Self-Serving Link of the Day

This one comes by way of my friend Carol over on dailymile, and it’s titled, Why runners usually make great employees.

Whether the post’s central contention — “the type of determination, discipline and emotional focus that comes with training day in, day out for extremely challenging endurance events (often by yourself) tends to bleed over into people’s 9-5’s” — is true, I’ll leave up to the employers out there to decide. But what is undeniable is the author’s claim, “Politics won’t get you to the finish line. It doesn’t matter who you know or how well you can work the system. When you’re out there, every weakness bubbles up to the surface and stares you in the eye. Lack of preparation, lack of motivation, lack of dedication will all come back to bite you.”

This is why, as I’ve noted before, I need to be training for a marathon. If I’m just trying to stick to a regular running schedule, it’s all too easy for me to rationalize my way out of a given day’s workout. “I stayed up too late last night” or “I have to mow the lawn,” or any other excuse du jour becomes an all-too-convenient pretext for not running. But with an imminent marathon staring me in the face, I know my rationalizations are fooling no one, and that any shortcuts I take will only shortchange myself.

In that sense, the big race is our physical Judgment Day.

But what about the spiritual Judgment Day? At the hour of our death, there will similarly be no dissembling or points earned for political connections. Every weakness will ‘bubble up to the surface’ and ‘stare us in the eye.’ Yes, we will be standing before a merciful, all-loving God, but will we be conditioned toward accepting His mercy, or toward spurning it in a fit of selfishness and pride? Will our training — that is, the way we live our lives every day — have prepared us to surrender to His loving embrace and accep His forgiveness, or to resist Him out of fear and despair?

Life is “training ourselves to live in union with Christ,” to quote Dr. Michael Barber. And while it’s never before occurred to me that the discipline of running might transfer into my 9-5, it’s long been my prayer that it will spill over into my faith life. Because the Big Race, after all, is really the only one that matters.