Boston here I come

As I sit in the airport about to board a plane for Boston, I am starting to get excited! I will pick up my registration today, preach at a church tomorrow, run the Boston Marathon on Monday, speak at Zion Bible College on Tuesday and then fly back. OK, back to the race. One thing I love about racing, is that it is a battle within myself, especially with marathon. The key is pace and knowing yourself. If you spend too much too early, you will not recover and the crazy thing is, you won't know how you've done managing that till around mile 20. The same is true for life. As far as pastoring C3 Church, I am in it for the long haul. The question for all of us is; How much longer can we continue to run this pace?

working toward

What are you currently working toward? This path week we talked about how our direction not intention determines our destination (Andy Stanley). We are all moving down paths in every area of our lives whether physically, spiritually, socially, professionally, the list could go on and on. Why not become intentional and set some goals and then begin to work toward it? This weekend I leave to run the Boston Marathon. It has been a lifelong dream. This has been 2 years in the making to train, hit the qualifying time in another race, train again and now run it. In every area of our lives we need goals and then a path, something to work toward. If not, we will always take the path of least resistance. But it's the path less traveled that produces the rarest treasures of life!

pull your weight

I love competition and over the years have played on a lot of sports teams. I have been the best player on the team and also the worst player on teams. My goal though, was to be a key contributor to the team. Making the team better has always been my goal. Wherever we work we are on a team. On every team there are those who are out front pulling the team and then there are those in the back being dragged, but most are in the middle. Where do you see yourself? Better yet, where do others see you? Are you someone who not only pulls your own weight but also picks up others slack as well? Or are you the one who everyone has to drag?

Control

Faith is the opposite of Control. This is why we wrestle many times when trying to follow Jesus. If I am truly living a life of faith, then I am not in control, but rather put my trust in the one who is. I have faith that God sees more than I see and farther than I see. I have to trust that His main concern is not where I am, but where HE is leading me. I relinquish control of my life in order to live a life of faith and obedience.
What area of your life do you struggle releasing control of to God?

1 week

I'm pumped! In one week I will run the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon. I have been training for the past 18 weeks just for this race. All those long runs in the single digits temperatures will now be paying off. This may only be for my mom, but I wanted to throw this out; The Boston Athletic Association has a way to follow individual runners through texting or email. They do this with a chip on each runners foot. Anyone wanting to follow me can do so by going to this website: http://registration.baa.org/2010/cf/RegAthleteAlert/pg_AthleteAlert.cfm?mode=preentry&snap=96427233& OR go through their main website at baa.org. Then you can just type in my race number which is 6410.
My goal is to run all my miles between 7min - 7min 15 sec. That is 8.5mph on the treadmill. My goal is to run a 3hr 10min marathon. Please pray...I'll need it! lol

The key to our freedom is found in one 2 letter word. The reason we are enslaved to something is because of our inability to say NO. It could be a habit, an insecurity, allowing someone else to hurt us, whatever it is all boils down to our inability of using this word. What an incredibly powerful little word, that if used correctly could be the key to our freedom. This is where God's power helps us carry it through. God has given us everything we need to live in freedom through Jesus Christ. He is waiting for us to put action to His Word and walk in His power. Go ahead....try it out...NO!

OCMN

Thursday, I get the opportunity to travel to Cleveland to speak at an Ohio Church Multiplication Network church planters gathering. I love getting together with other church planters for the fact that the vast majority are out of the box entrepreneurial thinkers. People like this sharpen and challenge me. I can't wait to meet some new friends. My prayer is that I will have something to share that they will see as valuable that will help them further spread the name of JESUS! May our lives be all about making HIM famous!