F3 Knoxville

Author: Mathlete

Failing the Test

THE SCENE: Drippy, cool 30s. Perfect morning for the back porch
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Moroccan nightclubs, Overhead claps, Tempo squats, Tempo merkins
THA-THANG:
Grabbed a block and headed around to the back porch of the senior center for some Dora, Dora, Dora!

  • 300 curls, 300 squats, 5 burpees
  • Mosey on over to the playground to get in some pull ups for the day
  • 200 OHP, 150 CMU swings, 5 burpees
  • Gather the 6 in plank, then do 30 seconds more
  • 100 rows (each side), then Heavy Freddies until time
  • Baby Mucho Chesto – 10 Merkins, 10 Wide Merkins, 10 Diamond Merkins, 10 Stagger Merkins (each side)

MARY:
About 60 seconds in Al Gore just to finish out.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

This is a challenging passage because it says outright that every time I have succumbed to temptation, it is my fault. I have never been so overwhelmed that I could not resist, though I have often believed otherwise.

Temptation and testing are ideas often used together in the bible. When I think about a test, I naturally default to the kind of testing used in school. Its purpose is simply to determine if I have the knowledge I am supposed to, and the results will inevitably be either a gold star for achievement or a black dot demerit. However, this is not the model that the biblical authors had in mind.

The word for test often used by the bible’s authors is connected with the process used to test gold, and this analogy is also often employed. The key difference here is that when gold is placed in the crucible and tested, it is not intended to leave the gold unchanged. While the process does reveal the amount of impurity, that very same process of testing gold also purifies it. This is vital to understanding the way God tests us.

God’s tests are not disinterested measurements intended to inform his judgements about us. Rather the test is the very process by which God intends to purify us. Through repeated testing, He can strip away the impurities that reside within our hearts, preparing us to one day endure his presence. For though Christ has won the victory over death and opened the way for us to access the presence of the Father, His presence is dangerous to the impure and unholy. Christ has justified us, but still we must be sanctified that we might enter into new creation and reside in the very presence of the Father, free from all fear and knowing only his boundless Love.
MOLESKIN:
Great to see Guardrail out to spend some quality time out back. This was a fall back plan for the weather, so another day I will have to reveal my planned Dora the Explora Q…
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Weekly challenge is up to 30 pushups, 3 pull ups, and 30 second plank – this Q met standard for today. Check in on Slack to mark your progress. While you are there, read about Lizards, Bullfrogs, and Leeches.

Family Q is coming up February 5th.

Rewards

THE SCENE: Crisp, cool, clear and crunchy. Mid twenties freezing the last week of rain. Satellites orbit overhead.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Side Straddle Hops (concentration to 25!)
  • LBACs (Out and Above)
  • Pretzels
  • Tempo Squats (get deep)
  • Fence Steppers OYO
  • Tempo Merkins (10)
  • Newton’s Cradle
  • 10 second plank

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the Bell
    • 3 sets of 20 dips and 20 big boys
  • Mosey to parallel bars
    • 3 sets of 20 Inverse Rows and 20 flutter kicks
  • Mosey to pool wall
    • 3 sets of 5 wall ups and 5 pull ups
  • Mosey to behind the amphitheater for Mucho Mucho!
    • 20 squats, 20 merkins
    • 20 wide squats, 20 wide merkins
    • 20 bobby hurleys, 20 diamond merkins
    • 20 split squats, 20 stagger squats (both sides)
  • Short form Tree biscuit
    • Run to a tree, do a burpee. See how many we can get in the remaining time.

MARY:
Dealer’s choice, got a full circuit. LBCs, Heels to Heaven, Side crunches both sides, flutter kicks, American Hammers, and Hello Dollys.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Sitting in church on Sunday, my eldest daughter gets up and goes to the bathroom. On the way back, she passes a basket in the narthex that has peppermints and takes one. When she gets back to her seat and sits beside me, this is all good. I see no problem with picking up a peppermint on the way back. Until, that is, she decides that the next thing to do is to draw her older brother’s attention to it. To flaunt her prize. This results in a prompt confiscation.

