F3 Knoxville

Author: Lillydipper

Repeat It ’til You Believe It

THE SCENE: Very cloudy, temp in high 60s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 15 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Imperial Walkers, 10 Windmills, Leg Stretches, Michael Phelps, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of Admin Bldg.  Do 20 Hello Dollies.

Next we will go from Cone to Cone along the road that semi-circles around the Admin Bldg.  We will do the following at each Cone:

  • Cone 1.  Do 20 Squat Jumps.  Then, Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2.  Do 20 Merkins. Then, Skip to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  Do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Then, Bear Crawl to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4.  Do 20 Star Jumps.  Then, Sprint to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5.  Do 20 Squats.  Then Lunge to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6.  Do 20 Bobby Hurleys.  Then run to Cone 7.
  • Cone 7.  Do 20 Dive Bombers, 30 Calf Raises, 40 LBC’s, 30 Bicycle Kicks, 20 Iron Mikes (2 count), 20 Shoulder Taps (2 Count), Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey to main roadway and approach Lyon’s Bend Gate.  Turn left on little road that is close to Power Bldg.  We will do split into teams of two and do Doras.  While partner runs to end of roadway, does one burpee and runs back the other partner does exercise.  Each team will complete the following exercises:

  • 100 Merkins
  • 100 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 100 American Hammers (2 count)
  • 300 Baby Crunches

Mosey to Area 51.  Then, we will run up hill to roadway where it turns toward Admin Bldg.  First arriving do Baby Crunches until everyone is there.

Mosey to Bat Feeder. Line up on street and sprint back to parking lot. Then go to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

James 1:17
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

For those of you who read the bible, have you noticed how many lines, particularly in the Psalms, are repeated again and again.  A fellow in my church, Britton Sharp, who does quite a bit of religious study, informed me that one reason why followers often repeated lines was that they felt they should repeat it until they believed it.  They recognized that humans, unlike God, are fickle creatures, subject to whim and inconsistency.  We may believe something one moment and change the next day.  For us humans, our beliefs, our faith, our love is subject to change.  This can particularly happen during difficult times.

Almost every parent has heard their children say at some time in their life, “I hate you.”  Good parents know that is not the case.  Their child may be upset and angry at them.  In that moment they may hate their parents.  But deep down they still love them.  They still need them.  And, over time, when they have had time to cool off or when things settle down, their faith and belief in their parent is restored.

As a therapist, I have often seen spouses say, “I no longer love my wife” or “I no longer love my husband.”  In some cases that is true.  But in most cases, if that very spouse whom they say they no longer love were to leave them, they would go nuts.  They would ache and yearn for the spouse to come back.

I am a Christian.  But my faith in God, unfortunately, can vary.  This is true for all Christians.  Look at Christ’s disciples.  When Christ was taken to be executed, all of his disciples ran, they lost faith.  Even Peter, who said he would never turn against Christ, denied him three times when he was being hung on the cross.  Knowing that our beliefs are subject to change, knowing the fickle creatures we are, I think it is a good idea to repeat verses again and again.  On some days we will believe them more than others.

I encourage you, this week, to find a bible verse and commit it to memory.  Say it again and again during your days of the week.  A bible verse I want to repeat this week is from Psalm 121:

 From where does my help come?
 My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

My belief in that verse will likely vary during the week.  But, the idea is to repeat it until I believe it.

MOLESKIN:
Prayer for Junk’s wife who is going for check up one year after cancer treatment. Prayer of praise for Emoji getting his CPA license today and for Pele who was able to workout today after injuring his knee on Monday at softball.

Puddles Galore

THE SCENE: Raining, temp in 60s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Mosey to Pavilion because it is raining by golly.  20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 15 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward.

Next, do 20 Picnic Table Pullups and then run around around the Pavilion.  Next do 20 Bench Dips and then run around the Pavilion.  Rinse and Repeat.

Why heck, it’s still raining, let’s get wet.  Mosey down ball field sidewalk to Caribbean parking lot and to the southwestern side of the parking lot.  We will run in a candy cane motion stopping at each island to do the listed exercise.  Those getting to the end of the candy cane sweep all men back to the start.  Then do the same with the next exercise.  These are the exercises:

  • 10 Merkins
  • 10 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 20 Little Baby Crunches

Next, we mosey on park roadway to the old southern ball field parking lot.  We will start on the southern curb and do suicide, returning back to curb from each parking lot light and northern curb.  The run to the first curb is always a Bernie Sanders while all the other running is a sprint.

