running through lent

the season of lent is upon us. i always have a hard time with this season. i don't think it is the discipline of the season. nor do i think it is the general wilderness feel of sacrifice for the season either. i think it is the anticipation of the end of the season and the beginning of easter. i find myself not appreciating the sacrifice i am making in order to grow closer to and find a deeper level of relationship with god. i believe lent has been abused by our consumer attitude toward christianity. i can remember a day when lent was barely talked about, or referred to as "that catholic thing." as a person who grew up with several very close catholic friends, i always observed their lenten fast. i appreciated the fact that they were sacrificing, even if i didn't have a deep understanding of what that meant on anything more than a superficial level. but back to the point at hand. as more and more christians have begun to participate in the lenten practices, it has become something that has been turned into a commodity in a typical american fashion. we look for efficiency more than sacrifice. we find things that will be the least painful, but still "significant" to give up. and mostly in my opinion we look for trendy things. things that we can give up year after year in order to simply tell our friends, i am giving up "chocolate" or some other yearly sacrifice.

so as not to give the wrong impression, i too have done that for many a year. i have found many a thing to give up, and yet have continued to feel unsatisfied at the end of the season. easter comes, and there is celebration, but there is no feast. so as i began to give this serious thought in the past several years and ancient wisdom was that things were sacrificed in order to take on something in place of that thing sacrificed in order to bring yourself closer and into a deeper relationship with god. simple, yet profound. give something up to take something on. i do want to differentiate this from typical american consumerism of busyness. we tend only to give up commitments when we have another to replace it with. this is poor form at best and probably destructive individually, familially, and ultimately communally. another post for another time however.

so after saying all of this running is one my favorite hobbies. there is in my opinion no better way to the see the environment around you than by enjoying it while running. i can cover great distances at a time either slow or fast and most importantly for me, it is a time of deep reflection. i get moody when i don't run. just ask my wife. my energy is off, i don't sleep well, i gain weight, and overall tend toward a sour outlook. that is no way to live. so i run. but i also run because at a deeper level of my being, it gives me deep satisfaction and provides me an avenue to experience who god has made me to be. i discover more about myself by running not only recreationally but also in races. i have been pushed to my very physical limits. and i have triumphed at times. but most importantly, i believe, i have failed at times in running. i have not met goals. i have been injured. and i have been deeply disappointed.

running offers, for me, a great picture of lent. we will have failures, triumphs, and hopefully deep personal reflection. the kind of reflection and introspection that results in outward action that draws us ultimately closer to one another and to god.