Lessons From a Race: Part 4: And Having Run The Good Race...

Well, here's the final bit of wisdom I've been able to glean from running a race... True, I ran almost a full month ago, but I am still applying the lessons I learned from that bitterly cold morning.

So to finish, what exactly happens? Seriously, what happens when you finish?

If you are like me, finishing is the hard thing. Starting is easy. My room is full of things I started, and still haven't finished. I have model airplanes, LEGO projects, paintings, books I'm trying to write, random letters I still need to respond too, poems that just need that sixth line, and yes, a pile of clothes that need to be folded. Maybe I'm just highly distractable, or maybe I just don't have the vision to finish something.

So what does it mean to finish something? Or more importantly, when you are running, why is the finish so important? Well, for some people, they don't even think about finishing. They give up before they even come within sight of the finish line. Others come so close, only to collapse just a few steps from the finish line. Just how do some people not just cross the finish line, but do it running??

I would submit to you that most of this strength is in the mind. We are told to run the good race, to fight the good fight, to continue on until the end. In fact, in 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that "in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize." He then exhorts us to "run in such a way as to get the prize." I don't know about you, but this sounds pretty rigorous! He's telling us that we're to try for first place?

My first thought as I went over that verse was "WHAT?? I'm supposed to try and beat the people who do this for a living? How am I, a mere mortal, with limited resources, supposed to beat someone who trains with professionals, has sponsors, and lives their life to run?" But then I started thinking. We are also commanded to be above reproach. This means that nobody should be able to even hint that we've done something out-of-line. So when it comes to running, we ARE supposed to try and challenge those people who run for a living! We are supposed to try for first place, no matter what! We are to do everything as unto God. That's not some things, or faith-based things, but EVERYTHING!

So here's a little confession. Right now is finals time. I've had three finals so far, and I have another two that got postponed to tomorrow because of inclement weather. And as I was thinking about what final grades I am expecting from these five classes, I thought to myself: "Did I really study as much as I should have for all of those homeworks? Did I really do every single quiz has if I was doing it unto the Lord? Did I give every single test and exam my all? Was I completely and utterly exhausted at the end because I had spent everything trying for that ever-elusive A?"

Sadly, I realized I could have tried much harder. Several of my friends without realizing it, showed me just how wrong my attitude was. Some of them, even non-Christians, just refused to accept anything less than a perfect grade! They weren't happy with just an A, they couldn't settle for a 99, they had to try for that perfect 100%. As I walked out of my third final, I thought to myself, "Now why don't I think that way? Why am I not striving for that perfect score, as unto the Lord?"

So my exhortation to all of you out there is to finish strong. When the finish lines looms in the distance, don't cower and shrink from that last challenge. Instead, sprint! Run towards it with joy and the expectation of reaching the end! Don't compare yourself to those around you. Instead, think of what the total potential is, and aim for that. Rather than just a percentile score, try for perfection. You've run a full race, you've made it thus far, and by God's grace, you are still alive today, so finish with a burst! Take everything you've got, and lay it all out!

"And having done all, to stand."

~unclejoe

Lessons from a Race: Part 1: on your mark... get set.... GO!

Running.

So many people talk about it, some people try it, and even fewer people can actually do it correctly. Whole sports are dedicated to running, or a form of it, people obsess over it, and it has been used for so many different analogies... But how many people actually know about it?

Perhaps the greatest analogy we have is in some of Paul's letters in the New Testament. In his letter to the Hebrews, he talks about setting aside everything, and running the race which is before us. But perhaps the most important part about this verse is the word "patience."

I really understood exactly what Paul was talking about, and I gained some new insight into this verse. On Thursday, I decided to run a 10k, with a couple of my siblings. And if there was one thing I learned, it was patience. My instinct was to spurt ahead, pass everyone, and just run! And at first, that is exactly what I did. But then I remembered the other 9 kilometers. So I had to slow down, I had to pace myself, I had to have patience.

The importance of this can't be underestimated. Perhaps the biggest part of running or participating in anything is getting the timing correct. In your car, if the timing is off, your car either runs really horribly, or not at all. If your watch is messed up, then your whole day could be ruined.

I guess the root of what I am trying to communicate is timing. As an extension of patience, which is more waiting for the right time, I would say it also has to do with doing things when you are supposed too, and not waiting beyond that.

But what is so important about it? Why is timing such a big issue?

To understand this, there is a certain engineering principle that can be applied. It is called the Critical Path. The basic idea is you assign times to every task that is in the path until you reach your goal. You lay everything out, and the Critical Path is all the items that take the longest time, in their chronological order. Because those are important, you do everything you can to get them done on time, because if you take a week longer on the first one, then the entire project will finish a week later.

All that to say: Timing is very important. Everyone talks about it, but they don't ever really explain why... We are told to wait for things, or to hurry up, and get something over sooner. There is such emphasis placed on timing, and yet nobody really understands why...

