F3 Knoxville

Author: Kick-Flip

Doubt It

THE SCENE:   60 and calm.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Cherry pickers
  • Moroccan nightclub
  • Seal jacks
  • Mosey to the recruitment center

THA THANG:

9 stations set out.  Each station has an exercise and a “PAR” number of reps.  Every 50 seconds, a whistle will sound.  Rotate to the next station and perform as many reps as possible.  Keep track of your score against the PAR.  The timer never stops – the faster you move to the next station and start, the more time you’ll have to get your reps in.  Hustle!

Front 9 exercises were:

CMU Split Squat (Left) PAR:  15
CMU Split Squat (Right) PAR:  15
Farmer Carry Stair Climb (up and down) PAR:  8
Pull-ups PAR:  5
Squat Slam PAR:  10
CMU Swing PAR:  20
Tire Flip PAR:  10
Bench press PAR:  25
CMU Curls PAR:  25

30 second rest then on to the Back 9

Exercises were:

Single-Arm Thruster (Left) PAR:  10
Single-Arm Thruster (Right) PAR:  10
Stack Squat PAR:  20
Chin-ups PAR:  5
Chest Throw (2 space min) PAR:  10
Blockee PAR:  5
Tire Hit PAR:  25
Weighted step up PAR:  20
Overhead Triceps Extension PAR:  25

What was your score?

Quick mosey around the building

Now REPEAT THE WHOLE THING AGAIN (backwards) – beat your score from the first time!

MARY:

No time!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

7 men

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
When I was 10 years old, I had my mind blown.  It was a Saturday night, and my family was at the historic Fox Theater in St. Louis, MO.  We were there to see one of my childhood idols, David Copperfield.  We sat about 30 rows back in the theater and watched Copperfield perform this illusion… He parades around the stage to dramatic music…two beautiful assistants hold a sheet in front of him…and when the sheet drops, the dude is gone!  A moment later – it couldn’t have been more than 5 seconds – he shows up right behind me, sitting on a Harley Davidson in the middle of the audience.  DUDE!  Mind blown!

It was on April 8th thirty-eight years ago that David Copperfield performed what has been called the greatest illusion of all time.  In front of a live audience on Ellis Island, he made the Statue of Liberty disappear! (Then reappear!)  When I watched that illusion on a recording, despite my awesome personal experience with David Copperfield – and despite the awestruck reactions of the live witnesses on Ellis Island, I remember thinking as a boy, “I doubt it.  I doubt he actually made the Statue Disappear”.

I started thinking about “doubt” on Sunday.  At our breakfast table, I was reading the Easter story to my kids.  Mary and Mary find the tomb empty, and an angel instructs them, “tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee”.  The disciples go and scripture records the encounter between them and Jesus, “When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted” (Mathew 28:17).  Doubted?  The disciples, who had spent years with Jesus and seen countless miracles, they doubted?

What does Jesus think about those who doubt him?  Is he offended?  Is he petty?  Does he kick doubters off the team and exclude them from his mission?  We can read about Jesus imploring his followers not to doubt – but when they inevitably do, what then?

Let’s look at an earlier time when Jesus was in Galilee.  In Mathew 11, we read that John the Baptist was in prison.  John sends his disciples to confront Jesus and ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”  John the Baptist…Jesus’ cousin…the man who baptized Jesus…who heard the voice of God and saw the Spirit descend from heaven and land on Jesus…he had doubts.  You’d think if Jesus was going to be incredulous with anyone for doubting him, it would be John.  But how does Jesus react?  Immediately after being confronted with John’s doubt, he says “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist” (Mathew 11:11).  There is no hint of pettiness.  There is no condemnation for skepticism.  Quite the opposite, Jesus expresses his adoration for John after being publicly doubted by him. 

