Faith in the Wake of the Boston Marathon Bombing

Bombs at the Boston Marathon. I was at a loss.

It has taken me a few days to decide what I really feel and what  I really want to say.

First I felt angry and wanted to rant. I wanted to write pages on how I hoped and prayed that God's justice would be swift and heavy. I wanted to see God come out with some Old Testament style vengeance and fast. But then I remembered my Romans.

Then I was sad and wanted to pout my heart out. I was broken when I heard that an 8 year old boy was the first to die. I'm expecting my first child in June, and my wife has often encouraged me in my running by saying how fun it will be to race with my child cheering me on. The image of that dream was shatter with one headline.

Then I started to read things from writers much better than myself. Writers like Donald Miller who wrote this post about the goodness of all people. That gave me some much needed Godly perspective.

Then I saw cartoons like this one, reminding me how Americans have a history of stepping over old differences and pulling together during rough times. That made me feel proud of where I come from.



Image Credit:  cartoonist Bill Bramhall of Daily News

So, what am I feeling now? A strong sense of conviction. About what exactly?

That this is another example of how much this world needs a God who begs us to love one another.

That there will be more good than bad that comes from this when it's all said and done.

That we will never really know why all this happened and that we don't need to know, because this is not our world.

I am convicted that whoever did this picked on the wrong country, the wrong city and certainly the wrong sport.

I am convicted that Boston and its wonderful marathon will rise up from this.

Above all, I am convicted that God would want us to go on loving each other, running until our legs can't carry us any father, and doing whatever we can to promote a world where nobody would ever want to do something like this again.

The Need to Fall

I have fallen down on a run before. Most of runner have. Depending on the speed, terrain, and how far into the run one is, falls can take quite a toll on a runner. I've seen a fellow marathoner fall as we crossed a wet foot bridge. He got right back up and kept on going. I've seen a friend take quick slip down a hill that ended that days training, forcing us to walk back the way we came.

Falling seems bad. You were headed in one direction, and then you're not. You were doing what you thought was right (it is widely acceptable to move during a run), and now you're not. You weren't in any great amount of pain, and now you are. Falling seems bad.

So, why is this article entitled "The Need to Fall"? Who needs to fall? You do. We all do.

Sometime we are unknowingly running, physically or metaphorically, in the wrong direction. Sometimes we're just headed there too fast. Sometimes we're on the wrong path altogether, or one that is just too dangerous.

Why would we do such obviously stupid things? We're sinners, case you haven't heard, and that's what we do. Like it or not, we will lead ourselves down dangerous paths. Even those of us who love Christ with all of our hearts have taken our eyes off the cross and ignored the light on our path from time to time.


Falling forces us to stop, collect our thoughts, and make a decision about what to do next. Although we'll deny it, God knows we need to do all of those things more often than we'd like. Hopefully, the fall wakes us up to what He has probably been silently suggesting all along.


Anyone who has ever run towards the cross can tell you about times they have fallen. That's the story of belief. Anyone who still believes can tell you about a time they have fallen and managed to get back on the right path. That's the story of faith.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

The Path Less Traveled

I love trail running. It excites me in a way that road running or track simply cannot. Trail running asks you to make your way back to the place you started following a single path that is always changing. Something about that appeals to me.

I've been reading more about the idea of a path or a way recently. An an Asian Studies major at Furman University (Go Paladins!) I studied many Eastern philosophical ideas that included concepts of a way. Most notably, the Dao De Jing speaks of how all things in the universe are connected to the Dao (way). It also heavily discusses the idea of Way-making.

As I understand it from the Dao De Jing, Way-making is something like living a just or righteous life. A life lived in the Way is a life lived in accordance with the laws of the universe. One of the central ideas is that one should have respect for everything (and I mean everything) in the world because all things are interconnect and depended on one another. There is no secret to Way-making; no step-by-step guide or score card to prove your Way-making worth. It's an intangible ideal at which to grasp.

There is a similar idea in the Christian faith largely based on the idea of righteousness. Christians are called to seek God's will in every decision in their pursuit for righteous action. Many people stress over major life decisions in fear that making the wrong choice will permanently move them off the righteous track and place them on the non-righteous or less-than-optimal righteous track. In this mindset, Christian Way-making, if you will, depends on each and every decision you make being the most righteous one available.

Pastor Ken Wytsma (a new favorite of mine) has taught on decision making and the will of God through Proverbs. After listening to his sermons, I realized that the commonly held belief  that righteous living can rest on any one decision, even a major one, seems at odds with the way God operates. Ken's teaching helped me see that God's view of righteousness is most likely more about staying on a righteous path than taking every single righteous step possible. Just like in trail running, the point is to get to the end, not to take every correct step as you move down the path. Trying to do that would be insane! Yet, that's pretty much what we are trying to do in stressing about every decision we have to make.

Christ's sacrifice paid for all of our sins, forever. His sacrifice protects us from God's wrath no matter how many missteps we made in our trek towards righteousness.The only turn we have to ensure that we make is to repent (Repent is a translation of shuwb; a Hebrew word meaning "to turn back") towards Christ. Once that turn is surely made, if you stay on a courses headed towards Christ, no one step can derail you.

