Baileyville 5K

It was a cold day in Baileyville, but a good day for running (if there could be such a thing). Running to me never seems very daunting until I actually get going. 3.1 miles didn't seem like a lot until I turned the first corner and looked up the hill we had to climb. If that wasn't bad enough, a headwind blowing right in our faces all the way up that mountain. My mind fast forwarded to the end of the race, "I get to come down that hill." That was a good thought and it kept me going for a little bit. Knowing there were only two guys in front of me helped also, but one was about 12 years old. I caught him half way up the hill and led him for most of the race, but he caught me in the end. Feeling a little inferior, I reminded myself of the fact I had not run since the beginning of September. (This was all to apparent the next day with pain.)

It was good to get out and run for a good cause. The reminder from the Baileyville Reform Church comes from Isaiah 40: 29-31:
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

This is good to remember whether running a race or living our life. Trials come regardless of whether we put ourselves in them or not. God's promise is that he will be there to be our strength if only we put our faith in Him.

Unfortunate Event

I was all ready to go race on this past Saturday; I was even in the car driving to the race site. I took my Dad along to man the GT tent and mentally I was already racing. (Physically may have turned out differently.) The unfortunate part of the day is that we got to the race at a little after 8 a.m. and we were the first ones. The registration was to open at 8. We entered a ghost town. All ready to go, but nothing to do...phone calls to the sponsoring shop told me that they decided the day before to post-pone the race for a couple of weeks. Nice to know. Apparently, the the rain since oh, I don't know May, closed all the trails we were going to use. I was so worked up and ready to go, it took me all day to get over my disappointment.
I know I should not be so upset, but I needed to have my pity party and I thought what better place than on the Internet for all to see (Okay I know my readership is not that widespread, but let me have this one).
So, as part of my season I am going to run a 5K this weekend. Yeah, I know running? Let me explain. The Baileyville Reform Church (in Baileyville, IL) has a raises funds to send their youth on missions trips and this is one of them. This will be the second time I will run in the race. I love to run, but had to give it up many years ago, because it really hurt my knees so I turned to bikes. Worked out better for me anyway. Being in the Army, I have to keep up with running. To do that I give you the Baileyville 5K. It is for a good cause, and just between you and I, I like the looks I get when people find out a pastor is running in the race.
I am working on a sermon series from the Book of Micah. I know it was a prophet from almost 3,000 years ago preaching to the Israelites, but his warnings to them sound so much like our world today and what we put up with. Micah was preaching to God's chosen people about sin and they were telling him (Micah) to be quiet and don't be such a downer. Just tell us the good things and forget about the bad, because God isn't really going to judge us. All of that judgment stuff is for the bad people. It sounds a lot like our Nation today. People tell me, "Don't be so closed minded by telling me Jesus is the only way to heaven. I am a good person and God sees that and won't send me to hell." Well I have to ask, "Whose standards do you base your "goodness" on?" I base mine on the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. I believe God says what is good and what is not, and since He created humanity, then I think he does have the right. Now I have to follow that up; God doesn't send people to hell, we send ourselves by not following His ways through His Son Jesus Christ. Check out John chapter 14.

Cool Video

I had to share this video. I found it on the Chicago Cyclocross website. Enjoy as I did.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I got many disbelieving looks when I told people I was going to be 39. Probably because most people reach the age of 39 and never admit to any more, but really 39. I don't feel any older, but I can tell when I have gone a little over board the day before. I got the neatest question from Hope yesterday. After she said that 39 was really old, she asked if I could still be her Daddy? I had to laugh then cry just a bit. It was really one of those awe moments.
Birthdays are those things that I used to get depressed about. Holidays were never any fun, but now I have a different perspective. I grew up pretty angry and depressed and did not really care about the future. Things got different when Christ entered my life and gave me a purpose. It is a pretty gloomy day out today, but I just got off of riding 7 days in a row. I can't remember the last time I did that. Yah, I know I am supposed to be racing bikes and all, but full time family and job it does get tough to get all of that in. My son's birthday is this weekend and we are having an Army party as per his request. It makes me smile. The house will be all decked out in camo. I will be so cool. For those that are interested, my wife got me the new Skillet for my b-day and just got done listening to it...very cool. I have been given permission to race this weekend, so I will be doing a bit of cyclocross in Janesville, WI. For those who don't get what cyclocross is check out www.cyclocrossworld.com It has everything you would ever want to know.

Raining Blues

It seems like the weather is never going to get better. I feel very sorry for all of the farmers in this area who cannot get out into the field because of the moist nature of our October. Along with that, it has been a chore to get out on the bike more than one day a week with all the rain.
The season is winding down, but still have at least one race to go. The picture above is from the last race I did in Madison, WI where I finally got to see my name on the Cyclingnews.com website. In the Cat 2/3 race I finished 69th. That to me was pretty good, with all the other stresses going on in life at the present time. I took my dad to the race and it was his first cyclocross race. He did not realize the size of what was going on. It was one of the stops of the USGP race series, which is pretty big. 4 former world champions to include Erwin Vervecken. It was very cool. The picture added here is not me, it is of Ryan Tebron the current reigning US national champion.
I have just recently gone to my 20th class reunion from high school. What a blast. No one new who I was. It is always good to hear that from people, it shows that God has really changed me from the inside out. I was not really sure what I was going to feel like going, but it did turn out pretty good. Those that I wanted to see, I talked to and the others well, I did not.

