Ragan, our oldest daughter, had a run-in with gravity today… and gravity won. We were at Aubrey’s parent’s house today celebrating Aubrey’s mom’s birthday. It was later in the evening and the kids were out in the front yard playing in the small(ish) tree. The kids all came in yelling about Ragan having fallen out of the tree. So out we ran and when I reached Ragan she was crying and hysterical. After we got her to calm down a bit she let us know that she’d fallen on her hand and it hurt really bad. So, we got an ice pack for it and Aubrey and I took her to the emergency room (Santa Rosa Medical Center). They were very nice and got us through pretty quick. First off were some vitals, a bunch of questions and then a few X-Rays of the arm in question. A little more waiting and we got back to see the doctor.

They splinted it and gave her some pain medication and Aubrey is taking her to our pediatrician tomorrow. We were in and out in a couple of hours, which really isn’t that bad for an E.R. visit and Ragan is not feeling too terribly bad now. We were able to keep Aubrey’s parents informed via phone and texting and the rest of the world via Facebook. We thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, sympathy and of course your prayers.

The highlight of the E.R. visit, for me at least, was the old dude in the wheelchair who seemed to be either on drugs or a little off his rocker. He kept complaining that everything took too long and that the hospital needed to hire more help. He threatened to call Clinton and get him to take some action and that he new the hospital administrator. After he dropped a few profane words (no F-bombs) his wife (I’m assuming it was his wife) told him to keep it down and that there were children present. He started going on about not seeing any children when Aubrey chimed up and pointed out the fact that we were sitting there with our daughter. He was very apologetic about it, and then proceeded to bombard us with various stories and weird facts not all of which contained topics I would want to discuss with my children. I just tried to act like I was watching the television and prayed that he’d either quit talking to us or they’d call us back. The latter happened first and I was glad.

I suppose that’s not a very Christian attitude… sorry.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, the New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 made and the proverbial ball is in my court to do something about it. The trees in the picture above show a progression of the seasons and how they affect the tree. It’s basically the same, except for some surface changes in the leaf color and leaf volume. I feel like this year, so far, has been basically maintaining the status quo.

What should I be changing? Well, the main thing I wanted to change centered around putting God first… in everything. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” I really don’t feel like I’m currently doing that; I feel more like I’m just maintaining the status quo. Sure I started a read the bible in a year program, which I’m currently on track with. Other than that, though, I don’t feel like anything has changed. God hasn’t taken a larger role in my every day life than in 2011… at least not yet. I guess I’m writing this to be out in the open and hold myself accountable before the world (wide web) to never be content with being stagnant in my faith.

How are the other resolutions (goals) coming? I’m still training for the New Orleans marathon in March. I haven’t practiced any piano this year. I did, however, implement some cross training this week which will hopefully start working on the mid-section fat. Finally, we are still working on debt. We’re taking a bit of a step back because our oldest daughter just got braces today. That required a fairly large down payment, which we were able to pay without getting behind in our bills, and adds another payment to our list. I think that we are doing well in that area, though, and expect to keep striving towards the goal of being debt free.

Ever hear that song, “The Future’s So Bright” by Timbuk 3? [Video] The catch phrase goes, “the future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.” That is a little of what I feel like looking forward to 2012. We have taken some excellent steps towards becoming debt free, I have a great job, I’m training for my second marathon, I’m growing closer and closer to God… it seems like a year of possibilities (at least at this moment).

So with further ado about nothing, here are my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions.

1. The Greatest Command

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:28-31

I am not saying that I am a “law” man or a legalist. I fully believe that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and not from myself. It is a gift of God, not by works, so that none can boast. (Paraphrased from Ephesians 2:8-9).

However, living as Christ lived is a worthy enough goal. I’ve been stewing over this verse for the past 6 months or so and have decided that this is what I want to focus on this year.

What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart? What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your soul… all your mind… and all your strength? What does that type of love and devotion look like in my every day life? What does it look like in the morning before I’ve had my coffee? What does it look like when I’m frustrated with something at work? If I were to truly act out this commandment in my life, how would my priorities change or my life for that matter?

That’s it.

