Runner's High

 
I am a runner. I'm not hardcore and I'm not very fast--in fact my sister tells me that I run in "slow motion"--but technically I still count as a runner, since that is my core workout. For the past two years I have scoffed, yes scoffed at the idea of this "runner's high." In my book it was a myth.

I've waited for "runner's high" for the past two years expecting to just have this extreme burst of joy and feel like super amazing. I've never done drugs, but in my mind runner's high is a substitute for drugs. I wanted my head and body to be like "whoaaaa, these endorphins are like drugs!" For me, the runner's high was more about how I would feel than about what I could do. And so yesterday, as I was laughing the idea of runner's high to scorn, I thought: "what if I've had it, but didn't acknowledge it as such, because of my expectations?"

The most common thing runners say about runner's high is "I felt like I could run forever." They get to a point where something that was difficult is no longer difficult; pain ceases to be painful; and the place where you thought your limit was becomes a tiny dot on the horizon behind you. And when you're done running, you feel like a big deal.

I realized...I had this feeling, just a few nights ago.  Last Thursday night, I ran 5 miles on the treadmill after a particularly wretched day; a day that could only be described as a whirlwind of horrible. But when I was done running (which felt hard up until, but easy after, mile 3) I was dancing down the hallways of my apartment building. Runner's high: It's real. It's just not what I had expected.

There is some euphoria, but mostly, the runner's high enables you to keep going. And I started thinking: is there a such thing as spiritual runner's high?

I don't know. It's not for nothing that the bible repeatedly refers to the Christian walk as a race:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.  - Hebrews 12:1 

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win - 1 Corinthians 9:24

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith - 2 Timothy 4:7

This is a flat out race. Maybe, more like a tough mudder, even! But, there were times when I thought that because I was a Christian, everything would be easy and joyous. I thought those spiritual endorphins would be like drugs, because for a long time my salvation was more about a spiritual experience than God's will for my life. But the spiritual endorphins kick in when you've been running so long, and you're so tired, and once you're about to give up...whoosh, somehow you can bear it. You hear an amazing sermon, or someone randomly says something spiritual profound to you, or you read a verse that changes everything. And somehow you can keep going, and the peace and knowledge of God that comes with that feeling...makes you know you're a big deal!

I think the spiritual runner's high is the subtle workings of the Holy Spirit. It's sounds a little weird, but it's called The Helper, The Comforter, we know it intercedes in times of weakness. It does all the things necessary to keep us running.

I realize, that to a point, I was running (both physically and naturally) for the high. I was running to see what I could get out of it. And even though there are benefits,  the real point of the high is to keep you running.

Just random thoughts. 

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

 - 2 Corinthians 12:9