40

I am officially "Over the Hill."  I'm coming out of the locker room after half-time and ready for the 2nd half.  When I think about it though, 40's are prime time.  When you are young, you have a lot of energy, but no wisdom or life experience.  When you are old you have a lot of wisdom, but no energy.  But in your 40's, you have a little bit of both.  So let's do this!!!!

lies powered by truth

The enemy's lies are powered by truth - Steven Furtick

When the enemy speaks shame and condemnation over us, it is easy to believe as truth because there is usually some truth in it.  When the devil brings up our past sin and failures, he tells us we are not good enough and he is right.  The lie comes in when he tells us "we are forever, what we have done."  While the truth is, God extends us grace and forgiveness and Jesus makes us "good enough" as HE IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!  We fall for this trap because it is laced with truth.  The enemy is smooth at tempting us with partial truths that lead us to slavery.  When the enemy speaks shame on us, we must confess our sin before God and then receive God's grace and forgiveness and continue to move forward with Jesus.

Recovery

This past Saturday was one week from the start of my 100 mile race.  I had taken the majority of the week off and not run and decided to go out and run 6 miles.  I soon cut it to 5 miles and felt like I was going to fall apart.  It's crazy how my legs felt great until I began to run over a mile and then I felt the severity of the distance I covered a week earlier.  I think this is true in life as well.  We are damaged either by a relationship, a loss, circumstances and we think we heal much quicker than we do.  So we jump back into a another relationship, ministry or new endeavor without ever having fully recovered and the results can be disastrous.  The key is to take time to recover well and enter the next step with all pistons firing.

With God's help....I did it!

I ran 100.9 miles in 28hours, 45minutes and 13 seconds.  It was one of the most incredible, difficult and most rewarding experiences of my life.  I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who got me across that line.  I wouldn't have wanted to try that alone.  If you have yet to check it out, here is my story http://vimeo.com/102577781

Blessings

It's coming

On Saturday morning I will begin running in attempt to cover 100 miles of trails in 30 hours in the Burning River 100 foot race.  I do have a couple of expectations:

- To push myself both mentally and physically farther than ever before.
- To experience new levels of pain.
- Having to talk myself out of quitting multiple times.
- Most likely hallucinating.
- Experience hunger on a new level.
- Accomplishing an incredible goal.

Time will tell.

He trusts me

This morning I was listening to a Bill Johnson podcast and he said something that struck me.  He said when we are seeking God for an answer, Him not speaking may be because He trusts me to make the decision.
If I am living in the Will of God and am full of His Spirit and align my life with the truth in His Word, I should be continually moving forward knowing that God is in heaven rooting me on.

APC

I had an incredible time at Allison Park Church in Pittsburg this past weekend.  I was honored to speak the weekend services and be apart of their student Impact week.  They have a great thing going with some amazing leaders.