THE SCENE: Clear evening, temps in 50s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Windmills, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey on dragon tail and up past Haslam Boulder to street nearby. We will stop to do 20 American Hammers.
Mosey on trail toward Lyons Bend and stop as it intersects with other trail. We will do 20 Hello Dollies and 20 Merkins.
Mosey west on trail and then south on trail to foot of Summit. We will do 20 Flutter Kicks and 10 Hand Release Merkins.
Mosey to grassy area by Utilities Bldg. We will do 20 Bicycle Kicks and 15 Shoulder Taps.
Mosey to Lane that Semi-Circles by soccer fields. We will do 20 Box Cutters and 20 Carolina Drydocks.
Mosey on Semi-Circle Lane to Southern Ball Field Parking Lot. We will bear crawl 10 parking lane lengths, lunge 10 lengths and Bernie the remainder. We will do the same thing going back to where we started.
Mosey to curbside by street leading back to A0. We will do 20 Curbside Bench Dips.
Mosey to AO area. We will do 10 Hand Release Merkins, then Bernie halfway up mini cardiac and run rest of the way up. Run back down to AO.
MARY:
At AO we will finish with Ring of Fire doing merkins.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 men including one FNG, Crawdad’s 11-year-old son, Asher, whom we dubbed Speed Flash.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Hebrews 4:16: Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
I was listening to Spotify and heard a song with words that made me think of Corona Weight’s brother who is currently in prison. Corona Weight has asked for prayers for his brother a number of times at our Asylum PM BOM. Corona Weight obviously loves his brother and prays not only for his brother’s health, but his salvation.
The song I was listening to is called Mercy Now and is sung and written by Mary Gauthier (pronounced GOH-shay). Here are the lines that made me think of Corona Weight and his brother:
My brother could use a little mercy now
He’s a stranger to freedom, he’s shackled to his fear and his doubt
The pain that he lives in it’s almost more than living will allow
I love my brother, he could use some mercy now.
This “brother” in the song may not even be in prison but is a stranger to freedom. And, from what Corona Weight has told us about his brother, that he loves so much, even out of prison he will be “shackled” unless he can turn his life around. His brother needs mercy.
Yet, as I listened more to Gauthier’s song, I realized that she was talking about more people than her brother (and her father, whom she described in the first lines of the song). Our country and even our churches need God’s mercy:
My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit it’s going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down
I love my church and country, they could use some mercy now.
The true Christian knows that Gauthier is right. We realize that we, too, are sinners who wear our sin as much as anyone else. And, we trust in God’s mercy to save us. For the fact is that we all, no matter how rich or poor, no matter where we live, no matter what church we attend or people we associate with, need mercy.
Some of the last lines of Gauthier’s song read that every living thing could use some mercy now:
Only the hand of grace can end the race towards another mushroom cloud…
I know we don’t deserve it but we need it anyhow
We hang in the balance dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground
And every single one of us could use some mercy now.
Lord, have mercy on every single one of us. We can use it and we need it now.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Corona Weight’s brother, Jared.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Bring coats by next Tuesday for charity drive.