A Runner’s Prayer

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday I spoke about St Patrick’s Breastplate, the beautiful prayer that was such a great source of strength and inspiration to me as I ran the Comrades Marathon last year. As I prayed it repeatedly on that run, there was a particular portion of the prayer that had special meaning for me as a runner.

Today I’d like to explore it from that perspective, for two reasons. Firstly, whether you’re a runner or not, we’re all journeying through life on what is essentially a long and winding road. And so the themes relevant to long-distance running are relevant to us all.

Secondly, if you know someone who is running the Comrades on Sunday, why not forward this message on to them. Encourage them to memorise at least this portion of St Patrick’s Breastplate, and offer to pray it on their behalf as a sign of your solidarity with them on Sunday.

This is the part of the prayer I’d like us to explore:

Christ be with me, Christ within me
Christ behind me, Christ before me
Christ beside me, Christ to win me
Christ to comfort and restore me
Christ beneath me, Christ above me
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger

Christ be with me
In the midst of this experience, whatever it brings, Christ is with me. In the good patches and the bad patches; when my muscles are screaming in protest; when I’m feeling anxious about an unsettled stomach or lifted by the encouragement of friends cheering on the side of the road – in all of this Christ is with me. If I remain fully present to this experience, I will encounter the Christ who is here in it with me.

Christ within me
One of the things you have to pay careful attention to as a long-distance runner is your nutrition, and especially the energy stores that are available for you to draw on. As I write this I’m sipping my specialist carbohydrate loader drink that is part of my carbo-loading programme for these next three days before Comrades. There are different stores of energy that the body uses in an endurance event. First, the body uses up glucose. Then it moves on to glycogen – those carbohydrates stored in our muscles. Then it draws on long-chain fatty acids. And finally when all those reserves are depleted, the body will start burning fat to keep going.

Praying ‘Christ within me’ is a reminder that in addition to these necessary physical stores of energy, there is another source of strength within – Christ. I like to imagine Christ mingling with the glucose, glycogen, long-chain fatty acids, etc in my body to enable them to do the work they’re designed to do.

Christ behind me, Christ before me.
When I run Comrades I have a pacing chart with me that keeps track of how far I’ve come and how far I’ve still got to go, and the relevant times that I’ve set for myself at every stage. How wonderful to affirm at any stage of the run that ‘Christ behind me’ means that Christ has been in every part of the journey thus far, and is the one who has faithfully brought me to this place. And not just on race day, but also in the months of training and preparation leading up to it.

Praying ‘Christ before me’ is a reminder that in the miles that remain, Christ is already there waiting to welcome me. So every step I take is like stepping more deeply into the reality of Christ’s waiting embrace. I particularly love to picture him on the finish line, clapping and cheering me home.

Christ beside me
The big thing about Comrades is the camaraderie. It is the most remarkable shared experience for those who are participating. Praying ‘Christ beside me’ is affirming that Christ is part of that, a comrade who joins me on the road. What is more, it reminds me that in the face of any of my fellow runners, the face of Christ can be seen.

Christ to win me
My 5 year old son asked me yesterday if I was going to win the Comrades. I said no. He then asked me if I was going to come second. You’ve got to smile!

For just about everyone running, winning the Comrades (in the sense of coming first or second), is obviously not the point. Comrades changes one’s whole notion of what it means to win, and what the focus of our winning should be. Praying the phrase, ‘Christ to win me,’ is such a challenging reminder of this. It suggests that this fellow runner (Christ) who is beside me wants to win me over to his priorities, perspectives and purposes. He joins me on the road with the express intention of encouraging me to imitate him, to follow him, to become like him. Does my attitude and approach reflect this? Will people experience Christ in me, whether they are consciously aware of it or not?

Christ to comfort and restore me
What a magnificent line to pray when my muscles are aching, when my reserves are low, when I’m feeling like giving up. The comfort and restoration that Christ offers may include an actual easing of the pain one is enduring, but it certainly includes a greater capacity to bear the burden of the situation with greater peace and confidence. The promise of restoration is also an encouragement that no matter how bad one is feeling right now, it’s always far too soon to panic, because the story is not yet over.

That’s all we have time for today. Tomorrow, we will finish off these reflections on this particular part of St Patrick’s breastplate.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord Jesus Christ, you are utterly amazing! You find us, you join us, you stay with us, you bless us! In every situation you are there. We are never alone! Thank you! Amen

SCRIPTURE READING

Colossians 1:15-20 (The Message)

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels — everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

He was supreme in the beginning and — leading the resurrection parade — he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe — people and things, animals and atoms — get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.