Some Days are Diamonds...Some Days are Stones...

Today made me wonder if I wanted to run again. I attempted a long run of between 15 and 18 miles.

I made it 13.5, that included running and walking. With emphasis on walking.

Jina and I joined others from my company to work on a Habitat for Humanity House. If you get a chance, volunteer, you'll be amazed. That meant no long run on Saturday morning, fatique scratched a Sunday morning attempt, so Sunday afternoon it was. Let's keep this simple.

Started out good, then GI issues from eating before running, dehydration, leg cramps, shoulder cramps, irritated sinus, and a bruised psychy. I think lack of rest finally caught up with me.

So I'm going to call it a day and save my thoughts for another day.

Yesterday was a diamond, today....a big fat boulder..., but hey, I woke up this morning, both legs worked, the ticker was ticking and the lungs drew a breath. That puts me ahead of the curve.

To my dedicated fans, sorry I didn't match the past two months. I only got up 11 posts this month.

"Poser"

Do you regcognize the term used for my title. It is slang for someone who is pretending to be something, someone who is not the genuine article, someone who "talks the talk", but doesn't "walk the walk".

I felt like a poser this morning. My Bible had collected dust for at least three weeks. While packing Sunday night, I grabbed it and tossed it in my bag. On the flight to Chicago, I slept, really slept. The flight attendant had to wake me up after everyone else had deplaned, I never felt the landing. For the flight to Fayetteville, AR, I pulled the Bible from my carry on and searched for something to read. My NIV study Bible's intro for the book of Judges aroused my curiosity, so I started reading. I read for the entire flight.

As the flight attendant made her last round prior to landing, she paused and said, "I wish I was that dedicated.", referring to me reading the Bible. I wanted to crawl under my seat, "POSER" should have flashed in Times Square Neon across my forehead. She told me her personal Bible was large, cumbersom and hard to carry along with all her other gear, so I recommended she check out Border's for something smaller and easier to carry. We talked briefly and when she confessed to being behind in her reading, I confessed mine as well, but I'm not sure she believed me.

Once while visiting the Lifeway store in Nashville, another patron struck up a conversation with me and then asked if I was a pastor. When I answered, "No", he proceeded to tell me that I looked like one and sounded like one. I took it as a compliment, at least I think it was, but felt embarrased and assured him nothing could be further from the truth.

Both circumstances made me feel uneasy, as though I was pretending. While I projected one image to both of these individuals, I wasn't fooling God, he is aware of my shortcomings. Don't get me wrong, as a Christian it is important to project ourselves in a positve manner to the world, but more importantly it is our life long relationship with God that matters most. The Pharisees knew the letter of the law, but as Jesus pointed out, they missed the intent. So rather than just go through the motions once in a while, I know that I've got to sustain my relationship with God and with Christ. Going through the motions makes me a "POSER".

1 John 2:3-5 (New International Version)
3We know that we
have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him,"
but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if
anyone obeys his word, God's love[a]
is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:

Matthew 7:20-23 (New International Version)
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Small Blessing, Lessons Learned, and I'm Gonna Run

Small Blessings...

1)Weekend car repair projects that go faster than expected.
2)Car repairs that are not as bad as you thought.
3)Free time spent hanging out with the family, instead of making car repairs.
4)A 32 year old motor home that is finally road and camping worthy.
5)Seeing your kid do well in a game.

Lessons Learned...
1)Neighbors with experience working on cars need simply to walk over look at the offending vehicle to make a vehicle, that had refused to start for 2 weeks, start right up.
2)You feel kind of lost when a project is completed (1975 motor home) and you have to wait 2 weeks to use it (Camping Somewhere).
3)Runners are like motorcyclist. There are those who have gone down and those who will. (I'm now in the first category.)
4)Board games with your wife and 6 year old can top any college football games on TV.
5)Building endurance by doing Squats immediately after a 4 mile treadmill run sounds good, makes you feel invincible at the gym, and hurts like heck for days after. What was I thinking?

