I Don't...

I used to run.

I did not keep track of and certainly cannot remember the number of 5K and 10K races I ran.  Certainly, most of them were run in central and southern Indiana, but a couple or three were run in Kentucky, and I even traveled to Window Rock, Arizona to run in (what was then called) the Washington Pass Classic.  I was in the "Run with the Bats" 10K once...a portion of the race course led through Marengo Cave...that was pretty cool. I wasn't an overly good runner, I just enjoyed the experience...the crowds of fellow-runners...the friends who ran most of those races with me.

I ran about twenty half-marathons...mostly the Mini-Marathon held in conjunction with the Indy 500 auto race in May.  For a few years, maybe three or four, I would run the Kentucky Derby Half-Marathon early in May and then the Indy Mini-Marathon in late May (it was originally run on the same weekend as the auto race, but in recent years has been moved to very early in May).  In 2011 I ran my last Mini-Marathon.  The best time I posted in a half-marathon was just a few seconds over 97 minutes.  Not great, but not bad for me.  The worst time I ever posted was...well, there were some bad times I posted.

I used to run.

It is not unusual these days to see stickers on the rear-windows of vehicles that read either 26.2 or 13.1.  Those stickers suggest someone in the vehicle runs either Marathons (26.2 miles) or Half-Marathons (13.1 miles).

I saw this rear-window sticker on a car in Bloomington about two weeks ago:

That's my sticker!  I used to run.  I don't run anymore.

I don't.  I don't because my knees ache too much after even a few yards of running.

BTW, here are some more things that I don't:
~I don't wear socks unless I really have to.
~I don't eat green beans.
~I don't pay attention at all to total nutsos trying to defend the unregulated access to guns in this country...folks like Wayne LaPierre and Ted Nugent.
~I don't look when I am given a shot or have blood drawn...too big a chance that I will pass out.
~I don't read romance novels.
~I don't like being sick.
~I don't play Bridge.
~I don't know why on earth some folks are so against gay and lesbian couples being allowed to marry.
~I don't understand why so much really silly religious stuff is written and spoken; and believed.
~I don't want to face the morning without several cups of coffee.
~I don't enjoy snow near as much as I once did.
~I don't like birds crapping on my car.

And, did I mention, I don't run anymore. 

And the Winner Is: Grace!

My NCAA basketball brackets were shot the minute that Harvard won in the opening round!

And it didn't get any better when Florida Gulf-Coast University made a run deep into the tournament.

And why the heck is it that Notre Dame is always the Non-Fightin' Irish when we get to the post-season?  (And what was with those awful uniforms that Nike designed for ND?)

Well, at any rate, there is a winner to declare...even ahead of this next weekend's Final Four games.  And the winner is: Grace!  Hands down.  Every time.

Yup, this is gonna be a religious-type post.  About grace.  About how the unmerited favor and forgiveness of our Creater trumps anything else that will ever happen to us.  (And just to lay my cards and my argument on the table, no substitutionary sacrifice is needed to satisfy the honor or perfection of the Creator in my view of Grace.  The Creator acts gracefully because the Creator is graceful.  That's all.)

I read this somewhere, and I like the image it creates: "God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place."

Of course, what we want to hear is that everything will be OK.  That we just need to have faith.  And it will all work out for the best.  Except everything will not be OK.  And whatever faith you hold to, not everything is going to work out for the best.

Of course, what we want to hear is that everything will get better.  But the truth is that everything will not get better.  Some things will get bad.  Very bad.

Perhaps instead of what we want to hear, we should hear something like this...something that comes closer to the real lives we live than the fairy-tale lives some platitudes want us to believe we will live:
~When life is good...and when it is not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.
~When things go our way...and when they do not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.
~When we are hemmed in by troubles...and when we are not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads grace.  All over the place.
~When sin is involved...and when it is not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.

Does that still sound too much un-like the kind of life you experience?

Let me try one more thing.  Here is a quote from author Brennan Manning:

"My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — 'Please, remember me' — and assures him, 'You bet!'


"This vulgar grace…works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free…Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough…Yes, all is grace. It is enough. And it’s beautiful."

So yeah, why not go with "Grace Trumps Karma," and "God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place!"