Median – Page 4 – F3 Knoxville

Farming Rules for Growth

July 25, 2022 Guardrail

THE SCENE: 74° Cloudy and a wee bit muggy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Delivered
WARM-O-RAMA:
Side Straddle Hop, Harry Rockets,Cherry Pickers, Kick throughs, Tempo Merkins, Tempo Squats, Stretch on your own
THA-THANG:
Today was all about measuring some physical achievements to see how we are progressing. Is our effort producing fruit? Remember, this isn’t a competition expect for against yourself. We’ll do it again, Lord willing, when the air is cooler and our bodies are stronger and faster. I’m thinking late Oct.

100m dash
Max Pull Ups
1 Mile Run time
# of heavy thrusters in 2:00
Time to do 50 Curls
Time to do 50 Tricep extensions
Max Merkins consecutive

Took longer than a I thought so no time for Mary.

Times were documented; 11 HIM’s have a baseline of what their bodies can do.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Not to brag, but my grass is looking really good. I can’t take too much credit. I have a grass allergy so I pay for a lawn service and I have a sprinkler system that helped it survive the June drought.
My brother is a farmer and his “yard” is a mess… but we drove a tractor through it, in the right spot at the right time and out of the ground came food.
Food we can eat. It’s an every day miracle and we are so far removed from agriculture that we miss the amazing ways God works in “normal things.” Find time today to praise God for the miracle of food. It’s delicious and awesome. If you are struggling to realize this, one word: bacon.
But to plant food you have to tear up some dirt and follow the rules of nature.
1) It takes planning
2) It takes time
3) It takes God to do the watering.
4) It take a lot of hands and you can’t hide it

So how do we cultivate the soil of our souls for spiritual growth?
I want to be clear. God does the work. Jesus Christ already died and rose again and and if you invite him into your heart He gives us life and fruit.
1) Have a plan and get started on it.
2) Realize it takes time. pray for patience.
3) Realize it is God who is doing the work… prayer life
4) It isn’t about looking good; share the fact that you don’t have it all together. Share your goal. Tell a brother and don’t be afraid to reveal you are covered in dirt. It takes lots of hands and transparency
Sow for yourself righteousness, reap steadfast love
break up your fallow ground
for it is time to see the Lord
that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hosea 10:12
Today we measured our physical fitness with the goal of measuring again in a few months for improvement.
We know how to set goals, improve physically and hopefully the why is for the right reasons; so we can be healthy contributing leaders in our community for years to come. Measuring fitness is much easier than measuring spiritual growth, but that doesn’t mean we get to skip it.
Today I want to challenge you to set some spiritual goals:

Are you growing in maturity?
Are you a more bold witness?
A better example to your kids?
More loving an approachable to your wife?
Do you have a reading list?
Do you have a prayer list?
Is God calling you to fast for a season or a specific topic?
Do you have a Bible reading plan?

Pick one or two of the above and tell a brother you plan to measure, grow, patiently wait for God to work and encourage a brother to do the same.

My apologies for the order of these. That was rough. And the truck coming around the corner at just the wrong time kept us from getting our true max merkins. Result tables below in Alpha order of F3 Name.

Booster	July 25
100M	19.11
Pull ups	3 jump
Mile	10:15
Thrusters in 2:00	32 cmu
50 Curl time	:55 cmu
50 Tri ext time	:47 cmu
Max consec. Merkins	25

Commission	July 25
100M	17.32
Pull ups	2
Mile	10:13
Thrusters in 2:00	42
50 Curl time	1:01
50 Tri ext time	:49
Max consec. Merkins	15

Guardrail	July 25
100M	17
Pull ups	26
Mile	7:27
Thrusters in 2:00	27 cmu
50 Curl time	1:00 cmu
50 Tri ext time	:47 coupon
Max consec. Merkins	22

Kick Flip	July 25
100M	15.75
Pull ups	17
Mile	6:59
Thrusters in 2:00	32
50 Curl time	:49
50 Tri ext time	:38
Max consec. Merkins	48

Mailbox	July 25
100M	15s
Pull ups	7
Mile	6:30
Thrusters in 2:00	41
50 Curl time	:56
50 Tri ext time	:44
Max consec. Merkins	28

Median	July 25
100M	16
Pull ups	20
Mile	8:07
Thrusters in 2:00	30
50 Curl time	1:07
50 Tri ext time	1:09
Max consec. Merkins	22

Shrubbery	July 25
100M	16.92
Pull ups	21
Mile	6:30
Thrusters in 2:00	42
50 Curl time	:43
50 Tri ext time	:37
Max consec. Merkins	34 (or is it 54?… either way impressive)

Stitch	July 25
100M	18.04
Pull ups	15 cc
Mile	8:32
Thrusters in 2:00	42
50 Curl time	:46
50 Tri ext time	:47
Max consec. Merkins	27

Stye	July 25
100M	14.45
Pull ups	4
Mile	11:01
Thrusters in 2:00	29
50 Curl time	:57
50 Tri ext time	:51
Max consec. Merkins	16