Don’t you think that one is big enough to be the only resolution for this year? lol I think so. I thought about listing some others here, just as a blogging placeholder, but they haven’t really changed from last year. So I’ll just list them out here more as “continuing goals” for this year. They are:

2. Practice My Talents – More specifically, the piano
3. Run in my second marathon
4. Get rid of the gut – I mean it this time!
5. Pay off debt – We are going to hammer on this one until the debt monster is finally dead!

Well, I hope you and yours have a very Happy New Year and an excellent start to 2012! God bless.

1. Die

The point of this resolution was to try to focus my attention and energies on dying to “self”. Did I succeed? Well, not completely. I don’t think this is one you can perfect during your lifetime, though, it certainly is a worthwhile goal. So how much did I grow in this area? To be honest, I don’t have any clue. I know that God promises that He will finish the work that He began in me.

…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

I’m glad that God is control of the progress, though I do realize that I have a responsibility to live my life “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).

2. Practice My Talents

This one centered mainly around practicing the piano. How did I do? Fail. I totally did not spend any extra time practicing, other than the time required to prepare for Sunday mornings.

3. Marathon #2

Also a fail, though not entirely my fault. Right after my first marathon I was clowning around with my kids and ended up with a stress fracture, so I was not able to run for quite some time. I was able to get back into training by April, however, the time off was more of a setback then I thought it would be. I did manage to run another half marathon, though, and am currently training for my next marathon.

4. Get Rid of the Gut

Miserable fail! I think it actually got bigger. Nuf said.

5. Pay Off Debt

Success! No, we did not pay off all of our debt. However, I can proudly announce that the only debt we have left is our student loans, the car payment and a small-ish medical debt. Once we decided to get on board with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and truly get focused, God came along side us and helped us to pay off way more than I could have anticipated.

Well, that’s it for last year. So long, 2011, you were good to us.

Happy New Year! It is once again that time; time to make resolutions, promises and goals that we’ll never keep. I’m sure all of the health clubs out there love January because of the most likely number one resolution made: lose weight. I considered skipping this year, but I’ve been doing this for several years now and have actually made good progress towards goals that I wanted to keep. So here I am once again, making my list. Without further ado.

1. Die

Yes, you read it right. My number one resolution this year is die, but not in the natural, mortality sense. I hope to work this year on dying to my self (not myself but my “self”).

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Luke 9:23 – 25

That was Jesus speaking… you know God incarnate, the creator of the universe and everything in it. What does that mean, “take up their cross daily”? The cross was the means of carrying out Jesus’ death sentence. So we must kill ourselves every day? In Romans it says:

…count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:11

So what does it mean to “count yourselves dead to sin”? I’m positive that I don’t have the complete picture. I do know that I love God and want to be in His perfect will, so I will be striving to live this out in my life. How? By attempting to put myself aside. By considering others higher than myself. By serving the needs of my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my church. We humans are extremely self-serving creatures. God knows that this is destructive in our lives and He asks us to lay it aside so that He can give us life more abundantly.

2. Practice My Talents

…more specifically, the piano. God has given us all talents and we should be striving for excellence in those talents, whether that means serving people, encouraging people, administering, cleaning or playing the piano. I have realized that I play the piano every Sunday (almost) and have gotten somewhat lax (ok, completely lax) in my practice. I don’t take regular time to fine tune the talent that I use to praise and worship my God and King. I am resolving to fix that this year and make it a regular habit of practicing my instrument.

3. Marathon #2!

Yes, I completed my very first marathon this past year (November 14, 2010). That is the health/fitness goal that I am most proud of. This year I would like to repeat the feat. However, my new goal for this year will be to complete the marathon and NOT collapse at the end resulting in an E.R. visit. Of course that means I need to get back on my feet and start training again, but I’ve had some physical setbacks via my right foot being injured.

4. Get Rid of the Gut

I seriously thought last year that training for and completing a marathon (26.2 miles) would result in this stupid gut or spare tire disappearing from my midsection. Seriously! I was woefully mistaken, however, and the gut remains. So while last year I quietly included this into the “running a marathon” goal, it gets its very own resolution this year. This also means that I will need to specifically target my midsection with exercise that is not just running. Look out six pack abs, here I come!

