On the note of prayer and spirituality, almost a month ago I came across a letter-to-the-editor in the Columbia Flier; a local newspaper from where I grew up in Howard County, Maryland. This particular letter-to-the-editor article is from teh Thursday, February 26, 2009 edition and it is in reference to the Road Runners Club of America Ten-Mile Club Challenge road race that I've done in the past and that I helped out at a little bit this year on Sunday, February 22. The person writing the letter appeared to be frustrated with the fact that the race route got in the way of church traffic. I think you can see why this interests me as a Christian and an avid runner/racer. Below is my re-typed version of this article, verbatim:
"Police, runners disrespectful of sabbath and church-goers"
"I can't express strongly enough the rage I felt on Sunday morning toward the runners and the planners of the running event that took place along Owen Brown Road Sunday, with their profound disrespect for Christianity. Worse yet, the Howard County Police were blocking traffic, keeping drivers from getting to church and giving runners' safety higher priority.
This outrage has happened many times before in Howard County, with public roads wrongly blocked for runners. It is wrong when there are perfectly good tracks for runnign or sidewalks and paths to use. Roadsare meant for vehicles and it is wrong to keep drivers from reaching their church witht he wrongful help of the Howard County Police. IT is a misuse of police resources.
Howard County puts out signs that say "Choose Civility," but I guess those are just empty words when runners fail to keep the Christian Sabbath holy! I don't like going to church feeling angry and wanting to smite all of those involved. Sure, I am supposed to love my enemy, but that isn't easy to do when you feel that you've been wronged intentionally. At the very least, planners should not route runners past churches on Sunday."
Strong words from an empassioned Christian. I definitely commend the gentleman who wrote this for expressing his views, however, after reading this and coming to my own conclusions I found that based on my experience with this particular event as well as other Sunday morning races, I disagreed on some points with this gentleman, I agreed on a couple of other things and came up with a couple of ideas that could help remedy the situation a bit (even though I have nothing to do with directing this race), and I felt a little bit convicted too. Here's what I have to say.
First, I would agree that it is unfortunate that traffic going to churches (or anywhere in general) had to be slowed/re-routed due to the race; that's just what happens with these kinds of events. I also think it was worthwhile to point out that there are sidewalks and bike paths for runners to use locally, though of course with this particular event of ten miles, roads had to be used as well (especially during the first couple of miles with the Owen Brown Road that he mentioned).
Now the most significant point in this letter that I disagree with right off was his opening statement and anything similar throughout the article that said that the runners and planners of this 10-mile race wree disrespecting Christianity profoundly. Apparently we were not being civil, perhaps we are trying to become "enemies" and actively working against Christianity (well that 's what the writer was suggesting). I can say from experience of running Sunday morning races for years before and after I came to Jesus Christ and was saved, that I have never been to a running event on Sunday morning that was scheduled just to thwart Christianity and aggravate its followers; I guess it just happens to fall on a Sunday for whatever reason. I tell you, if I ever did come across a "Run against Christianity 10K" or a "Let's mess up church traffic 5K"; I would use their race flyers as toilet paper. However, like I said, that is not the intention of those Sunday races I've been too; the Road Runners Club of America Ten-Mile Club Challenge being no exception. That race in particular has been going on for years; being one of Maryland's more popular races and drawing people from all over Maryland and beyond! That being a larger race, it's harder to have it confined to sidewalks and bike paths, which is unfortunate for the whole runner-traffic dynamic.