Wanderer	July 25
100M	15.85
Pull ups	5
Mile	9:11
Thrusters in 2:00	35 coupon
50 Curl time	:46 coupon
50 Tri ext time	:45 coupon
Max consec. Merkins	13

MOLESKIN:
Ashley is back from Nicaragua on Saturday, Lord willing. Continue to pray for her trip home and that ministry.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
See Judge Judy’s post in the main channel for the details on Aug service opportunity

Hide-n-go-work-out

April 13, 2022 Guardrail

THE SCENE: Dry-ish, 60°
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Side Straddle Hops, Cherry Pickers, Maracan Night Clubs, Kick Throughs, Windmills, Mountain Climbers
THA-THANG:
Two Teams of 4 followed a map to locations with prescribed exercises at each spot. Counts are per man. If you finished early you help the guys still working so you stay as a team.

20 dips & 10 right leg squats & 10 left leg squats
Merkin city 10 wide 10 regular 10 canyon
15 leg raises & 30 smurf jax
10x Loading dock jump ups & run down Ramp, 2 Donkey Kick
20 4ct Flutter kicks & 10 kick throughs
10 (or amrap) Pull ups & 10 (or Amrap) hanging Heels to heaven
CMU: 20 Overhead Press, 20 Tricep & 20 Curls

The catch: It’s hide and go seek style. If the other team sees you they start a count down from 5 on the walkie Talkie. If you are still visible at the point they get to 0, 5 burpees for the team. Good time had by all.

I wanted to see someone dive into a bush but no such luck. Thanks to the guys who got into it and hid behind trees (even if they were only 3″ in diameter) It was good for a laugh.

MARY:
A little bit of time for some BBS and heels to heaven while we waited for the rushers.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I’ve been reading Judges and there are a lot of “great” men. By worldly standards that is and some trying really hard to be godly men. But there is a noticeable lack of great fathers. Even the good judges didn’t have kids that followed in their ways.

One of these men was a non PG story. Who is the strong man of the Bible? Long hair?God used him; even his sinful and stubborn and perverted ways, but his life wasn’t the life we would want for our sons.Outside of having rather silly riddles and a bent toward violence, his wife was given to a different man after his wedding feast. Frequented prostitutes. Eyes gouged out. Years in prison. Died in a suicidal building collapse.

Yet, God used him. We’ll never know how God would have used him had his Parents told him no. If he had learned to control his desires. But instead we see the young Samson say of a Philistine woman to his dad: “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

We as fathers need to tell our kids no. Tell them to curb their appetite for what they feel they need so they can learn to win over the desires of this world, over sexual desire, over selfishness. It’s not easy. Laying aside His own interests for the interests of others is what we celebrate this weekend – Jesus did that perfectly.

If we get out here and get as strong as Samson and not figure out how to be a good father – we will have missed the mark. Being a good father is about daily caring about the spiritual development of your kids. That’s going to look very different for each kid, but be praying for your kids, talking with them about spiritual things and having the hard conversations. Don’t avoid the uncomfortable conversation or hard consequences win out over spiritual growth of your kids. I don’t have it all figured out- I’m talking to myself as much as anyone, but I’d love to talk it out over coffee or on a run.

And here is a tip – you can’t do it on your own strength. Ask the Holy Spirit, in the power of Jesus’ name to guide you in your parenting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Family friendly workout at the Project Saturday, 7am.

Plan for the CSAUP May 7 9pm-12am. If you enjoyed this mornings workout, that will be 10x better.

Bringing Habits HOME

March 11, 2022 Lil Spice

THE SCENE: 39 and clear. Perfect weather for a VQ

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Completed

WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x20 (IC)
Cherry Pickers x5 (IC)
Dive Bombers x5 (IC)
Squats x15 (IC)
30 seconds on your own

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the quad.

Ghostman Baseball shamelessly stolen from Blindside and Choir Boy…sounded like fun and thought we should give it a try! Split into two teams. First team runs to first, completes the exercise, returns home while the other team does the Home exercise. Switch when running team returns. Second round: Run to 1st, do the exercise, run to second, do the exercise, return home. Continue the pattern until you reach home. You do not need to run back from home.

First Base
- 15 Merkins
- Big Boys at Home
Second Base
- 30 Smurf Jacks
- American Hammers at Home
Third Base
- 5 Burpees
- Flutter Kicks at Home
Home Plate
- 30 Squats
- Plank

Mosey towards the duck pond and stop for 50 Boosters (Toe Merkins) on the curb

Welsh Dragons up the hill near the duck pond parking lot (bear crawl forward x4, 1 merkin, tap each shoulder, plank jack – repeat and increment merkin, shoulder tap, plank jack each time until you get to 10 or your arms fall off!)

Mosey to parking lot west of the flag.

