No Guts, No Glory

NOTE: This is an article that I wrote in April 2000, which was published in the Beyond42 running magazine. As the Comrades marathon is being run in South Africa this month, I thought it appropriate to place the article on my blog.

 

Christmas day is one of the few occasions when our family gets together as a family. It’s a time when we share our thoughts and plans for the future.

Throughout the day the wine and champagne had been flowing and everyone was starting to feel a little light-headed. The conversation had turned to sport and, in particular, running.

“Why don’t we three brothers run a marathon together?” my second eldest brother suggested. My eldest brother and I agreed that this was a fine idea. The conversation progressed and we all decided that a mere marathon was beneath us and we should be aiming much higher.

Two Oceans seemed much more appealing. A few drinks later and we had final set our goal on the Comrades Marathon. So that was that, June 16 was our date with destiny.

It’s 4am, June 16, 2000 – race day. I’m sitting on the tar road outside Durban City Hall, huddled with some 20 000 other runners. My mind is racing, asking questions which I dare not answer.

Have I done enough training? Will my knees and legs last the 87,3km or will my recurring injury come back? I start to panic as a little self-doubt begins to creep in. I force myself to change the subject. Think positive.

5am and the gun goes off. A huge wave of humans surge forward over the start line, while Chariots of Fire blares over the PA system in the background. I reach the 8km mark and feel exhausted, but I still have another 79km to go. How am I ever going to make it.

Despondent

I start to feel a little emotional and despondent, but I remind myself that I can’t give up now as I have put too much into this. There is one of the bailers’ busses. I must remember what they look like – I might be needing one of them later.

I battle along, kilometre after kilometre, trying to find ways to make the time go quicker. Next water station I will have a blue PowerAde, then the following one an orange PowerAde. That’s something to look forward to!

I wonder how far my brothers have got? The bailers’ bus is looking rather full. I hope they have still got room for one more! I don’t see any of my brothers sitting in there, so I suppose I can safely assume that they are still on the road.

Finally, I reach Drummond, the halfway mark. The side of the road is lined with an MTN station where runners can make free cellphone calls from the MTN phones. I entertain the thought of phoning 911 and report that I’m a runner in distress! Instead, I shuffle on.

Damn that Christmas day

I’m beginning to regret opening my mouth at lunch on Christmas day. There should be a warning label on alcohol bottles: “Warning to novice runners: Consumption of large quantities of this beverage may result in overstatement of running capabilities.”

There is another marker board. Oh no, still another 27km to go. I swear if I reach that bailers’ bus before it pulls off, I’m going to get in it.

Poly shorts – already? That’s only 7km from the finish. Where did all those kilometres go?

As I enter the stadium, seeing the crowds and sensing the finish, immense emotion overwhelms me and I struggle to fight back the tears. Fifty meters from the finish line I glance to the side of me to see a most welcome sight in the crowds, my brother applauding, mouthing the words: “Well done Alain, well done!”

As I cross the line I thrust my hands in the air and look skywards, as if to say “Thank you God, thank you for getting me through this.”

Then it finally hits me. I’m here; I have completed the ultimate human race. “Look Ma, I’m on top of the world!” 

NOTE: Both my brothers also finished the Comrades 2000 Marathon.

Betrayal

NOTE: This is about extra-marital affairs and was inspired by the chorus from the song, “Free,” by the Lighthouse Family.

I wish I could say all the things I should say,
Say ‘em loud, say ‘em clear,
For you to hear,

I wish you could see the pain on their faces,
I wish you could feel the hurt in their heart,
Then you’d see and agree to the callousness of your deed,

I wish you could see what your betrayal has done to their trust,
I wish you could feel their guilt caused by your lust,
Then you’d see and agree to the callousness of your deed,

I wish you could see the disappointment in their eyes,
I wish you could feel their shame that lies inside,
Then you’d see and agree to the callousness of your deed,

I wish you could see the turmoil in their lives,
I wish you could feel their frustration from your lies,
Then you’d see and agree to the callousness of your deed,

I wish you could see how vengeful they want to be,
I wish you could feel their anger to thee,
Then you’d see and agree to the callousness of your deed,

I wish you could see how their loss cuts to the bone,
I wish you could feel their fear of being alone,
Then you’d see and agree to the callousness of your deed,

I wish I could say all the things I should say,
Say ‘em loud, say ‘em clear,
For you to hear.

Spiritual Foundations

Recently, I went back to South Africa for a 3 month holiday. Whilst in South Africa, I heard that a few of my friends had engaged in extra marital affairs. All of these people are Christians. They had many excuses for the reasons as to why they had their affairs, but none of them seemed to want to take responsibility or accountability for their actions. I am always at a loss for words as to how non-Christians seem to manage to abide by the 10 Commandments and some Christians seem to stray. Surely, if you’re a committed Christian it is easier to abide by these laws than a non-Christian? The point here is not to judge, but rather to try and understand why this happens.

