Getting Back in the Race

I used to be a runner. It started out as a vanity thing. I was literally running from the sloppy spread that often accompanies one's twenties. However, weekly runs soon morphed from merely penance I paid the piper for my indulgences in ice cream, cheese and potatoes, into something much more beautiful and sacred.

I am not really sure how it happened. In some ways I think I might have Tye Tribbet and his crazy antics to thank, but somewhere between my Aruba Ready Runs, to my Punta (as in Punta Cana) Prep, my treadmill became an altar of sorts. You see my runs represented about 50-60 minutes of mandatory time - By myself. Don't be mistaken, I love me, and can crack myself up better than anyone I know, but after minute 17 on a treadmill, I'm "over me" and looking for new distractions. My solution - Hardcore runners playlists.

My career as a DJ (Yes, in my mind the creator of an Itunes playlist that will get you moving is in fact a DJ!) began with the hardest, base driven beats hip hop could offer. I rocked out to Method Man, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Jay Z, but as I matured, in age, or throug more involvement in church, the messages my musical motivation offered seemed more detrimental than the pounds I was trying to shed. Gradually, my playlists swapped players, pimps and thugs for sanitized pop stars, and finally, gospel and Christian rap artists.

In part, the evolution of my playlists were a direct reaction to my understanding of how vulnerable I was mentally, during my runs. Running had become a time of introspection and meditation. It was the one part of the day when I could tune out, uninterrupted, and reflect on everything that was important to me. That reflection seemed compromised when bathed in the tenor of violence, rage or gratuitous profanity. Interestingly, the more gospel I listened to while I ran, the greater my worship, my walk and my stride became. It was as if I had invited God along for my runs, and He was overjoyed to come.

Running with God made exercise - prayer, sprints - somatic songs of praise, and stitches- lessons in pressing through discomfort because victory was certain. I learned so much about myself, my will power and the deep, abiding and comforting presence of God. Isaiah 41:30's "They shall run and not grow weary," took on a whole new meaning. I looked forward to my run. They had become my devotional time, where the boost of endorphins was eclipsed by awesome encounters with the Holy Spirit. I swear sometimes I felt like the treadmill was glowing when I was done.

But sometime last year, I learned a new, really effective weight loss method, and I stopped running. In the excitement of pain free weight loss, I forgot the real goal, the real prize I was chasing. Along with my weekly runs went 4 hours of time with God a week. Not only had my body stopped moving, but my spirit had become stagnant. I'd stopped running in the race towards Christ and had become comfortable in my year long water break of sorts.

Interestingly it was an encounter with some old school Missy Elliot and Beyonce's "Who Run the World" single that began beckoning me out of retirement and back to the treadmill again. Surely not the most holy of songs, but they reminded me of that sweet time of communion God and I had shared so many times, at our favorite meeting place. And so, I plan to get back in my running shoes and back into the race... both of them! For the prize and the journey are too exquisite to stop now.

Ever Higher!