F3 Knoxville

Revealing Our Brokenness

THE SCENE: Cloudy, temp about 32 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Windmills, 15 Second Squat, 10 Rockettes, 30 Second Squat, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, 60 Second Squat

THA-THANG:
Mosey to CMU parking lot.  Instead of CMUs, each man grabs a pair of bricks which will be along east curb of parking lot.  We will Dora.  While partner one does exercises listed below with the bricks, the other man runs to other curb, does 10 Rocky Balboa, and runs back to replace partner with the exercises.  Here are the exercises with the bricks:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows (brick at each side)
  • 100 Triceps (brick on either side of head)
  • 100 Punches (both hands = 1)
  • 100 Wings Up
  • 100 Wings Down
  • 100 Wings Out

Put bricks down.  Mosey to Mini Cardiac.  We will Bernie to Park Sign then sprint to crosswalk.

Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeast Corner of Admin Bldg.  We will stop to do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to small parking lot below the Coliseum.  We will do Doras again.  This time, while one partner does exercises, the other runs up stairs, left on Coliseum sidewalk, and down to the driveway to small parking lot to reunite with partner who will then make the same run.  These are the exercises the partners will work on:

  • 100 Hello Dollies (4 ct)
  • 100 Squat Jumps
  • 100 Merkins (4 ct)
  • 100 Iron Mikes (both feet = 1)
  • 100 Flutter Kicks (4 ct)

Mosey to parking drive by apartments and soccer fields. We will do 20 Bicycle Kicks.

Mosey to parking lot that is south of playground.  20 Squats.

Mosey to Mini Cardiac.  We will, once again Bernie to Park Sign then sprint to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
26 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The Lord is close to all who call on Him, yes, to all who call on Him in truth.  Psalm 145:18

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

And it’s no, nay, never
No, nay never no more
Will I play the wild rover
No never no more.     —  Old Irish Folk Song

I used to belong to a Sunday School class in a church that I formerly went to that had nice, intelligent, and friendly people in it.  I found myself missing something in the class, however.  What it took me some time to realize was that people weren’t opening up in the class.  They freely talked about worshipping God, about helping others, about walking the right kind of life – but they weren’t revealing themselves in the process.  They talked about how “people” needed to apply the Bible’s lessons to their lives but not about how those lessons should be applied to their own lives. They weren’t talking about the true challenges they faced in their Christian journey. They weren’t talking about their BROKENNESS.  I remember wishing people would talk from their hearts.  I remember one woman in the class being more likely to do so.  I followed her example one time but no one else in the class did.  And, after a time, I figured, “heck, I’m not going to talk about my problems if no one else does.”  And so, I withdrew and finally just left the class.  Maybe I should have confronted the class.  Instead, I found a church where people do freely reveal themselves.

Men, it is important to REVEAL ourselves to God and to others we can trust.  We are broken creatures in so many ways.  As humans, we mess up!  We find ourselves making the same mistakes, sinning in the same ways, despite our promises to ourselves that we will not do the same thing again.  I certainly find myself making the same mistakes over and over.  It as if sin is inherent in my nature.  And, if we believe the Bible, SIN TRULY IS IN OUR INHERENT NATURE.  In the Old Irish Folk Song above, the singer proclaims “never no more will I play the wild rover” (i.e. drinking so much that one gets snockered).  Yet, the song is one that is sung with the comic knowledge that one absolutely will play the wild rover again, when the hangover is gone and the temptation arises. Despite our best claims to stop the sin within us, we sin again and again.  This could be in regards to many different things:  pornography, greed, animosity, overuse of power, coveting, prejudice, infidelity, or just plain worrying too much.  If we truly look at ourselves, consider every sinful part of ourselves – we are likely to feel great shame and may want to give up on ourselves.

But, we have a great and glorious God.  We have a God that actually wants us to reveal that sinful part of ourselves to Him.  He wants to know us fully.  And what happens to us when we truly reveal ourselves to Him?  LOVE happens.  Think about what happens here in F3 when a brother reveals his brokenness to the group. Do his brothers turn their backs on Him and run away?  Do they smite him?  Do they ignore him?  I think not.  They embrace him.  They let him know that they understand.  And, as his brother, they see themselves in him.  They know that they too have messed up, have been broken.  When God sees us revealing ourselves to one another, He Smiles from Above.  He celebrates.  He say, “Now that is what I want my children to do!”  Because through that revealing, we heal.  We get the feedback of love from our fellow man and from God.  And, it when we are strengthened by love, that is when we can experience True Change.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers to end racism and for our country to be more united.  Prayers for wife of Ribbed, praise for healing of Choir Boy’s wife, praise for Cap’n Crunch’s 25 wedding anniversary, prayers for Cheatsheet in the care of his mother and daughter, prayers for Veggie’s safe return back to college in the state of Michigan.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP from 6:30 am to 9 am at Asylum on Saturday, January 30.