I'm Gonna Run...
NOTE TO ALL: Deciding to run a new route in the dark at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning is not the brightest idea. You are likely to discover that the busy road you thought had an emergency lane, doesn't. Also, you may discover that running along the edge of the asphalt in the dark works well, until the edge of the asphalt has given way. If you're lucky you'll walk away with only a bruised ego and a few seconds of lost time searching for the water bottle that was catapulted from it's strapping.
The above message was a public service announcement, brought to you by the National Association of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

I have found a fall marathon that will correspond with my schedule. I'll be running in the inaugural "Run for NO Reason Marathon". As of this posting, the route has yet to be determined, but the race organizer has assured me he will let me know as soon as he has figured it out. The race will be run on either October 27 or the following weekend. The field of runners is an impressive list, consisting of Me, Myself, and I.

Yep, I decided my goal was to run a marathon, so that is what I'm going to do. Once I determine my route, which may be from my home to roughly New Washington, IN, I'll post it. If anyone wants join me for 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 26.2 miles or anything in between, I'd be glad to have the company anywhere along the chosen route. I'll post more details as I figure them out. You may like the entry fee? My wife did. It is free.

Good News/Bad News

Good News, my son gets a fall break, and we're going to head to Roanoke, VA to visit friends and hear a good sermon...there you go Scotty, the pressure is on.

Bad News, we thought fall break was the last week of October, wrong it is the 3rd weekend. This is also the weekend of the Louisville Marathon. Scratch the Marathon.

I have been told that travel to run a race is out of the question, so I'm left with the trail Marathon in December. Not what I planned, but it'll have to do.

Home

Well I'm back home, and working from home today, so I'm taking a moment to update my Blog page. I've added NY, NY to the places I've run, put up my Tuesday and Wednesday mileage and changed my sons age from 5 to 6 on my profile (HAPPY BIRTHDAY J-ROD) and thought I'd write a couple of lines.

New York is an interesting place, and if you get the chance, I encourage you to visit. I spent most of my time for the conference in Times Square (Broadway), but did manage to scrounge the time to see the following; Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty (from the ferry), Ground Zero, Wall Street, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, a Yankee's game at Yankee Stadium, and Central Park in the dark, running at 5 am and in the daylight on my last day.

Had I seen the park in the daylight prior to running, I wouldn't have survived. Luckily, in the dark you didn't see the hills 'til you got to them.

Ground Zero was blocked out by construction fencing, but being in the area gave new perspective to that day. The streets in this oldest part of NYC are narrow, the photos and video from that day don't give the proper perspective. Reminders are everywhere, names of falling PD and FD members adorn stations and vehicles.

Within a few blocks of the site are several old denominations standing among the skyscrapers. Next to one, St. Peters Cathedral, stands the steel beam Cross you see in the photos. It stands there waiting for it's permanent home among other symbols of that day.

Don't believe what you've seen in the movies, New York is very clean, considering the number of people. The people I dealt with were very nice, one gentleman offered his assistance when our group seemed to be figuring out the Subway map. (We actually had an experienced member of the group, but had chosen the spot for a conversation while waiting for the bus.)

Despite being down on the depth, or should I say heighth, chart, the Empire State Building is impressive. Even more so considering when it was constructed. When downtown, or uptown, or midtown, its height is masked by the heighth of other buildings and it's proximity to them. When viewing the skyline or from its observation deck, it is apparent it is still king of the city.

While impressive, I can't help but remember seeing the skyscrapers of Denver, with the Rocky Mountains as the backdrop. Man's greatest accomplishments are nothing compared to the works and wonders of God.

"Come along and listen to...

...the lullabye of Broadway." Come on sing it with me. "The Hip Horay and..." Ok, how about, "I want to be a part of it, New York, New York..."

One guess where I'm writing this from. I'm about as lost here as Oliver Davis (whoops, it was Oliver and Lisa Douglas) was in Green Acres, but it is definitely interesting.

Unfortunately this conference is cutting into my running. Doesn't look like I'll get in my long run tomorrow. I'm hoping that running on Sunday, usually an off day, will make up for it. I'm starting to get nervous. Travel and injury have me behind where I would like to be for my long runs, and I'm down to only a month or so before the Louisville Marathon. Losing this weekend is not a good thing.

The bright spot is I'll get to log some miles in Central Park, and run with a co-worker and friend whom I've been trying to meet up with and run with for a year now. Unfortunately, he is usually headed the opposite direction, visiting his account cities.

