Posted by Chris on Sep 2, 2010 in
Life 
“You don’t get old and stop running, you get old because you stop running.”
The adage shapes much of the story and science in Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. I first came across the story of the hidden tribe of the Tarahumara and the idea of barefoot running in McDougall’s Men’s Health article in 2005. It’s always stuck with me, so I was thrilled to see a more detailed explanation of how 50 year old Native Americans can run ultramarathons in their sandals.
The book is part sports biography, part memoir, and part science textbook. McDougall is a washed up marathoner, to injured to ever run again, who travels to the Copper Canyons of Mexico in search of a lost tribe, that apparently eats corn, drinks beer, and never gets injured. Much of the book is made up of his stories of navigating drug country and foreign cultures. Beyond that, he tells stories of the American cult of ultrarunning, seemingly superhumans with the ability to run over a hundred miles a day.
One main thesis of the book is that human beings are natural born runners. From an evolutionary standpoint, we’ve got the ability to outrun any prey. Our only hindrance is running shoes, which allow our feet to atrophy and our heels to unnaturally strike. If we ran correctly, we could go for days, and never get injured.
The book is enthralling, addicting and will inspire you to put on your gym shorts, ditch your Nikes and hit the trail.
Tags: barefoot running, Born to Run, Christopher McDougall, marathon, Men's Health, run, running, Tarahumara, ultramarathon
Posted by Chris on Sep 1, 2010 in
Life At the beginning of each month I’m sharing about some plans I’ve made, with the hope it will hold me accountable. What are your plans this year?
1. Read the whole Bible. Now stalled out in 2nd Kings. Got a lot of work to do.
2. Run a full marathon. Running has been put on hold since my current means of transport is bike. Enough exercise…believe me.
3. Climb a 14,000′ Mountain. Although I hate to give up on any of my plans this year, I don’t see this as a financial possibility in 2010. 
4. Visit somewhere I’ve never been. I’m going to count my week in the mountains of California towards this one.
5. Find a full-time job. Check! Finally. Praise God.
6. Take at least one graduate course. I was just admitted into Fuller’s MAGL! I’ll be starting my first class later this month.
7. Read 40 books. Just devoured Born to Run. Delicious.
8. Volunteer at least 1 time a month. Looks like I failed at this, other than my regular responsibilities at my church.
9. Pay off all debt, except school loans. COMPLETED! I am free of all non-school debts!
10. Share my faith regularly. Some cool stories are coming together. Hope to share them soon.
11. Begin leading and/or hosting a regular gathering for skeptics and Christians to study the Bible. See #11.
12. Write daily, including journaling, blogging and working on a book. I haven’t done to well at that this month. However, be on the lookout for a new project you’ll see links for soon.
Tags: 12 Plans for 2010, 40 Books in 2010
Posted by Chris on Aug 23, 2010 in
Life 
The world’s greatest comic book character, Batman, is going through a bit of a reboot. DC claims that the story of Bruce Wayne has reached an end, and now the cape and cowl fall to the original Robin, Dick Grayson.
The new Adventures of Batman and Robin has the punchy-ness of a 1970s cartoon, with all the grit of a post-911 world. Much of the story revolves around the development of Grayson, trying to figure out who he is, and what it means to be Batman. This is the same “Holy Gee, Batman!” Robin, the former circus performer whose big mouth could sometimes be as much trouble as The Penguin.
He struggles to get used to wearing a cape, and can’t make the groveled Batman voice. He’s also charged with taking care of the new Robin, Damian Wayne, the product of a tryst between Bruce Wayne of Talia al’Ghul. Damian was raised without a father by the league of assassins, knows no respect and no mercy.
The story ends with Grayson deciding it’s okay for him to smile under the mask. The only way he can do his job, is to find his own way of being a man.
It’s a story simple enough for a comic book, but so true that everyone must face it. We all grow up with expectations of our parents, heroes we wish to emulate, and social rules we learned as children. While these are all helpful, they can also trap us. We become a hallow imitation of others, or are driven by goals that do not fit our souls. At some point, we all have to decide what kind of Batman we’re going to be.
Tags: Batman, Bruce Wayne, comic books, Damian Wayne, DC, DC Comics, Dick Grayson, Robin
Posted by Chris on Aug 18, 2010 in
Church,
Life 
In my retail gig, my culturally Jewish manager recently encountered a person who identified himself as a Youth Pastor for a well known parachurch organization. The pastor wanted a discount that he did not qualify for, and rudely nagged his salesperson, until the manager was called in.
The pastor continuing to be push, became belligerent and insulting. The manager calmingly told him no, but was so bothered by the man’s behavior, he added that he was surprised that a person with the title of “pastor” could be so rude. The pastor’s response was “I have to be intense in my job. It’s the only way to keep kids off drugs.”
There are so many problems with this, like the unloving way the pastor treated a non-christian, or a philosophy of ministry that shows that a pastor’s role is to keep kids of drugs. It’s simpler than that:
There’s no way that following Jesus gives you license to be a jerk.
This is my struggle with two large and influential segments of Christian thought.
1) Christendom-Minded Christians. Theses are the people that believe the church’s role is to enforce their morality. Not satisfied with teaching and baptize in the name of Jesus, they create bumper stickers, picket abortion clinics and strip clubs, and become overly involved in politics. Their righteous intentions lose ground and inevitably create an “us versus them” mentality. This is the first step to becoming a jerk.
2) Grumpy Calvinists, and Mean Spirited Liberals. Calvinism, often appealing to heady thinkers with rigorous personal standards, can easily become an Us vs. Them religion. When concepts like especially the Limited Atonement and Predestination become more central than grace, theology creates excuses to be mean to outsiders. Liberals do this too, with their constant jabs at those who do not rally to their causes. They can be more known for who they are against than the good they want to see done in the world.
Jesus wasn’t a push over, and he wasn’t nice to everybody. But he did love the world enough to die for it. He poured his life into cultural outsiders, and called the insiders to account for not living up to their beliefs. Jesus wasn’t a jerk.
While there is much good to be done in developing our theology or making social change, here is an easy question to help us approach our thoughts and actions: Will doing this make me a jerk?
Posted by Chris on Aug 3, 2010 in
Life At the beginning of each month I’m sharing about some plans I’ve made, with the hope it will hold me accountable. What are your plans this year?
1. Read the whole Bible. Stalled out in 1st Kings. Got a lot of work to do.
2. Run a full marathon. I’m going to try to get back to running a few times a week this month.
3. Climb a 14,000′ Mountain. Although I hate to give up on any of my plans this year, I don’t see this as a financial possibility in 2010.
4. Visit somewhere I’ve never been. I’m going to count my week in the mountains of California towards this one.
5. Find a full-time job. Got another interview coming up!
6. Take at least one graduate course. I’ll have a concrete date on this soon.
7. Read 40 books. I’m about to knock out Hearing God, Practicing the Presence of God, Rework and a novel called The Dreaming Void.
8. Volunteer at least 1 time a month. Made dinner for the crew at Foundation For the Homeless last week.
9. Pay off all debt, except school loans. COMPLETED! I am free of all non-school debts!
10. Share my faith regularly. Some cool stories are coming together. Hope to share them soon.
11. Begin leading and/or hosting a regular gathering for skeptics and Christians to study the Bible. See #11.
12. Write daily, including journaling, blogging and working on a book. I’m working on a new project that I’m pretty excited about. I’ll be posting a link here soon.
Tags: 12 Plans for 2010