Stay the Course

In the middle of all of the health problems, I need to continue on with my commitment with the GT Dirt Coalition and finish what I started. I did not take in account how much the Army would take out of me physically while in training. Some of the races I had scheduled while in SC did not come through and I also had some other responsibilities to take care of while training. I did participate in a couple of road races in the last two weeks before my family came down. The first one I was not ready for and ended up somewhere in the pack after being lapped. Not my best day of racing. The next race was to be a time trial in the morning then a circuit race that same evening. Time trial went great, I was 4th. The circuit race never happened for me. The race was to start at 5 p.m. Long about 3:30 p.m. a storm came up and never went away. I had never seen so much rain. The parking lot was a river! I walked from my car to the registration tent to ask what was going on and the course official said part of the course was under water. Needless to say the race was not going to happen that day and we were instructed to come back in the morning. Unfortunately, I had an obligation on that next morning. Being Sunday, I had to go be in Chapel service.
I did race another Criterium this last weekend in Dixon, IL. It was part of the city’s yearly festival honoring former president Ronald Reagan. He grew up near Dixon and was this was his hometown. The race was sponsored in part by no other than Jelly Belly (Reagan’s favorite snack). It was the first time race for the organizers, but one of the best run I have ever attended. I hope they run it again next year. I took 10th place in my race and really was the best road race I ever did.
Thank you to all who have given prayers and support during this time. We are keeping our faith in Christ as we stay the course.

In the Midst of Trials

It has been some time since I last updated the happenings in life here at the blog and it is well past time. I have finished my time in the Army for the time being. I still need to get a few ends tied, but all in all I am ready to go the next level of accessioning into the Reserve and actually being a chaplain. The last week of my time down in South Carolina Joy and the kids came down and we camped out in the hotel all cozy and sick. The night I went to pick them up at the airport I was running a high fever and coughing up a lung. This was not a good way to see my family after 6 weeks. The kids were ale to not get as sick as me, but Joy was not as lucky. We were both down for a couple of days, but not at the same time. It has only been recently that I have stopped coughing and really started feeling better.
Much of what has been happening since I got home has been dealing with some mystery virus that Joy came down with a little over a month ago. While visiting her sister, she started loosing the spatial relationship of her legs; kind of weird I know. It came on very sudden, or what seemed to be sudden. She began having difficulty walking by not being able to control her legs. She has gone to multiple doctors to include a neurologist with no diagnosis other than it is some kind of virus that needs to run its course. So in the meantime, she is going to physical therapy as the only course of action. There is not another treatment recommended, because the cause is unknown. We are basically waiting for this to go away or for something else to happen…sounds like fun doesn’t it?
It has not been easy to deal with because there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to when the periods of difficulties happen. Some days are good some days not so good. We do have a great support system both here at the church and with family with many giving help and prayer. I never discount the power of the faithful praying. It often seems that our prayers go unanswered, but sometimes what seems like silence is God wrapping His arms around us and giving us comfort; even crying with us through the pain and frustration. Our prayer is absolutely that Joy would be cured; but in the midst of the trial we are looking for peace and understanding. Our next step is to put one foot in front of the other.

Bike Racing and Faith

It has been a crazy couple of weeks since I last updated. I have done a lot of running which is not really my thing, but it is what the Army wants me to do. Over the last two Saturday’s I have traveled to different sides of South Carolina to race. My first race was pretty fast from the start and I got really blown away. , but the second one I took forth place. Both of the races were on the road and a bit of a change from cross country racing. The road races are much shorter and pretty much on red line for the whole time. There is something about racing in a large group at 25 to 30 miles per hour around a ¾ mile course. There is a lot of trust among the guys racing. Trust that you keep the line you started with when going around corners; trusting someone else is a tough thing, but trusting a perfect stranger is really blind trust maybe even called faith? It may just be a coincidence that I enjoy bike racing for it’s connection to faith, but it has often crossed my mind. We put a lot of faith and trust in God even though we have never seen Him. The other guys that I race with, I never met before, but I trust in their abilities to not cause me to crash. I have never met God face to face, but I trust in His abilities to get me through my difficulties. Now this is completely separate from my own skills, because sometimes I fail.
Among other things, I have been recovering from my field experience here at Fort Jackson. Many late nights and early mornings, but overall it was a good experience and kind of fun. We have been learning a lot of our responsibilities while being in our units and it really is interesting work, but it will definitely have its days. This past week we have been learning an Army program called Family Wellness. It is all about teaching soldiers to do family better. Being a soldier is a difficult job and responsibility. With the stresses of combat mixed with the extended time away from families it can be tough. Giving the families some tools and activities to maintain some sort of normalcy is what this training is all about. So far it has been good. I pray that all is going well with those of you back home. Thank you for all your prayers and support in Joy’s difficulties. She is doing better, but still no definite diagnosis on what is going on. Still might be a long road. Just a little over a week and I will be back home. I am really looking forward to being home.

