The Spiritual Implications of Running and Teaching and Reading and Praying

The following is a modification of parts of a letter I recently wrote to a friend. Since a lot of what I’ve been thinking about came out in the letter, I thought it would be helpful to share it with some of my other friends.

I’m not going to go off on how teaching school is my ministry field, as I totally don’t believe that. While I may have opportunities to directly share bits and pieces of the gospel and indirectly portray a (hopefully, ideally, yet tragically not commonly) Christ-like life, there’s more to it. I’ve found for me that as I grow as a teacher, I also grow as a person. When I challenge myself to be more patient with obnoxious adolescents, I end up becoming more patient with obnoxious adults. When I challenge my band to play harder music, I begin to see room for greater discipline in various areas of my life.

So I began running back in January. I called it running, but it was more of a slightly faster-paced walk. In March, I began really running. At least it was more of a shuffle than a walk. Now, I’m trying to increase the speed. All this has really begun to help me as I see various sinful tendencies in my life. As I push harder to finish my 5-minutes of running or whatever, it strengthens the resolve in me to push harder to not eat the empanadas that some wonderful band parents brought up to me. Pineapple empanadas, no less. Or to resist the urge to yell at a kid for not being quiet as fast as I want him to. Or whatever.

Discipline in one area leads to an easier time developing discipline in other areas. This has been one of the greatest challenges in my life over the past few years. Undisciplined living is the underlying cause of almost every failure I have experienced in recent memory.

So that’s it? Just now that I’m running, I’m going to be better off. Oh, that it were that simple. But it has revealed something to me. Something amazing. Something I once knew, but didn’t know why I knew it. Are you ready?

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life. — Proverbs 4:23

See, discipline is the key to life. It’s so vital that we live according to a plan. Keeping our heart, guarding our heart, defending our heart — that is absolutely the most important thing we can do as people.

How do we do that?

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. – 1 Corinthians 9:27

Clearly, this doesn’t mean we have to start planning to run a marathon, but it does mean that we need to be careful what we allow into both our minds and our bodies. When I’m running, all I can do is pray for strength to continue on. Because I know the plan will get me to where I want to go. It’s a slow process, but the process works. After I finish running and my body begins to recover, I can focus more on the spiritual aspects of the larger scheme of what I’m doing. And it’s awesome.

My mind is clearer than it has been in years. I don’t feel depressed most of the time. I have something to look forward to that I know is making me stronger — physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

So I mentioned above that it is vital that we live according to a plan. Sure my running program is helping me, and I’m slowly following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace plan. But what about an overall life plan. It’s very very simple, and yet I know I have trouble maintaining it on an ongoing basis. Perhaps you know it too, but this little blog post thing can hopefully serve to encourage you to either get back on track or to stick with what you’re doing. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it really will work if you just stick to it. The plan?

Read the Bible and pray every single day. As you take care of the depth of your devotional life, God will take care of the breadth of your ministry.