Stop stressing, enjoy the views around you and focus on getting home in one piece.

Race Day Gone Wrong

Very few people would be upset if they were told they didn't have to swim/bike/run 70.3 miles in the 100+ degree heat. I happen to be one of those people who would be, and was, upset.

                                        

 My first 1/2 Ironman was supposed to be held in the metropolitan Muncie, IN last July. The summer was already pretty hot and a heat wave was baking the better part of the country. My wife and I drove up to the expo the day before and never saw the thermometer drop below 100. Shortly after arriving at the convention center I found out that the race had been shortened to an Olympic-esk length (1 mi swim, 30 mi bike, 6.2 mi run) because of the heat. To save you from a really long rant, I'll just say there were many bummed out triathletes, and I was one of them."They've got heat in Kona, you know! Lava fields anybody?" - that's the kind of vitriolic taunts I wanted to shout at the race director.

My mood dropped faster than a tap dancer on ice. All of my motivation was lost, and any sense of calm I had fostered in the days prior went out the window. Try as I might, I couldn't get over it. Then things got a little worse. I found out that I left my helmet and bike pump at home. "Hello breakdown. I think we've met before".

Enter my Godly wife. Sitting on the sofa in our hotel room she put her arms around me and talked me through what I soon saw to be the lesson God had in store for me the whole time. She asked why I was so upset, and I explained that I had told so many people I was going to do a half-ironman, and now I wasn't allowed to. I had promised myself that I was going to finish this thing, and through no fault of my own, I had to break that promise. Slowly but surely she worked me towards the true source of my rage - PRIDE.

 I was afraid what other people, including myself, were going to say when I didn't finish a half-ironman. I was afraid of how I would feel. I was angry about not getting to do what I wanted to do. None of that had anything to do with God's intentions for the day. I and the world were the focus. Not God. Issue identified.

I started off race morning by listening to David Crowder's After All. One of my favorite lines says "Oh I've dreamed dreams of majesty as brilliant as a billion stars But they're never bright enough after all...You are Holy". I tearfully prayed for God to do what He needed to do throughout the race.

I started the race off with a strong swim, kept it steady of the bike and used my extra strength on the run to come in with a respectable 2 hr 29 min finish. (The pro's had a nice race of their own.) My real story, and my final lesson, was out on the swim.

After making the first of two turns, the swim course put the races parallel to the sunrise, so if you breathed on your right side you got a face full of rays. As I made the turn the sun's light was a reminder of the previous day's lesson. God's majesty is brighter than a billion stars and just staring into a single star had enough power to turn my head the other way. What could I hope to do to brighten a billion times that with a simple race regardless of the distance?

So what great glory did God achieve in that shorter than expected race? I don't know for sure, but all I can say is that my thoughts during the race were totally on Him, and that wouldn't have been the case if nothing had changed from my initial plan. That alone makes it worth it. That alone brings God more glory than any number of miles ever could.

Love to Tri? Try to Love

The mother of all triathlons was last weekend and boy what a show! Kona nerds certainly got several surprises (I certainly didn't think Macca would be DNF). Men's winner Pete Jacobs put on a good show all the way through and deserved his win 100%.

In his post-race interview, Jacobs talked about one of the most important keys to his winning the race. Was it his sleek bike? No. The blistering intervals he did during training? Nope. The invisible dolphin he rode during the swim? Almost but not really. Love? You bet!

The Bible has tons to say about love. God sacrificed His son Jesus for love of His own creation. The disciples gave up their entire lives due to their love for Christ. Followers of Christ should give 10% (or more) of their income to His church because they love Him. The list goes on and on, but the Bible doesn't exactly talk about how love would help you face down a pack of hungry Ironman triathletes at the end of a marathon. So what's up with love?

Anyone who believes in God must agree that God is powerful. You don't create the universe without power. If we can also agree that God is love, then we can assume that their is power in love. By acting out of love we are acting in accordance with God's will. As the Bible tells us, those who are outside of God's will don't tend to make it very far, so love is in our best interest. To boot, Paul, John, George and Ringo also thought love was pretty important.

The power of positive thinking and positive visualization are nothing new in sports. By harnessing love rather than rage or hate (Ex -You gotta get mad to win!) during a race you not only save yourself the mental energy of thinking negative thoughts, but you also tap into something more spiritually powerful and ultimately more pleasing all around.

Unless you plan on making triathlon your job, your main goal is probably to have fun and enjoy yourself. Who's ever said "Let's get up really early, put on weird clothes, go run for a few hours and spend the entire time thinking negative thoughts - it'll be fun!"? That outlook certainly doesn't appeal to me, and I doubt it does to you either.

Want to have the best shot at winning your next race and maybe enjoying life a bit more altogether? Try love on for size. It's Christ tested, God approved.

I don't mean to speak for Pete Jacobs at all in writing this. I have no reason to believe his comments were motivated by faith. This is my attempt to use his popular comments as a jumping off point for my own discussion.