Next we mosey to the park perimeter trail just off the pavilion by the old south ball fields.  We will do nickel dime quarter doing the following exercises:

  • Dive Bomber
  • Squat Jump

Next we do double quarters (run 5 lights then do 25 of exercise, then rinse and repeat) with the following exercises:

  • Toe touches
  • Bobby Hurleys

We stop where perimeter trail meets serpentine sidewalk.  We next run on serpentine sidewalk for four lights and lunge for one light until we reach the Caribean Parking Lot.  From there, mosey to Pavilion by northern ball fields.  From there, sprint to the AO Flag with winner (who happened to be Lulu) getting a free breakfast from your Q.

MARY:
Who’s she?  Cross-Eyed Mary happens to be an incredible song by Jethro Tull.  Just sayin.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
William Shatner, the actor who played good ol Captain Kirk, flew into space this past week.  At age 90 he is the oldest person to ever travel in space.  He was overcome with emotion when he returned.  He talked about the beautiful blue skies of earth and how, once the space vessel passed through the Earth’s atmosphere, the beautiful blue of earth went suddenly black in space.  It made him think of the preciousness and fragility of Earth, how it can vanish into nothing, and about the fragility of our own lives, about how our bodies will one day just die.  Thankfully, our lives are more than what is spent on Earth.  There is the infinity of God, the Alpha and Omega, who created everything, and the opportunity to live with HIM, forever.
MOLESKIN:
We live on a beautiful planet.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Christmas party at Judge Judy’s home on December 11.  Wives or partners are invited.

When in Need

THE SCENE: Cloudy, temp about 70.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, Plank Stretches, 10 Iron Mikes, 10 Windmills, 10 Rockettes, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Cone 1 at Stop Sign at Southeastern Corner of Admin Bldg.  We will run back up the semi-circle road toward Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner.  We stop[ at cones to do exercises.  There will be 8 cones with the last cone at the stop sign at the Northeastern Corner.  We go forth by method depicted on the cone.  Then we run back.  However, with each run back and forth we lose the end cone.  In other word we run cone 1 to 8, then 8 to 2, then 2 to 7, etc.  The cones and methods of running are shown.

  • Cone 1:  20 American Hammers (regular count).  Sprint to next cone.
  • Cone 2:  20 Side Straddle Hops (normal count).  Bernie to next cone.
  • Cone 3:  20 Merkins.  Skip to next cone.
  • Cone 4:  20 Big Boys. Sprint to next cone.
  • Cone 5:  20 Hello Dollies (normal count).  Sprint to next cone.
  • Cone 6:  20 Carolina Dry Docks.  Skip to next cone.
  • Cone 7:  20 Squat Jumps.  Bernie to next cone.
  • Cone 8:  20 Bicycle Kicks (regular count).  Sprint to next cone.

Go to Roadshow Run.  We will run to trail at end of the run.  We will do 40 Baby Crunches and 20 Squats.  Then we run back up but at each set of stairs we do 20 Calf Raises before running on up the stairs.  At bat cave we do more Baby Crunches until six arrives.

Run to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks, 20 Hello Dollies, Stretches.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 men with no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
When In Need

All of us have faced time of great distress that can lead to significant anxiety or depression.  We are encouraged, in F3, to reach out to our brothers when in need.  We may be quite depressed when a brother turns to help us.  Often, those who are depressed are not good at accepting help.  When brothers reach out to us, there are some things we need to remember:

  • Be gracious to those who come to you.  This may be difficult to do because we are so down and out.  However much we are hurting, we need to show appreciation to the brother who took his time to come to us.
  • Accept what is given.  Some people are better at giving advice or listening to us than others.  Some people may give advice that you already have tried or that you don’t think is that wise.  That’s ok.  Search for the pools of wisdom in what they say and remember that your brother has come to you out of love, no matter what the advice.  His coming to you is gift enough.
  • Use what is given to build yourself back up.  Unfortunately, when we are hurt and down we sometimes get stuck in the role of a victim.  We can’t believe our fate and we are angry about where we are.  As Christ said to the invalid, “Pick up your mat and walk.”  Take strength and assistance from your brothers and use it for change.
  • Don’t expect people to come to you if you aren’t calling on them to.  When we have something happen to us, people will come for a while.  They care.  But people may stop coming to you after a period of time.  You may feel forgotten and get angry, thinking people don’t care.  Remember that people get busy with their own lives and problems. Don’t expect them to keep coming if you aren’t asking them to.
  • Leave people feeling glad they visited.  You need encouragement in your time of need but our visitors need encouragement as well.  It isn’t easy to take time out of one’s day to visit a person who is ungracious.  If you continually depict a picture of misery, it is the rare person who will continue to visit you again and again.  Thank the visitor for coming and let them know that you care for them too.