So here's the one thing I would encourage everyone to do. Go run a race. You gain so much insight, and just the feeling of joy you feel when you come around that final turn... You just sprint to the end! You finish with a burst, everyone is cheering, and you just run!! But most of all, you can understand how life is a race. Sometimes we go fast, and sometimes we go slow. There are curves and bumps, but then there's long straight stretches. But it's really the final stretch that makes it all worthwhile. When we near the end of our life here on earth, everyone is gathered around us, and we have millions and billions of people, waiting to welcome us to our new home... Let's just hope we can all finish with a dash across the line!

Oh, and a word of advice, don't plan anything strenuous for the next few days... You'll be very stiff and sore, and won't be able to move very much... :P

....to be continued......

~(a very stiff and sore) unclejoe

Textbooks and more... Have we adopted a Don't Ask-Don't Tell policy?

So I know it has been quite a while since I last posted, and due to an influx of what is generally referred to as life, I have been previously occupied, and now find myself with free time to begin blogging more. Today, I just want to give a few thoughts about textbooks.

We all use textbooks, right? Everyone has had some kind of education in their life, and odds are that you used a textbook at least part of the time. Unfortunately for us, the way our education system is set up, whatever the teacher's views on the subject are, you will have to conform to those views in order to pass the class. We place ourselves underneath instructors, and many times, their beliefs and value systems don't line up with ours. We very often find ourselves in the position of either having to disagree with the professor, or just be quiet and pretend not to notice.

Textbooks are often used as sources for many things, and people, especially students, take the information inside of them for granted. In some cases, like with my Calculus textbook, this can be done without too much uneasiness. Math isn't really something that changes from person to person. But when you start looking into books that have more subjectivity in them, you enter a dangerous ground. While many people accept most science books for granted, many of them have inherent flaws in the knowledge that they enclose. Take Physics for example. The first chapter of my textbook deals with units; time, weight, length, etc. A pound is a pound, right? An hour doesn't change from person to person. I was agreeing with everything in the book up until the time when they discussed how old the earth was. I'm sure you can guess what's coming. Current "Scientific" approximations currently put the age of the earth at about 3 billion years. We've all heard this, and from the Christian point of view, we know the complete opposite. But how many of us actually say something about this?

Many of us, and I am guilty of this as well, have adopted what the Army calls a 'Don't Ask-Don't Tell' policy. We aren't asked our views on controversial issues, so we don't tell them. I did this very thing the first day in Physics class. The professor went through the table of units, and off-handedly mentioned the age of the earth. Inside, I knew I should say something, but instead, I allowed myself to be convinced out of it. 'Don't be a fool' I told myself. 'You have to spend the rest of the semester with these people, probably longer. Don't make a bad first impression.' I was thinking inside, and too my shame, I held my peace and allowed that statement to go unchallenged.

Throughout our entire lives, we will constantly be facing a barrage of contrary beliefs, ideals and morals. People are constantly making statements that they believe are true, and unless someone says differently, that is what they accept as the truth. Unfortunately, the Christian worldview has been almost completely forgotten, and people have been writing and rewriting their own versions of morals and absolutes. Academia was one of the first stones to fall, and many people within the halls of it are professing atheists. This means that most of the textbooks we have today were and are written by people who, in some cases, have openly stated that they are anti-God.

While I don't have any helpful tips or an answer to this problem, I do exhort everyone to think about what they are accepting as true. When you are reading a textbook, or any book for that matter, try to analyze every bit of it. If we lower our guard, it allows false truth to take seed, and once it has claimed some land, it is increasingly hard to reclaim it.

Another thing that I have seriously been thinking about is career paths. Most of us will have some career field that we will spend most, if not all of our lives following. Many of us will have gone through higher education to get a degree to follow that career. But how many of us have thought of passing our knowledge and worldview onto the the next generation? I was waiting for a professor a few months ago, and as many of the halls are lined with bulletin boards, I was reading all of the posts. One of them was a flyer on how to become a professor. Looking more closely, I found that at the community college I attend, you can become an adjunct professor if you have a 2.5 GPA in you're field of expertise, meet certain background information, and pass two tests, with the SAT being able to count for one of them! This means just about anyone could affect the lives of anywhere from 30-200 students per year, and even more if you become a full-time professor!

Most people say that professors are in Academia for that one bright student that comes along every 5-10 years. I would beg to differ, and say that there are some professors that teach because they know they can make a difference, and they have realized that the foundation of everything someone will do in their life is set while they are in school. So ask yourself this; are you willing to take on a part-time job, to pass on what you know, to the next generation? Many people spend their lives just trying to get ahead, thinking of the next year, or sometimes, the next 5 years. What they should really be doing is thinking of the next 100 years. We are setting the stage for our children's and grandchildren's world. I don't know about you, but that makes me think a little bit harder about what I want to do with my life.

Just a few thoughts for you to consider...