THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, temps in high 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Squat Jumps, 10 Rockettes, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Northeast Corner of Admin Bldg. Do 20 American Hammers.
We will next go along the road that semicircles around the admin bldg. There will be cones along the way that will tell us what exercise to do and also tell us how to get to the next cone:
- Cone 1: Do 20 Iron Mikes (both feet equal 1). Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
- Cone 2: Do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups. Bear Crawl to Cone 3.
- Cone 3: Do 20 Dive Bombers. Sprint to Cone 4.
- Cone 4: Do 20 Star Jumps. Then go down the stairs just past the bat cave.
- Cone 5. Do 20 Merkins. Then run to pine cove area just below the top of Summit.
- Cone 6. Do 10 Burpees. Run to roadway at top of Summit.
- Cone 7. Do 40 Baby Crunches. Run to Cone 8.
- Cone 8. Do 20 Squats. Hop to Cone 9.
- Cone 9. Do 20 Flutter Kicks (4 count). Sprint to Cone 10 near the stop sign.
- Cone 10. Do 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct). 20 Carolina Dry Docks. 20 Smurf Jacks. 10 Hand Release Merkins. 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct). 20 Squat Jumps. 20 Box Cutters. 20 Diamond Merkins.
Mosey to grassy decline on left side of road as one goes from stop sign to main park road. We will do sevens starting with 1 Jump Squat at bottom of hill and 6 Burpees on top of hill.
Mosey to grassy area close to outdoor chapel. We will do 20 tempo merkins.
Mosey to playground. We will do elevens at benches starting with one bench dip and ten bench jumps.
Mosey to CMU pile. Each man grabs a CMU. We will do the following in cadence: 20 Overhead Presses, 20 Curls, 20 Rows.
Mosey to bottom of mini-cardiac. We will Bernie to park sign then sprint the rest of the way to the AO.
MARY:
30 Merkins
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 Men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
F3 Message
Hebrews 11:8: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Matthew 3:12: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
So you can get on with your search baby
And I can get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find
That it wasn’t really wasted time
— The Eagles
When I was in college I, just like undergraduate and graduate students today, was required to do research projects for quite a few of my classes. We didn’t have the internet back then. By my years in graduate school we at least had made it past card catalogues and could search for books and journal articles that might be relevant for a topic by typing in a keyword on the computers provided at the library. In so doing, the computer would list articles or books that might have that keyword in it. We would then have to go find the book or journal article somewhere in the library to see if what was written in it did really apply to the topic we were researching. Often times the information found did not apply. This was particularly true when first starting the research on the project. It was quite frustrating to spend hours of work on a project finding information that was not applicable. By graduate school, I had come to accept the fact that for any research project I was going to have to spend hours of “wasted timed”, time I would spend roaming the floors and aisles of the library to come up with information that was not useful. But, to quote the Eagles song, “it wasn’t really wasted time.” It was necessary time. To find what I needed, I had to separate the wheat from the chaff as alluded to in Matthew 3:12. I had to find what was good for me (the information that applied) and put aside what was not (irrelevant information).
When one thinks about it, much of life is like this. To receive our inheritance we must journey forward in faith, like Abraham, not quite knowing where we are going, heading down wrong turns and circling back to get on the right course. Some of you younger single guys may have the desire to find the “right” mate. I certainly had that desire in my 20’s. I dated a large variety of women, sometimes growing tired of the “dating scene”, breaking hearts and having my own heart broken in the process. I wasn’t exactly separating the wheat from the chaff but I did have to find the right person for me. And, in my 30’s, I finally found that person, one who has meant so much to me and made me a better man in the process.
My vocational career has not exactly been a road straight up a ladder. It has been full of mishaps and struggle, and finally a decision to change my vocational course all-together, going to graduate school in psychology after I had already attained a law degree and practiced in that field for a period of time. That period of time was not easy – it was full of anxiety and angst and I often felt like a failure.
Whether it is finding the right mate, job, friendships, place to live, or way to spend our time, we run into challenges and sometimes hit dead ends. As a man in my sixties, I can see that the so-called floundering wasn’t wasted time. It may have been had I given up and chose to ignore and not learn from my mistakes. I can see that the dead ends were necessary and even helped me to grow. How sweet it is to think that God has been there with me through it all. Some of those moments when I was at my most depressed were times that I was speaking to God the loudest, yearning for him, reaching out to him for help.
In your journey, keep pushing forward, learn from your mistakes, and realize that God is there even when you don’t know where you are going. If the road is confusing and seems impossible, it may just be that you are a complex man whose needs are not met easily. My prayer for you is that some day you will look back on your younger years . . . although perhaps not without scars from your falls and lines on your face giving evidence to a history of some difficulties . . . and, be able to say that it wasn’t really wasted time.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Hooker’s sister, Molly, who is getting married to day, for Mr. Jinxy’s wife, Susan, whose surgery went well and who is recovering, for Helga and his wife as she has brain surgery this week, for Convoy and his family after the death of his father, for Doubtfire and his family after the death of his mother, for peace and love in the face of racism, and for those other brothers like Thunderstuck who have family members with cancer or who are ill.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill on October 3.