If we can do these things when in need we will find that are wounds are healed more easily.  We are accepting the gifts God places before us and we can regain our strength again

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for those in the Philippines where the Covid rate has risen significantly; prayers for other countries where Covid is on the rise; prayers for Mr. Jinxy who is recovering from injuries after his automobile accident.

Faithful to Us

THE SCENE: Sunny, temp in 30’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Tempo Squats, 10 Windmills, 7 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, 5 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:
Run to CMU pile.  Each man grabs CMU.  We will do the following exercises.  Between the listed exercises each man runs to the benches at the playground to do 10 bench jumps, then runs back.

  • 25 Overhead Presses
  • 25 Curls
  • 25 Rows

We then put CMUs back.

Mosey up cardiac and on trail to stop sign at intersection of park road and road to admin bldg.  We will do 20 American Hammers and 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to bottom of Mt. Everest.  We will do 10 Tempo Squats, 20 Bicycle Kicks and 30 Baby Crunches.  We then run up Everest to roadway by Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 Flutter Kicks.

Mosey to parking lot below stairs at Coliseum.  We will do Doras.  While one man does exercises the other runs upstairs, heads south at Coliseum, the comes back down the parking lot driveway.  Partners then switch.  Here are the exercises that each two man team performs:

  • 100 Plank Jacks
  • 100 Merkins
  • 100 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 100 Squat Jumps
  • 100 Imperial Walkers

Mosey down Picket’s Charge and back to Playground.  More Flutter Kicks until everyone arrives.

Mosey to outfield by baseball field closest to CMU parking lot.  We will split into two teams.  We will play soccer/ball shoot.  In this game there will be two large boxes at each end of the field.  Teams will kick soccer ball toward opponents end.  The shot at the box, however, must be made by man throwing ball to go inside the box.  The man cannot move when he picks the ball up.  If a team scores, that team will run to second base at the ballfield and back while the team that is scored on must run all the way to home plate and back.  Then game resumes.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
22 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
God is Faithful

The phrase “you gotta have faith” is one you have probably heard before.  I think that phrase often applies to having faith in ourselves, or having faith that things will work out, versus having faith in God.  Still, most of us have certainly heard of our need to have faith in God to get by in this world.  And, we do need to have faith in God.  Yet, we often fall short of being faithful:  in our trust of God, in our commitment to his desire for obedience, in living the loving and virtuous lifestyle that God expects from us.  Fortunately, we have a God who is faithful to us.  So much so that he was willing to, from the Christian standpoint, send his only Son to die for us on the cross.  It is nice to know that we have a God who is faithful to us, who is there for us.

That knowledge of his faithfulness keeps us strong.  I may have told some of you this story of my childhood.  I was about age 5 or 6 and I had acted rather poorly toward my mother earlier that day. It was getting towards evening and I came home to find the door locked.  No big deal, it was a policy to lock the door.  I rang the door bell.  No answer.  I knocked on the door.  No answer.  I ran around to the back of the house.  Door locked and no answer when I knocked.  I ran back up front and after ringing and knocking, I went to our large front window and peered in.  My mother was sitting on a chair in the living room.  How could she not come to me when I was ringing the doorbell and knocking so loud?  Had my mom stopped loving me because I had acted poorly that day?  I called out and she didn’t come.  I ran into the backyard and threw myself to the ground in tears.  Imagine Little Lilydipper, crying until the snot was draining in fissures from his nose.  I later heard my mom calling.  I took a while to get up.  She came to the backyard and found me in tears.  She asked me what was wrong and I told her the story of my persistent knocking and her failure to come to me.  She had been sitting at a chair sound asleep and had not heard me.  She thought she heard a child crying and that was what woke her up.

My mother took pity on me as I was obviously distraught.  So she sat with me, assured me that she would never leave me, would always have faith in me, that I would always be her special child, that I could count on her loving me forever.  She and I went to get a hamburger and ice cream at Goff’s Burgers that evening.  I loved that place because they had the best chili hamburgers in the world and amazing ice cream cones.  I sat there at Goff’s with a special feeling in my heart.  My mother would always be faithful to me.