Alphabet Soup

THE SCENE:
Frosty with increasing Gloom.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:
I am not a doctor.  Keep your brothers distant and your snot to yourself.

WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH x 21 IC.
BBQ Squats x10 IC
Mosey around the parking lot to collect Archie, and head down to the block paved lots

THA-THANG:
The Q presented a sheet of 26 exercises – 1 per letter.  With a battle buddy, for more mumblechatter and letters, PAX worked their way through each F3 name with a run to the top of Baby Everest between each letter.  At the top of B.E. do one more merkin than last time, then back down to the start.

e.g. K=10 x Windmills, ascend Baby Everest, 1 merkin
E=Bear Crawl to other side of the road, ascend Baby Everest, 2 merkins
N=10 Merkins (4ct), ascend Baby Everest, 3 merkins,
T= etc…

MARY:
If this is a Kentucky workout, we have to finish with the Bicycle Race.  Freddie Mercurys to the tune of Bicycle Race, with a Big Boy every time FM sings Bike, or Bicycle.
To the eternal shame of the Mall Walkers, they watched and didn’t join in.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 Strong, including 5 Mall Walkers, who couldn’t manage a single Freddie between them.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Eddie the Eagle was an Olympic Athlete and example to us all.  He was bad at ski jumping (relatively), but kept going to matter what.  As Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Olympics said “The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”  Fight well my bothers, fight well!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the end of the month.  Order a new Asylum T-shirt to show off at the event!

[ The Scene ]

  • 30s

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness-Fellowship-Faith
  • Name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning
  • Couple of things before we begin:
    • I’m not a professional
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • And if you need to modify anything we do this morning feel free to do so but push yourselves and the men around you – they deserve it and so do you
  • FNGs? — 2

[ Warm o Rama ]

  • SSH: 30×4 IC
    • Take a lap
  • Mountain Climber: 30×4 IC
    • Take a lap
  • The Squat: 15×4 IC
    • Take a lap
  • Rockette: 15×4 IC
    • Take a lap
  • Rockette: 10×4 (5 F and 5 B)
    • Take a lap

[ The Thang ]

(1) 4 Corners and a Hill

  • 4 corners of the parking lot
    • C1: Merkins
    • C2: Squats
    • C3: LBCs
    • C4: American Hammers
  • 30 reps on a 1 count for each corner
  • After you complete the corner you’re on – run up the hill and execute 30 SSHs on a 1-count
  • When you get done with with all 4 corners and your hill runs and SSHs, find someone who’s not done and push them as they finish

(10 count)

(Mosey to crosswalk next to playground )

(2) Half and Half

  • 2 POCs/Paths: Light at the back end of the parking lot + lighted patch
  • half start on the lighted path
  • Half start moseying around to the parking lot with cars
  • Lighted path: 5 lights until you cut into the back of the lot with the light: 5 Attached at the hips (Merkin straight into a BBS)
  • Back end of lot light: (1 count)
    • 30 squats
    • 30 LBCs
    • 30 Carolina dry docks
  • Rinse and repeat this once for a total of 2x

(Mosey to the playground)

(3) The Last of the Benches

  • 30 squats
  • 30 incline merkins
  • 30 decline merkins
  • 30 step-ups

(Mosey to the AO)

[ Mary ]

ATMS YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH

[ COT ]

