My friend Mike is an Ironman – he just completed his
umpteenth Ironman race in July. Me, I’m
more like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
The closest I've come to doing an Ironman was reading about Mike’s races
here on his blog. After his last race in
Lake Placid, we exchanged the following messages:
Stay
Puft Marshmallow Man:
Congratulations! I hope you’re
happy with your time.
Ironman: Happy, but not entirely satisfied. But then again, never am.
SPMM: There’s a theological explanation for that.
Ironman:
Oh God.
SPMM: Exactly!
OK, I made up the last
two lines, but I’m sure that’s what Mike was thinking, and I certainly would
have come back with such a witty retort.
In any event, I owe Mike an explanation.
Here it is.
We all have goals.
It’s in our nature. Some may want
to travel to exotic locations, learn to tango or climb Mount Everest; others
may want to lose some weight, clean out a closet, or just get out of bed in the
morning. And for the certifiably insane,
it’s doing Ironman races. It doesn't matter what the goal is. Big or small, we
all have goals. We’re hard-wired to
strive for new and better things.
Why? Well, it’s because we’re
constantly and persistently called to greater things by “that which nothing
greater can be thought”[1]
– God. Just think about it. Most would agree that we've never seen
perfection in this world, but for some reason, we have a concept of what it is,
and we strive for it. That reason is
God. God lives in and around us, incessantly
calling us to his perfection. In fact,
the Holy Spirit that dwells within us never stops reaching out of us to be in perfect
union with God, and he drags us right along
with him. When we strive to better
ourselves and our lives and the lives of others, we’re really reaching out to
God, whether we realize it or not.
Our natural inclination to strive for perfection is
also the reason we’re never entirely satisfied.
We can’t be completely satisfied in this world because perfection transcends
it. Perfection resides in God
alone. So until we’re completely united with
God, we’ll never be fully satisfied. As
St. Augustine confessed to God, “My heart is restless until it rests in you.” That’s
why God keeps calling us to him; he knows that we’ll never be fully satisfied
until we rest in him.
If
that’s the case, why keep trying? Well,
achieving our goals is very satisfying – it may not be completely satisfying, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. With each goal achieved, we get a taste of
what perfection is like; we get a little glimpse of heaven. That’s what this journey on earth is all
about – doing everything we can to live the Kingdom of Heaven as best we can
here on earth until the time comes when we experience it, in all of its
perfection, eternally.
While
I might me puffier than Mike, and I’m certainly more sedentary, we do have a
few things in common – we both have goals, and we’re both at stages in our
lives when we’re reassessing our goals. As
for me, I’m discerning between two pretty ambitious goals right now (doing an
Ironman is not one of them). I don’t know if I’ll pursue either one. If I don’t, I’m sure another goal will soon take
their place. It’s just the way I am. I’ll
be setting goals for myself, big and small, for the rest of my days on this
earth. While I know I’ll never be entirely
satisfied in this life, I’m happy for each little victory along the way as I
strive for the ultimate goal we all share – perfect union with perfect love.
Take 2 - my first attempt came up blank:
ReplyDeleteMike - it took me forever to read this one - but I'm glad I did. Thanks for the mention and for the perspective! Really appreciate it.