Since being here at Ft. Jackson, I have some opportunities to rest, visit and struggle (mostly just the struggle part). I say that with just a little bit of humor, but I was not totally prepared to put my uniform back on and call myself a soldier again. I will get the struggle part in a bit, but the resting and visiting has been good. I am required to visit nine different services here and give review of them to my platoon leader. It is always interesting to visit a different service and give a critique on what I see. Most of the point to visiting these services is to open our experiences to the other denominations we may encounter while serving as a chaplain. I find it just a little difficult for the simple fact that when on active duty, I saw my share of other denominational services; some I liked, some I did not. Some preached the Gospel and some did not, but the point was to experience difference.
Now the resting part has been a little harder to define. I have not needed to prepare for sermons, but there are other things to prepare for. I have gotten into the habit of preparing my many bags for the next day the night before so as to rest a little bit longer in the morning. I have been able to squeeze out a few extra precious minutes of sleep by preparing early. My morning rituals have change a bit, but overall I have gotten used to the early mornings and late nights.
I had a devotion this past week that preached me great perspective into my life. It was based on Proverbs 25:28: Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. Self-control is one of those things that can either paralyze or empower a person. If we have self-control we can understand its power when used correctly. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to race my mountain bike through the mountains of North Carolina for 63 miles. It took me 8 hours and was the longest I have ever been on bike at one time. Now what does this have to do with self-control?
There was a point, about 30 miles into my race, when I was ready to get off my bike and quit. I even told another cyclist, “My body is rejecting the bike.” It was difficult for my mind to control my body…the body was winning the war. The self-control had to come from my mind and tell my body to finish what was started. This is a place we may find ourselves from time to time; allowing our flesh to dictate where it is we are to go, but it is not what God wants us to do. Just as the Proverb says, without self-control, the enemy will walk right in and take over the city. If there is no security system in our own lives, the enemy will run amuck.
If we take a look at Nehemiah, he had a like experience, but it was with a physical wall. He was called by God to repair the wall around Jerusalem, and as he heard the news of what had happened to Jerusalem, he wept and mourned for days (Nehemiah 1:4). The lack of self-control should give us the same emotional response, because we let down God when we allow the enemy to breach the security of God’s word and take over. The main points we need to remember are that we will struggle, it is part of life, we need to train not only our mind, but our body as well, and of course it is not dependent on our strength, but God’s.
It is important to train our minds, but sometimes they fail us. Training our bodies keeps the muscle memory in check. I say this, because back to my 63 mile bike race about mile 50 my mind was shutting down, but because I had trained my body to maintain the course I was able to overcome and stay on track. It is two different parts working in unison. Of course the third part needed to work is the understanding that it is by God’s power that we will succeed. This doesn’t mean we can sit on the couch and pray God will take care of things. We need to engage in the battle and build up the walls and keep them strong to keep out the enemy. Self-control is a key aspect of our spiritual lives that needs to be a training priority. It may seem a little abstract to train self-control, but as we go throughout our days there are plenty of opportunities to build up that wall of self-control. Pray that God would open your eyes to those opportunities and build that wall.

Making the switch

I have recently been told my Yahoo blog was migrated to a new system and I had already started this one. So I will discontinue the Yahoo 360 and pick up here. Tell all your friend!

Oh the pain...

It has been a crazy week. I have been trying to reorient my life back into the Army for my final 2 phases of of Chaplain's training. It has not been an easy transition. I have been gone from the military for over 2 years and putting the uniform back on can take its toll. Even though I am in pretty good shape, for the most part I only ride a bike during the summer and only go to the gym when the season is over, but this muscle failure and running is not my most favorite thing to do. I have felt muscles I forgot where part of my anatomy!

It will get easier...I hope.

There has been a lot of talk about keeping ourselves spiritual fit as well as physically fit. It seems hard to associate the two, because if we take time off from exercising and come back to it we can feel the pain, but if we take time off from God's word and come back to it the pain is not as much felt as physical, but maybe emotional. When life starts getting out of focus for me it is a combination of a couple of things. 1) I haven't been on my bike in a while, and 2) I have been neglecting God's Word. For me one is just as important as the other. Now I am not saying by neglecting I don't read It, but in reading It I don't take the time to make it part of my life. The term, "going through the motions," fits in at this point. It may not be a soreness, but it is a missing link through out my day. It has been a challenge to make the Word fit in my early morning routine, 0430 wake up can do that, but throughout the day I am reminded of that message that God has waken me with and it pops up and enriches my day.

We have one of the biggest classes in recent history here at the class with chaplains from all over both geographically and beliefs. I believe there are 2 Rabbi's, 2 Catholic priests, and 2 Imams as well as every Christian denomination known to man (and some I've never heard of). I have already made a friend along the way, he is my car pool partner and I one of my Chaplain's sons from active duty is hear completing the course. I was hard to figure him out. I heard his voice, but could not see who he was through the lack of hair on his head.

It has been a great week and there is still so much to be done.