The Playlist

In the past, I have simply loaded up the ipod with a selection of my favorite tunes, hit shuffle, and let fate decide what inspired me for that particular race. This time I have strategically compiled a playlist to get me to the finish line in under four hours.

To start is a short set of mood music to begin this journey of 26.2 miles, as the sun rises over Lake Michigan. Their goal is simply to heighten the visceral experience of the moment.

From there I jump into the first of three podcasts by Erwin McManus. They are from a series he did at Mosaic in 2005 called Beyond Ordinary. I haven’t listened to them since they came out, but I saved them on my computer for a reason, and their titles seem to fall in line with what I’ll need that day.

Next up is a short worship set. I’ve always had spiritual experiences during my runs, and this is sort of a built-in homage to the One that has seen me to this point.

I follow that with the second podcast, after which I should have just finished the first half of the marathon.

The next 26 minutes are filled with inspirational tunes to move me through the next few miles and get my head focused on what’s to come.

Then I settle in with my third and final podcast, titled Extraordinary Strength. The plan is to allow this message to consume my mind for the next 45 minutes and to regulate my pace.

Once that is through I should be at the 20 mile mark and on to a set of tunes that pump me up every single time they come through my headphones. I expect an out of body experience sometime during this next six miles. I would be ecstatic if I finished two minutes into the last song. I can envision running the last .2 miles during the build for that song as if I’ve done it already (my hands are sweating and my breathing just intensified while listening to it again).

So, without further ado…

The Official 2011 Bayshore Marathon Playlist

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2
The Promise – When In Rome
Call To Arms – Angels & Airwaves

Extraordinary Ambition – Erwin McManus (39:16)

The Fight – Mutemath
Song of Hope – Robbie Seay Band
Risk – Ten Shekel Shirt
Heavenly Father – Fu-Schnickens

Extraordinary Courage – Erwin McManus (41:48)

More Than Fine – Switchfoot
Rise Above This – Seether
Own It – The Black Eyed Peas
Higher Baby – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Fuego – Bomba Estéreo
Jamaican Bobsledding Chant – Worl-A-Girl
Dynamite – Taio Cruz

Extraordinary Strength – Erwin McManus (45:29)

For The People – Paper Tongues
Ride To California – Paper Tongues
Get Higher – Paper Tongues
Let’s Go All The Way – Sly Fox
The Adventure – Angels & Airwaves
A Little’s Enough – Angels & Airwaves
The Gift – Angels & Airwaves
Everything’s Magic – Angels & Airwaves
Love Like Rockets – Angels & Airwaves
Sirens – Angels & Airwaves
Secret Crowds – Angels & Airwaves
True Love – Angels & Airwaves

Filed under: Music, Running

Shifting Paradigms

Paradigm Shift – A radical change in underlying beliefs or theory.

I remember it like it was yesterday. We were on a family road trip sometime in the early 90′s, and had just finished eating lunch at Cracker Barrel, a family favorite during such trips. To help get me through the next few hours on the road I picked up a book-on-tape from their vast selection. This time I decided to venture from my usual John Grisham or Stephen King novel, and selected something that had to do with business. (I was in high school at the time, and I still had my mind set on going to business school for the sole reason of eventually walking around in suits and driving a Mercedes. It only took me four years of college to realize these weren’t worthwhile life goals.)

So we checked out, made one more trip to the bathroom, and loaded back into the van. I immediately popped that cassette tape into my Walkman and slapped on my headphones. As we merged back into traffic, the book began by talking about paradigm shifts, and I was immediately captivated.

Paradigms are generally defined as the way we see the world, not through visual sight but through our perceptions, understanding, and interpreting. They are like maps and each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are (or realities) and maps of the way things should be (or values). We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. Paradigm shifts create change moving us from one way of seeing the world to another.

“We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behavior flows.” –Stephen Covey

So needless to say, I have always had a soft spot for paradigms, and for their shifting possibilities. In my life I have encountered quite a few, but easily one of the biggest has been in the area of religion/theology.

I grew up as the first in my family to go to church. A neighbor took me to sunday school every week. Eventually my mother would join us, and then my father, who ended up leaving the military to attend seminary and eventually become a full time pastor. Our flavor of choice was the Church of Christ. The denomination of non-demominationals. In the first twenty-nine years of my life I didn’t do very much questioning when it came to religion. I always figured that my parents had done the legwork for me.

Then sometime in 2004 that started to change for me, with the doors fully flying off that bus in 2005. During that period I read a book called A New Way To Be Human that helped shape my thoughts to this day. Here’s a quote from that book that I believe aided in shifting my paradigm:

“The Bible is far from exhaustive with respect to the knowledge of God. It does not reveal with radical clarity everything there is to know about God, or all that ever was, is, or will be with respect to what is seen or unseen.” —Charlie Peacock, New Way to be Human

Chew on that for a minute, or a lifetime.

It is this type of thinking that allows me to read books like Love Wins by Rob Bell and know exactly where he is coming from. It is this type of thinking that allows me to give credence to the idea that God just might have used evolution in the creation of our world. And it is that type of thinking that now gives me pause when I previously would have rushed to judgement to defend my own personal religious dogma.

I now embrace the mystery that is our Creator,
that is our beginning,
that is our life,
that is our afterlife.

I’ve come to terms with the knowledge that God is God, and I am not. I am well aware that there are absolutes that exist, but I believe that too many Christians talk about things with way more certainty than they should. And I think that perspective does more harm than it does good.

As Rob Bell famously once said, “God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right?”

Filed under: Paradigms, Religion, Rob Bell, Theology