Reverend Henry Drummond said, “Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is can’t believe. Unbelief is won’t believe. Doubt is honesty. Unbelief is obstinacy.  Doubt is looking for light. Unbelief is content with darkness.”  Doubt is looking for light…  Healthy doubt can be a catalyst to the growth of your faith.  It has been called “the incentive to truth” and the “twin brother of faith” (hat tips Hosea Ballou and Kahlil Gibran).  It can be a motive to explore your faith and to quarry for truth when you are unsatisfied with superficial answers.  The foundations and truths of our faith WILL hold up to my doubts and your doubts.  Healthy doubt can ultimately lead you to a stronger and deeper faith.

“Sometimes doubting is not a lack of faith, but an expression of it. Sometimes to doubt is to merely insist that God be taken seriously not frivolously, to insist that our faith is placed in and upheld by something other than seeming conjuring tricks.” – Mark Buchanan (Jinxy?! 😊)

Back to the doubting disciples – what happens to them?  As they are doubting him, Jesus assigns them the Great Commission, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” and promises them, “I am with you always, to the end of the age”.  No condemnation.  You’re still part of the team.  You’re still part of God’s plan.

Thank you, God, for not condemning us because our doubt.  Help us use that doubt as a springboard to explore the depths of your heart.  Increase our faith!

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for Snagg, Biohack, and Colonel.

Good to have Wanderer and Miss Fire out for some heavy PT!

5:30 am is too early for all that mental math!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Be Ruthless

THE SCENE:   High 50s and calm.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • LBAC F/B
  • Seal jacks
  • Projectivator
  • Squat baby pumps
  • Merkin baby pumps
  • Hillbilly mountain climbers

THA THANG:

Mosey to the guardrail.

  • 20 dips + 15 derkins + 10 split squats left. Bear crawl to the curb, crawl bear back.
  • 20 dips + 15 derkins + 10 split squats right. Bear crawl to the curb, crawl bear back.

Mosey to Jucomanjaro.  Grab a block.

First, do all exercises and run to Cone 1 and back.

Each successive round, drop the highest rep exercise – and run one cone farther

Exercises were;

  • 40 Tricep extensions
  • 35 Goblet squats
  • 30 Curls
  • 25 Rows
  • 20 Derkins
  • 15 Thrusters
  • 10 CMU swings
  • 5 Blockees

So…

Round 1:  40 + 35 + 30 + 25 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 5 + Run to Cone 1

Round 2:  35 + 30 + 25 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 5 + Run to Cone 2

Etc…

Round 8:  5 burpee jumpovers + Run to Cone 8

 

MARY:

Sprints – winner leads 10-ct of core exercise

Jail break!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

15 of the best men that I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
What is something baby Moses and baby Jesus had in common?  In two incidents separated by more than a thousand years, they each survived the mass murder of their contemporaries.  In both cases, a paranoid monarch degreed shortly after their birth that all male babies be slaughtered.  Those in power were fearful of losing that power.  Pharaoh saw that the Israelites were growing in number and decided to cull their population to preserve his reign.  Likewise, after being told that a mighty king had just been born but not yet identified, Herod had all the baby boys killed to protect his throne.

Their strategy was coldblooded and cruel…  Why did they have babies killed?  Because they knew this to be true – that if you can kill something in its infancy, then it never grows to maturity.  It is far easier to snuff something out when it is tiny, because it is more vulnerable.  If that ruthless tactic can be used for evil, then it can be used for good.  Brothers, I want us to steal this strategy away from our enemy and use it to fight our battles.  Every day, we war against sin and temptation.  But what if we could kill them as babies, so that they never grow up to destroy us?   

In Genesis chapter 4, we find Adam and Eve’s sons after they have each made sacrifices to God.  When God favors Abel’s offering instead of his, Cain becomes envious and bloodthirsty.  God meets him in that moment and says, “…watch out, because sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on you! You must master it before it masters you.” (Genesis 4:7, The Voice translation).  That imagery of sin… crouching…pouncing…makes me think of a lion getting low in the grass so that his prey either does not see him – or if they do, they think he is just a harmless little thing.  Pounce, you’re dead.