It is right for good action to carry a reward. In this case, getting up to using the bathroom in an appropriate time brings with it an opportunity for a piece of candy. This isn’t so different from the way our own bodies are arranged. Eating is necessary, and so carries with it pleasure. The same is true of sleep. Sex functions similarly in a marriage. These rewards, when maintained in their proper position and alignment with their associated good, are also good. They were, in fact, purposed as a good.

In taking from the tree, Adam and Eve first participated in a troubling alternative to this purposed good. When we see the possibility that we can game the system, that the reward is available for the taking, when the reward becomes the purpose, good fragments. Obviously, my daughter’s physical need to go to the bathroom is more limited than her potential to obtain reward. This can express as deception, only to go get a candy and return without any actual visit to the bathroom. My son, with a newfound desire for candy, might decide that he needs to go to the bathroom even though he doesn’t, only to obtain a reward. Certainly, the risk is that both of my children become fixated on the candy, and thus ignore the reason we are even there at all, to worship the Creator God who brought forth into this world both the candy and our capability to enjoy it. To me, this serves as a microcosm example of my own struggles with physical desire.

I eat beyond physical need, now enduring physical consequences while slowly deadening my own enjoyment. So I seek to fragment the system, using deceptive chemicals to experience the pleasure (I’m looking at you Coke Zero) while avoiding the consequences, or at least the consequences I am paying attention to. This is a positive feedback loop, with my desire ever growing, demanding greater and greater sacrifices to sate my appetite. Soon, the only purpose of eating is pleasure. The real good, my physical nourishment, isn’t even playing second fiddle.

As we leave behind us a time of feasting and turn back to the routines that define us, I think it merits our attention to look at the places where we are gaming the system for pleasure. How do we return to balance? How do we restore an appetite to its proper position and alignment? It often includes dealing with some consequences we have been storing up. But that blister can be drained and healed. It doesn’t last forever.

MOLESKIN:
Great to be back at The Project! Pretzels were courtesy of Wilderness Road in Kingsport. Snaggletooth got distracted thinking about consequences when he should have been concentrating on counting, but then there weren’t any…
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We gotta pick a date for our next family Q.

Outward facing Self Care

THE SCENE: A breath of warm in December.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH
  • Imperial squawkers
  • Overhead claps
  • Moroccan Nightclubs
  • Tempo merkins
  • Newton’s cradle

THA-THANG:

  • Pick up a CMU and mosey to the pool wall
  • Knock out some Wallups
  • Mosey with CMUs to amphitheater
  • Dora – 100 man makers while the other bear crawls across the stage jumps down and circles back
  • Move to the head of the loop
  • Rolling wave – everyone lines up in Cusack. Last one does a Blockee and moves to the front. When he gets to the front, each man does an OHP until last in line does a blockee. Then each does a squat as he walks to the front. Repeat until destination is reached (or it falls apart)
  • At the memorial walk, stop for Dora with exercises in the center and then the path goes around the newly decorated CHRISTMAS TREE!
    • 200 heavy squats, run
    • 200 gore curls, run
    • 300 LBCs, farmer carry both

Mosey back to the flag

MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Self care is an idea that I have seen circulating in the culture for a while now, and I have mixed feelings about it. It seems to variously have aspects of self focus and indulgence, but obviously some level of self care is important. One helpful perspective I have been reflecting on is to center on the idea that everything I give to someone else is ultimately a gift of myself. Thus, if I want to give to others well, then the raw material, myself, needs to be quality. If I give of myself in a way that is self destructive, then I am diminishing the total I can eventually give. But if I am always reinvesting my gains, then no one benefits from my growth, so my efforts are pointless. Focusing on this goal provides a good measuring stick to evaluate whether I have fallen into selfish pursuits. Remember that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is posed as an equality. You cannot properly do one side of the equation without the other, both sides increase and decrease together.