  • # off — 11
  • Name o Rama
  • FNGs — 2
  • BOM (2 Parts)
  1. 30 Reflections/Takeaways I Had in 2020
    • (1) — 1/4/2020 — from “Laws of Human Nature” — “Being able to understand more clearly that stranger within us would help us to realize that it is not a stranger at all but very much a part of ourselves, and that we are far more mysterious, complex, and interesting than we had imagined”
      • Romans 7:13-25
    • (2) — 1/7/2020 — I asked myself the question “What’s my no-BS assessment going into this year?” Here was my answer: “I need to keep fostering the mindset of “Keep Moving Forward” but sometimes that’s hard when it feels like I’m still in the thick of the fight. But in reality, I’ll always be in the fight until the end, it will just look different every year or so”
    • (3) — 1/22/2020 — I took this note while reading “Free to Lead” by the founders of F3, Dredd and OBT: “You have to improve. It’s an individual’s job to seek constant improvement. It’s the leader’s job to demand that he do so.”
    • (4) — 3/25/2020 — I went on a run this day and found myself on top of a hill and just had a good old yelling match of frustration and anger towards God. I was really pissed off and didn’t understand the events of the past couple of years and just found myself in this place of frustration with God. And then Isaiah 55:8 came to me — “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”
    • (5) — 4/9/2020 — (COVID ramping up) Listening to a Jerry Flowers sermon entitled “This is not my final destination” and he labeled exactly what I was doing during this season – I was being an Exit Strategist: wanting to get out of this season as quickly as possible, looking for an exit, trying to get out. And then he said this: “If God wants you in this place, in this season you find yourself in, there’s nothing you can do but be faithful and stop looking for an exit and start opening your eyes to the entrances He’s providing.”
    • (6) — 4/14/2020 — “I was born to walk through the fire, I was made to run through these flames. Yeah, even when I’m broken and tired, you are enough, enough, enough.” – “Enough” bu the Social Club Misfits
    • (7) — 4/16/2020 — I saw the different between the two words “though” and “yet” in Habakkuk 3:17-19 —> Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.
    • (8) — 4/19/2020 — “The true Christian life is one who lives an interrupted life; an individual who continually experiences Heavenly interference.” – Jerry Flowers
    • (9) — 5/12/2020 — The Father will always call the son back into “sonship.” This rocked my world by watching a Star Wars movie out of all things. But if God created all things than surely He can speak through all things as well. Watch the video (link below) and tell me you don’t see an incredibly powerful parallel between a father and his son. This sort of reminded me of the prodigal son as well. I dissected this video so hard and realized what a gift it was from God to me during this time.

                                        [ https://youtu.be/NF5M8WE4cKU ]

    • (10) — 5/17/2020 — “Eyes —> sight. Eyes of your heart —> vision.”
    • (11) — 5/21/2020 — “Once your heart has heard the music (of God), it is happy only when it is dancing.” – Robert Benson
    • (12) — 6/1/2020 — I was made very aware of how distracted I was. I could feel my mind being pulled in different directions. This is when the George Floyd incident happened and the riots started. I think God let me see just how distracted I was. This was a big takeaway for me — so that I could hear the call to “refocus,” “refocus,” “refocus.”
    • (13) — 6/18/2020 — “What do you do when you go to the place that God told you to go to, you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and the brook dries up?”
    • (14) — 6/28/2020 — I was bestowed the wisdom of “Usually we’re going through what we’re going through because there’s something for us to do on the other side.”
    • (15) — 7/2/2020 — I was fasting with a small group of men from Fellowship Church called The Good Fight. And at 4pm on July 2nd I was under a ruck and praying for wisdom and discernment and realized I feel really connected to God and creation when I’m under a ruck.
    • (16) —7/23/2020 — “What would it look like for God to re-introduce yourself to you, from His perspective?” Think about the movie The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe where Aslan takes Edmond on a long walk after he rescues him.
    • (17) — 7/30/2020 — We need mentors and brothers that can call out the red flags when we don’t see them. A mentor of mine who’s about 20 years my senior did just that and it was hard to hear. But I needed to hear that so I could get out of a toxic relationship.
    • (18) — 7/31/2020 — Watch The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and specifically watch starting at 1:18:00 aka “The Extraction Scene.” We are called by name. We are reminded that “too long have we sat in the shadows.” We hear our true name and are called further into it. We are reminded and loved enough to “breathe the free air again my friend” or son.
    • (19) — 8/10/2020 — Realized the necessity of reading “Waiting on God” by Andrew Murray, especially in this season/year. This was a book we were given at a 3rd F event a few years ago and it’s stayed with me ever since. The practice of “waiting on God” is difficult. And I did not do it exceptionally well this year.
    • (20) — 8/23/2020 — Learned about Critical Theory and it kind of blew my mind. Critical Race Theory is interesting too. Look it up.
    • (21) — 9/16/2020 — Here’s one way to prove that you have the power to change your thoughts: Picture a lion in your head. Got it? Good. Now picture a tiger in your head? Picturing a tiger? Congratulations – you just proved to yourself that you have the power to change your thoughts instead of be captive to them.
    • (22) — 9/21/2020 — Had a powerful collision-course encounter with Jesus at Bearden High Schoo, at the launch of Heart and Soul Church. Sometimes we find ourselves so enveloped in a powerful wrestle with God that when we finally let go and learn to release control He moves all the more powerfully.
    • (23) — 10/18/2020 — During a time of fasting I was given this verse for encouragement – Romans 15:4 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” There is always room for more endurance. There is always hope.
    • (24) — 11/20/2020 — I love facilitating. I got the chance to lead a men’s retreat the weekend of Nov. 20th and it was an honor to see God move and work during this time. He showed me the gift he’s given me to plan and facilitate.
    • (25) — 12/3/2020 — “The more I try and control the wheel and steer, the more I realize how much I’m not in control.”
    • (26) — 12/6/2020 — Content > comfortable
    • (27) — 12/10/2020 — Daniel 8:27 – “And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and I went about the King’s business…” You see two things right off the bat from a 90,000 view here: 1 – Some stuff happened (Daniel was overcome and lay sick) and 2 – Rise and still go about the King’s business. Has this year felt like that for you? Stuff goes down yet we still must go about the King’s business He’s called us to do.
    • (28) — 12/16/2020 — Read 2 Timothy 3:16. Now look at the Message version on the Bible app on your phone. You’ll see 4 things the Bible is doing for us: “Exposing our rebellion” + “Showing us truth” + “Correcting our mistakes” + “Training us in God’s way”
    • (29) — 12/20/2020 — “God is a good gift giver but not always the gift wrapper we want.” (James 1)
    • (30) — 12/27/2020 — “Little by little, one goes far.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