I know that some of the people who participated in this event are Christians as well. One of my buddies took a shower in the Howard Community College where the race starts and ends, and was dressed in his Sunday best. Another woman I met earlier that morning while help out at one of the water stops actually told me she was going to church after the race. As for me personally, I tend to go to a young adult service (it's called Fusion) on Sunday evenings, so it's great I can do that in addition to doing Sunday races. Also, my church has a service later on Sunday mornings, so I have options. However, I know it is not like that for everyone, and for me personally, more often than not, if I attended church with only an early morning service option and it conflicted with a lot of the races, I would probably attend the church more often. Of course, I'm not gonna lie and pretend that I would not pass up church for the occasional Sunday morning race that appears really interesting to me. Though, I'm not gonna judge other Christians who would pass up church every now and then for a Sunday morning race or other significant events; it's their decision. Sometimes things come up and I feel that God blesses people with certain interests, abilities, and passions to glorify Him (such as with running), it's just important not to let that come between you and Him (a rather simple lesson that I've been learning a lot recently). Also, God loved us that He sent Jesus Christ to take our punishment for our sinful nature and actions; a sacrifice in our place we did not deserve. This was an act of saving grace to bring us back to God in the perfection of His Son, Jesus, who took our place. There was nothing we could have done to earn this; no ritual or sacrifices we could have brought to escape God's judgement on us for our sins. He sent His perfect Son, Jesus, so that His perfection could take the place of our iniquity and imperfections, and we could be seen by God as purified and holy, while Jesus took on our sins and bore our punishment for us on the Cross. Fortunately, a few days later , He rose again from the grave and is alive. Therefore, we are saved by grace of a living and active Savior, and not by our actions or activities (such as how often we go to church or how many different Bible studies we go too). Also, it does not matter how how fast you run, or how successful you are at your job, or how much you excel in your vocation, at least as far as salvation is concerned: What matters most is that God loves us, and our need for redemption being met for us in sending Jesus Christ out of His love for us and His desire to see us made right with Him.
I am definitely not discouraging people from going to church or Bible studies, possibly even from going more than once a day or once a week, but I think that if on occasion you miss those kinds of things for other things, it does not change the fact that god is in control, He is in love with us, and what He has done for us out of that love. I think church and fellowship are mighty important, and I think that every believer should at least be involved in some form of fellowship to hear the Gospel being preached, understand the Word, and grow in general through teaching and fellowship with other believers. That's my personal conviction, but that's why I do not hold it against others who may not go to church everyday for one reason or another.
One final thing that stuck out to me as a little strange was the last sentence in the first paragraph that reads, "Worse yet, the Howard County Police were blocking traffic, keeping drivers from getting to church and giving runners' safety higher priority." I may be mistaken, but I think it's the police's main duty in an event like a running race to prioritize the safety of the participants. However, if an emergence vehicle had to get through on this race course, the participants should give them the right-of-way. I think maybe what he was getting at was that since there are tracks, sidewalks, and bike paths to run on, runners in a race should not run on the roads, and therefore there should be no use of the police on the roads, so that the police could be better used elsewhere to avoid a "misuse of police resources" as the writer put it.
Now, the one thing I felt convicted about was the part towards the end of the article in keeping the Christian Sabbath holy. You know what, God wants us to be keep it holy adn I'll be the first to admit that I don't for so many reasons and in so many ways. I do homework on Sundays, I do yardwork on Sundays, and of course I do races on Sundays, just to name a few. However, the way I justify doing that is that sometimes Sundays are the only times I can get those things done (especially when it involves helping others), and sometimes if I don't, I'll have problems on my hands and it will make the rest of the week a lot more hectic and difficult because I put off doing things or errands that I could have gotten done on sunday. As for running, while it is hard work physically on the body, I usually find it fun and I would choose to go run or do a race over a lot of other things I could be doing in my freetime, so I don't look at it as "labor" so much as I do "diversion", and of course I hope to glorify God with all that He has given me in my health, abilities, and passions!. On sundays I have spent quiet time with God and been to church often, so it's not like I completely block Him out either; I'll just admit that I probably do not honor the Sabbath like I could and I see this as an opportunity for me to check out what the Bible says on it and learn some new things. As for running, while it is hard work physically on the body, I usually find it fun and I would choose to go run or do a race over a lot of other things I could be doing in my free time, so I don't look at it as "labor" so much as I do "diversion", and of course I hope to glorify God with all that He has given me in my health, abilities, and passions.
Finally, here are a couple of solutions/things that I've questioned that I've thought of. These could very well have been thought of, questioned, or brought up before, but I'm gonna write it anyway.
- First, and probably a more obvious thing that this has led me to question is why can't this race just be on Saturday? I know for years that this race seems to fall on Sundays; I don't know if there is a special reason for it. If this race was moved to a Saturday, I would certainly encourage and support that, because that way it can draw more participants who would pass up on the race to go to church on Sudnay, and it would not get in the way of Sunday morning church traffic either. Also, I may not be an expert on this, but growing up in Columbia and being with the Howard County Striders for the almost twelve years that I have been running, I can't think of any other local running event that occurs around the same time as this 10-miler that would conflict with it/divert interest away from it, if it got moved to a Saturday. To be honest, I don't think it would hurt my feelings at all if Sunday races were all moved to Saturday (even though it would have made things extremely difficult with my recent endeavors to run in running events in every county of Maryland and to do over a hundred of said events in a year, 'cause I definitely have been known to run a race on both days of the weekend). Anyway, I think that is a simple and obvious solution to the problem.
Of course, there is probably a reason why moving it to Saturday would not work (or did not work if it had been done in the past). There are probably other groups who would be offended if it were to be on Saturday instead of sunday, because it may conflict with other kinds of traffic. I dunno, maybe I'm being over-analytical. I just think if it is the Sunday morning church commuters who have an issue with it, I think it would be an easier fix to move it on Saturday (not to mention if it was moved to Saturday, runners and staff at the event could have Sunday to relax/recover before entering a busy school or work week). One terrific thing I like about the Howard County Striders is that they have Sunday "weekly series" races during the fall, winter, and spring, and I grew up doing them. However, these occur on Sunday afternoon, so as not to conflict with much church or other religious services. Who knows, maybe making this 10-miler a Sunday afternoon event may not be that bad of an idea either.
- Another solution that I think could work (if it has not been done already), is to notify churches and other places along the route about the race very FAR in advance, adn to let them know to let the commuters coming to their buildings know that they should expect some delays in getting to those places because of the event. That way, the commuters can plan to leave and get to their destination earlier, possibly even before the race starts (or take an alternate route). This puts the onus on the race staff to make sure they are properly coordinating with the local community, and on the leaders of organizations (like churches) to warn their members ahead of time to plan ahead to try and leave earlier or take another route. I am sure this is done to some degree already.
All right, thank you for stopping by and reading this post. I would actually like to know what you all think when you get a chance. You can leave a comment here or send me an e-mail at: noahwood@juno.com
I am very interested in hearing what you have to say if you'd like to volunteer any comments as well as just different perspectives in general. You don't have to agree or disagree with anything I've said; I just want to hear some different takes on it, 'cause I think I may even be able to benefit and learn something from it. I typically am not into all this controversial stuff, but when I see these two things that I feel really passionate about coming into contention, it definitely gets me thinking. I'm not gonna lie, I felt a bit outraged when first reading this article and the writer seemed to accuse the runners of actively disrespecting Christianity, while I knew that was not their motives (well I'm sure at least for most of them). However, I do respect him for bringing it up nonetheless, because it did lead me to question some things to see how this situation can be made better through doing things like maybe making the race on Saturday instead of Sunday. Ever since I saw that article in the paper, I knew it would be worthy material for this blog. Running is important to me, and so is church/fellowship, and I know people from each camp (some are involved in both like myself), and I feel this gives me a little more confidence in speaking my mind about it. Over all this, God is the best and in charge, and ultimately Him, His Kingdom, and His love are much greater than this and will prevail :)
Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day :)
This outrage has happened many times before in Howard County, with public roads wrongly blocked for runners. It is wrong when there are perfectly good tracks for runnign or sidewalks and paths to use. Roadsare meant for vehicles and it is wrong to keep drivers from reaching their church witht he wrongful help of the Howard County Police. IT is a misuse of police resources.
Howard County puts out signs that say "Choose Civility," but I guess those are just empty words when runners fail to keep the Christian Sabbath holy! I don't like going to church feeling angry and wanting to smite all of those involved. Sure, I am supposed to love my enemy, but that isn't easy to do when you feel that you've been wronged intentionally. At the very least, planners should not route runners past churches on Sunday."
Strong words from an empassioned Christian. I definitely commend the gentleman who wrote this for expressing his views, however, after reading this and coming to my own conclusions I found that based on my experience with this particular event as well as other Sunday morning races, I disagreed on some points with this gentleman, I agreed on a couple of other things and came up with a couple of ideas that could help remedy the situation a bit (even though I have nothing to do with directing this race), and I felt a little bit convicted too. Here's what I have to say.
First, I would agree that it is unfortunate that traffic going to churches (or anywhere in general) had to be slowed/re-routed due to the race; that's just what happens with these kinds of events. I also think it was worthwhile to point out that there are sidewalks and bike paths for runners to use locally, though of course with this particular event of ten miles, roads had to be used as well (especially during the first couple of miles with the Owen Brown Road that he mentioned).