5. Pay Off Debt

This will continue to be a resolution until it is all gone. I absolutely hate being in debt to other people and count myself as a slave to creditors, without financial freedom, until such time as I pay that last bill and shed the shackles of debt. We have done well this past year, but I plan on attacking debt with a vengeance this year. It needs to get gone!

So there you have it, my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions. Do you have any resolutions this year?

1. Work on my relationship with God

Check! Though I can’t really take credit. I was discussing this with my wife last night and was having some difficulty as to whether or not I should even have included this item. In Philippians 1:6 Paul writes, “… being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

So yes I have grown closer to God, but I don’t think I really had a choice. The scripture makes it clear (at least to me) that He who began the work in me, that is God who called me to be His child (Ephesians 2:8-10), will complete it. I don’t have a choice in the matter. He will complete it. I think it’s just up to me whether it gets completed the easy way or the hard way; I can participate and willingly follow God or I can rebel and choose my own path so that God disciplines me.

2. Work on my relationship with my wife

I believe I did alright on this front. Though I can always stand to do better. I’d like to say that I loved my wife as Christ loves the church, but that is an impossible task for a broken sinner like me. However, I do love my wife, even more now than I ever have in history.

3. Be consistent with my children’s music training

Fail! The intent of this resolution was that I personally be more consistent in teaching my children piano. However, halfway through the year we got the children involved in home school band and they have really done well there. So it’s not a total loss. They are learning music and having fun, which is the important thing.

4. Run a marathon

Check! Yes, I did! I am actually quite proud of this one. You can read more about it in this article.

5. Pay off debts

Check! We actually paid off two of our outstanding debts this year and have continued to try to stay afloat.

So that’s it. So long and farewell, 2010. We are looking forward to a great coming year in 2011.

I’ve never ridden in an ambulance before. More on that later…

Race Day!

The kids stayed the night at the grandparent’s house the night before. That would allow Aubrey (my wife) and I to get up early and be focused on getting everything I needed in the car and to the race on time. We woke up at 4:30 AM and got some breakfast (eggs and toast) and had a cup of coffee. Everything was basically ready from the previous night so we got everything into the van and headed out around 5:30 AM and were parking about 6:00 AM. I was able get one last potty break in and loosen the legs up a bit and it was time to lineup. Aubrey took some pictures and loaded heaps of encouragement onto me. I was ready.

The First Half

After some young person (with a heavy southern accent) sang the national anthem the gun fired (actually I don’t think there was a gun) and we were off. I knew I’d be rolling out slowly so I lined up near the back and just eased out. It was more of a walk at first and then I settled into a nice slow jog. There were loads of people along the way cheering us on and it was such a joy. After around 4 miles of a slow pace I kicked it up a bit into a nice pace. Aubrey met me around mile 6 with cheers and even more encouragement. Just after mile 11 a friend, Jeff, met up with me. He wasn’t in the race, but he needed to get a good long run in and so he joined me for the last half. We coasted through the halfway mark and said hi to Aubrey once again. I felt great; on top of the world! I freely conversed with Jeff; I was smiling and breathing easily; life was good.

Starting to Work

Right after the halfway point though, I had to go up a pretty steep incline and realized something. My legs were getting a bit tired. That didn’t feel to good. I was still OK, though, and we pressed on. There were a lot less people on the track now as all of the half-marathoners had already jumped ship. I was making good progress and even passing a few people along the way. I was definitely starting to feel the work of it all.

The Beginning of the End

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but it happened really fast. At some point between mile 17 and mile 19 I went from feeling great to, “crap, this hurts.” For one thing I realized that I was painfully under-prepared as far as equipment, nourishment and hydration. This is when I really became thankful that Jeff was running with me. He’s been running for quite a bit longer than me, and he had a pack with running gels and was carrying water with him. He was generous enough to share these with me. He also helped me pace myself, never pushing me beyond what I could do, but always encouraging. I saw Aubrey for the last time before the finish line right after mile 20. My conversation was done by then, all energy being saved for the task of putting one foot in front of the other.

The Bitter End

I ran the first 20 miles in about 4 hours. That’s a little better than the pace I had hoped for, but generally right on target. From that point on though, my body crashed and it was a battle of will vs. pain. We took it in spurts of running and walking, trying to drink as much PowerAide as I could through the aid stations and fueling up when I could. I think around mile 23 though I starting becoming nauseous because I didn’t think I could stomach much of anything. I tried to drink as often as I could. I had some pretty major leg cramps along the way that halted me completely and I had to stop and stretch a bit. I got dizzy a few times whenever we stopped at aid stations. I had a pretty bad stitch under my left rib. Ah… this is the life!