I was fortunate enough to have been given “The Purple Book” by a friend of mine in South Korea. This book is a 12-part Bible study guide that helps you get a solid understanding of the Bible. I flipped through the book to get a general feel for what it was about. However, what interested me most was what the author, Rice Broocks, had to say about having a strong Christian foundation. In the “preface” of the book, he said the following:

“Anyone who wants God’s best for their life must begin by building a strong foundation. Jesus said as much when he declared, “As for those who come to me and hear my words and put them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built (Luke 6:47 – 48). He then contrasted this wise man with one who was foolish, who heard but failed to act and found himself living in a house built on sand. Both had their works tested by the storms of life – storms that come even more often in today’s uncertain world. And in this real-life game of Survivor, only one person was left standing. The large number of damaged and/or collapsed lives in today’s church are testimony to the pressing need to once again build strong foundations.”

After reading this, my immediate reaction was to try and relate this back to the experience of my friends who had committed adultery. Could it be that they strayed because their spiritual foundations were built on sand and could not withstand the “storm of life”? Could it be as simple as that? I feel that if this is the case, then it has an impact on all the religions and even more far reaching implications for the world at large.

Before one can draw any conclusions, one needs to look at the various religions. It would be far too time consuming to do and in-depth analysis of all the religions. What follows is a very brief description of the major religions in existence today. The Christian faith is the largest faith in the world with 32% of the worlds’ population being Christian. Christianity was established around 30AD. Their sacred text is the Bible. They believe in one God and have a set of Ten Commandments. Islam is the second largest faith in the world with 19% of the worlds’ population being of the Islamic faith. Islam was created around 622AD. Their sacred texts are the Qur’an and the Hadith. They believe in one God and that he is the creator of all things. They also have laws governing morality, justice and love. The Jewish faith is the smallest of all the major Western religions, but is older than Christianity and Islam. Only 2% of the worlds’ populations are Jewish. Judaism was established around 400BC. Their sacred texts are the Torah, Tanach and Talmud. Interestingly enough, the Christian Bible, the Jewish Tanach and the Islamic Qu’ran are all from the Jewish Torah. The Hindu faith is the third largest and oldest faith in the world. 13% of the worlds’ populations are Hindu. Hinduism was established around 1500BC. Their sacred text is the Bhagavad-Gita. Hindus believe in one supreme God. They also believe in karma and have laws with regards to pure acts, thoughts and devotion. Buddhism makes up 6% of the worlds’ population. It was established in 523BC. Their sacred texts are the Tripituka and Sutras. They are guided by the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path and the precepts. These cover things like not killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and having right understanding, thought, action, speech and mindfulness. There are many other smaller religions like tribal religions (4%), Chinese folklore (6%), Confucianism, Spiritism, Taoism, Wicca, Sikhism, Shinto and others that make up the remaining 16% of the worlds population. A point worth noting is that only 2% of the worlds’ populations are Atheists.

This essay is not about which religion is right or wrong, nor am I trying to imply that the one God referred to in all the religions is the same God. Furthermore, I am not trying to imply that we just simply all get along and put aside our differences. This would be a wonderful gesture, but I don’t think the human race has reached that level of consciousness yet. It is my opinion, that there is a place for all religions. Some people need a religion like Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, etc so that they can be guided in their spiritual practice. Others feel more comfortable exploring their spirituality on their own. However, the point I would like to express is that there seems to be a golden thread that runs through all the religions and spiritual practices. We have already seen from the above, that all of the religions and spiritual practices have laws or guidelines that must be followed in order to have a strong foundation in that religion. These laws or guidelines are all similar in nature in that they cover areas of morality, justice and love.

Therefore, we can hypothesize that 98% of the worlds’ population are in some religion or form of spiritual practice that is guided by rules or laws that are based on morality, justice and love. I believe we would be naïve to think that all the worlds’ ills can be attributed to the 2% of the worlds’ population that are Atheists. One would have to believe that a significant percentage of the worlds’ population that is engaged in some sort of spiritual practice or religion is also contributing towards the problems that are occurring in our world today. This brings me back to the point I mentioned earlier about my friends who committed adultery. If the main reason for this is because their spiritual foundations were not strong enough to withstand the temptation, then the solution is simple. Take the responsibility and accountability for building your strong spiritual foundation within your religion. This solution would apply to all the religions and / or spiritual practices of the world. Imagine if 98% of the worlds’ population took accountability and responsibility for building a strong spiritual foundation for themselves within their religion or spiritual practice!

What impact would this have on all the ills of the world? If ones religion or spiritual practice is governed by rules or laws that are based on morality, justice and love, then surely one must see a significant improvement in the world.

Most people want to know how they can make a massive impact on the world so that they are able to change it. It would be wonderful if we could change the world in an instant, but that might seem an impossible task at the moment. A more realistic approach would be to do it the same way as you eat an elephant, a little piece at a time until the whole elephant has been consumed. Let us not worry what other people are doing, but rather make sure our foundations are rock solid in our religion or spiritual practice. I think the Bible aptly sums up this point in Mathew 7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”. If everyone was accountable and responsible for themselves, and ensured that their spiritual foundations were built on rock, we would be changing the world a little piece at a time.

I think Gandhi summed it up quite aptly when he said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

Hello world!