Back Breaking

I work out with a guy who is… how shall I say… a beast.  He crafts these amazing and ridiculous workouts for a few of us from work to kill ourselves with.  When we first started working out he told me that there is a decent portion of working out that is mental.  I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but today confirmed it.

This occurred in two differing ways.  The first was when the guys were setting up the weight to be lifted, they started putting a lot more on than I thought I could ever move.  I told them, half joking that I was gonna have to work out on a different aparatus, because of the low amount of weight I was expecting to lift.  They convinced me that because of the way we were lifting, the small motion with that big weight wasn’t gonna be a big deal.  So, I tried.  I had never done that exact exercise and did not know what I was capable of.  No preconceived notions of what was normal for me.  WHAT?! I actually lifted with the guys who had been at this for a few years longer than me.  I am slowly turning into a beast.  Not really.  When my mind was set that the weight wasn’t a big deal and I believed it, not just wanted to believe it, my body compensated for the difference.  It didn’t hold itself back in fear of failure or injury.  That was encouraging and awesome.

Exact opposite time.  I was doing an excercise that I knew I was capable of, and I normally don’t know how many reps I am supposed to do when I do my first set.  Jared (the beast) told me after my first set, try and get 10 on this one.  I confidently told him that I got 15 on the last set, so I thought that 10 would be no problem.  Then I said “now watch me struggle to get ten now that I know how many I am supposed to do.”  That is exactly what happened.  I was limited on that set to not quite reaching 10 reps.

I really believe that the mind is a very powerful tool and that God has made us with the ability to go beyond what we are normally capable of when we believe legitimately that we can do what we are called to.  Just like when I stepped up with no assumptions to the rack pulls, if I believe that what I am doing is well within normalcy and have no idea what is required of me, I can thrive.  When I put requirements and limits on myself, I will almost always fall short of them.  I believe this is part of the beauty of salvation.  The laws are gone, the requirements are not stated.  Simply: Imitate Christ.  Lift the weight.  Know that what is inside of you is made to do that work that you are called to, believe that you are called to it and don’t allow limits and requirements to drag you down.  In the Old Testament, limits were put on people and sin abounded.  In the New Testament, freedom from limits is given and grace abounds.

Freedom in Christ.

Quarter Century Mark

So, I am now 25. A forth of the way to the big C. A score and a quarter. I guess I get to look forward to lower rates on my car insurance starting soon. I think 25 is a solid age, well enough into adulthood to be legit and responsible, but not at the point where 30 is impdending doom on my youth. I hope to spend the next year figuring out what I was put on this earth to do and charging after it whole-heartedly.

I would like to thank my Mom and Dad for liking each other enough for me to be here. Also for loving me after I got here. I love you guys so much.

Work, and Work

Trying to balance work and ministry and get everything done excellently for both is really crazy right now.  By the grace of God we are receiving some favor and work just keeps streaming in right now at Frontier, but it is non-stop juggling phone calls and productivity with my assigned roll.

With student ministry, we are having some tremendous success, also by the grace of God.  Students keep coming back and they seem to be liking the event and are challenged by the video teaching and small group time.  It is pretty awesome.  I am trying to wrangle some pretty cool opportunities for the opening event, but am having a tough time getting it together because of the time of year and the reluctance of schools to partner with local churches, especially new churches without a local track record.

All I do know is that God is going to have to give me the mental clarity, rest and attitude of Christ if I am going to make it through all of this in a glorifying manner.

Stretch!

Recently, I have been stretched in some awesome ways… in fact, the stretching continues.  Some of it has to do with life lessons, some of it has to do with work, some of it has to do with ministry and some of it has to do with reading.

I have learned a lot from my friends recently.  Whether praying for people, or hanging out, wisdom has been dropped on me like crazy recently.  I have been learning about showing grace, praying for people for no reason whatsoever, other than wanting God to blow their mind, and realizing that through my screw ups God still has my best interests in mind and works them like a like a see-saw to leverage my future.

Work has been good, and a little stressful.  There was a little bit of a slow streak through July and August… then September hit.  Not only did the volume pick up, but because of some oversights in process, there were several costly backups.  This is coupled with being out of office for three days short suiting the other workers who were dependent upon my roll to help check, complete and process orders.  My ability to handle stress and to keep my mind focused on one project at a time has been stretched pretty well.  I am learning to use the technology that I have to my advantage.

Ministry has been AWESOME! And crazy.  We are growing pretty well, only being two weeks running, and I can’t wait to see where the next two weeks takes us.  Not to mention the next few months and years.  God has been very active on our behalf, opening doors (literally opening homes for us to meet in) and gathering volunteers to help us do what He has called us to.  I am being stretched in my follow through with a lot of responsibilities that have been handed to me.  I still have a lot of emails to send as I type this.

I just finished reading “The Shack” and I was stretched in the way that I not only view God, but also in how I view myself in relation to Him.  God has no expectations for me.  He is already aware of everything I will ever do, so I can’t surprise Him, let Him down or thwart Him.  It is good to know that I don’t have performance pressures when it comes to God.  The freshness of His love coming through such a well written novel is pretty exciting.  There are few people who write so clearly and with such wisdom.

Correction: Daley Machine

My spelling of the Mayor of Chicago was off.  He is really “Daley” and not “Daily.”  Also, when we arrived, there were tons of signs at the Chicago-Midway airport saying the Mr. Daley was welcoming us to Chicago.  I tend to believe that he is more powerful than the Governor of Illinois.  That is kind of a shame.  For the Governor that is.

Chicago Bound

I am about to go to Chicago with my boss and two other guys from work.  That is going to be pretty awesome.  I have never been there, and I have heard some pretty amazing things about it.  I also know that the city did not get its name “Windy City” from weather patterns.  It actually has to do with political shifts and whims.  The Daily Machine there was pretty fierce and highly involved in the ins and outs of almost everything that went on concerning commodity, position and results for the entire city.  Scary, huh?

I, on the other hand live in Greenville (currently residing in the house of two amazing and Godly people who own a home in Pelzer, SC).  I consider myself to live in Greenville because of the amount of time that I spend here, with work, church, friends and all.

I think that I need to write down some of the wisdom that God has dropped on me recently.  It is still blowing my mind.

I am also reading “The Shack” by William P. Young (p probably stands for Pyetrovic, he hides his slavic heritage) which is a fascinating/challenging/great read.  I am learning a lot from a work of fiction about God.  Weird.