Q: Mathlete
PAX: Ocho, Munge, Biohack, OBrother, Hoorayus, Flying Dutchman, Mathlete, Nerf
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
WARMUP:
Tempo squats, imperial walkers, tempo merkins, cherry pickers
THE THANG:
Mosey to recruiting center
Work through stations at own pace, upgrade your level each time you finish a full circuit.
Jump rope – 25/50/100
Agility drill – 5/10/20
Plank extended rows – each side 10/20/40
Thrusters – 10/20/40
Pull ups – 3/5/7
Tire flips – 3/6/10
Airplane flutters – 10/20/40
Ascending derkins – 3/6/9
A break for some Mary about halfway through.
Cleanup and head back to the flag
MARY:
No time
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Iron pax coming at ya!
COT:
Games and Rules
Is a game defined by its rules? I don’t think so, but I think we commonly fall into the trap of behaving as though it is. A game is defined by its activity. I think we play games because there are things we want to do, like run jump throw catch chase problem solve overcome double down, that we just don’t get to do in our daily life. While we could do some of these things on their own, we thrive on purpose, so we arrange a game to make our activity less arbitrary. As we play the game, it becomes clear that some constraints or boundaries will help keep the game alive. Ideally the players see their use and keep to them such that the game thrives.
However, things go awry when the activity ceases to be the focus of the game. With children, this looks like a slow descent into chaos, but with adults this often comes in the form of a focus instead on victory. You can tell this is happening when the rules start to get really detailed, and carefully leveraging rules becomes just as important as the true activity. Sadly, this is the state of most high level competitions, whether they are professional sports or spelling bees. The game loses its joy and just becomes one more means by which the oppressors oppress.
The Bible shows us how this pattern is a transposition of the history of humanity. In the beginning, God gave humanity an activity, to be fruitful and multiply and to work and keep the garden, then he gave a single rule, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. At root, this is the truly fundamental rule, to choose not to focus on the good and bad of each thing but rather to focus on the activity of God. But humanity, desiring to elevate the self rather than submit to God, began a cycle of oppression that continues today.
Jesus saw this pattern in the treatment the Pharisees gave to the Mosaic law, using it as a way to elevate themselves above their fellow Israelites. But Jesus did not come to abolish this law, which is truly designed for human flourishing, but rather to reclaim its prime directive, to fulfill it by example and to fill us up with His spirit so we might become truly obedient.