I hope to be able to post my experiences as I go, but I don't know how much I'll get to a computer after tonight.

Rocks and Glass Houses-Additional Comments Added

On the way home today a well known nationally syndicated Christian commentator was delivering a positive message....

One of my friends shared a tape with me this past summer in which a backwoods Christian radio show is spoofed. Now having driven through Tennessee for years and more recently through the Ozarks in NW Arkansas, I can attest to the fact that such shows exist, but the spoof took it a bit farther.

If I recall correctly, the singing was of the Southern Gospel genre, poorly sung, and the message concerned long hair taking you to hell. Lucky for my balding readers. Today's syndicated talk show host was putting "fist to pulpit" over the provocative clothing designed for and worn by tween and teen girls. Ever notice no one ever cares what boys wear; sorry,I digress. While I won't disagree with him, I'd like to remind him that the moral degradation of the fashion industry has been discussed since the first low cut bear skin adorned our early female ancestors. Funny, I couldn't help but compare the backwoods orator and his highly esteemed counter part.

I recall the Bible instructing us not to conform to this world, but I'm a little fuzzy on where it calls us to conform it to us. Early Christians spent their time reaching their lost brethren, not arguing against Roman culture and Roman policy. Couldn't this guy deliver a positive commentary....

Here comes the Rock in a Glass House! I hadn't prayed today. Hey where did that come from? When was the last time I prayed? Yesterday, lunch, hasty blessing. My commentator friend was off the hook, I needed to address my own short comings. Perhaps I didn't have enough letters after my name..."Let it go James!" But he puts his pants on one leg at a time just like I do. But of course his will be properly fitted so as to not be too revealing or entice in any way, shape, or form..."JAMES!"

OK, I tried to have a little fun at the end there, but honestly, Christ said it best...

Matthew 7:5 (New International Version)

5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Below is a quote from a post by Scotty. (See a link for his blog in my left hand column). I went back to see his post on hypocrisy and discovered he had made my point for me some time back. (take a look at the whole post if you haven't already done so). By the way, I was always finishing behind him in races as well, so him being a step ahead of me is nothing new.

Does the Church have a right to tell people what to do?Perhaps
the answer lies in reading what follows the admonition not to judge people.
Matthew 7:3-5 says the following: 3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in
your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can
you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the
time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out
of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your
brother’s eye.The right to speak to people must be earned. People must know that
we genuinely care about them. Too often we appoint ourselves as ambassadors to
the world to tell people how they should live even though we haven’t earned the
right to do so. We must be honest about our own shortcomings. Our goal isn’t to
make people look like us. Our goal is to bring people into the presence of
Christ. He does a pretty good job of cleaning us up.

This pretty much covers how I felt about my radio friend's topic and my own precarious position when I was ready to play Mr. Self Righteous.

Why is WINNING a dirty word?

Saturday brought with it opening day of the Fall soccer season for my 5 year old. This season looked promising. At the one practice held prior to the season my son looked pretty good, drawing a post practice comment from the coach and leaving me wondering if he shouldn't have moved up an age level, since he is pushing six.

Game day was a disaster. Instead of my "6" year old dominating the younger competition, he stood, playing defense, or rather playing with his shirt tail and staring in our direction after any feeble attempt at getting involved in play. Thankfully the quarter ended and he came over for a drink. At this point I'm sure some of the surrounding mothers, his own included, thought I was the over zealous "sports dad". Believe what you will, but when it comes to my kids, I've learned to keep my competitiveness in check. I know my son, and a little tough love and old school coaching was in order. After I made sure he was good and mad, he headed back onto the field only to be sent right back to the sideline, he was sitting out the second quarter.

As I said before, believe what you will, but I'm not "sports dad", so after allowing him to "stew" a bit on the sideline, I went over and sat down beside him. I talked about how and why he needed to play to his potential and do his best, to which he responded, "It doesn't matter it's not a game...I mean it's a game, but nobody's keeping score."