Now the most significant point in this letter that I disagree with right off was his opening statement and anything similar throughout the article that said that the runners and planners of this 10-mile race wree disrespecting Christianity profoundly. Apparently we were not being civil, perhaps we are trying to become "enemies" and actively working against Christianity (well that 's what the writer was suggesting). I can say from experience of running Sunday morning races for years before and after I came to Jesus Christ and was saved, that I have never been to a running event on Sunday morning that was scheduled just to thwart Christianity and aggravate its followers; I guess it just happens to fall on a Sunday for whatever reason. I tell you, if I ever did come across a "Run against Christianity 10K" or a "Let's mess up church traffic 5K"; I would use their race flyers as toilet paper. However, like I said, that is not the intention of those Sunday races I've been too; the Road Runners Club of America Ten-Mile Club Challenge being no exception. That race in particular has been going on for years; being one of Maryland's more popular races and drawing people from all over Maryland and beyond! That being a larger race, it's harder to have it confined to sidewalks and bike paths, which is unfortunate for the whole runner-traffic dynamic.
I know that some of the people who participated in this event are Christians as well. One of my buddies took a shower in the Howard Community College where the race starts and ends, and was dressed in his Sunday best. Another woman I met earlier that morning while help out at one of the water stops actually told me she was going to church after the race. As for me personally, I tend to go to a young adult service (it's called Fusion) on Sunday evenings, so it's great I can do that in addition to doing Sunday races. Also, my church has a service later on Sunday mornings, so I have options. However, I know it is not like that for everyone, and for me personally, more often than not, if I attended church with only an early morning service option and it conflicted with a lot of the races, I would probably attend the church more often. Of course, I'm not gonna lie and pretend that I would not pass up church for the occasional Sunday morning race that appears really interesting to me. Though, I'm not gonna judge other Christians who would pass up church every now and then for a Sunday morning race or other significant events; it's their decision. Sometimes things come up and I feel that God blesses people with certain interests, abilities, and passions to glorify Him (such as with running), it's just important not to let that come between you and Him (a rather simple lesson that I've been learning a lot recently). Also, God loved us that He sent Jesus Christ to take our punishment for our sinful nature and actions; a sacrifice in our place we did not deserve. This was an act of saving grace to bring us back to God in the perfection of His Son, Jesus, who took our place. There was nothing we could have done to earn this; no ritual or sacrifices we could have brought to escape God's judgement on us for our sins. He sent His perfect Son, Jesus, so that His perfection could take the place of our iniquity and imperfections, and we could be seen by God as purified and holy, while Jesus took on our sins and bore our punishment for us on the Cross. Fortunately, a few days later , He rose again from the grave and is alive. Therefore, we are saved by grace of a living and active Savior, and not by our actions or activities (such as how often we go to church or how many different Bible studies we go too). Also, it does not matter how how fast you run, or how successful you are at your job, or how much you excel in your vocation, at least as far as salvation is concerned: What matters most is that God loves us, and our need for redemption being met for us in sending Jesus Christ out of His love for us and His desire to see us made right with Him.
I am definitely not discouraging people from going to church or Bible studies, possibly even from going more than once a day or once a week, but I think that if on occasion you miss those kinds of things for other things, it does not change the fact that god is in control, He is in love with us, and what He has done for us out of that love. I think church and fellowship are mighty important, and I think that every believer should at least be involved in some form of fellowship to hear the Gospel being preached, understand the Word, and grow in general through teaching and fellowship with other believers. That's my personal conviction, but that's why I do not hold it against others who may not go to church everyday for one reason or another.
One final thing that stuck out to me as a little strange was the last sentence in the first paragraph that reads, "Worse yet, the Howard County Police were blocking traffic, keeping drivers from getting to church and giving runners' safety higher priority." I may be mistaken, but I think it's the police's main duty in an event like a running race to prioritize the safety of the participants. However, if an emergence vehicle had to get through on this race course, the participants should give them the right-of-way. I think maybe what he was getting at was that since there are tracks, sidewalks, and bike paths to run on, runners in a race should not run on the roads, and therefore there should be no use of the police on the roads, so that the police could be better used elsewhere to avoid a "misuse of police resources" as the writer put it.