Gents, we aren’t kids but it sure is good to know that God will always be faithful to us.  We can count on Him.  We may act poorly sometimes, we may upset him with our behavior. . . but we will always be His, we will always be special to Him.   You are His precious child.  Let that truth sink into you and give you that special feeling in your heart like I had that evening at good old Goff’s Hamburgers.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for those of Asian decent in our country because of the hatred that some have showed toward them; for the disenfranchised and folks who are not well and having to stay home; for Mr. Jinxy, Sarah, the wife of Ribbed, and Jan, the wife of Lillydipper; for Dung-Beetle who, as a minister, is working with so many in need, for those with Covid including the father of one of Mickey’s schoolmates, for those struggling with addiction, and that we may have discernment when watching the news as the news can be biased.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Beer ruck tonight at 6:00 pm!

Through Imperfection

THE SCENE: Clear skies, about 60 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, Plank Stretches, 10 Windmills, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backwards
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign at southeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  20 American Hammers.

Mosey to shaded area that is on other side of road from Area 51.  There will be four cones set up.  We will go counter-clockwise to each cone.  We will do so four times and do one exercise at each in sequence.  We go to the next cone by the method listed.  Here are the exercises and way to get to the next cone.

  • Cone 1:  1. 20 Star Jumps  2.  10 Burpees  3. 20 Plank Jacks  4. 20 Smurf Jacks  (Sprint to Cone 2)
  • Cone 2:  1. 20 Merkins 2.  15 Hand Release Merkins  3.  20 Dive Bombers  4. 20 Diamond Merkins  (Bear Crawl to Cone 3)
  • Cone 3:  1. 20 Jump Squats  2.  20 Mountain Climbers  (both feet = 1) 3. 20 Iron Mikes (both feet = 1)  4. 20 Side Straddle Hops  (Bernie to Cone 4)
  • Cone 4:  1.  20 Big-Boy Sit-ups  2.  20 Hello Dollies (4 ct)  3.  20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct)  4. 20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct)  (Lunge to Cone 1)

Mosey to grassy area by Northshore Entrance to Park.  20 Imperial Walkers.

Mosey on perimeter trail south and then east on Perimeter Trail to benches at south end.  Alternate between 20 Bench Dips and 30 Baby Crunches.

Mosey to Soccer Fields and then to grassy area past roadway.  We will then do sevens going from grassy area to tree in a field that is about 40 yards away.  We will start with 1 set of Shoulder Taps at the roadway and 6 Pinto Twists at the tree.

Mosey to stop sign at southeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  20 American Hammers

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
1 minute run in place and 30 seconds of stretching.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Imperfect Leaders and Servants

From 2 Corinthians 12:  9-10:

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I consider the brothers of F3, the men I see each week at workouts and through fellowship, and I see so many of you having the true desire to serve others and be leaders among our community.  Yet, we sometimes hesitate for fear of failure.  We fear that we will fall short of our goals, not live up to the people we serve, not speak well enough or act well enough, or just be overwhelmed by the time and nature of the task.  We think we have to be a Captain Crunch, an Abscess or a Judge Judy to lead and serve the way we should.

We need to remember a wonderful truth when our fears and concerns keep us from taking the chance to lead and serve.  God works through our imperfections.  Consider every person besides Christ that is in the Bible.  They were all imperfect but God used them to serve His purpose.  Consider Moses:  a man afraid to speak to others, God used him to lead the Jews out of Egypt and to the promised land.  Consider David:  a man who lusted after Bathsheba and had to be brought to shame to see his sin. God found favor on David and he was a great leader. Consider Peter:  a disciple of Christ who boasted he would never betray Him, yet who betrayed Him three times after Jesus was arrested.  And, Peter became one of the greatest disciples of Christ, spreading the works of Christ after his death.

God will use our imperfections to serve his people.  Why worry then about how imperfect we are.  Like Paul says in Corinthians, for the sake of Christ we can be boast in our weaknesses.  For He will use our weaknesses to make his power perfect.  Go forth, therefore, with confidence.  When you screw up, when you stumble, when you say the idiotic thing, if your intentions are loving, if your intentions are to do good for others, Christ will use you despite your mistakes.  The message:  Get out there and fail because through your failures you will succeed.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Speed Flash on his test tomorrow, for Hand’s friend who passed away and the family of that friend, and for Abscess’ friend who has triple-bypass heart surgery upcoming.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
AO Launch this weekend in Maryville.  Get copy paper, napkins and 55 Gallon Trash Bags in for service project.