[JCox]

As promised, I present the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox. (me)

Check back every other Wednesday for a new entry http://joshcox.thefinalsprint.com

Miracles: A Runner’s Case For Theism

"If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it." -Richard Dawkins, Evolutionary Biologist, Oxford scholar, author of "The God Delusion"

"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." CS Lewis, author, teacher, former atheist, and Oxford Scholar

“It is, of course, true that your success would be open to a variety of interpretations-perhaps such a miracle says nothing about the existence of God but demonstrates that clairvoyance is an actual power of the human mind and that you possess it in spades.” -Sam Harris, atheist evangelist and author, explaining away the miraculous

“Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature, and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable.” --Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist

I wasn’t planning on writing this. Honest. I pondered the idea during my long run with Dan [Browne] last week, again during my 15 miler over the weekend and a final time as I responded to nearly half of the 17 emails asking what I believed and why I believed it – but not even those served as this blog’s impetus. Nope. The tipping point came when I stumbled across the poem I wrote for my dad’s funeral nearly two years ago. I didn’t read it all; I couldn’t read it all – didn’t want to. Tears, therapeutic as they may be, don’t lend themselves to productivity; and because I am busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest I figured I would spare my wife the Dick Vermeil impression.

Quick summary:

November 10, 2005 - Dad diagnosed with cancer.
July 23, 2006 - Dad dies.

Things I learn:
1) Tomorrow is a lie.
2) Live out my beliefs.
3) Live each day like it’s my last.

But something happens - something always happens. I forget.

Don’t forget Josh; don’t ever forget. Remember what you said; remember what you wrote. It’s why I have Hebrew and Greek racing stripes down my ribs – my daily reminder of promises I made to God, promises I made to my dad.

I was going to post a new video here. Then I saw the poem – the poem I wrote.

“Many people say ‘live each day like your last’
But we don’t really do it, life moves too fast.”

–lines 396 and 397 of a 23 page poem called “Dad”

Reading the written word is the closest we’ll ever get to time travel. If the author is honest enough - brave enough - to be transparent it’s like being transported to the backside of a magical mirror. We get to peer unnoticed and undetected as we stare into the man’s soul.

So what if this served as my final blog here at The Final Sprint? What would I write? What would you write? What would the other bloggers write? It’s a proper thing to ponder. People die but the written word is immortal - just one of the many reasons I love composing compositions.

You have probably gathered from the above quotes that this blog addresses my theism. I am in the public eye, I have a big mouth, and as such, my theism is well known. If you’re a regular reader of my blogs, the first three anyway, you have gathered that my faith isn’t a subplot but rather a constant undercurrent running between the words, an underpinning beneath the lines.

Was I raised in Christian home?
Yes.

Was my education faith based?
Yes, all of it, 18 years worth.

Did I grow up in the church?
Yes – a great one, founded by Left Behind author, Tim LaHaye and now pastored by my brother in laws dad, Dr. David Jeremiah, a man who is the pastoral equivalent to a Moses Tanui.

Are these reasons why, as author Sam Harris suggests, I believe what I believe?
No, absolutely not.

Take away every great philosopher; apologist, and theologian - I can see Sam smiling already - remove every tie wearing, Bible thumping, purple haired pastor preaching behind the pulpit. Get rid of - dare I say it? The Word of God itself and leave me with my own personal experience with the Creator and you will find that I believe what I believe because I have experienced Him in real, tangible ways – not because I was born in the US, not because I watched flannel camels and Mother Mary’s be propped on flannel boards in Sunday school, and certainly not because I was brainwashed as a child. (Concerned Christians of America – save the emails, the disappearing pastors and Bibles was just a hypothetical – I love Jesus, that’s why I’m writing). As Lewis said, my heart cannot rejoice in something my mind rejects – and this holds true for my belief in a deity.

So I offer you, in the next series of blogs: A Runner’s Case for Theism. Not from a historic, archaeological, or skeptics point of view; if you want that click on over to Amazon and buy former Chicago Tribune legal editor, Lee Strobel’s “Case For Christ.” I’m not going to discuss moral law, atonement, or explain how the band “Sixpence None the Richer” got their name, for that you can read CS Lewis’s “Mere Christianity.” I won’t be exploring human history, or explaining why slavery was an accepted Biblical practice – for that you can read GK Chesterton’s “Everlasting Man” - the pivotal literary work in bringing, the previously mentioned, Jack Lewis back to the faith – (along with the council of his good friends and fellow scholars, JRR Tolkien and Hugo Dyson). Rather, I offer something uniquely my own - my own personal account of real, honest to goodness, miracles. And since this is a running site I’ll do my best to limit the miracles I mention to running – I have two really good ones, and some others that will segue to finally responding to Jodi’s comment on the Ad Finem blog.

To all the nonbelievers out there - never fear; I’m not trying to convince you of anything. If someone comes to live their life for someone they can’t see, that, my friends, is a miracle and I can’t perform those. God can, I can’t.

I guess it goes without saying that these accounts already happened, they are in fact history and history can’t be proven by the standards of scientific empiricism. History relies on the testimony of man, when weighing its veracity the question is, and always has been, “How reliable is the testimony’s source?”

Professor Digory Kirke put it best while addressing Peter and Susan after Lucy found Narnia in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. “There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”

The Trilemma hidden in fiction - so beautiful I could cry. With that said, let’s jump right in.

Take a look at the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and check out the miracles that Christ performed. Every last one was to solve a problem. He never did anything to simply flex His God powers. A shortage of wine at a wedding – no problem, the blind man – let me rub some mud on his eyes, the lame – “pick up your mat and walk,” the lepper – he’s whole again, a storm in the sea – “be still.” Time and time again Christ solves a problem and comes through with a miracle.

This day was no different. I encountered a problem and I experienced a miracle. My testimony is all the proof this story has, that and two people whose names I don’t know. The following is my account of what happened on a scorching hot July day in southern California.

Continue reading here:

http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2008/04/j ... g-entry-6/




As always, thanks for reading. I appreciate the comments, questions, and most of all your friendship! Have a great weekend!

[Sly Fox]

Easily your best work yet. You have a gift for writing, Josh. I am actually going to share this with a couple of friends of mine.

Thanks

[01LUGrad]

I finally got around to reading the blog. I can totally relate to the "I'm invicible" feeling. Don't get me wrong, I have never attempted a 30 miler without water, but I did go on a few of Dr. Horton's "fun" runs in the mountains. That's got to count for something.

I really miss running in Lynchburg. There was nothing like the feeling of running through the woods (lake trail, mostly) and feeling God's presence just by being out in his creation alone. My best moments of praising Him were on perfect fall days, overlooking the the Blue Ridge. It is hard to get into the same mindset on a run as I dodge cars and construction equiptment in Chesapeake.

Keep up the good work, Josh. I look forward to Wednesdays now.

[Baldspot]

You know something is good when you have to just sit there and ponder its words for a moment and the longer your go the deeper and more real your thoughts become. Thanks for sharing.