Oct 14
8
What’s the Point, is it a Lie?
…and How it All Got Started
Just missed that one!
This article was prompted by three separate e-mails this week asking why I often mention running between 5 and 10 miles on most days and one asking if I thought there was some spiritual benefit to it. Going Back to the Beginning …about forty years ago I had read a book by Kenneth Cooper, M.D. with the title using the noun he had created by adding an “s” to the verb “aerobic.”
Aerobics, that is, any exercise that forces us to take in an increased amount of oxygen will tend to promote good health and longer life is what I took away from reading what the doctor wrote.
If that book was promoting a lie, I certainly believed it and began working toward being able to run a mile …then two and so on – about a year later I began training for my first marathon, a bit over 26 miles.
One Sunday morning, a week before the scheduled race, I ran 22 miles and realized that running a marathon might be good for the ego, but what was the point? I settled on a regimen of a minimum of 5 miles on most days with occasional runs to a maximum of 15 miles …without any outside influence, that I recall, other than those distances seemed “right” for me.
Sometimes you just can't stop.
Please remember this latter point; what I am sharing is what I have personally determined is “right” for me and not necessarily for you. In other words, I’m not promoting running or oxygen therapy or whatever …JUST sharing.
Yesterday I had to tell myself, rather sternly, to stop at 10.5 miles. At around the 7 mile mark, which I had predetermined, would be the maximum for the day …I had a burst of energy that made me realize that 10 miles would be a “piece of cake.” When I reached the 10 mile mark I was feeling so good that I knew I could easily run 12 – 15 miles.
I finally got a grip on myself and asked our SPIRIT-PARENT if I ought, for my better good, to go further …and the idea came to me quite strongly that I should force myself to quit at 10.5 and save going 12 miles for another day. (I haven’t run 12 – 15 miles for over ten years dating back to when I was abducted in Africa in May of 2004).
I can’t help but believe that I am boring most of you, so far, but there is a point to all this …so, if you can bear it, hang on for just a moment or two longer.
About eight months ago I set a goal to be able to run ten miles in under two hours, running the first five in 45 minutes – the latter being a nine minute-mile pace – also something I haven’t done in over ten years. It took me over 2½ hours to run the 10.5 miles yesterday, so I have a way to go to reach the goal of doing the ten in less than two hours. Is this something I should do for my better good? I’ve asked and get a resounding, “YES!”
I’ve trained myself not to ask “why” about anything …the need of these human body-bags we occupy to know the why of anything is almost overwhelming – but it is a passion that leads to judgment and conclusion called knowledge …which, for me, is counter-productive. We are now getting to the point, are you still with me?
Can you lie to yourself or just to others?
What if all the knowledge, which I have acquired to this point in my life, is based on deception? I avoid that question by determining that I don’t know squat. Some of you who may have determined that you hate even the idea of running for a few minutes think that I’m beyond not knowing squat and that it is better said that I’m a bit deranged.
Deception to those who are taken in by it is their perceived reality. One of my favorite true stories involves the lawyer-husband of a patient of an M.D., who happened to be a psychiatrist. I was facilitating a group of six such patients and their spouses; and this lawyer stormed out of one of our meetings with the words, “You can believe anything you want!” …and adding something to the effect, “you people really are crazy.”
Obviously the man didn’t believe something that had been said. He thought the rest of us were victims of deception. When he returned the following week, he not only apologized for his abrupt departure, but he now admitted he had experienced the same phenomenon. Was it because he wanted to believe, and that desire enabled him to experience the same phenomenon or was there a different reality at work?
This is posted on Brad's office door.
Without getting into the entire story, what had happened was that I had suggested that instead of doing what the patients were accustomed to, in “group therapy,” that is, making comments and asking questions of one another or of the facilitator, was to imagine Jesus (whom they all acknowledged an intellectual belief) was sitting in the center of our group and addressing any and all questions and comments to him only.
With this the lawyer had no difficulty, as he also professed an intellectual belief in Jesus. In fact he had became the self appointed policeman to correct anyone who dared make a comment to or ask a question of anyone else except the imaginary Jesus sitting in our midst.
What happened to create the disruption was that one of the patients shared that Jesus had given an answer to the question she had just posed. Then the wife of another patient admitted that she had heard the same thing. When a third member of the group also said he’d heard the same thing …was what brought about the outburst.
What the lawyer reported that had happened to him was, during the following week, he was bothered by what had occurred and by his response to it, but instead of sticking to “my stubborn conclusion” (his words) that the rest of us were crazy, as he also admitted would be his usual lawyerly approach to anything, he asked Jesus, if he was off base – and received an audible answer, which he also admitted, was initially terrifying to him! He finished his report by saying, “I’ve become a believer because I’ve heard him speak to me!”
Careful with what your mind conceives.
Fast forward to about six weeks later …all six patients became ex-patients of the doctor and no longer took any medications and all six marriages which had been in trouble, to say the least, had an entirely new purpose and direction. At least three of the patients had been long term and given to “psychotic breaks,” one having to be hospitalized at the state mental institution three different times over a twelve year period. Point being, that these were more than merely “emotionally troubled” people, but were severely dysfunctional.
The psychiatrist’s comment was, “This guy is putting me out of business . . .” then pumping his fist into the air, added, “Hallelujah!”
So and finally, what is the point of all this …running, goals, an imaginary Jesus becoming real even to a naturally skeptical lawyer?
I’m being instructed to finish this off with the words I awakened to this morning around 5:00 a.m. A quote from Napoleon Hill: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe; it can also achieve.”
What do you think, Deception? You be the judge. This all fits into some general conversations that Ryan and I have had related to goals and mental images that can actually be limiting; and a specific workshop we’re developing and tagged, so far, with the title Virtual Reality (VR) Workshops; maybe we’ll get into more about that next time.
bc