Rapture of Running

American religion in general, and Southern Baptist in particular, find definition in personal experience, especially transformational ones. I have actually walked on the Biblical Road to Damascus (see right), yet have not had the blinding experience as described by the Apostle Paul, and countless priests, ministers and preachers. Oh, how I have longed to be slain in the Spirit for the gross majority of my life. I've been on somewhat of a religious quest for what feels like a lifetime, touring, reading, praying and hoping for lighting to strike and provide illumination and deep abiding understanding of God and all things holy.

Existentialist Soren Kierkegaard and Saint Augustine, the Catholic church's great Bishop of Hippo, encountered conversions that as a younger man I likened to the shattering experience of Paul based on my socially constructed reality at the time. However, both of these influential Christian thinkers actually described their intellectual acceptance of Christ and of Christianity, rather than a spasmodic action of the body culminating with movements of rapt agitation in ecstasy.

Upon reading Harold Bloom's definition of American Religion, the one noted above, I reckoned I've been predisposed to an idea that may or may never come to fruition. Unfortunately, in the process I have terribly underrated the amazing experiences of grace and wonder already afforded me. Running by the Nile River, Niagara Falls and even storm water runoff has and continues to provoke a sense of spiritual awareness. I truly felt a communion with divine at Mauna Kea, Machu Picchu, and atop a small mountain in the High Atlas Range of Morocco.

I write here in this blog week after week, and upon reflection these postings are like little sermons. To a degree, I've entered the priesthood of the believer through running. I've exchanged the dogma of religion for a full body and mind experience. Though no shaking, twirling, or jerking of the body or uncontrolled utterances have taken place for me, running provides intimacy with God.

Run for spirituality.

Tom