Running with Purpose: Finding God on the Beaten Path

I run. Well, we all run at one point.  We run to the grocery story, we run to our classes we just can’t seem to wake up for on time, and we run away from things when we’re scared (especially during a good game of tag).  But I run for a living.  Running is not a particularly popular way of life; though it suffers from fads and potential takers, it’s rarely as loved as it should be.  But I run.  And I love it.  I love that moment when my Nikes touch the concrete, and it’s as if all is right in the world.  Like I can do anything as long as I keep running.

Running Out of Options

Since I started cross-country for SFA, my running hasn’t exactly gone as planned.  I haven’t seen the improvement I want or should be having. My training last fall especially seemed to be going backward instead of forward, and nothing was right.  A lot of times, I was close to up and quitting.  I kept telling myself just to hang on a little longer, that it would get better. I told myself to keep working, to keep trying, but when my first indoor meet came in January, it wasn’t any better. I ran worse than I had the year before, and I didn’t get another chance to race again that season. I was upset and so tired of working for, what seemed like, nothing.

Finally, it got to the point where I was just sick of being upset and stressed. So, I turned to prayer. I prayed about what I should do: quitting the SFA team or sticking it out. And I did what all of us do (again, at one point in our lives): I asked God to send me a sign, preferably one that was clear - ha. I told myself I would keep trying my hardest, and if my workouts didn’t start showing even a slight improvement in the next month, then I would consider not running anymore.

Fighting the Good Fight

On one of the days following, a teammate and I were cooling down after a workout, and I ended up telling her about my situation.  She responded with something I completely forgot (believe it or not), but I know its impact was huge.  I knew God was telling me to keep trying for just a little bit longer.  Sign received.

My running started improving bit by bit each day, as did my praying. Each workout was a little better than the last, and for once, I was excited with what my body could do. My outdoor track season didn’t end exactly the way I wanted it to, but I was blessed with one great race, where I ran a personal record faster than I ever thought I could. Things don’t always come easy, RUNNING doesn’t ever come easy, but trials are a part of life, and in the end, it will be worth it.

Learning the ABC’s of Faith

 I’ve wondered a lot why God didn’t just make things get better right away. I’ve realized that if He had, I wouldn’t have learned that His timing is perfect. I wouldn’t have learned to trust Him. In Romans 5: 3-4, Paul tells us we should rejoice during hard times and troubles; that “we can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us - they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.” I couldn’t just leave everything up to God. He gave me the talent of running and blessed me with the opportunity to be on the team at SFA, but it is my responsibility to use all He has given and glorify Him with what I do.  As long as I trust in God, I know I can trust myself.

I could have given up.  On running, myself, even God.  But I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.  I learned during hard times to find comfort in God. That in the end everything will be ok. It’s easy to be mad at God when things aren’t going my way. It’s hard to thank Him for everything that is going on in my life, especially the bad things, but that is what I have to do. Everything that has happened in my life has made me who I am and everything happens for a reason, so each day I really try to thank God for everything, good and bad, that helped me get to where I am now. Through all my ups and downs with running, I have learned so much more about myself and grown stronger in my faith.

Why I Run

This summer, I’ve been getting up to run around 6 AM before it gets too hot.  I don’t like the getting up.  I don’t like leaving the warmth of my bed and stepping onto the cold floor.  I think it’s ridiculous that it’s still dark as I brush my teeth while the rest of the world gets to sleep on.  It even takes a few steps into the run sometimes to make the grumbling in my brain cease.  To remind myself why I run.  It isn’t until I feel the light from the sky hit my skin that I remember.  Every morning, I get to watch the sunrise.  I get to see it spill over the rooftops of houses and color the trees into life.  I get to feel it’s first rays before anyone else.  Like it was meant for me all along.  That’s why I run.

I don’t do it to feel better about myself or my body (though it helps).  I don’t do it it because it’s my "me" time.  Or because I feel free.  I don’t do it for the time to think. I don’t do it for the hurt, the good kind, the kind your body thrives on.  I don’t do it because it’s exhilarating, especially on a good run.  I do it because it makes me happy.  I do it because on those days when runs don't feel good at all, God is especially present in the beauty around me: in the birds’ morning songs and the blossom of a flower and the flutter of a butterfly.  Not everyday is going to be easy or the best.  But that’s why He gave us a million beautiful gifts to enjoy, or to take for granted in a lot of my cases.

I have had lots of tough times in running, but I love it – running, not the tough times.  I couldn’t live without it.  I was made to run.  God blessed me with these running legs, so I’ll try my best to glorify Him through it. Yeah, it will suck sometimes, but, as C.S. Lewis says, “God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.” I know running isn’t for everyone, but it is for me.