I’m pretty sure I walked most of the way to the finish line from that point on. I had a few jogs in there, but couldn’t actually go very far before I had to walk again. My vision was getting a bit blurry by this point and I couldn’t focus on much. I wear glasses, so I’m used to the “not exactly clear” vision while I’m running but this was a bit more than that. The finish line came into view and there was hope… hope that I could finally stop this madness and rest. Jeff peeled off to the side as I entered the last few yards of the track. I somehow managed a jog that was just over a walk through the finish line.

The Crash

From this point on, there isn’t much that is crystal clear to me. I remember some lady handing me a metal and some other stuff and trying to take my picture. I think shortly after that I collapsed for a bit, but was able to stand back up and make my way off the track into the shade. Aubrey came running up to me and I asked her to get my towel. I sat down on the sidewalk under the shade of some small trees. After that I vaguely remember some big burly guy (who it turns out was a medic) asking me a bunch of questions and shoving some orange slices into my hands. I remember trying to get some of them down. I remember my vision became so unclear, almost like a negative photograph, that I couldn’t see anything. Then it was like someone had shoved cotton in my ears and really loud ringing. I sort of remember them putting an IV into my arm and then after a while I started coming back to reality. I remember them talking about an ambulance and how they’d gone down the wrong road and then they were helping me onto a stretcher.

A Ride and Some Recovery

I was absolutely freezing on the ride to the hospital; constantly shivering. They plugged all sorts of things onto my chest, said a lot of medical sounding jargon and asked me a ton of questions. I was fully awake then and knew what was going on, but I was in pain. My head hurt, my shoulders and neck hurt, my legs were in agony. I think that’s just one of the rewards for running 26.2 miles though (well, running and walking). They got me into a room in the E.R. and kept pumping oxygen and fluids into me. There is a lot I could expound on from this point on, because we didn’t leave the hospital until 5:30 PM. Instead, I’ll just say that I was extremely dehydrated and my eloctrolytes were depleted. They fixed those two problems and discharged me and I was off home for some much needed rest and eating.

In Retrospect

I’ve been trying not to beat myself up about this too bad, but my finish time was 5 hours 52 minutes. You can see all of the results here. I am thankful that I at least came in under the 6 hour mark. So am I finished with all of this madness? Absolutely not! Even though my mother would love for me to say I’ll never do it again, I don’t think I’m finished with all of this marathon business. I’ve already thought about things I could have done differently to perform better, things I could have prepared a bit more. I definitely don’t want to take any more rides to the hospital though. I think next time I’ll be able to remember what I felt like this time and stop before my body shuts down.

I would like to extend a HUGE thanks to Jeff for being my running partner, encouragement and helper. I seriously would not have completed the race without you there. Thanks for my wife, Aubrey, who is always a constant encouragement to me and is the love of my life. Thanks to all of my family who came out to support me in one way or another and to the friends and family who’s prayers I felt with me. I am one seriously blessed man, to have such a large number of people that genuinely care about me. Praise be to God!

“Sitting on G and ready to GO!”. It is Saturday, November 13, 2010… the day before my very first marathon. For any of you who may still have some questions about me and about marathons, here are the most common questions and answers that I’ve fielded over the past 6 months or so.

1. How far is a marathon?
   26.2 miles
2. And you want to run that far!?
   Yes
3. Is there an angry mob or wild beasts chasing you?
   No, I just like running
4. How long will that take?
   I’m hoping to come in around 5 1/2 hours. It’s my first marathon and I’m not trying to set any records; I just want to finish
5. Are you crazy?
   Why yes, I believe I am, a bit.

It has been a real roller coaster training for this, but alas the training is done. I peaked out at a 20 mile run several weeks ago and have been tapering down. I just ran a few short runs earlier this week and will go out for a 2 miler today just loosen things up a bit. I’m not sure how I’ll do, but I just have to trust my training at this point and do my best.

