A great cloud of witnesses

I love running in races. The energy of fellow runners, the masses of people behind and in front of you, and well marked course to follow with a finish line all appease something inside of me. Probably that something is some sort of attraction to challenge and senses of accomplishment. Paul had it right if he compared the challenge of the christian faith with a road race: it's hard when you are in the middle of it, pushing towards the end, but once you've reached the end- boy, is it worth it. Every race I've run, it's felt like that. In the middle, you think, what have I committed to?? But when that I cross that finish line, all the momentary troubles cease and the triumph of triumphing is what I leave with. A glorious feeling of victory.

And all the thousands that run the race with me, most likely also feel the same... why else do you run races? It's an addiction that feeling at the end of the race. That sense of accomplishment, personal victory, the overcoming, the perseverance, the endorphins pulsing in your body, all good things that come of having fought the fight to train your body and run. It does the mind, heart, body, and soul a lot of good.

What also does my heart, mind, body, and soul good is to run in a great cloud of people. It is a crazy feeling of deep community to run with other people who have made the same choice as me to run a race and see it through. I don't know their names and I don't know their paces (except as faster or slower than mine), but I am encouraged by them and that propels me forward to the end.  I will probably not know their names, but something unites us- and that's cool.  As all the psychologists say humans are social creatures- we need communion to feel most ourselves. And like rock concerts, football games, and races, we like to feel apart of something bigger than ourselves. That we are not alone. And a race is a way to connect in the modern age of individualism and isolation. It's a bonding thing. And it's addicting.

 I've run probably on average one or two races a year since I began running my second year of college- before that I was a swimmer and had no land legs. And every race I run only makes me want to run more races. 5K, 10K, 10 Miler, half marathon, you name it and I'll probably start drooling at the thought of running one in the future. More t-shirts, more sweat, more grueling training, but more sense of accomplishment and connection.  People who organize races must make a killing on all the endorphin, long distance junkies out there- because there are a lot. I just ran with about 4 thousand of them this past Saturday!

And yeah, I guess I could go so far as to say that Church bodies should be like road races: places for great communion and personal victories and grueling training.  But I am not sure that is what they are or maybe they aren't suppose to be a place for those things. But maybe they are in some ways- spiritual, emotional, personal ways- less physical and outward ones. Who knows? I don't think we've reached the finish line yet!