         Is it reading the Bible cover to cover?  Start with a few chapters a day.

·         Is it spending significant time every day in prayer?  Start with a few minutes a day and build from there.

·         Is it worshipping on a regular basis?  Start with a few Sundays in a row and move on from there.

·         Is it having a basic working knowledge of Scripture?  Begin with a book or two explaining what it’s all about.

It’s easy to think, “I’m just not the kind of person who can do that.”  We feel too intimidated to do anything.  That sounds a lot like me…until God helped me to take the first step.

Don’t expect change to come all at once.  Celebrate each step on the journey to the new you!  God walks with you every step of the way.

Moving to a New Normal

Yesterday my wife made a simple request, “Can you move my desk over to that part of the room?”  What sounded like a two minute project (how hard can it be to move a small desk?) turned into an all evening affair.  Moving the desk meant moving the bookshelf…and the filing cabinet…and the papason chair.  Then the dresser had to move downstairs and a night stand from the bedroom came in to fill the gap.   That left a hole in the bedroom, meaning that the bed had to rotate and the other night stand and the dresser had to swap places.  By 9:00 that night anxiety hit as I reached the tipping point…there was no going back to the way things were, but I was surrounded by a disaster, with the mattress shoved against the wall and piles of things in transition unceremoniously shoved into corners.   I worried that the new layout wouldn’t work. But then, with a few last things put in place, it all came together.   Many of those piles found their way back to their new homes.  Hope came that I could finally go to bed!  There’s still work to do…but I can see that it’ll all work out OK.

In the past years ‘organized religion’ has hit this kind of tipping point.  Churches had a layout in our culture that worked pretty well for a long time, but things have begun to change.  Over the past decade worship attendance has dropped in nearly every Christian church body: from Baptist to Catholic to Lutheran to non-denominational.  Nearly twenty percent of Americans now claim to have no religious affiliation.  As recently as 1990 that number stood at ten percent.  Of those 30 years old and under close to one third don’t identify with any religion.  This is a major shift in our culture.  Anxiety is growing!  Congregations that used to fill their large worship spaces now have rows and rows of empty pews.  Many pundits claim that ‘the church’ will become increasingly irrelevant in our society.   This is a major disaster for organized religion…right?

Perhaps what we live in is a not the death of the church, but rather a transition to a new ‘layout.’  Instead of looking at the way the church used to be, it’s time to prayerfully consider what the church will become. 

What might this ‘new layout’ look like?

·         People will join communities of faith, not because of any societal expectation, but because they feel called by God to do it.

·         Instead of obsessing on how to run the institution of the church, communities of faith will have a strong focus on serving their neighbors and making a difference in the world.

·         People will feel free to voice their questions and struggles in faith and won’t simply parrot ‘churchy’ slogans which sound nice but mean little.

·         People will engage in the questions of how science and faith relate to one another (it’s God working in the world after all!) and won’t worry that science might undermine faith.

·         Communities of faith will spend more time worrying about who to invite and include than who should be shunned.

·         People will serve God by serving the world, not just by serving in a church.

We live in a time of transition to new models for communities of faith.  I don’t place my hope in church structures…I place my hope in Jesus Christ!  As long as Jesus is Lord there is hope for God’s church.  It can be hard to sense that in the midst of this time of transition.  We sometimes only see the ‘messes in the corners’ that we don’t think will ever get sorted out, but God leads us to new ‘layouts’ of faith.  Times are changing and there is no going back to the way things used to be.  How can God lead us to a ‘new normal’ as we join in God’s exciting mission in this world?