Just Another Runner’s Story By: Gale Fischer
Running and Spirituality Connect
“My gym is my church, my sweat is my prayers, my strength is my salvation.”
The back-and-forth interaction between running and spiritual faith is a common thread for many runners. Running has the potential to help one connect with their God while at the same time, one’s relationship with their God can enhance the running experience. A raised heart rate, labored breathing, and the sensation of sweat dripping from the skin can provide the stimuli that synch the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual states of being. Spiritual enhancement can occur while running solo, allowing athletes to become lost or found in their thoughts. This enhancement can also occur from the fellowship that comes while running with others. Not all individuals experience this connection to God while running. Some may feel it occasionally while others are impacted by it more often than not. Local Christian leaders Dave Proulx and Kjersten Priddy recently shared with me their perspective on the connection that running and religion have in their lives.
Dave began his running journey a little over a decade ago. “I started in 2008. I wasn’t competitive at all. I did it for stress relief. I just wanted to get in shape. At the time I was running by myself. Running was a way to spend time with God. It’s so hard to find that space in our lives to think. Jesus talks in the Bible about finding a place to go alone to pray. Running became my alone place to pray”
Although Dave was working in a church at the time, being a clergy member had not yet become part of his background. “When I began running, I was working at First Wesleyan Church in Battle Creek leading the music program. I was a music major in college. I had been in music ministry for five years and was searching for some time to be alone. This is when I began running. During my time running, I began feeling the call to ministry.” The time of reflection that running created for Dave was the catalyst for a career change.
This calling would lead to a major shift in the lives of Dave and his family. There were options for seminary in many areas of the country including Michigan, but a specific area of study had Dave and his family packing their bags for Texas. “I decided to go to seminary. I moved my family to Dallas for four years of study. I feel that my time alone running led me to seminary. I specifically remember the run when I made the decision to switch career paths from music to ministry.”
Part of what drew Dave to our sport was the connection that it created with nature. Fortunately, Dave was able to find nature in the midst of a big city. “There was a two-mile track in a nature park in the middle of Dallas so I continued running after moving from Michigan. I was six years into running and still not competing. Two to three miles at a time a few times a week was enough to balance my life”
Kjersten’s experience with running and faith draws similar parallels to Dave’s but her indoctrination to running and a career as a pastor follows a different path. Kjersten began running as a high school athlete. She signed on as a cross-country runner and like Dave, it became more of a non-competitive experience. “I battled for a second to last place finish on my cross-country team every meet with a teammate.” Kjersten did not necessarily join her school’s cross-country time as a way to compete or be part of a team. It was her desire to run not to race that led her to cross country. “I needed a space to get away and clear my head so I chose running and cross country.”
Kjersten’s path to her current role in the Battle Creek community may have had a secondary influence from her running but it was a series of events that eventually led her to her current job as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. Kjersten worked at a summer camp when she was still in college. “I fell in love with it. It felt like God was calling me to do that sort of work all the time.” A year stint of volunteer work after college would add to her calling. This would lead her across the country from Gonzaga University in Seattle to the East Coast in 2005. “Then after college, I did a year of volunteer service, which turned into a three-year job at a homeless shelter in Washington DC.”
The shelter that Kjersten worked at in Washington DC was established as a result of the 1969 DC riots. A Lutheran Church in the area opened up a safe place for those in need. As things began to calm down, the church realized that the safe place was being accessed for the most part by single women without children. There were shelters in the DC area for men and families but the shelter at the Lutheran Church was the only one that allowed for single women without children.
Kjersten’s work at the Luther Place Church in DC immediately called to her heart. Witnessing the congregation work to transform the neighborhood provided a model for Kjersten as to what she wanted to do with her life. After spending three years at Luther Place Church, Kjersten moved to Chicago in 2008 to attend seminary. After graduating from LSTC Seminary in Chicago in 2012, she moved back to the West Coast, taking a position as interim pastor at a church in LA.
Her work at the homeless shelter would have a long-lasting impact on Kjersten and influence the work that she is doing on a daily basis at Trinity Lutheran. “Watching the impact that the congregation in Washington DC had on its neighborhood and the women who used the shelter made me want to do that sort of work in Battle Creek.” Before eventually landing in Michigan, Kjersten would find her way back to the West Coast, finding a job as an interim pastor in LA. Two years later she moved to Michigan accepting a position as a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Battle Creek.
Kjersten continued to run as a way to balance her life after high school through college and during her time in Washington DC and LA but continued to ignore the competitive side of our sport. Although she enjoyed the solitude of running by herself, Kjersten would seek out the running community in LA as a social outlet and a way to connect with others outside of the church. “This was a major shift for me switching from a solo runner to a social runner. Being in the ministry can be a lonely occupation. Finding the running community was a way to get over this loneliness. Seeing my changes as a runner has allowed me to see changes that I might not otherwise see as a pastor.”
Like Kjersrten, Dave would also make the transition from solo to social runner after moving back to Michigan. “When I finished seminary, I had opportunities in Colorado and Dallas but I received a call to begin pasturing a new church in Battle Creek.” It would be a runner from Dave’s congregation in Battle Creek who would jumpstart a shift in his running. “Jim Peterson, a member of my church introduced me to social running. This began my progress in upping the distance.” Dave began running with Jim in March of 2018. Jim’s influence as a long-distance runner would lead to Dave increasing his distance and mileage. “I progressed from the Cereal City 10K in June of 2018 to the Battle Creek Half in July of 2018, to the Monumental Marathon in November of 2018, and adding another marathon in Madrid in April of 2019. I have found that I can connect with God when running with a group also.”
Kjersten made the move to Battle Creek in 2014. The influence that her spirituality and work as a pastor had on her running and the influence that running has had on her work in the ministry has evolved in her time as a member of the clergy in Washington DC, LA, and now in Michigan. “I feel like I need a little bit of oxygen deprivation to connect with God. As a pastor, I find that if I’m stuck working on a sermon that I need to go for a run. I find that for any difficulty or problem in my life that a run will help me through it. It helps to cut down other distractions. Running reminds me of what I am capable of. If I face something challenging in my life, I look to what I have done with running.”
The running community would perhaps become Kjersten’s biggest source for social networking when she moved to Battle Creek. “In 2014 I moved to Battle Creek taking a job as a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church. I immediately sought out the running community here in Battle Creek. Running with the group in Battle Creek helped me to up my game. I have seen tangible success as a runner since arriving in Battle Creek.”
Although running means so much more to both Dave and Kjersten than success as an athlete, there is no denying the recent accomplishments of both due to the influence of the running community here in Battle Creek. In a short period of time, Dave has gone from three miles a few times a week to a two-time marathon finisher. Both he and his running partner Jim earned a top twenty-five finish in the 2019 Battle Creek Half Marathon with a finishing time of one hour and forty minutes all while alternating miles pushing running friend Sue Read in a jogging stroller. Sue is a friend of both Dave and Jim. Once an avid runner Sue was recently diagnosed with a rare disease which has stripped her of much of her physical independence. Dave and Jim were able to help Sue experience a race atmosphere in the midst of dealing with her disease.
Since hooking up with the local running community in Battle Creek, Kjersten has found that competitive edge that has been non-existent for so many years. “I have seen tangible success as a runner since arriving in Battle Creek. I have had a really good racing year.” Highlights of the past year for Kjersten include finishing the Toledo Marathon with a PR of three hours and fifty-three minutes, crossing the finish line for the Cereal City 10K 2019 as the female winner with a time of forty-five minutes, claiming second place in the Run to Climax 2019 and finishing as the overall female winner at the Road Hawg 2019 with a time of forty-seven minutes.
Dave and Kjersten both take away many positives from our sport. “What I like most about running,” explains Dave, “is connecting with God, connecting with nature, and connecting with others.”
Kjersten also appreciates what running brings to her individually and as a member of a group of like-minded individuals. “I appreciate the sense of confidence that running gives me and the ability to endure all things in life. I also appreciate the friendships that I have made through running.” Kjersten and Dave both find that each day is better when they run but finding the time to run each day can be a challenge.
Being Christian leaders in their community, it is a no-brainer that both Kjersten and Dave have found an undeniable connection between their faith and running. Running has the potential to strengthen the connection that each of us has with our God. This connection between running and spirituality can be a two-way street with one’s spiritual life enhancing the running experience, whether it be in the middle of a solo run or while running a twenty-miler with a group of friends.
Everyone has a story. Stay tuned next month for another runner’s story.
No comments:
Post a Comment