Opposition In All Things

I think this video has some valuable insights into why people put themselves through the torture time and time again by running ultramarathons.  At some point it becomes spiritual.  The physical demands break down our bodies, and with the realization that our body is weak and frail the mind takes over and we realize that our minds are not weak and frail, if trained properly.  At that point we begin to realize that there is something bigger than ourselves, however you choose to label it.  The prolonged physical exertion strips away pretense, and our outward shell and allows introspection, questioning, and choices to be made with painful consequences.  At the end of the video the videographer (sp?) quotes Kaklil Gibran in his work "The Prophet"

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

Warning there is one swear word at the 3.42 mark of the video. 

 

 

This reminds me of what Lehi says in 2 Nephi Chapter 2 of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ
Verse 11"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things".  How are we to know the joy of accomplishment without the bitter sting of defeat?  Hence the need for opposition in all things.  Without opposition things just wouldn't make sense and this life would be meaningless.  Indeed as Lehi continues in verse 11"...If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad.  Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor courruption, nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
12. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherfore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation.  Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes. and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God."

No wonder when some people finish an exhausting physical task they say "I have never felt more alive". 

Time to get off the couch, set down the electronics.  Time to get out of the warm comfortable bed, get out the door, watch the sunrise on my early morning runs and feel the life and meaning that opposition brings.