Unlike my 20 mile training run, I won’t be alone in this race. Of course, there are quite a number of people racing that I’ll be with. Additionally, a good friend from church is going to come out and run the last half with me. He’s run many marathons before and it’ll be nice to have a friend along side, spurring me on to the finish.

One of my 2010 New Year’s Resolutions was to run in my first marathon. I posted that on this blog and I also told everyone in my life who would listen because I wanted to build in a sense of accountability for keeping to that goal. I must report that my friends and family have been a huge support for me while training. I receive plenty of feedback inquiring as to how it is going and also positive encouragement. I also get the occasional, “you must be crazy!” but let’s be honest… that’s a bit true.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!

Earlier this year, sometime in the Spring I think, I settled on the Pensacola Marathon to be the fulfillment of this goal. The race is late in the year so I had plenty of time to prepare. Of course up till now I suppose I could have backed out at any time and decided to wait until 2011. Not anymore! This weekend I finally registered for the event. At $55 I’m not likely to back out of it unless I’m injured. Not only that, but at this stage in my training I’m not willing to back down regardless… I’ve come way too far for that.

Ups And Downs

Speaking of training, how is that coming? I believe it is going well. This past Saturday I ran the farthest that I’ve ever run, 16 miles. It took quite a toll on me, but I’m seeing improvements in my long runs every time I get out there. I go a little farther, I feel a little better and I recover quicker. I’ve had a few weeks where the training seemed to be terrible; like I was taking 2 or 3 steps backwards. That was frustrating, but once I let it go and just did what I could I realized that it’s all part of it.

Eyes Fixed On The Goal

So, the date of the marathon is November 14, 2010. That means I have just under 8 weeks before the event. I’m using a marathon training guide for beginners from Hal Hidgon. The longest distance I’ll run before the marathon is 20 miles (looking forward to that) and then I’ll taper down until the big day. I want to say thanks to all of you who have encouraged me and spurred me on to achieving my goal. I’ll leave you with one last thing:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3

1. Work on my relationship with God

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kindgom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Do I really seek God first in my daily life? I can answer a resounding, “no!” The bible says to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” How well do I do this in my life? I don’t think I do it very well at all. So how do I plan on improving this situation?

1. Ask God’s help. I can really do nothing outside of His will, grace and guidance. So that is the first step.
2. Reading God’s Word. My wife and some of her friends did a “read the Bible in a year” program last year. I am going to follow along with them this year as a discipline to get myself into God’s Word more every day.
3. Scripture memorization. This is a rollover from last year. I basically want to finish that resolution and memorize the Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John (John 13:31 – John 17:26).
4. Daily prayer. This should go without saying, but so often there are other things that I fill my life with instead of talking to the creator of the universe.

2. Work on my relationship with my wife

The most important person to me on this entire planet is my wife. She is my mate, my best friend, my comfort… I am entirely in love with her. Yet so often I allow that relationship to become just another “thing” in my life. I’m not entirely sure how I am going to tackle this one so I’ll have to do some prayer, research and brainstorming. The end result is this… I want to love my wife as Christ loves the church. That is how I am commanded to love my wife in the bible (Ephesians 5:25-27).

3. Be consistent with my children’s music training

I have started (many times now) to teach my older two children piano. I really want to get on track with this and invest the time and energy to give my children a solid musical foundation. It has been a large and positive part of my life and I want to give them the best opportunity to make it a part of their lives.

4. Run a marathon

I trained last year and ran my first half-marathon. This is the year of the full marathon! … I hope. I have found an 18 week training program that I think matches with my schedule and style and I really believe that if I work hard I can obtain this goal. Not only has running been a great source of achievement in my life these last few years, but it is also a large source of fitness.

5. Pay off debts

The slog through the mud of debt continues. And while it continues I am in bondage to the creditors and am unable to invest into the kingdom of God as I would really like to. I keep making this resolution every year, but every year I get closer and closer. I’m sure I won’t be entirely debt free at the end of 2010 (unless God performs a miracle), but I would at least like to eliminate everything except for my student loans and one car payment (yeah, we don’t have a mortgage… renters still).

So that’s it for this year. Just five, but I think they are five fairly large goals. I tried to center my resolutions this year (at least the first two) around the priorities that I would like to have in my life. We’ll see how it goes!