Moments

  It has been my experience that God uses events in my life to test me much the same as I use triathlon events to test my training. I believe that through testing, He wants me to see how effective and committed our walk of faith really is or isn't and  get an honest appraisal of just how my spiritual training is really going. Testing is to inspire searching of oneself and trying of one self. God isn't testing me to know how I am.  He already does.  He wants us to be aware of what He already knows.  Just like Peter when he said he would go to the death with Jesus and Jesus said you will deny me three times, God already knew. God already knows what we are made of.   "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thought: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."   Psalm 139:23-24 B ut God also knows who we can be; what we are capable of.   I cannot help but believe that it is God's highest hope that we learn from our t

  It was late when I left for my bike ride.  Evening shadows were already falling.  There was no time to be gentle with myself. Time was of the essence.  Pushing against the wind  going out, I maintained a good speed.  Darkness was falling.  Coming back with the wind and now in the half light, I couldn't read my bike computer.  However I knew I was "soaring" again.  I couldn't see it, but I could feel it; magic moments from good to best.  The soaring speed  requires less effort than some of the more pedantic rides in the daylight.  Just after dark, I finished my ride and one look at the bike computer in the light left me amazed that I had done so well.   So it is with the prospect of the dark in our spiritual lives that we encounter.  The athletic life and the spiritual life require a single-mindedness, pushing to move unfit to fit, from darkness into Light, to who you were to the greater self God has called us to be.   These are those wonderful moments,  when we can

  T he 63 mile bike event was over a hilly course.  During the early miles, it seemed I just didn't have it, and I hoped I could finish this without it tearing me down too much.  As one hill after another was overcome though, it seemed to get easier.  I seemed  to go faster, The :want to" was overcoming the body's natural lethargy. At the halfway pint, I was into it, and found that special rhythm to it all that I all "soaring."  I wasn't going al that fast according to top road racing standards, but I was the top of my game and loving it.  I have many such rides and runs over the years where I smile to realize The Power had been there all the time.  These gifts from God are  not a comparative ones, but a personal experiences lived out through pushing through what your body, and the world would have you believe about yourself; to claim that personal prize that  God has reserved just for you; life more abundantly. 

  This is from June 4,  2009 when I was training for my first half  Ironman event  - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike followed by a 13.1 run.   The training has been hard and now it is becoming hot as well.  This may sound corny but I feel called in all this.  At the same time, I feel blessed that I can train to do this event at an age when many men my age are shopping nursing homes or living in one.  However I do not feel exceptional, as I feel God has placed inherent possibilities within all of us.  For me, staying close to God helped me find my possibilities though not necessarily my talents.  It is my experience that the quality of our lives can be largely determined by our beliefs and our courage to act upon them.  My belief is in God and I believe if act with courage and commitment upon this training, that I will be enabled to complete this half ironman I am training for.   After all, training is an act of faith.  You train without immediately seeing the outcome but you believe that a