A lonely trail. No rock bands or post-race party. Dropping to your knees at every mile marker to pray the Stations of the Cross. Twenty-six-point-two miles. On a day of partial fasting.
“The toll of suffering to complete the task can be nothing short of intense and overwhelming,” write TPM’s organizers. “By uniting our sufferings and surrendering our afflicted selves to Jesus Christ our Lord and God, particularly on this day, will give Him much delight and grant us many graces.”
Sounds intense — and beautiful. One of my greatest runs ever was a 10-miler last year on Good Friday, during which I listened to a podcast about Jesus’ Passion. No, my suffering was not even close to that experienced during a marathon, let alone the suffering Christ endured for the sake of us sinners. But in its small way, it nonetheless made me all the more aware of the enormity of His sacrifice, calling me to a greater sense of reverence and gratitude.
The Passion Marathon sounds like a pretty amazing way to put the focus of running where our focus should always be — on our Lord — as opposed to on ourselves, which is always the temptation (vanity) for the athlete. I especially love stopping to pray the Stations: No PRs on this course. This isn’t about us, it’s about Him.
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” reads the quote from Hebrews that tops this page, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”
To all The Passion Marathon runners this year, Godspeed and God’s blessings.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment