The tough mudder pledge = a Plan of Life

Since this is "tough mudder detox" week here at our blog, I figured I'd talk about my favorite part of the tough mudder.  For me, my favorite part of this event didn't actually involve any physical activity at all.  My favorite part actually was right before the race.

Picture it: it's a 31 degree Saturday morning, and you're surrounded by 200 people dressed all in compression shorts and under armour from head to toe.  Everyone's crammed in a little 15'x15' square of an area, surrounded by 2 ropes, a 7 foot wall (which you just had to jump over to even get here), and a 10 foot inflatable with "START" written in dirty white print.  Between everyone hopping around and "Eye of the tiger" playing at full volume, you'd think you were in some strange new Rocky movie.  

There's then a voice over the speakers, a voice filled with calm excitement for you and all your 199 compatriots you are about to run 12 miles with through muck, mud, fire, over walls, under water, and through trails galore.  He's beginning to pump everyone up with questions and exciting statements.  There's loud viking like yells and "Hoo-rahs" in proper response.  You're all doing classic call and response chants ("I say __x___, you say ___y___, X!" "Y!") and you begin now to feel like you're a starting linebacker are about to run into a high school championship football game.  

You take a knee and the "EM-Cee" is now congratulating all of you for having the guts to show up here with so much enthusiasm to attempt to accomplish one of the greatest physical challenges you've probably faced in your life so far.  He begins to remind you of the real reason for the tough mudder: the wounded warrior project (a great organization, please check them out) and all those active, wounded, and deceased members of our nation's military. You then stand, and in true American fashion, listen to the national anthem.

After the traditional cheer, you are told you must recite what you will come to know as the "Tough Mudder Pledge":

I couldn't help but think, after the run of course, how much this pledge can apply to our own lives, especially for us here living in community here in Orange.

I understand that the tough mudder is not a race but a challenge:

How many times do we forget that our lives are not about "finishing first" or being the best, because we all see God in heaven?  What matters is that we make it to "the finish".  But to get there is a challenge, full of little challenges, all of which bring us closer to our God.

I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time:

For us to finish, we must have community.  There is no leaving people in the dust (or mud) and still making it to heaven.  Holiness comes through helping our brothers.  Don't we too often not bother to help our brother or sister who needs it just because we don't feel like it?

I do not whine, kids whine: 

Probably one of my favorite lines of this pledge.  We sometimes wait until Sunday or a regular daily prayer time (right before bed for many) to "whine" to God.  "Lord I can't stand this person, let me not have to deal with them as much" or "God I definitely am going to fail this final, there's nothing I can do, make a miracle happen".  But why do we wait to pray, and why do we "whine" when we pray?  God walks with us, even if we don't see Him.  At the very moment we feel the trouble within us when we see that person or when we worry for that final, why not shoot a quick prayer up and know that God will answer, because he is already with us?  Also, why "whine" when we could just say "Alright God, here's the challenge, WE GOT THIS!!!"

I help my fellow mudders complete the course:

Again, we are all in this together, why ride solo?

and I overcome ALL MY FEARS:

Pretty simple: with God, we should have no fears.

Well now you've said the pledge, let's countdown to the start (putting down your computer and heading out there and "running the run")

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-GO!!!!!!

Are you a Hopper?

     In the Old Testament, man's relationship was a lot like this video. Man guarded and protected the land. Man worked and tilled the land to provide for his people. And from man's harvest, he would offer a generous sacrifice to God. What a beautiful image it is to give this little sacrifice to God in remembrance of all that He has done for His people.

     Now we, as people of the New Testament, are called to a new type of sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of ourselves. Our very hearts. Our very lives. WARNING: I am not suggesting that we must each throw ourselves on a huge leaf of "offering" and wait for our predators to come and accept us as a worthy sacrifice. Rather, I am suggesting that we should throw ourselves upon the altar of the Lord.

     The Lord calls us to give Him all of ourselves--our difficulties, our weaknesses, our strengths, our victories--to Him in the Eucharist, that we might die to ourselves, that we might not live for ourselves any longer but for Him. And He calls us to do this as often as we can (at least once a week). But, even more so, we need not wait until the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to completely offer ourselves to God. In every moment of every day--breakfast, work, school, lunch time, coffee breaks, cold-weathered, warm-weathered, working out, cleaning, cooking, sunny days, cloudy days, in every conversation, in every act--we can offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice!

     As seminarians, we are aware of our duty to offer ourselves for you, faithful blog reader, day in and day out. Of course, this is not easy. But you are family, God's family that is, and you were made to be worthy of such a sacrifice. So, today and always, in whatever vocation the Lord is calling you to, live your life with zeal and boldness. And live it always as a humble sacrifice for the Lord!

     And, if you aren't pumped up enough to go out and offer your life for the Lord, here's a short clip that may help: