THE SCENE: Heavy rain that stopped when we started, temps in low 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Plank arm and leg raises, 20 plank jacks, 10 Burpees, 10 Rockettes, 10 Windmills, 10 temp squats.
THA-THANG:
Quick mosey to Dragon Fly. We will do Route 66 up dragon fly with the following exercises:
- Squat jumps
- Dive bombers
- Imperial Walkers
Quick mosey back to AO. Break into teams. Each team grabs a set of bricks. We will do Doras. One partner runs around parking lot in the following fashion: Bernie Sanders Corner 1 to Corner 2. Bear crawl Corner 2 to Corner 3. Sprint Corner 3 to Corner 4. Lunge Corner 4 to Corner 1. Meanwhile, the other partner will be doing exercises with the bricks. Then the partners switch off. These are the exercises with the bricks:
- 100 Overhead Presses
- 100 Brick Punches
- 100 Curls
- 100 Wings Up
- 100 Rows with hands at sides
- 100 Wings Down
- 100 Wings Out
Next we Bernie up Mini Cardiac and sprint back down. Do 20 Merkins at bottom of Mini Cardiac. Next time we Grapevine up Mini Cardiac, switching way we face halfway up. We sprint down and do another 20 Merkins.
Quick mosey back to AO.
MARY:
Cash out with ATM’s.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Five men, no FNG’s.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
One of the wonderful books I have read on the subject of God is by Ken Gire. It is entitled Relentless Pursuit. In it, Gire talks about how God, in his love for us, relentlessly pursues us. We may stray, we may ignore, we may hide, but God comes to find us, the Good Shepherd seeking his lost sheep. The first chapter, “The Pursuit”, talks about a poet named Francis Thompson.
In 1987, Wilfred Meynell, the editor of a Catholic literary magazine called Merry England received a parcel of mail containing disheveled manuscripts. An unsigned note said, “I must ask your pardon for the soiled state of the manuscript. It is not due to slovenliness, but to the strange places and circumstances under which it has been written.” Meynell was fascinated enough to go through the manuscript, finding some poems and prose. One of the poems particularly moved him. The parcel had no return address. He published the poem in the next edition of the magazine in hopes the author would contact him. After the publication, the author did contact the editor, leaving the return address of a chemist shop. When Meynell went to the chemist shop, the chemist told Meynell that the author was a man who was living on the streets. He owed the chemist a debt for opium he had purchased and was selling matches make money to live by and pay off his bills. Meynell paid the bill and left an invitation for the author to visit his office.
One day, unannounced, a thirty-something year-old man showed up with stained and threadbare clothing. His body was frail and many years of drug addiction had taken there toll on him. He was Francis Thompson, the author of the poems and prose in the manuscript. He has been born into a respected Catholic family. He had gone to med school on the wishes of his father but dropped out, not liking it. An argument with his father came afterward and Thompson left to make it on his own. Instead he found opium and became addicted to it.
Meynell’s family watched over him, placed him under a doctor’s care, and sent him to a monastery where he was temporarily freed from his addiction. For the 1889 to 1907, Thompson wrote three volumes of poetry, numerous literary reviews, and an essay on Shelly that was highly acclaimed. His most noted work was a long poem entitled “The Hound of Heaven.” In 1907, after a major relapse into addiction, Thompson died at the age of 48.
His poem, “The Hound of Heaven”, is considered to be one of the greatest in English literature. In the poem, he talks about being pursued by a chasing Hound Dog .
I fled Him, down the nights and the dayss;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
Thompson also describes the pursuer:
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat – and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet –
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.
The Hound thus claims that the one pursued is acting in a way that betrays him as well as the Hound.
The pursuit continues through the poem until the pursued finally turns to face the predator, the Hound. He finds that the pursuer was not a Hound, but God, his father. The father speaks:
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
The father later exclaims:
Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.
God pursues us. For Thompson, God took the form of a hunting hound. For others, God takes a different form. For example, the author Anne Lamont talks about God pursuing her in the form of a mewing cat, continually showing up at her door. She reluctantly feeds it milk and the cat keeps showing up until finally it is purring on her chest, gently kneading her.
God pursues each of us. How is God pursuing you? Does God come to you as a question that keeps ringing in your head? In the form of dissatisfaction with your current job or position in life that your are afraid to change? In the longing for new meaning or answers that you just can’t seem to find? We are unique individuals whom God seeks in different ways. How might God be pursuing you right now? Are you ignoring Him, running from Him, afraid of Him, dissatisfied with Him, angry with Him? Dare to listen, dare to turn your head to see Himm. You just may find a loving father with outstretched arms, saying “I am what you are seeking!”
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Iceman’s mother, Mr. Jinxy’s father and Pinto. Praise for the birth of Sparkler’s cousin.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board meeting immediately after workout!
