Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Give a listen to the CBC’s Tapestry for last week.

I wrote Mary Hines, at CBC’s Tapestry, an email after hearing that broadcast…

I’m a cynic: I admit it. The Olympics – like most sporting events – are
too commercial and too heavily involved in making money on the backs of
“our youth” for me to care. I’ve seen about 30 minutes total of Olympic
TV in the last 15 or 20 years. (It helps that I don’t own a TV, of
course.)

But your podcast had me choked up as I walked to work this AM.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity there is a thing
called the “podvig” or “ascesis”. Among Arab Christians the same word
is “Jihad”. It is the struggle to, as St Paul says, “work out our
salvation in fear and trembling” and to “run the race set before us”.

The more I listened to your discussion with Phil Cousineau the more I
let go of my cynicism and saw the Olympics as an icon of spiritual
struggle. In the Eastern world spiritual is *not* in opposition to the
physical – we are all one person – spirit, body and mind. All three
need to be involved in that struggle. And there I had a learning about
my own body, my own ascesis.

This is Lent for Christians, East and West. We tend to make it petty by
giving up chocolate or the internet. But it is a time to struggle. By
the time you got to Derek Redmond my eyes were more than moist. Hearing
the crowds cheering him on, I thought again of the scriptures telling us
we are surrounded in our struggles by “a great cloud of witnesses”
cheering us on. None of us are alone.

Thanks, Mary, for reminding me it’s not just my food intake that is the
issue – but actually *working* on my body, my process.

Oddly enough, I wrote it before I knew what the Bible Readings were for today.

Watch Derek Redmond cross the line.

Run the Race Set before us.
The Saints Cheer us on.

The Sunday of Orthodoxy: when we celebrate these glorious icons and the presence of the Saints around us. Looking down on us – cheering us on.

Watch Derek again. Look at the crowd.

That’s us.

That’s them.

And Derek’s Dad? Who, in your life, is Derek’s Dad?

I received an email and a phone call this weekend from two friends and Brothers on this race. They didn’t know why the Spirit was having them call… but they reached out. I’m feeling a bit better now.

Let us run the race before us: we’re not alone.