On Dec. 4 I will run in the White Rock Marathon in Dallas. Once a week, I will provide my observations on the connection between the spiritual life and training to run a marathon. Please visit my White Rock fundraising page to honor my daughter and contribute to a great cause.
The first thing that I have noticed is the time commitment involved in training for a marathon. Even though I have found a training program that gives me the best workout in the shortest amount of time I am still having to commit to about an hour a day, six days a week. And because I have always preached on this blog that adding to your schedule or piling on to your calendar never works and only adds stress and frustration, I had to find something to eliminate.
The area to take the hit has been my reading of books on Christian living and the spiritual life. I would love to read this and this, but my schedule won’t allow it. Also, and I didn’t expect this, my reading of scripture has been cut down but I don’t really have an excuse for this other than my routine has been broken up and I have been too uncreative and lazy to find other ways to get scripture reading into my day.
But it is not all bad news; training gets me outside in nature and I often, while running, like to listen for as many natural sounds as I can. This gets my mind off myself and any discomfort and hopefully leads me to thoughts on God. Also, the isolation and solitude of running gives me space and time to think about my family and to pray for them. Prayer hasn’t come as naturally as I would like during training but I have tried to interject it more and more into my runs.
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