Is there baby sin crouching in your life?  So small that you cannot see it unless you’re really looking… Whimsically tiny and apparently harmless… A little anger?  A little jealousy?  A little lust?  A little arrogance?  Each of these, when it is all grown up, can bring RUIN to a man.  Be ruthless and KILL that vulnerable baby sin before it grows up and is far harder to kill.

One example from my life:  During a season, I was consumed by a lust for images of fake women.  Mercifully, I’m not fighting that particular battle this week, this month, this year… But here’s something that I’ve just recently noticed.  Every time I open Facebook on my phone, I see fitness videos and pictures.  Three times out of four there’s a woman working out in see-through yoga pants, or a sports bra, or – I kid you not – when I was preparing for this, I opened Facebook and the very first video that popped up was a woman working out in a thong bikini (what kind of person works out in a thong?!).  Baby lust.  Baby sin.  Facebook, “stop showing me crap from this group…”.  It’s such a ridiculous little thing – but I had to snuff it out before that baby lust grew up and enslaved me (again).

God, help me to hate all sin in my life with a righteous and passionate hatred.

Search out the baby sin in your life.  While it is little and vulnerable, KILL IT.  

“You must master it before it masters you.”  Genesis 4:7

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for JJ’s family, for Josh’s family, and for Andrew’s family.

Hat tip to Levi Lusko

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Little Thing

THE SCENE:   49 and clear.  Super!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Overhead clap
  • Cherry picker
  • Projectivator
  • Walkout merkins
  • Mountain Climber climber
  • Merkin pumps 4-ct
  • Lunge squat lunge squat

THA THANG:

Mosey to the Friendship Bell

  • 10 Bench sideways jumpovers
  • 10 chest tap irkins
  • 10 bulgarian split squats
  • Repeat

Mosey to K-25’s backside

  • 5 burpees
  • Bear crawl up, run down the other side
  • 10 jump squat 180s
  • Run up, crawl bear down the other side
  • Repeat

 Mosey to another hill

  • 5 merkin pumps 4-ct
  • Side shuffle up (switch halfway)
  • 5 Lunge squat lunge squat
  • Run down
  • Repeat

 Mosey to yet another hill

  • 10 mountain climbers
  • Bernie up
  • 5x Walkout + 3 merkins
  • Run down
  • Repeat

 Mosey to the amphitheater steps

  • 10 bobby hurleys
  • Run down
  • 10 derkins on the rail
  • Run up
  • Repeat

Mosey to the pool wall

  • Wurpees x 10

MARY:

30 sec Al Gore
30 squats
Sprint
Repeat

30 sec plank
30 merkins
LBCs
Repeat

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

8

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The idea for this Word came from Rocket.  Last week, he and I were talking about his knee that he injured in July.  I remarked how he hustled so hard the workout before – racing back to the flag against Mathlete.  I said, “Man, your knee seems to be so much better!”.  Rocket responded, “Well, I’m having just a little bit of pain.  I’m thinking about going to see someone about it – to fix it while it’s little, so that it doesn’t turn into a big deal”.

That’s the Word that I want to think about; Fix it while it’s little, so that it doesn’t turn into a big deal.

Do you have anything in your life that is just a little askew?  A little bad habit?  A little sin?  Something that is not helping you accelerate to be the man you want to be?  Something tiny that you can correct before it becomes a big deal?

  • A little judgmental?
  • A little arrogance?
  • A little jealousy?
  • A little anger?
  • A little lust?

We need to saw these things off while they are little – before they become a big deal.  Because each of these things, when they become full grown – can ruin a man. 

