Mutuality & Love for Humanity Along the Journey – June 26, 2022
Today I am tired and sore. Yesterday I enjoyed tackling a Tough Mudder 5k with a team of ten other friends. Actually, I enjoyed tackling the Tough Mudder with ten friends and hundreds of complete strangers. If you have never participated in a race like this, it is basically a three mile (they also have a 15k) race through difficult terrain with 13 obstacles mixed in along the way, and yes, a great deal of mud. This was my second Tough Mudder, but the last time I participated was October of 2019. The world is different today. Yesterday I had a keen sense of observation and insight, noticing things that I missed a few years ago. My focus was different, my purpose more clear, and at times, I was caught off guard by the beauty of certain moments. As I reflect on the day, the impressions are more ingrained, and the lessons learned have far-reaching and consequential value. Life is a little bit like a Tough Mudder.
To begin, I think it is fair to say that we assembled a rather eclectic team. To be clear, I never saw this as a bad thing, only surprising and exciting. Tab and I wanted to take part so we threw it out on social media for anyone to join us. To our amazement, people began expressing interest. Many commented that they had always wanted to do something like this, but never had a group with which to participate. It was refreshing to put together an arrangement of people we could not have anticipated. People with different abilities and experiences were willing to unite, working together for a common purpose. Indeed, it seems, life is a little bit like a Tough Mudder.
The camaraderie amongst our team was strong on race day and we all enthusiastically jumped right in as the whistle blew. As we navigated the course, our team began encouraging one another, helping each other over obstacles, out of the mud, lending a hand, providing a knee, giving a lift, a push, a pull, whatever was needed to help each other overcome. No one was ever left behind. Sometimes we ran, sometimes we walked. We checked on each other, laughed together, gave advice, celebrated each others success, smiled a lot, and did it all together. I wish life was a little more like a Tough Mudder.
The most beautiful thing, however, is that we also did this with all of the other complete strangers on the course. We didn’t ride to the event together. We didn’t know each others background. We didn’t even know their names. No sense of their political ideology, religious affiliation, or socioeconomic status. Sex, race, educational attainment, career affiliation, none of it mattered on the course. We were fellow Tough Mudder participants, and we readily grasped hands to pull each other out of the mud, to give a boost over an obstacle, to encourage one another on towards the next obstacle. We stayed behind to help other groups, we encouraged those that didn’t succeed, we celebrated those that did. We let others go first, and we let others literally step on us so they could move ahead. Whew. It was muddy, but it was beautiful. Can’t life be a little bit more like a Tough Mudder?
In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” I have always loved those words. This was an obvious call to root out injustice anywhere it is seen, not solely when it impacts me. It also illuminates the interconnected nature of humanity, and how we are all impacted by the progress of others. Consequently, our corporate destiny is rooted in the thriving of all individual parties. This was blatantly evident on the course. We needed each other and could not have completed certain obstacles without the help of others – friends and strangers alike. Whatever affected one directly, affected us all indirectly, and life is like that as well.
After the race, we quickly showered and changed and drove to a celebration of life for my friend John. We were able to visit with his family and some of our friends from an old neighborhood (pic below). During our conversation, someone pointed out that our old neighborhood was similar to that “inescapable network of mutuality” as we lived our lives and raised our kids together on our cul-de-sac. We were different in many ways, but we were all doing our best as we navigated raising children, job challenges and changes, family issues, health concerns, finances, joys, and fears. What impacted one, impacted all. We did our best to pull each other out of the mud, over the obstacle, and on toward the finish. Life should always be like a Tough Mudder.
As I contemplate my Tough Mudder experience and consider the applications in an often contentious and polarized world, I am compelled and convinced to choose the way of love. In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul reminds us that love is the greatest, it never fails, and if we don’t love, we are nothing and we gain nothing. Further, he reminds us that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. At risk of oversimplifying, there was a great deal of love on the Tough Mudder course. Now only if we can make life a little more like that.
There was no trophy to be had, but we all finished the race. There was no pedestal to recognize ordinal accomplishments of individuals, but we were all winners. Since our citizenship is in heaven, we are called to reflect His love in the world by living differently according to His kingdom values. May God give us the grace to love one another, friend and stranger alike, and in so doing, make this life a little bit more like a Tough Mudder!
In Him,
Andy
An Alien Journey 