Category Archives: Life

Regular Joe stuff

F3, Faith, Fitness

The Middle Mile

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It starts to hurt. Push through. You can do this.

Run your race, push your pace. Don’t let the crowd distract you from the goal.

The middle mile will make or break you. It doesn’t matter if it’s 5k or a marathon, the middle part is where the goal is achieved.

At the start the adrenaline propels you, at the end the finish line drags you in. But in the trudging of the middle miles you prove yourself.

So is life and this race we run on the route to the glorious end set before us.

Lord, please give us strength to endure to the end with that finish line in site, and it’s you we see waiting on the other side.

F3, Faith, Life

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” David Thoreau

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In Walden, Thoreau wrote the thought that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. The second half of this quote was added later, but it perfectly emphasizes the meaning that Thoreau expressed in his writing.

Today, this quote can be applied to any working individual who has not yet found their purpose. They are simply trudging to work and living for the paycheck, hoping for the weekend to arrive so that they can fill the void in their life with useless pleasures.

This is Sad Clown syndrome. It affects everyone, but men are especially afflicted by it because we take on a burden of self-reliance for family finances, success and happiness.

We struggle alone, locked up in our own minds trying to work out the issue of self-worth. Afraid to show weakness. Weakness, we believe, is not becoming of a man or a professional. So we struggle alone until the sadness and depression sets in.

Our song locked up in us, never sung and never heard. Hidden away because we are afraid it isn’t good enough or it won’t make us enough money. This should not be the case.

Men and women of God need to live knowing that we are not meant to do this life on our own. We must know that our purpose and fulfillment come from being about the Father’s business and He will help us through. Our song and joy come from the Lord. And so too our provisions come from the Lord.

When your secular career and your talents line up, and you work as unto the Lord, that’s when the feeling of fullfilment starts to come. Then use the experience you gain from your day job in service for the kingdom and complete the process.

When we step out of our everyday routine and use our talent for the purpose that has been placed in us it may seem unnatural at first. Yet the feeling of fulfillment will be so worth it.

Sing your song for the Lord and don’t hide it until you die. Maybe the money wasn’t the most important thing when a life is assessed at the end of the journey. Maybe just being what God made us to be is enough.

Faith, Fitness

Allowing Fear in the Face of Courage

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I know that sounds backwards. It’s meant to.

It’s meant for those moments when you are so motivated to step out and act out, but then you chicken out.

Like when that awesome song you love starts playing in your earbuds and you think you could just bust the most fantastic moves in the middle of the gym. But then real life comes into focus and you remember you are just not that coordinated.

Yeah…too many other examples to list. But what big life changing things have you missed out on by allowing fear in the face of a moment of courage. What God thing did you miss out on by quenching the spirit.

As we start taking ourself less seriously and understanding that what other people think doesn’t matter as much, we’ll get a lot more big things done. Because it is only God and His glory that will matter in the end.

Faith, Life

So much to say, but not a single word…

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Thoughts and prayers. Sen. Cory Booker says prayer after a tragic gun related terrorist attack is worthless. But I disagree. I think prayer and a focus on the redemptive power of Jesus Christ is the only actual solution to the problem of terrorism. But I have other thoughts too.

The shooting in El Paso is really staying with me in my thoughts and causing reflection in a more profound way.

I was born in El Paso, though I didn’t grow up there. I only lived there for maybe a few months. I am employed by a large retailer, but that’s just an additional weight on my thoughts.

The topic most prevalent in my thoughts is that these people were targeted because they are immigrants.

This terrorist targeted someone in my country because he is a racist. And I have many un-christlike thoughts about this terrorist that are not helpful to bring any resolution.

I wanted the terrorist dead too. I was hoping some armed citizen had pulled out their legal firearm and took that terrorist out. But it didn’t happen, and that’s not the “christian” way to think.

I wanted to see the cops roughing him up as they drug him out of his car. But it didn’t happen.

I was hoping they would put him in a jail cell with rather muscular and MMA trained people of color who would exact proper punishment upon his face. That probably won’t happen either.

But this is where I must remember that none of that will fix the problem of racism or hate.

Lord help us to love and forgive as we see examples of your love and forgiveness all around us. May we never compare our sins to another and think we are innocent. God has shown us grace and mercy.

Yet the earthly consequences of our actions are still required. And the terrorist who committed this crime in El Paso will hopefully get his, and vengeance is the Lord’s to serve.

F3, Faith, Life

Activate God’s Purpose for Your Life

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Have you found what you are good at? Do you know what you are not really good at?

Our gift or purpose may not be flashy. We just need to do it with excellence for the one who created us. We must stop draining energy on our self focused ambitions and activate the purpose God has for us.

Not everyone is equipped or purposed to be the pastor of the local church. But we are called to exercise our gifts for God’s glory.

I anticipate that some of my readers will think, “but I don’t know what ministry God wants me to be in”. Sigh! You use your gift wherever you see a need in your local church or community.

And while you are exercising and honing your gift, God will slowly start showing you were you need to be or go. Just be willing to move once you see the plan.

Like a master artist creating His work, God knows how each brush stroke will impact the final painting. As onlookers we may not even understand what He is painting until the last stroke is placed on the canvas of our life. And as our final breath passes from us let it be filled with gladness and not regret of a life without purpose.

I’m sorry!

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
Romans 12:4‭-‬13 NASB