Running Towards Hope

I turned left hoping that it was the correct road to lead me back to the house. I had gone on a run in an unfamiliar area with poor cell phone reception so my Google Maps was not working. I had pushed harder earlier in my run because I wanted to get some speed work and I thought I knew the route. Now I was lost and getting tired. I hoped that I would find the right route soon.

I thought of that passage that I put on the back of my team’s shirt last year: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” I put that passage on there because I wanted to give my team some inspiration as they train and race. I am now finding that the passage is giving me more inspiration than it probably did for them.

I find much joy in running. From time to time I have friends that tell me that they saw me on my run as they drove by and that I looked miserable. Runners have this conversation often. They are told by non-runners that they don’t understand runners because runners never look happy when they are running. They say they find it unusual that someone would do something that causes pain.

What if I told you that you can experience joy and suffering simultaneously? Most of you would find that statement incongruent and that joy and suffering are opposing experiences. Every runner will tell you that their experience in running is that they feel happy and miserable at the same time. I am both full of joy and in pain when I run. Now, I am sure that there is some science involving endorphins and such that would explain that, but the experience is that the act of running causes both joy and suffering. That the two are not mutually exclusive.

That is what that passage is suggesting. As we suffer we grow in perseverance. Our ability to withstand suffering increases. We are able to tolerate more. We increase our resiliency and our ability to continue.

Granted, suffering also causes damage. Runners get injured. Some of those injuries heal. Some don’t. I have a bone spur in my heal that will likely never completely heal. Some injuries get better on their own, some need rest to recover, and some injuries need physical therapy and medical interventions to get better. I’ve been through many rounds of physical therapy for various running injuries and my understanding is that the goal of physical therapy is to strengthen the muscles around the injuries to heal the injured area and prevent the injury from happening again.

So, suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character is the resilience that is built through the strength created by suffering. Our ability to run farther, harder, and faster comes from our perseverance in the suffering and from our getting healing from the damage we have suffered. Strength in the face of suffering is character.

Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope doesn’t just happen. It comes out of having suffered. We have hope based on our experience that we have persevered in our suffering and our character has increased because of it.

And as I ran, lost and tired, I grew in the hope that I would find my way home again. I had hope because I have been lost before and found my way home. I had hope because I have been tired in the past from pushing hard during my run and finished the push. I had hope because I have been in pain before and I have recovered from that pain. So I continued. I found my way with the help of those who knew the way and I got home.

And throughout all of it, I was filled with joy. Joyful that I was on this adventure, running in new areas, discovering. Joyful that others were pointing the way. Joyful about the "sciency" thing that was happening that allowed me to be joyful in the midst of suffering. Joyful in all things.

And hope does not put us to shame, because love has been poured out into our hearts.

And that is the Transformative Power of the Run.