One of the earliest recorded conversations between man and God is in Genesis 4.  Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Able, have each made sacrifices to God, but Cain’s is half-hearted.  He becomes envious when God favors his brother’s offering instead of his.  In that heated moment, when Cain is seeing red, God speaks to him and says, “…if you do not do what is right, watch out, because sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on you! You must master it before it masters you.” (Genesis 4:7, The Voice translation)

Think about that imagery of sin…crouching, then pouncing.  It makes me think of a lion getting low in the grass so that his prey either does not see him – or if they do, they think he is just a harmless little thing.  Then pounce, the lion is there!

Is there a particular sin in crouching your life?  Either so small that you don’t see it for what it is – or that you think it is just a harmless little thing?  Let’s get the little things in our life under control and fix it while it’s little, so that it doesn’t turn into a big deal”.

“You must master it before it masters you.”  Genesis 4:7

MOLESKIN:

Rejoicing and mourning.  Rejoiced for the birth of Slappy’s BFF’s son.  Mourning the loss of Biohack’s MIL.  Prayers for those families.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Familiarity Breeds….

THE SCENE:   35 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH
Moroccan Nightclub
Cherry Picker
Abe Vigoda
Tempo Squat
Mountain Climber
Merkins

THA THANG:

Mosey to the library parking lot.

Five Lines 50’ apart.  Starting at Line 1, perform the exercise, then rifle carry to the next Line.  Repeat to the end.

Line 1:  Curl press
Line 2:  CMU Swings
Line 3:  Goblet Squat
Line 4:  Alpos
Line 5:  Thrusters

Round 1:  10 reps
Round 2:  15 reps

 

Pyramid Partner Run

P1:  Bernie back, sprint forward
P2: Exercise

  • 50        Burpee Jumpovers
  • 100      Sumo deadlifts
  • 150      Al Gore Curls
  • 200      Heavy LBCs
  • 150      Single-Arm Rows
  • 100      Overhead Squats
  • 50        Blockees

CMUs on the Benches;

  • CMU pullovers x 20
  • CMU plank rows L x 10
  • CMU step-ups L x 10
  • CMU plank rows R x 10
  • CMU step-ups R x 10

MARY:

  • Heavy freddy
  • Heavy Dolly
  • Heel taps
  • Mosey back with a jail break 

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

8 men, including Colonel from Johnson City and FNG Blind Date

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Romans 12:9 (NLT), “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.”

Last week, I ran across a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.  I don’t remember when or why, but I had tucked it into some notes that I keep – and while I was looking through those, I rediscovered the poem, “Those Who Love Us Best”.

It came at the perfect time.  It was a day before I left for Missouri to visit my parents for the weekend.  This poem reminded me of something my mother said to me when I was 16 – and was a self-absorbed, arrogant, ignorant, punk, idiot kid.  I don’t remember exactly what prompted by mother’s rebuke, but I do remember the discussion vividly – where I was sitting in the living room, the look on her face, my dog laying near my feet…  She says to me, “You treat everyone in the world better than you treat me…”.  She was spot-on.  She had me dead to rights.  She was absolutely right, and I knew that I was absolutely in the wrong.

Here is the poem that reminded me of that rebuke from more than 20 years ago

Those Who Love Us Best

There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found

While journeying east and west –

The only folks we really wound

Are those we love the best.

We flatter those we scarcely know,

We please the fleeting guest,

And deal full many a thoughtless blow

To those who love us best.

– Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

Why do we sometimes say things to our loved ones that we wouldn’t think about saying to a stranger?  Why is it that the tone of our voice can be sharper and the volume of our praise be softer?

You’ve heard the old adage “familiarity breeds contempt”… but when it comes to our closest loved ones, that should be nonsense!  When it comes to our family, our goal should be “Familiarity breeds intimacy.  Familiarity breeds comfort.  Familiarity breeds security, unguardedness, relief, and joy”. 