MOLESKIN:
Kickflip made a good observation about the way this ties into the QSource. You have to get yourself right before you can Live right.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Parade is coming up fast. Look out for specific info on where we will set up and when, should be released early next week.

Black Betty

THE SCENE: A pale moon peaks through parted clouds. Unseasonably warm and pleasant.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivators
  • Tempo squats
  • Hairy Rockettes
  • Moroccan Night Clubs
  • Tempo Merkins
  • Plank Jacks
  • Newton’s cradle
  • Tempo Split Squats

THA-THANG:
Mosey over to the recruiting center for a circuit workout. 9 stations:

    • Black Betty Dead Lift
      • Bend knees, hips forward, Back Straight, Shoulders Square, Core Active
    • Tire and Sledge – Flips and Hits
    • Jump rope – Fast and double unders
    • Slam Ball – Slam down and High Throw
    • Curls/Tri extensions
    • Overhead Press/Manmaker Merkins
      • Manmaker Merkins – CMU to one side. Do a Merkin, then reach underneath with opposite arm and pull the CMU across, back and forth
    • Dips/Step ups
    • Dumb Bells – Chest Press and Weighted Lunges
    • Blockees and Burpee jump-overs
  • After each full round, 30 LBCs and lap the parking lot, then flip the card.
  • Finished three rounds then did a Ring of Fire, up to 3 and back down

MARY:
no time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”
6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
This parable points out to us how we sometimes expect less from God, who alone is good, than we would even expect from the wicked. In a season when I ought to be steeped in prayer, seeking God’s wisdom and guidance, I find myself less engaged even than normal. This is a call to action to act in alignment with belief. Ask and it will be given to you, knock and the door will be opened. God’s power and authority is clear, but sometimes I act as though it isn’t there. Jesus knew this when he said “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

MOLESKIN:
Awesome group this morning, so big I had to add a station.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Turn in your Samaritan Purse boxes. Christmas parade coming up on December the 11th. Trailer decorating soon to come.

The Nine Worthies

THE SCENE: Crisp 40s, mixed sky above.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSHs
  • Tempo Squats
  • LBACs
  • Tempo merkins
  • Mountain climbers
  • Fence steppers
  • Cat Cows
  • Hip bridges
  • Cherry Pickers

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the recruiting center
  • Pick up CMUs and transport to theater stairs
  • Nine exercises in three groups of three
    • Legs
      • Squats
      • Lunges
      • Heel raises
    • Arms
      • Curls
      • Dips
      • OHP
    • Core
      • Heavy LBCs
      • Heavy Freddies
      • Heavy Hammers
    • Pyramid each group 5-10-15, then pyramid all 9. After each round, run the stairs.

MARY:
No time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The “Nine Worthies” is a set of nine figures who exemplify the ideals of chivalry, and whose lives were thus deemed valuable to study for aspirants to chivalric status (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Worthies). Composed of three sets of three: three pagans, three Jews, and three Christians.

  • Pagans
    • Hector
    • Alexander the Great
    • Julius Caesar
  • Jews
    • Joshua
    • David
    • Judas Maccabeus
  • Christians
    • King Arthur
    • Charlemagne
    • Godfrey of Bouillon

Godfrey of Bouillon – French nobleman who was instrumental in retaking the city of Jerusalem in 1099. He was offered the title of King of Jerusalem. He agreed to rule, but refused the title of king, saying:

Why would I bear the name of a king in a place where my savior was crowned with reproaches?
Why would I take a scepter in my hand where he took a cross upon his shoulders?
Why would I suffer a crown of gold upon my head where he received a crown of thorns?

This is a high standard, to give up everything and work hard, but at the moment when it seems that you are finally ascending, to give up the glory to God. Godfrey wasn’t perfect, but to respond with such virtue in the face of such a test is worth remembering a thousand years later.
MOLESKIN:
Here is the podcast I was listening to that contained most of this content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Yi95ok0Xo&t=4225s.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Coat collection, Christmas parade.