We often hear that life is a marathon and not a sprint. We hear people tell us to slow down all the time, but how much of that advice is actually being retained and internalized? Too oftentimes, I have seen people going too fast at times that we run out of energy to care for others.
I am in no way a fast or experienced runner. I try to run at least once a week because running is required by military standards, and I want to condition myself for the physical fitness assessment. As a matter of fact, I am very astounded by how fast some people are able to run, and I can never imagine or see myself being as fast as they are. God has blessed them with higher cardiovascular health and agility. However, I do try to push myself to meet the required standards and to be able to run when needed. I might not be the quickest, but I will chug along and finish the race.
There are many competitive people out there, and I admire them for their abilities. However, I am worried when the same mentality is transferred into their professional and work lifestyle. As a priest and military chaplain, I have seen so MANY cases of burnout! I have seen people who jeopardized their family life, forget who they are, and become so focused on their careers that they become stuck in their own little pitiful existence. I have seen people who are greatly respected by peers and subordinates because of their achievements, professionalism, and “care” for others, but they, at times, are the most lonely and sad people who have no real connections outside of their work life.
It saddens me when I see so many people live and die by their careers because it is something safer and more achievable according to worldly standards. We can have more responsibilities, duties, and titles given to us, but that does not mean anything. We have higher ranks, pay, and executive roles, but those things do not mean much. We can do all these things to have more self-importance feelings in life, but those matters really change who we are deep from within. If we do not know who we are and why we are called to love, I believe our lives will continue to remain hedonistically plentiful but simply pitiful deep from within. I think we miss the point if we do not slow down and pace ourselves in order to enjoy, learn, and grow from the journey.
Life is not about running fast, checking things on the list, and achieving more stuff. If that is the case, why do so many people have midlife crises and become more depressed, anxious, and worried each day? Why do we, especially as Americans, have so much more than many people around the world, yet still feel like we do not have enough? Why are we living in such a blessed and prosperous country, yet still feel miserable when so many people are willing to trade our places for just a moment in life? Why do we have more things but do not have any real understanding of our purpose, meaning, and quality of life?
Hence, the same can be applied to our own spiritual life, too. Not all of us can be great saints and superheroes of faith. Many of us will stumble and fall. Some of us are simply struggling to finish the race. No matter how fast or slow we seem to be, it is very important to remember to NEVER give up and to finish the race! We are called to be faithful and persevere because faith is not a short-term or quick-turnaround matter… it is a lifelong journey full of ups and downs, for sure.
In his letter to Proba, St. Augustine said,
“If something happens that we did not pray for, we must have no doubt at all that what God wants is more expedient than what we wanted ourselves.”
He also said in his letter,
“These words (of Sacred Scriptures) are written to prevent us from having too great an opinion of ourselves if our prayer is granted, when we are impatient in asking for something that it would be better not to receive; and to prevent us from being dejected, and distrustful of God’s mercy toward us, if our prayer is not granted, when we ask for something that would bring us greater affliction, or completely ruin us through the corrupting influence of prosperity.”
In today’s world, it is very easy to dress up a lie so nicely that it starts to take on the glow of the truth. We have so many people who pray and desire that their will be done at all costs, even under the pretense of prayer and faith. We have so many people who have perverted discipleship and make themselves masters, teachers, lords, and gods of their own destiny instead of following His will. If we ourselves set our own pace and become the initiator of our race, I would then raise the question of whether we will ever arrive at anything at all!?! If we keep running at full speed in order to have more, I wonder if we will ever be content with what life has for us? I believe we have wasted so much time and effort running our own vain course, but have not kept at it and persevered in the journey of faith.
We want to be free, yet this self-centered freedom has cost us so many lives lost to addiction, depression, and the like. Many of our recent social changes, ideological inventions, and cutting-edge progress were made on the grounds of lessening the number of suicides, self-harms, and depression cases, but these problems continue to escalate. More symptoms are diagnosed, more changes are made for the sake of tolerance, and more political correctness is imposed, but they affect no one as these pathological signs and numbers continue to rise.
The Church and her pastors continue to preach against these destructive patterns, calling to mind what is killing our society and young people, but it seems like our preaching is going on deaf ears because we are labeled as too outdated and irrelevant to the current trends and lifestyles of the 21st century. Everyone seems to have better ideas and solutions for themselves, yet all of our actions seem to simply create cute, nicely-packaged band-aids to hide the gangrene that is killing our society from within. We often think that we have things handled as we like because we know what we want and are in control before we finally realize that we have ignored all the crucial warning signs and are in trouble… and that is sometimes a little too late!
What our society and the world really need is a genuine conversion of heart that is grounded in transparency and humility. We cannot get help until we recognize that we have a problem that we cannot fix by ourselves. We cannot do this without the grace of God! We cannot seek healing until we take the first step of any recovery program. We must recognize that we cannot be well just by fixing ourselves. Only the Almighty can reform and transform us if we are humble enough to desire to change ourselves and allow His grace to permeate our every word and action!
Life can get challenging, for sure, but we can choose to be grateful, seeking our joy by remaining cheerful and life-giving in the Lord. If we recognize that He is always near to us, we can allow our souls to soak and rest in His loving peace. By being thankful, our gratitude permeates and changes our mode of operations so that our thoughts and lives become ones of thanksgiving and prayer, lifting up and giving life to those who are around us. What makes us humans and believers is our consideration of one another, especially our care for each other through prayer and the willingness to embrace one another above our differences. Even though it is very tempting to shut off those we do not agree with, we can learn to grow in loving patience for them, just as God has always been for us. This is how we can be there for one another, to lift each other up and lead the other person to Christ Jesus without shunning them away, hurting them at will, or going toward the point of no longer feeling remorseful because we are no longer being considerate and caring of others. By our kindness and gratitude, we become more grounded in God because we recognize how blessed we are and how merciful He has been to us. We, then, can return the gift and put into practice what we have received from the Almighty.