Let’s work in that direction.  Here are some tips;

  1. Watch your tone of voice. It is amazing the tone people use with loved ones, but wouldn’t think of using with co-workers or friends.
  2. Laugh.  Replace your irritation with laughter, and ask yourself, “Is it really worth getting angry?”
  3. Model what you would like to see happen in your family.
  4. Show gratitude every day.
  5. Give more than you take.
  6. Learn to become a better listener.
  7. Smile at your family members when they walk into the room
  8. Tell your family members you love them every day

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for Colonel, Repeat’s sister, Biohack’s family

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Check Your Hearing

THE SCENE:  35 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

Moroccan Nightclub
Overhead Claps
Tempo Squats
Up/Down Dog
Black snake to the back lot
Bernie the length of the lot
Lunge/broad jump/lunge the length of the lot

THA THANG:

Five Lines spaced ~50’ apart. 

  • Bear crawl to 1st line.  40 merkins.  Sprint to the 5th line and back to start.
  • Bear crawl to 2nd line.  30 merkins.  Sprint to the 5th line and back to start.
  • Bear crawl to 3rd line.  20 merkins.  Sprint to the 5th line and back to start.
  • Bear crawl to 4th line.  10 merkins.  Sprint back to start.

Lunge walk/mosey to the coupons

Diego

P1:  Up the steps – touch the wall – come back
P2: Exercise

100 – Uneven Merkins
150 – Overhead press
200 – Heavy LBC
250 – Curls
300 – Coupon Squat

Mosey to the benches – Bulgarian split squats x 20 each

Mosey home.

MARY:

PAX Choice with some Dolly, American hammer, heels to heaven, plank

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

9 + 5 Rushians

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Today is International Ear Care Day.  Last year’s theme for IECD was “Check Your Hearing” – and that’s what we are going to talk about this morning…checking our hearing…

What do you think about when we talk of “listening for the voice of God”?  What does that look like?  What does God’s voice sound like?  Should we expect an audible voice? A flash of lightning? A vision in the clouds?  I’d love to hear an audible voice – but I don’t expect it.  Instead, I think about hearing God’s voice when I “listen” with my heart and my spirit.

In the book of Jerimiah…starting in Chapter 7 the prophet is standing at the gate of a city and relaying God’s words to the occupants.  As he reminisces on the Israelites experience after they left Egypt, Jeremiah says (speaking from God’s perspective), “I have spoken to you time and again, but you wouldn’t listen and I have called you but you wouldn’t answer” (vs 13). Later (vs 24), “(I gave) them this command, ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you”.  Then, “but they harkened not, nor inclined their ear.”

The Hebrew word from this passage which we translate as “inclined” is natah.  Traced to its Semitic root, you find it is a musician’ term, used for the tightening of strings on an instrument to tune it.  The Hebrew word for “ear” is ‘azan, which means ear – but also in the Semitic, it is a term used for a musical instrument.  So, the idea of “inclining one’s ear” is really a word picture of tuning a musical instrument so that it is in harmony with other instruments.  “Hearing the voice of God” might be a matter of tuning the strings of your spirit or heart…so that you are in harmony with His mind and heart.

How do we tune our hearts?

By doing many of the things that we talk about in this circle!

  • Through prayer and guided meditation (hat tip Spotter, Pool Boy, Erector, others…) we commune with His Spirit and, over time, become more in harmony.
  • Through reading and studying scripture (hat tip Guardrail, Wanderer, others…) we learn about His character.
  • Through living obediently (hat tip Archie, Hound Dog, others…).  Because disobedience is a sure sign of living out of tune.

Check your hearing!  Maybe the way you come to know God’s will is by tuning your heart to be in harmony with His heart.  Work at this by prayer, mediation, studying scripture, and living in obedience.

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for Wanderer’s family as they grieve a loss and make plans to travel.

Prayers for Butterknife’s wife as she courageously steps out to look for employment that she is passionate about.

Borrowed most of this from a Word that I did back in October – apologies to Snaggletooth, who heard it twice!

Hat tip to Chaim Bentorah for inspiring this Word.  Read more about natah ‘azan.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: