How's your vision?

"We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are." - Anais Nin
How true is this statement? It's amazing how we can experience the same thing, whether a movie, concert, anything really, and all have a different view. That's becuase it us truly us as individuals. We all look through a different lense, our lense. It has been formed by our past experiences, our choices, our thoughts, our hopes of the future, how we see ourselves, etc. So whether that is missing great opportunities or always seeing the negative in everything, much of it depends on who we are and how we see ourselves. That's why we must continue to get to know ourselves and never stop doing personal maintenance.

remembering

I trust you had an incredible day off yesterday and enjoyed some time with friends and family. I spent yesterday in Canton Ohio with about 30 or so family and friends. We ate alot of food...wonderful food....ham, BBQ, jello stuff and anything else a person could ever desire. We threw some "cornhole"...(of which I lost in the championship and am still bitter...ha). But seriously, as I looked around, I couldn't help but give thanks for those who gave their lives for our freedom. Without their great sacrifice, we wouldn't be enjoying this freedom. There is a cost to freedom. Many of our young men and woman are still paying it today. I am so grateful to live in this great country where the stars and stripes are a constant reminder of our freedom.

Overtraining

Tomorrow I have a race. 3.1mile run - 15.7 mile bike - 3.1 mile run. After a tough day yesterday in training, I took today off. I slept for 8.5 hours. So much I was actually sore..ha! Anyway, I want to race on fresh legs and I'm feeling good today. I know my weakness is to overtrain. Too much high mileage/intesity can be a bad thing. I love to work hard, but too much of a good thing can be devastating. How about in life? We run at this crazy pace and we start becoming less and less effective. Why is it so hard for me/us to take a day off? God has created us to work in cycles. Look at seasons, day and night, weeks, etc. God Himself even took some time to rest on the 7th day of creation. Soooo, don't overtrain in the race of life.

Off Day

Have you ever had one, a day when you just weren't up to par? A time where you just couldn't shoot the ball, think as quick or operate as you normally could? This morning was one of those days for me. I'm in the gym cranking out another Ironman triathlon workout and it just isn't there. My legs are sore and feel like lead and my arms are exhausted in the pool. I tried a few times to push through, but finally just went to the hot tub. With a smaller race in 2 days, I would probably do more damage than good. This was my first "off day" in 6 months.
I don't know about you, but it is good to know that everyone has "off days", including professionals, politicians, movie stars, etc. I guess the real question is how fast will we rebound from it, and will we let it ruin our day, week, year or life? It's days like today where we all realize that we are human and fragile. I'm glad to know that I serve a God who doesn't have an "off day". I mean if He did........we would all be in big trouble.

over/under

Just thinking about every problem that we face and how we choose to deal with it. Issues of struggle are a wedge in our lives. It will either drive us up or down. You can tell when you talk with people whether or not they are over it, or under it. What about you? What past things are you over and what are you under? Are there any changes that need to be made?

Courage

Listening to an Andy Stanley message from the Catalyst Conference this morning in my "automobile university". He talked on Courage and challenged with some great questions. One was: What are you afraid of? We all hit roadblocks or tough situations where we are afraid to step up or speak out, or perhaps to make the tough call. We must define that fear and learn to live with some constant fear for it is a constant companion. But where fear lies, there is also opportunity. If we fear missing an opportunity, more than not doing something, we will prevail. For the fact is "you obey what you fear". So let's get some healthy fear going rather than the unhealthy stuff that hinders us from reaching our potential. Go get some courage!

Identity theft

We just finished a series at C3 entitled "Identity Theft". Yesterday we talked about how "our past is not our identity". We closed with a time of everyone bringing a rock and placing it in a pile symbolizing that they were leaving their past at the altar. It was a cool time with our church. We also addressed how we usually go back to our desires even though we have great intentions. Desires trump intentions every time. We must begin to desire what God has for us and move past just have good intentions. God has our real identity that is only found in Christ and we must guard that against theft.