I'll tell you how the game ended in a moment, but first I need to vent. What are we teaching our kids with these "don't keep score, everyone's a winner, self esteem, group hug, feel good about yourself" leagues? My son wasn't having his self esteem boosted, he saw no reason to play his best because it didn't matter. He was willing to coast through the game, with no idea of what he should be trying to accomplish or even why he should be trying to score a goal.

Part of developing our children should include developing their character. How does my son learn to be a "good winner" if he is not allowed to win? How does he learn to be a "good loser" if he never has to suffer defeat? I grew up in an era when every game, even the earliest Tee Ball games, resulted in a winner and a loser. I never felt poorly about myself because I lost a game, but instead learned to hate the feeling and strive to avoid it. Through losing, I learned the joy of winning, and the winning was something I wanted to have again and again. At ten years old I had a little league football coach who now seems to have been the embodiment of Mick, Rocky Balboa's manager. While his language may have left something to be desired, he had a desire to see us succeed. He got me, a 49 pound ten year old, to go head to head with 100+ pound 12 year olds. Yes, they were bigger than I was, but I held my own, because that was what was expected. You got knocked down. You got up again.

I've lived a blessed life with only a few bumps along the way, but like everyone, I've faced my challenges. Each time I find myself wanting to give in, I can't, I don't want to lose. The desire to be a winner has gotten me through troubled relationships, poor life decisions, and is a necessitate to survive in my chosen profession. The drive I learned on the courts and fields has been proven time after time. Let's teach our kids to be winners!

My son went back out and played goalie in the third quarter. He did the best I've ever seen him do. He missed one ball, giving up a goal which put the other team up 1-0. The fourth quarter found him playing offense. He scored 2 goals, moving the ball up the field like I knew he was capable of and the game ended with his team winning 2-1. On the way home I asked him whether it felt better to stand back and do nothing, or to score goals? He liked scoring the goals. He became excited when we informed him that we were keeping score, that his team had won, and that his two goals had won the game for them. I won't lie, it's a feeling I hope he enjoyed and one he wants to feel again. There is no shame in losing a well fought contest, but there is nothing that compares with a hard fought victory!

"After the boys of Summer have gone..."

This was/is one of my favorite songs, but it always evokes thoughts of a time of year I've never liked. The end of Summer. The arrival of Fall.

Even when new school years held excitement and anticipation and the arrival of Fall put me one step closer to hunting season, the shorter days left me longing for more time, more Summer. This feeling came knocking the other night as I drove back from Nashville. Passing Slugger Field, it's lights off, seats empty until "there's new grass on the field..." (another favorite tune), my mind began to churn. What had I not done this summer? Man, another summer with more time spent traveling and not with my kids. Why hadn't I... fill in the blank..?

As I crossed the bridge into Indiana, mixed in with these thoughts was, "Would I be saying the same thing if Christ returned today?" "Are there family members and friends I'll regret not sharing the Gospel with?" "Will I wish there was one more day?"

The neat part of my job is the places I've been and the things I've seen. The pain is that only once have I been able to share them with my wife and kids. I'm left thinking I need to do more to make sure I don't have that same feeling when God calls his people home. I need to take the time and share my faith. If nothing else, to make sure they know what gives me hope and who sees me through the hard times.

Proverbs 20:4 (New International Version)

4 A sluggard does not plow in season;

so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.

Just to Write Something

It is getting late here in Nashville, but I just had to write something to get my blogging fix.

In the most recent issue of Runner's World magazine there is an article about running sprints uphill to build leg strength.

I tried this today on the treadmill, with a bit of a twist. After a warm up mile, rather than full out sprints for 10 seconds, I held a sub 5K pace for 30 second intervals, on a 6 degree incline. This makes it easier to adjust the speed and incline up and down, then recover at a moderate pace and .5 incline until recovered. Repeat. Then a 1/2 mile cool down.

Anyway, it made a three mile run go quickly and broke up the monotony of running on the treadmill. Give it a try next time you get bored on the treadmill.

SICR Dominates Utica 5K

Ok, that might be overstating the situation a bit, but we all did take home hardware.

• Tammy - 3rd Place Overall Female
• Alicia - 1st Place, Age Division
• Jina - 1st Place, Age Division
• Chris - 1st Place, Age Division
• James - 3rd Place Overall Male

As always, a great time!