I have entered the third level of my "couch potatoe to 5K" program. Run 90 seconds, Walk 90 seconds, Run 3 minutes, Walk 3 minutes up to and including 25 minutes...incredibly I have done it. It helps that we are having a stellar October, warm dry days. About 10 years ago I did a similar training...in the fall and ran all winter...up to and including being able to run 10k. It wasn't running in the snow that killed my enthusiasm. It was running in rain when we moved to Vancouver. I couldn't hack it. So I am back on a plan. It feels good to accomplish it. My "couch potatoe" status should fade away.
It has me thinking on a much deeper level. In order to get running again I have had to use a plan. I can track my progress and see the difference it makes. Spiritually it is also beneficial to have a plan and get working with it. These days of experimenting have me thinking and practicing daily the discipline of prayer and what the mystics call "examen". Classically it was a way of observing daily moral behavior. I have included an excerpt of an article and the site for the entire article follows.
"In the presence of God, I should reflect on what blessings the Lord has given me during the past day for which I gratefully thank Him. These blessings may not all have been pleasant. As a matter of fact some may have been painful. No matter. God manifests His will to us, urging us to do what we enjoy. Those we may call pleasant graces....
Next, again in God's presence, I should ask myself where I have failed to cooperate with the grace that God has given me during the day. Most of us have a pattern in our moral behavior. I may have failed in the practice of humility, or prudence, or charity, or patience, and so on down the list of our human weaknesses. Simply assume that you had failed in some way or another in responding to the will of God in your life. Be concrete and specific....
Briefly recall the circumstances which occasioned your moral failure. And then do the obvious thing of asking our Lord to forgive you and give you the strength not only to avoid this sin in the future but enable you to be more generous in His service as an expiation for your past failure.
Finally, plan for the future. Sacred Scripture could not be plainer. The just man anticipates what he will do and is not caught unaware of what God expects of him. This part of the general examen is indispensable in the spiritual life....
It means that I look forward to what I am to do, and avoid doing, in the next day. It further means that I ask myself, in God's presence, how I should do what my conscience tells me is God's will. It even means that I anticipate how much time I will spend, say in conversation with someone, or on a particular task that lies ahead of me. Clearly this calls for both prudence and prayer."
If you want to know more about it...and just how cool it is you can check out this article (http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Faith/1112-96/spirit2.html). Currently "examen" is a daily part of my practice of looking for the evidence of God given surprises and reflecting on how they interact with my daily life. It has me thinking more and more about what it means to observe my life and see how it interacts with the world around me and the kingdom within me. I know, I know...too much. Through this process I see that God wants to do a deeper work in me than I had counted on. Perhaps this is the biggest surprise of all and it scares me a little.
Two weeks ago we had a guest speaker at church. He was someone who interviewed me for a job once long ago. Once I got past the fact that he didn't hire me, I actually listened to what he had to say. He was talking about the call of God and had some quadruple C formula to go with it. He talked about how God Calls, Man Complains, God Confirms, and man Complies. I thought it was funny...because he was talking about the call of God into ministry and I was thinking God used the same formula to call me out of ministry. He called, I complained, he confirmed and I am complying. Not that it is that crystal clear....but it is forming in my thinking and being evidenced in my life. I wonder where He is going with all this. I know it was His mercy to take me out of the pulpit, postion and power...there is a triple "p" formula...for me there was some significantly unhealthy aspects to those three "p's"
Enough navel gazing. Tomorrow I go to "salesman" school...yikes!
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