Caught in the Act!

Okay, I admit it. You’ve caught me. You’ve caught me doing it. You’ve caught me doing it in public.

You’ve caught me running all around the city of Mason.

Some of you have caught me running in front of the courthouse. Some of you have caught me running while you’re on your way to school in the school bus. Some of you have caught me running on Okemos Road, or on Kipp Road, or on the Hayhoe Riverwalk, or through Maple Grove Cemetery, or past the fairgrounds. A small handful of you have caught me running on the treadmill at the gym. Two of you even caught me wandering into Bestsellers one really cold day in the middle of winter wearing my jogging shorts, and you looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind.

Well, maybe I have. Maybe I have lost my mind . . . because I’ve decided that 2009 is going to be the year when I run my first 5K.

Now you have to understand, I’m not a runner. At least, I didn’t used to be. If I were to tell the members of my family, or my friends from elementary school or middle school or high school or college or seminary – all those old friends that I’ve been reconnecting with recently on Facebook – that I’m about to run a 5K, they would cock their eyebrows and think to themselves: “Bill? A 5K? Really?!?” Because I never was a runner. In gym class, when the teacher made us run laps around the gymnasium, I hated it! I was, in my childhood and youth, a first-class geek/nerd/wimp. I sat and read books, and when I wasn’t reading books, I was sitting in front of the computer, or the television. I didn’t go in for sports. Sports and I, we just never got along very well. I tried Little League . . . and didn’t like it. I tried gymnastics . . . and didn’t like it. I tried soccer . . . and didn’t really like it either. (Is it blasphemy to say that in Mason?) When I played kickball, I was lousy. I did competitive swimming for a while, mainly because my big sister and a lot of my friends were doing it, but I was never stellar at it, and eventually I got a nasty ear infection and had to quit. I went to dozens and dozens of football games when I was in high school because I played in the marching band, but to this day I still don’t understand what a “down” is and why you count to four of them. (And believe me, some of my band friends tried hard to explain that to me!) I just never seemed to have an athletic gene in my body. None whatsoever.

And now I’m about to run my first-ever 5K.

Obviously, something changed inside me somewhere along the way.

It all started back in Maryland. I discovered, within a year or two after becoming a pastor, that this is a pretty stressful job. Sometimes, quite honestly, it’s a really stressful job. Here are all these people, who all have opinions and ideas about the way things “should be” in the church and about the way I should be doing my job, and many of them don’t agree with each other, and some of them don’t agree with me, and I’m caught in the middle of it all, somehow trying to help lead the congregation to a better place, when I have very little executive power at my disposal. I had done lots of hard things in my life up to that point, but never had I experienced that degree of regular, ongoing stress until I became a pastor. I needed a stress-relief, and I knew I needed a stress relief, if I had a prayer of doing my job and doing it well.

So, I took up running.

I’m not quite sure how that happened. I think it was a gradual thing over time. I think one day I just thought, “I’ve got so much pent-up energy inside me; I need some way to release it; I think I’m going to go run around the block.” (Which was difficult, because we lived on a hill, and it was a pretty steep hill!) I went running around the block – and it felt good.

So I did it again.

And again.

And again.

And then the runs became more regular, and they became a little longer. And I found myself enjoying the feeling of getting the adrenaline pumping, of getting the blood circulating, of getting the endorphins releasing. Running, I discovered (to my surprise!), feels good.

Meanwhile, I was reading stuff about healthy churches (I’m not quite the nerd I once was, but I still do like to read!), and some of what I was reading was about the importance of being good stewards of the bodies God has given us, and some of it was about how healthy churches tend to have pastors who make efforts to maintain (and improve) their own emotional, physical, and spiritual health, and I found myself being challenged to become healthier, in all sorts of ways. This wasn’t an easy journey for me. Becoming healthier – whether it is physically healthier, or emotionally healthier, or spiritually healthier – requires commitment and motivation and discipline, and a ton of hard work. Some days, you just don’t feel like it. But, since I had made a commitment to become the most effective pastor I could possibly be, it slowly became clear to me: it was time to become healthier. That was going to require some work.

You see, for me, taking up running – a very physical activity – was a necessary development in my own spiritual journey. I discovered – much to my surprise! – that in order to promote my own spiritual health and well-being . . . I needed to get physical.