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will RUN and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Amanda Walters I have a hard time choosing favorites out of the things I love, but God and the Love He shows me every day is my number one.  I love spending time with my family and friends, and I habitually look on the bright side of life, trying to see the best in everyone.  I believe music, running and laughing give you a good long life, and that books can take you to another world.  I'm an Elementary Education major who can't wait to see what God has planned for my future. If you would like to contact Amanda, you can email her at: kiwiw_2012@yahoo.com

Our Bodies: A Gift Worth More

How many times have I been sitting in church, listening to the homily, and felt like there was a burning spotlight right above me? If I had a nickel for every time, I could buy St. Mary's Chapel new carpet…I'll say that much.  It's as if our soul and body were fighting a war, our soul all along knowing that we would only be hurt in the end, writhing in our own guilt and self-degradation. However, our body won, and the Devil proved that the apple is still being eaten, that the fall of man happens every day.

There's the trick. We have been convinced that the flesh is evil, that our bodies don't want God. Our souls are separate entities that thirst for the fresh springs of God, while our bodies thirst for the polluted waters of the world.

The truth is that our bodies want God, too.  We’re reminded in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 when Paul says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

The Price and Our Priceless Gift

Okay, I get really super duper excited talking about the Theology of the Body!  Usually, what makes sense in my head comes out of my mouth sounding like utter nonsense. I hardly know where to start, but I'm giving it a shot. Here goes...

One of the turning points in my understanding of Theology of the Body was when I was on the TOBET (Theology of the Body Evangelization Team) retreat.  We were having a discussion about Christ's marriage with His church.  While hanging upon the cross, naked and His arms outstretched, He proclaimed, "It is finished."  What was finished?

The consummation of His marriage with His bride, the Church. In that moment, when Christ was in the vulnerable state of nakedness without shame, He gave His body for us, just as a husband and wife give their bodies to each other in marriage. This was the first in a string of theological parallels between Church doctrine and sexuality.  Woah!  Mind BLOWN, right?!

Just to name a few of my favorites...at Easter, the priest dips the Easter candle into the baptismal fount. You know the part I’m talking about.  The one where you thought you got a great seat until the priest moved to the back of the church, and you can barely see over the heads of people around you? Yeah, that’s the one. In this celebration of His marriage vows with His Church, Christ is the priest holding the candle that plunges into the fount, which symbolizes the Church, and those that are baptized are reborn into the faith.

Another moment I love is more of an everyday experience. Prior to celebrating the Eucharist, the priest prepares the Body and Blood of Christ. The chalice has always been a symbol of female sexuality throughout all of literature, and it's in this chalice, a symbol of Christ's female counterpart, the Church, that the priest pours the wine that will later turn into Christ's blood, mixing with it water that symbolizes us, the people of his Church, and finally a piece of the bread that is now Christ's body. When we take the Body and Blood of Christ, it is the ultimate one flesh union. Does this mean that every time we partake in the Eucharist, Christ is renewing His marriage vows with us, just as a husband and wife renew their marriage vows in their sexual union? Absolutely.

Am I crazy for thinking that is utterly profound and beautiful? There's nothing sick or disturbing about it. In fact, it is only because of the lies the world has told us about sex (that it's dirty and sinful) that we think those theological sexual references seem out of place, while in reality, there's nowhere else they could belong!

Paul tells the Corinthians their bodies are temples; every church is a temple, too. Through our sexuality, our bodies, our temples, we have the ability to bring new life into the world. Likewise, the Church, the temple where we all come together as brothers and sisters, gives birth to new believers constantly.

If more of us could have such a view that sex is not sinful at all, but profound and sacred, there would be the utmost respect for the sanctity of sex in our culture. Say goodbye to promiscuity, pornography, sex jokes, overly sexualized entertainment, etc. We would hold ourselves, as well as everyone else, in highest esteem, truly seeing our sexuality for the gift it is.

Unwrapping the Gift

Society says chastity stifles us, and we “free” ourselves when we embrace our sexuality.  But society’s version of "embracing our sexuality" really means experiment and sleep around as long as it's "safe." What that world is failing to see is that we, as Christians, do free ourselves in embracing our sexuality, through finding joy in ourselves and others, celebrating our bodies for the temples they are, and "doing everything for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:33). Think of how much guilt and self-reproach we could avoid if we did everything for the glory of God!

JPII calls us all to be modern day saints "who are in the world and know how to taste the pure and nice things of the world, but who aren't of the world.

Escaping the world is not the solution.

We must realize that it is our duty to teach the world purity.  This all begins by realizing that our bodies are not prisons, but temples, and purity is the greatest glorification of, not only God, but ourselves.  Theology of the Body is not suppressing the flesh, but setting it free through purity from the world's desires.  And I believe it is the true understanding to the ultimate liberation of our bodies.

Mia Sampietro  I love every kind of cat, and I have about a million hobbies (singing, painting, piano, etc.), but I love sharing the Love of God.  I'm a dreamer that could talk forever, and there are two things in the world I'm absolutely positive about: 1) God is amazing and 2) Laughter is THE best medicine.  I am double majoring in Art History and Spanish, but my life is totally in God's hands. If you would like to contact Mia, you can email her at: sampietrme@titan.sfasu.edu

Sexy vs. Beautiful

It's summer again.
In Texas.
Everyone is wearing less to try to cool off.
So, what's a girl to do in these situations?

Check out this awesome blog on the Life Teen page by Jackie Francois about TRUE beauty and how our bodies (women's especially) are a gift.