Seven of Diamonds (7, 14, 21, 28 of each exercise) at the four light poles
- Split back into same two teams from baseball.
- One team will do exercises clockwise and other will be counter-clockwise. First team to complete all exercises wins.
- Round 1 – Squats
- Round 2 – LBCs
- Round 3 – SSHs

MARY:
PAX took turns calling out exercises until time

Spotter – imperial walkers
Doubtfire – gas pumpers
Erector – heels to heaven
Kickflip – squeaky dollies
Room Service – pickle pointers
Data – supermans

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 HIMs and 1 2.0
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
From “Habits of the Household” by Justin Earley

Habits are kinds of liturgies. They are little routines of worship, and worship changes what we love. Habits of the household are not just actions that form our families’ routines, they are liturgies that form our families’ hearts. This is why we should choose then so carefully.

Think of it like this: when it comes to spiritual formation, our households are not simply products of what we teach and say. They are much more products of what we practice and do. And usually there is a significant gap between the two.

My challenge to you this morning is to think through some existing habits in your household that you could change or new ones you could implement.

For me, one habit I’ve started to do at night is give my son a bedtime blessing. Another one we’ve changed is that we put away all screens in our house on Sundays.

MOLESKIN:
N/A

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Check out the new F3 Knoxville Podcast that Blindside is putting out.

Maracan Chaos and Food

February 16, 2022 Guardrail

THE SCENE: 36, dry and wonderful
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Maracan Night clubs, Maracan Rockets (i used the wrong name so we stuck with all things Maracan), Maracan Cherry Pickers, Ladder Tyson merkin up to 5, Mountain climbers

THA-THANG:
This workout followed Guardrail’s attention span, so a little of everything:

Racoon crawl the perimeter of an island in the parking lot
15 Guardrail Dips, because
Green light length Plank
15 Monkey Humpers at the intersection of HV & Bryant
Crazy Apple double apple sauce Indian run in the dark, glad no one collided, but at least we didn’t notice the hill was huge.
Found 5 abandoned CMUs that we returned to their proper home
- 10 Merkins & CMU Rifle Carry
- 10 Thruster & Lunge Walk
- 10 Heavy American Hammer & Bear Crawl
- 20 Triceps curls & Bernie loop
5 Pull ups while others held a canoe & boat
Returned the CMU and did a wall sit
11’s on the hill behind the railing with Smurf Jax at the bottom, Plank Jax at top
Ladder sprint in the biggest parking lot
- 10 Burpee, Sprint to 1st line
- 20 Maracan LBC, Sprint to 2nd line
- 30 Maracan Squats, Sprint to the 3rd line

MARY:
Plenty of time for Core: Flutter kicks, Box cutter, Super rows, Heels to heaven, LBC, Freddie Mercury
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Be like Jesus – Eat with someone

“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking” Luke 7:34a

While not the main point of the verse, the fact is Jesus connected with people over food. We should do the same. The challenge is simple. Before this time next week, take someone to a meal or coffee or better yet have them in your home.

invite someone from work, someone here (or who hasn’t been here in a while) or someone you don’t know

Bananas distributed as a reminder to share food.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP event at Asylum next weekend! Register

T-shirt order deadline is upon us. Just need 1 or 2 more I think.

Wesley House donations still open!

Givin’ Out Free Shiners

December 15, 2021 Commission

THE SCENE: Mid 30’s, kinda damp.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

25 SSH, 5 Cherry pickers, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Tempo Squats, Ring of Fire

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the coupon pile with three stops to do: 20 x 4 count Hillbillies, 20 x 4 count Imperial Walkers, 20 Pistol Crunches

Heavy Dora with a bear crawl from the asphalt near the stairs to the concrete by the trash can.

100 Skull Crushers
200 Curls
300 Bench Presses

11’s on the hill

start with 10 Twinkle Toes on the bottom and 1 squat at the top
Mosey back to the Flag.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. – Author Unknown

For those of you who don’t know, I taught here in Knoxville for 5 years. My former students are now all in their mid to early 20’s and that air of invincibility is wearing off. I don’t have all the answers to their questions but more than anything, it means the world to those guys that I care enough to reach out and listen, offer what advice I can or even just grab a meal with them. More often than not though, I do know what they are going through and I do know what to suggest to them because it is the same stuff I went through and I give them the same answers that Dillard Harwell, John Austin Smith and Sandy Crow gave to me when I was their age. Those were my mentors and all three of them are now dead.

Most of us are overdue on bringing someone alongside. Don’t overthink it. Two of my three mentors started everything off with food. One to the Sizzler and the other to his house for a meal. It can be as easy as bringing someone along with you to something you already do. Sketchy goes to church with me and lives just down the street. I get 10 minutes with him on the way here and 10 minutes on the way home with him. If my fat self comes here three times a week, that’s an hour I have to chat with this young man on a drive that I was going to make anyways. And do you know what the best part of it all is…guess who is being a good example to my three sons and bringing them along with him on things he was going to do…Sketchy.

Good ideas are like food, they have expiration dates. They spoil if you don’t use them. Just as you thanked a mentor on Monday, do some mentoring today. If counsel, give counsel. If time, give time. You’ve got to eat today; don’t do it alone. We become all things to all men so that we might save some. (1 Cor 9:22)