My name is Spencer Liechty and I am a junior on the cross country and track teams at Xavier. I got involved with Athletes in Action on campus my freshman year and over the years have become more and more involved. It’s been one of my favorite things about my experience at Xavier and been so beneficial for my
personal walk with Christ. I want to tell you about an AIA camp I attended this summer. It was specifically designed for distance runners like myself and its mission is to develop collegiate distance runners to excel in competitive running and Christian living. Essentially it aims to integrate God into our running lives much like AIA combines faith and athletics, the two things I’m most passionate about in life.

As collegiate athletes, we are forced to put a lot into our sports. Literally every action I take during the course of the day relates in some way to running. It’s easy to get caught up in this lifestyle and let our athletics become an idol. At this camp, I was really made aware of how much running controlled my life and how I needed to keep God more at the center. It’s amazing to think about how different our lives would be if instead of every action relating to running, school, or work, we could instead have every action revolve around Christ.

Now my way of thinking has changed. I praise God for every opportunity I get to run and my purpose for running is for Christ, not worldly things. I want to use the ability God has given me for his glory which includes sharing what I’ve learned with others on my team and ministering to them. I’m also seriously considering going on an AIA mission after gradation to continue using running to serve God and help others in their faith. It’s obviously not always an easy task to focus on God while running instead of the worldly things like times, places, and winning, but I definitely have a new outlook on my athletic life after this experience and I am striving to put what’s most important in the right perspective. I feel truly blessed to have gone on such an amazing trip and praise God for the Altitude Project having such a great impact on my life.