Running, Racing, and Rituals (Part 3)

También disponible en español

As we discussed in the first two parts of this article, the relationship between running and racing is very obvious. Your personal training enables you to participate in organized races; the better your training goes, the better you will do when competition comes. But why rituals? What rituals have to do with running and racing? Are these really related?

Rituals

Rituals are institutional. Every sport discipline has its characteristic demands, conditioning, and routines. Anything repetitive is also ritual; something that you repeat over a period of time and do it the same way every time to preserve its integrity and ensure its results. Think about it. Running in the strict sense of this definition is ritualistic. You pick a breathing pattern, choose a comfortable pace, move your left leg in front of your right leg, and repeat over and over until you get to your destination.

Running Ragnar at Sunset through Malibu, CA-1

I recently participated in the Ragnar Relay Race, Los Angeles. Their slogan is: “Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.” Without expanding on the details of this event, which I am planning to do in a later post, you can infer its cyclical personality, so true, that they made it into their tagline. Running and racing also have rituals typical of the sport. For example, the stretching, warming up, running, cool-off, stretching routine; the circling around of the race track for speed training, with jogging and speed repeats; or even the ritual of choosing the right kind of shoes. Faith is full of rituals. Our experiences of faith are enhanced, directed, even stimulated by rituals that have been institutionalized by many years of practice and proven results.

The Scriptures are full of rites and costumes that we can use today to help us in growing our faith and express our devotion to God and to one another. Worship, music, church attendance, daily prayer and scripture study, and service to others, are just examples of the exercises of our faith. To this matter, the Bible encourages us “to work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” NIV: Philippians 2:12.

A word of caution here; many assign rituals a negative connotation, see them as boring endeavor, and regard them as ineffective practices. However, rituals are to our faith what strength training work out is to our running. They may seem boring and ineffective, but constitute the calisthenics of a stronger spiritual life, of guaranteed of endurance and a race without injuries.

So get your mind set to do what is needed to build up your spiritual muscles by recognizing, understanding, and building up the personal, corporate, and ritualistic elements of your faith without fear or shame.

[Part 1] [Part 2]

Vladimir Lugo
vlugo@race-of-faith.com