Now, the one thing I felt convicted about was the part towards the end of the article in keeping the Christian Sabbath holy. You know what, God wants us to be keep it holy adn I'll be the first to admit that I don't for so many reasons and in so many ways. I do homework on Sundays, I do yardwork on Sundays, and of course I do races on Sundays, just to name a few. However, the way I justify doing that is that sometimes Sundays are the only times I can get those things done (especially when it involves helping others), and sometimes if I don't, I'll have problems on my hands and it will make the rest of the week a lot more hectic and difficult because I put off doing things or errands that I could have gotten done on sunday. As for running, while it is hard work physically on the body, I usually find it fun and I would choose to go run or do a race over a lot of other things I could be doing in my freetime, so I don't look at it as "labor" so much as I do "diversion", and of course I hope to glorify God with all that He has given me in my health, abilities, and passions!. On sundays I have spent quiet time with God and been to church often, so it's not like I completely block Him out either; I'll just admit that I probably do not honor the Sabbath like I could and I see this as an opportunity for me to check out what the Bible says on it and learn some new things. As for running, while it is hard work physically on the body, I usually find it fun and I would choose to go run or do a race over a lot of other things I could be doing in my free time, so I don't look at it as "labor" so much as I do "diversion", and of course I hope to glorify God with all that He has given me in my health, abilities, and passions.
Finally, here are a couple of solutions/things that I've questioned that I've thought of. These could very well have been thought of, questioned, or brought up before, but I'm gonna write it anyway.
- First, and probably a more obvious thing that this has led me to question is why can't this race just be on Saturday? I know for years that this race seems to fall on Sundays; I don't know if there is a special reason for it. If this race was moved to a Saturday, I would certainly encourage and support that, because that way it can draw more participants who would pass up on the race to go to church on Sudnay, and it would not get in the way of Sunday morning church traffic either. Also, I may not be an expert on this, but growing up in Columbia and being with the Howard County Striders for the almost twelve years that I have been running, I can't think of any other local running event that occurs around the same time as this 10-miler that would conflict with it/divert interest away from it, if it got moved to a Saturday. To be honest, I don't think it would hurt my feelings at all if Sunday races were all moved to Saturday (even though it would have made things extremely difficult with my recent endeavors to run in running events in every county of Maryland and to do over a hundred of said events in a year, 'cause I definitely have been known to run a race on both days of the weekend). Anyway, I think that is a simple and obvious solution to the problem.
Of course, there is probably a reason why moving it to Saturday would not work (or did not work if it had been done in the past). There are probably other groups who would be offended if it were to be on Saturday instead of sunday, because it may conflict with other kinds of traffic. I dunno, maybe I'm being over-analytical. I just think if it is the Sunday morning church commuters who have an issue with it, I think it would be an easier fix to move it on Saturday (not to mention if it was moved to Saturday, runners and staff at the event could have Sunday to relax/recover before entering a busy school or work week). One terrific thing I like about the Howard County Striders is that they have Sunday "weekly series" races during the fall, winter, and spring, and I grew up doing them. However, these occur on Sunday afternoon, so as not to conflict with much church or other religious services. Who knows, maybe making this 10-miler a Sunday afternoon event may not be that bad of an idea either.
- Another solution that I think could work (if it has not been done already), is to notify churches and other places along the route about the race very FAR in advance, adn to let them know to let the commuters coming to their buildings know that they should expect some delays in getting to those places because of the event. That way, the commuters can plan to leave and get to their destination earlier, possibly even before the race starts (or take an alternate route). This puts the onus on the race staff to make sure they are properly coordinating with the local community, and on the leaders of organizations (like churches) to warn their members ahead of time to plan ahead to try and leave earlier or take another route. I am sure this is done to some degree already.
All right, thank you for stopping by and reading this post. I would actually like to know what you all think when you get a chance. You can leave a comment here or send me an e-mail at: noahwood@juno.com
I am very interested in hearing what you have to say if you'd like to volunteer any comments as well as just different perspectives in general. You don't have to agree or disagree with anything I've said; I just want to hear some different takes on it, 'cause I think I may even be able to benefit and learn something from it. I typically am not into all this controversial stuff, but when I see these two things that I feel really passionate about coming into contention, it definitely gets me thinking. I'm not gonna lie, I felt a bit outraged when first reading this article and the writer seemed to accuse the runners of actively disrespecting Christianity, while I knew that was not their motives (well I'm sure at least for most of them). However, I do respect him for bringing it up nonetheless, because it did lead me to question some things to see how this situation can be made better through doing things like maybe making the race on Saturday instead of Sunday. Ever since I saw that article in the paper, I knew it would be worthy material for this blog. Running is important to me, and so is church/fellowship, and I know people from each camp (some are involved in both like myself), and I feel this gives me a little more confidence in speaking my mind about it. Over all this, God is the best and in charge, and ultimately Him, His Kingdom, and His love are much greater than this and will prevail :)
Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day :)
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