(2) Code Brown’s Message and Card for Charmin

– PAX thanked Charmin for his consistent and courageous leadership of the Asylum AO this year. A good leader knows how to lead. A great leader knows how to lead and follow. Charmin is a great leader.

Festivus

THE SCENE: 32 degrees clear skies cool and miraculous
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-Rama

arm circles 10x

reverse arm circles 10x

Cherry pickers 10x

Tempo squats 10x

Tempo Merkins 10x

imperial walkers 10x

side straddle hops 10x

high knees 1/2 cross lot butt kicks other half and jog back

THA-THANG:

Feats of Strength:

6 per side mountain climbers

Bear crawl to festivus pole

6 merkins

Crab walk to other side

6 lunges (6 per side)

Crab walk back to pole

6 dry docks

Bear crawl to curb

6 Big Boys

Bear crawl to pole

6 LBCs

Crab walk to curb

6 squats

Crab walk back to pole

6 shoulder taps (6 per side)

Bear crawl to curb

6 hello dolly

Bear crawl to pole

6 burpees

Crab walk to curb

6 overhead claps

Crab walk to pole

6 star jacks

Bear crawl to curb

Plank until everyone is done

Grab a CMU

1 min plank hold on CMU->1 min squat holding CMU->1 min overhead hold

Airing of grievances

1 man carries Santa’s bag up mini cardiac

PAX choice of exercise until man comes back

Next man up Rinse and repeat

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 pax including 1 from Chattanooga see tags below
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Festivus was created to battle the over-commercialization of Christmas. We are asked to remember the only gift worth celebrating and that’s the gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Ice Cold AMRAP’S

THE SCENE: Clear and cold, around 22 degrees at circle up
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Get moving fast to get warm with 25 SSH on 4ct, 15 4ct Mtn Climbers, 20 Rocky Balboa then jog down to other end of parking lot, 20 Rocky Balboa on that end then back.  Tempo Merkins then mosey…
THA-THANG:
Mosey towards the overlook, tempo squats at stop sign to wait on 6, then finish mosey to overlook.  The deal up top is 4 one minute amrap’s. Lap around the circle after each minute.  AMRAP’s consisted of Merkins, Big Boys, Lunge, and Bobby Hurley’s

Mosey down to little everest.  4 one min amraps again at bottom, run up hill and back after each.  AMRAP’S consisted of Dry Docks, Freddy M’s, Man Makers, and Squats

Still some time so mosey to pavilion for one last bit of AMRAPS.  Alternate between 1 min amraps of table rows and wall sit.  Finished with 2 min amrap of LBC’s.

 

 

MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
23 HIM’s
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We honored what would have been my Dad’s 69th birthday.  Talked about the task we have of honoring our heavenly father every day.  That is why you’re here.  Also, challenged PAX to reach out and go a step deeper with their friendships.  Ask.