Let me be frank: there is one thing I have hated my entire life. No, not pickles. Not even disrespect. Unfortunately, too many times in my playful adolescence, I partook of both.
While it is true our family has attempted as best as possible to adopt the “hate what God hates” mentality (which thus allows pickles to remain a non-hated option), the Intramuralist must confess to a tinge of hypocrisy, as my enduring hatred has yet to be mentioned negatively in any even dead sea scroll.
I have always hated running. Yep, running. Moving one foot in front of the other for an extended period of time, without a book to read, show to watch, or witty person to talk to. Dwelling on my perceived boredom associated with the activity, I remember years ago during pre-iPod/Walkman days, donning my cool cassette player and a basketball, thinking perhaps the clever combination of music and dribbling would somehow ease my pain. Note: it didn’t work.
In recent years, no less, I have been humbly graced by the friendship of a few persistent, pesky, and pretty perky runners in my life. God bless you, guys, but that’s still not my ‘thing.’ But yet, they’ve taught me something…
My running friends profess the process is more mental than physical; running has more to do with the mind and spirit as opposed to the actual body. Mind over matter. A reshaping of the mind. As one wise friend says with unparalleled passion, “whatever we pay attention to grows.” If we pay attention to how much our body hurts when running (or how bored we may be), we will fail to persevere. We’ll miss the run. Hence, the question is: what’s our focus? On what are we fixing our eyes?
Where we go, what we do, the successes we enjoy, the places we falter… on what are we fixing our eyes? Allow me to thus assert, that whatever our eyes are fixed upon is solely what we will see. For example…
… if we fix our eyes upon Boehner or Barack’s broken promises, we’ll miss their promises kept.
… if we fix our eyes upon one party’s infinite wisdom, we’ll miss our own lack of objectivity.
… if we fix our eyes upon another’s lack of grace, we’ll miss the times we ourselves have justified refusal.
… if we fix our eyes upon the praise of NBA’er Jason Collins — who was vocal about his sexuality last week, we’ll miss the criticism of NFL’er Tim Tebow — who many have asked to remain silent.
… if we fix our eyes upon the need for all to have free education and healthcare, we’ll miss that our government doesn’t have enough money for it to be free.
… if we fix our eyes upon our government’s lack of money, we’ll miss how to care for “the least of these.”
… if we fix our eyes upon the emotion stemming from the victims in Newtown, we’ll miss the rationale for the 2nd Amendment.
… if we fix our eyes upon the existing prejudice of many white people, we’ll miss the existing prejudice of many black people.
… if we fix our eyes upon “if-it-feels-good-do-it,” we’ll miss the negative impact of moral relativity.
… and if we fix our eyes upon the ‘speck in another’s eye,’ we’ll miss the log in our own.
Such begs the question: what should we fix our eyes upon? What’s so worth it — that the focus does not result in blindness elsewhere? What lasts? My running friends suggest we must keep our eyes on the prize — on where we want to end up — on the big picture, so-to-speak. Only by keeping our eyes fixed upon where we want to go will our gaze not prompt blindness somewhere else.
Meanwhile… yes… true… I’ve started running. Shocking, I know… I, too, am a little dumbstruck. But my focus is no longer on the perceived boredom nor bodily harm; it’s on something bigger.
Respectfully,
AR