adam.bouse

Nearly one year ago, I ran a mile.

It was May 7, 2011 and it was not a particularly remarkable accomplishment, taking every tick of eleven minutes and thirty two seconds. Hardly running really. But it turned out to be the first of many miles I would run over the course of the next 365 days. I actually sit here today, after a shocking turn of events that have unfolded over the past year, preparing to run my second half marathon in the last six months. Now that is remarkable. As so I shall remark.

Let me jump straight to the highlight reel (you can see my full stats on my RunKeeper profile). Including the 13.1 miles I will run in the race on Sunday, here is what I have accomplished in one year of running:

I was inspired by friends and coworkers - Scott had gone from the couch to adventure-racer in 6 months; Terry and Brian, continue to be cycling fiends; and most of my other coworkers were either rock climbing, swimming, or running. My friend Bob, back in Indiana, put on a heart rate monitor while playing ultimate frisbee and shared the results on RunKeeper. They all inspired me to get active in one way or another.

I had run before - but I use the word run very loosely. I always struggled with shin splints and I typically ran faster backwards than forwards. Yes, I completed a full marathon at the age of 16 - running in honor of my step-brother who had passed away from leukemia the year before - but I slogged through that race in 6.5 hours and it was the most painful physical experience of my life.

I went to college and became the living embodiment of the "freshman 15." During a few spurts of motivation, I ended up in the emergency room at the hospital due to overexertion (no fewer than 2 of my 8 trips to the ER in college were exercise induced). Exercise, I concluded, was not a healthy enterprise for me.

But, having moved across the country, beginning to stare down the ripe old age of 30, and about to experience the birth of my second son, I was looking to make some lifestyle shifts.

The best advice I got came from Scott: "Start slow, focus on consistency of activity rather than volume of exercise."

I also read the book Born to Run in two days and it completely changed the way I thought about running (go buy Born to Run right, even if you aren’t a runner at all).

There was a lot that happened between those first days and today - too much to share in a single blog post. Maybe I’ll find the time to share some of the challenged I’ve overcome, the lessons I’ve learned, and the treasures I’ve gathered.

Mile after mile, step by step, I became a runner. I am a runner.

Here I sit today, a full year later with some pretty remarkable results and nothing but upside in front of me. Stacey sort of chuckles when I say it, but I still say I haven’t peaked yet - I continue to improve and really don’t know what my limits are (in one fleeting moment of grandeur, I looked up the qualifying times for the Boston Marathon).

I am incredibly proud of what has happened over the past year. I’m thankful to God for giving me the drive, the discipline, and the patience to become a runner. I'm not breaking land speed records, I'm not beating out my friends in foot races. But I am a runner. I am healthier, I am more disciplined, and I am happier. I love running  and I can’t really envision not being a runner any time soon.

"The moment in which you feel least hospitable, least patient, least accepting, least servant-hearted, least forgiving - therein lies the clearest opportunity to live out the reality of a risen Christ and a now-and-coming Kingdom."

In the circles that I run, it's become a meaningful exercise to identify three words to help focus your days and efforts heading into the new year. This is my first go at it, but I'm amending the exercise a bit. 

Instead of words, I'm opting for phrases. I guess I just need the extra clarity or don't have the discipline to edit down what I write. And speaking of not editing, here are some initial thoughts on my three phrases: 

Obedience over Comfort

• The point of life isn't ease or comfort. And by way of cultural indulgence and creeping conformity, that has become my default mode of living in many areas. Efficiency and (perceived) necessity. Safety. God calls us to be many things - holy being the main one.  But specifically, we are to be patient, kind, generous, loving, selfless, forgiving... My disobedience in these things is because it has been more comfortable for me not to do them. I'd like to say it's not because I don't believe in them, but if I truly believed in them, I'd already live them out, no? I need to choose to pour myself out and to live out every one of the beliefs I profess to hold. I want to be uncomfortable by way of choosing against my own comfort in order to be obedient to what God is calling me to do and to be. 

• It feels a little dangerous to say "I want to live uncomfortably" (because it could get real around here if God takes me up on it), but I guess that's where it begins. I want to live a life that really seeks comfort from God - not from what I can cobble together with my own hands. I want to find comfort in and from God alone. As Francis Chan says: "Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the 'Helper' or 'Comforter.' Let me ask you a simple question: Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?"

Letting Hope and Joy Flourish

• These things should pour out of anyone who aims to serve God and follow Jesus. I'm not sure how I've gotten this far along without feeling the conviction that we are all called to be people of hope and joy - unconditionally. God is good, He is faithful, and I need to let that exude from me every single day.

Expanding the Borders

• I have lived in Oklahoma for a little more than a year now. And for someone who is (or at least was) an adventerous, people-loving, whimsical fellow, it's shocking how few people I've come to know and interact with, how often I simply "stay in", and how few adventures I've plotted. Time to kick the dust off the tires.

My Favorite Albums from 2011: 

• Adele, 21
• Switchfoot, Vice Verses
• The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow

My Favorite Books in 2011:

• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
• Forgotten God by Francis Chan (not from 2011, but just got to read it)
• Five Disfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

My Most-used Apps in 2011:

• The Bible App
• Tweetdeck
• Runkeeper
• MyFitnessPal
• Fooducate

My Favorite Miscellany in 2011:

• losing 20 pounds
• Finishing a half marathon and meeting my goal time
• The Chazown Experience
• Working for an amazing church, with amazing leaders and teammates
• And of course, my family. Graham was born in May, Jack is growing and getting smarter each day, and my brilliant, beautiful wife continues to lavish me with grace and love. 

Oh if it ever happens that we forget the message and the promises; if all we know is the four walls and the prison windows of our gray days; if we can no longer hear the gentle step of the announcing angels; if our soul no longer is at once shaken and exalted by their whispered word - then it will be all over with us. We are living wasted time and are dead before they do us any harm.

Yes, arise! It is time to awaken from sleep. It is time for a waking up to begin somewhere. It is time to put things back where God the Lord put them. It is time for each of us to go to work, with the same unshakable sureness that the Lord will come, to set our life in God's order wherever we can.

The world today needs people who have been shaken by ultimate calamaties and emerged from them with the knowledge and awareness that those who look to the Lord will still be preserved by him, even if they are hounded from the earth.

- Alfred Delp, excerpts from "The Shaking Reality of Advent"