So this running thing began while I was in Maryland. It continued – and expanded – when we moved here.

I joined a gym.

Yes, world, you heard that right: Bill, that once -upon-a-time geek/nerd/wimp who couldn’t stand gym class . . . has joined a gym. And I even enjoy going there. Actually, I enjoy it a lot! Granted, on some of these really bitterly cold mornings we’ve had the past couple months, it’s hard to roll out of bed in the darkness and motivate myself to make the trek outside to get there. But on the days when I do go – which has been averaging about four days a week – I come home feeling great. I’ve discovered that I’m happier, I’m more energized, I’m more focused, I’m less likely to get annoyed at little things, I’m more creative, and I’m just generally more effective. That alone has been a great benefit to me (and also to you – whether you realize it or not!)

I discovered there were other benefits too. One day, a few months back, I made a startling discovery: I had muscle in parts of my thighs where – for the last twenty years! – I used to have fat. “Whoa,” I thought. “This is weird!” It was as if my body was beginning to reshape itself before my very eyes. Yes, my friends, there’s fat on my body. I know I look skinny, but believe me, for a long time I’ve been carrying around some fat that I didn’t want – ever since I stopped swimming, way back in high school. (It certainly didn’t help that throughout my senior year of high school, I ate fast food every single day. . . .) So yes, there’s fat on my body. And yes, there’s less fat now than there was a year ago, or even six months ago. I discovered one day, not long after that, that I could fit into old pairs of pants that I haven’t been able to fit into for the past several years. That was a pleasant surprise too!

By Christmas, just a couple months ago, I had developed enough self-confidence that I found myself thinking: “You know, I think I might be able to run a 5K.” Remember – I was once the kid who hated running laps! I know there are a good number of you who could run a 5K easily, and have been able to for a long time, so you might not be able to appreciate just how dramatic a moment this was for me. It was a tremendous realization, filled with excitement and anticipation: “I think I can actually do this!”

A week or two after that thought flashed through my head, I discovered – on the treadmill, one morning at the gym – that I really could do it. I came home elated. “I can do this! I really can do this!” That was a terrific feeling of euphoria. Here was something that I never imagined I could do – and, with a little bit of discipline, and a little bit of dedication, and a little bit of perspiration, now I knew that I actually could do it. I’ve been successfully running a 5K at least once a week ever since the beginning of January. It feels great!

So I’m running my first “official” 5K this month. I’m signed up for a real, official event. No, I’m not going to tell you when or where it is. Give me a chance to just do this one by myself. Let me prove to myself that I really can do this, “officially.” I know I’m not going to be one of the fastest runners; indeed, I’m quite sure that I’ll be one of the slower ones. There are people who can do this twice as fast as I can. That’s okay. I don’t care. I just want to be able to say, “Hey – I did it.”

I’m also signing myself up for Mason State Bank’s 5K on Friday evening, May 1. Yes, if you want to see your pastor make a fool out of himself in public, that’s the time when you can come watch. That’s the time when you can really catch me in the act.

It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it, when you set a goal for yourself – a goal that, with a little bit of discipline and dedication and perspiration, you can actually accomplish.

And you know what? I’d love to see you out there too. I’d love to see you out there, on Friday, May 1, at the Mason State Bank’s 5K Run/Walk. And not just as a spectator. Some of you might be up for running; that’s great; I’d love some company (or you can leave me behind in the dust; that’s okay; I promise my feelings won’t be hurt!). But if you’re not up for running, why not try walking? Many of us could stand to get more exercise than we do. Believe me, all those years when all I wanted to do was to sit and read a book, or sit in front of the computer or the television, it would have benefited me greatly to get up off my duff and do something physical . . . even if it was just going for a walk.

So I’m going to be out there, in public, on May 1. You – and all the rest of Mason – can catch me in the act. If our 150th anniversary t-shirts are ready by that point, I’ll be proudly wearing mine. I’d love to see a whole bunch of you out there as well. Let’s see you get caught in the act as well. Let’s get these legs pumping. Let’s get these muscles moving. Let’s get this fat burning. Let’s become better stewards of these bodies God has given us.

Believe me, from one who never thought he could do this . . . it feels great.

Peace and blessings,

Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor

Coming soon: “Bodybuilding” – and no, I won’t be talking about my body, at all.