Let me illustrate this from track. In track, there are four paces:
rest
sprint
run
walk.
These are the variable speeds available based on a person's lung, spirit, breath, or wind capacity. Every public school track coach knows these are different. I hope everyone can agree on these. My coaches never failed in communicating this clearly. Walking was unacceptable for the mile run, for one example!
Let me also illustrate from the Bible, In Isaiah, there are four paces:
renew
fly
run
walk.
These are the variable speeds available for those who bind themselves to the LORD (Yahweh). Every private school should teach these paces to all their students. I hope all Christians (and Jews) can agree on these. When a situation calls for a sprint, I hope no Christian (and Jew), thinks a run or trotting pace will do!
This is all pretty straightforward, but there is still a problem. The problem is that people think walking is restful like renewals or rest itself is. That is a major mistake.
Let me explain what I mean. Moving from renew and rest pace to walk pace, each pace is increasingly more restless. So here is how I rank each pace in terms of its level of rest:
renew/rest - most restful
sprint - more restful
run - less restful
walk - least restful.
To understand this, you need to recall something that goes beyond track athletes. You have to think in terms of location and time. In everyday life, people have a destination and a time for arrival. In track, you have for a destination of at least three places, the fenced in area around the track, the starting line, and the finish line.
Think of young family members here. Children don't get too restless about shorter distances or shorter time frames. They get restless about longer distances and longer time frames. Don't you recall this question on the way to Grandma's house: "Are we there yet?" This grows out their increasing restlessness on every stop along the way. They won't rest till they get to Grandma's house unless you can entertain them, like my parents when I was growing up and help the children lose track of time. Everyone should get this.
In track, it is the same way, except now you are no longer dealing with the youngest family members, but with young people who are now functioning out of their first stages of being an adult. Still the lesson does not change - the slower the pace, the greater the restlessness.
The first pace is that of rest. Once at the track and settled on a location, a good track coach instructs all competitors to take it easy and to rest. He or she then tells each individual to listen for the 1st through 3rd calls for their races. These 3 calls are each fore-warnings to report to the area of competition and to break off from resting with the team is at place where they are resting. Rest, though, is the first state or pace that track athletes need to master. During full rest there is no distance or time between start and finish. You rest where and when you are resting with your teammates. They may not move an inch and settle in under a second. Their starting and finishing line overlap one another. Rest is living in the here and now fully.
The second pace is that of the sprinters. They are generally those who run races that can be finished in a minute or less. This varies, of course, according to conditioning. Also the separation between starting and finishing lines are 50 meters (I'm not sure what has replaced the 60 yard run from an earlier era?), 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. These locations are relatively close to each other and like I said before can be sprinted in under a minute. With that short distance between lines and the short time to run, the sprinter's restlessness until they have reached the finish line is relatively short. Be smart here. You must separate fear or nerves due to a lack of confidence from restlessness. Once the runner eclipses the finish line, they have put that race to rest. The sprinter flys a short distance for a short time to reach the here and now of the finish line.
The third pace is that of the runners. These races all take over a minute. There is the 800 meters, 1600 meters, 3200 meters, and 4800 meters (3 mile) runs. In these instances, the races vary from around 2 minutes long up to quarter of an hour. The 3 mile race on the high school level is not part of a track meet like in college. It is instead the distance for cross country racing. Runners have to set a reasonable pace for their distance and they have to be more patient than a sprinter because they have to run for a longer time. As an experienced runner and coach, I can tell you that one of the reasons sprinters don't want to e distance runners is because they don't like how long the race takes. As a former distance runner, I can tell you that the length of the race is the roughest part. You don't get to rest until you cross the finish line! A runner runs for a little longer distance and time. It can test how well you handle a long restless state. For me, the two most restful moments were the start and the finish. Let's end the wait.
Finally, the fourth pace is that of the walkers. These races all take place at the college level and higher. I happen to be at the UCLA Summer Olympic Festival in the early nineties where the American record for race walking was set by the gentleman I happened to visit with before his run. I also had one of my former teammates from high school, Roger Kordus, go on and become a race walker in college. That is my only direct connection to these races. For me, this is where the tortoise and the hare story makes some sense. It is "slower" than the sprint and run, but not "slow" and here "steady" is important. The thing is that these races can become tedious and people can become restless and leave before the race is over!
The problem in our day is that people mistakenly associate restlessness mostly with sprinting rather than walking. I think there is a failure to communicate and understand the restlessness of a sprinter in that case. The restlessness is building due to a delay in a finish, and not due to a fast finish. Also there is a restlessness created by a tension between one person who can do something fast and someone who is less fast. Let's clarify things more at this point. Here is how I see it:
renewing is not restless
sprinting is restless for a short time
running is restless for a little longer time
walking is restless for the longest time among the four.
In each instance, restlessness is there until the final destination and the end time are reached. There is no tension, when you are already here. There is the height of tension, when we are not there yet. Don't forget the elementary here - remember the kids!
I am at a place of rest in my life. It is only when I walk out the the door and meet people who still haven't found what they are looking for that I run into restlessness! Ah, the satisfaction of having already finished finding what I was previously looking for! Ah, the satisfaction of having finished this post also.
Be healthy and live life to its fullest,
Jon
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