I think I might be addicted to running. Now, before I go any farther, I just want to make it clear that I am not some kind of crazy masochist that enjoys hours upon hours of grueling torture in my spare time. In fact, like just about anyone else, I'm not all that crazy about pain at all. So some may ask why I--or anyone else, for that matter--would take up running, which is considered an incredibly dangerous and injurious sport? I mean, I think the statistics are that just about 80% of all runners will suffer some sort of joint or muscle injury from running...that's crazy!
That's also really weird, though, because our human bodies are specifically tailored to run. Achilles tendons and the arches in our feet, along with our feet themselves (which account for a full 1/4 of all the bones in our body) are one of the most advanced suspension systems found in nature, and most of these parts are only used when we run. Humans have special neck muscles--found only in running animals--which attach to the base of our skulls to basically keep our brains from rattling around when we run. And those gluteal muscles (known more commonly as your butt); even wonder why you have them? It takes the place of a tail, working to even out your center of balance when you...you guessed it, RUN! Our upright posture allows us to take in more than one breath of air per running stride--something that is impossible for most four-legged running animals, from rabbits right on up to cheetahs. We also release a vast majority of our body heat through sweating--most animals do it mainly by breathing--giving humans the endurance potential to outrun any other animal on the face of the earth. In fact, there are still some tribes of people in parts of Africa as well as South America which practice endurance/pursuit hunting, where the hunters will actually outrun their prey over the course of many miles. They will keep chasing antelope and deer until the animals literally overheat and drop dead on the spot.
Now, given our incredible design and capacity for running, why is it that runners are so often decimated by knee injuries, ankle problems, pulled muscles, shin splints, back pains, etc? Even more interesting, why hasn't there been any decrease in running injuries, given all the new "high-tech" shoes that all the big shoe companies keep coming out with? This is America we're talking about, and I suppose most other "advanced" societies which suffer from the same problems.
Now take a trip to Kenya, where running for many people is not just a sport, but a way of life. The average Kenyan teenager, by the time they hit eighteen, has I believe an average of 18,000 miles of running experience! Now you would think that, given the American statistics of running injuries, pretty much everyone in Kenya should be a cripple by the time they've reached their mid-twenties, right? But they're not. In fact, many of the running injuries we suffer here in the states are practically non-existent there, yet most Kenyans don't even own a pair of shoes; they run in thin sandals or many times nothing at all. How is it that they seem to fly effortlessly, gracefully for miles upon miles and suffer nothing, while most of us Americans can barely huff out a mile in Nike's on a clean sidewalk and still have to get cortisone shots in our knees?
There is a powerful spiritual lesson in this! As strange as it may sound at first, one of the biggest reasons why most Americans are such terrible runners comes from our insane desire for comfort! Those new running shoes that you saw at the store the other day--you know, the ones retailing for $300+ --with the built-in microchip and state-of-the-art gel cushioning systems; it looks and sounds so great, but there is one essential problem with all these nice, soft, cushy shoes: the human foot was designed for hard surfaces. What scientists are finding now is that the softer your shoe is, the harder your feet come down to the ground, because they're desperately trying to find something firm to grip. This creates a lot of extra impact, which leads to the other problem with these cushy shoes: they absorb pain, but they don't absorb impact. If you were to take of your shoes and run down the road with bad form, you would feel pain, but that's not a bad thing! Pain tells you that something needs to change; something isn't working right. With big, soft cushy shoes on the other hand, you don't feel a thing if you run with bad form...until all that impact you're jolting your body with eventually catches up to you! Then come all the crazy running injuries we always hear about.
Man! How often do we do this with our lives? We try to insulate ourselves from pain and suffering, but so often that is the very tool that God uses to accomplish His purposes in us; to make us better. If you're getting hurt running, then your answer isn't incredibly expensive running shoes, your answer is changing your technique! If your suffering in life, the answer is not to hide from it, run from it, or try to somehow insulate yourself from it; your answer is to let God change you through it. Let your present circumstances in life, no matter what they are, be the catalyst that God uses to make you a new person.
Comments