Time is your greatest gift

Honestly, are relationships my first priority? How can I ensure that they are? Sadly, as much as I would like to extol how relationships are my first priority my last one probably would not have ended if that were the case. How many friends have I lost to the passage of time. It takes time to keep in touch to think through an email or my goodness utilize snail mail. Time, the only truly non renewable resource in someones life. You can tithe to your church you can save for retirement you can donate to a charity, but time is the only resource or gift that no one else can give or replace. It is the same with relationships. The horrors of the topic flash through my mind. All the times something was placed before my relationships. I've passed on weddings, funerals, concerts, parties and who knows what moments in history because my focus was not on my relationships. I do believe that the resource of time becomes more obvious as we age and we have less of it. I also believe I am moving forward in taking the steps to create balance. Respecting my supply of time and spending it more appropriately.

Working the recap:


Hancock: 4 out of 5, it was awesome to see a superhero movie with consequences. One were the superman gets pissed off and having to deal with the fact no one else is like him. Some will complain that the movie is choppy, they crammed to much in the plot twist was crap. Well I say, Good for Hancock, doing some crap that tells a story, gets us talking and keeps a little bit in suspense.


Wanted, ditto on the 4 out of 5, this movie would have been perfect if it hadn't been so friggin predictable. The action sequences were amazing. I am just waiting for the @$$ clowns of the world to try an "curve a bullet" and how long it takes for this movie to cause the downfall of society or the corruption of youth. I digress, great movies go see um.

Where to begin?

OK, so a few things have transpired since I last sat to type at the blogger, some will probably get more detail in other posts but for now the list: I saw some movies, Wanted and Hancock. I completed a sprint distance triathlon, I had it confirmed that the magic weight loss number is still 40 lbs, Uncle Sam is right and i should be at 183. PS, the last time I saw 183 I think I was in High School. I saw what may have been the worlds only ground based fireworks show for the fourth of July, I had a one on one with my coach who a reminded me of the magic 183 (see above) and b challenged me to truly commit to the program and see what I can do at Miami Man in November. A Challenge that I am taking. I learned that you can wake up and ask yourself? Am I going to have a good day or a great day? I heard this three different times in two days. You think someone was trying to get my attention? There are probably a host of other things that I am forgetting, but will probably appear later anyway.

Chapter 15: How can I treat other believers like members of my own family? The issue I have here is several layers deep. One, why would we only treat other believers as if they were family? I get that text says that the spiritual family is eternal and we should focus on it, but the physical presence of others is important. How do you share the word and the possibilities if you aren't inviting to all. Not to mention there are plenty of believers I believe to be full of doodoo. Why should they receive special inclusion? I have to branch out on this one and say treat everyone the same. Inclusion and trust until proven otherwise. It's sort of like the Butterfly effect, Mr Science says, aka wikipedia, The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. So this is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position. I think that sums it up perfectly.

Don't Panic

Back on track with the updates tomorrow.

Typing in a Thunderstorm

It is a mellow evening here, there is a thunderstorm filling the background. It's providing a gorgeous light show and some nifty sound effects. I have some ambient techno, courtesy of i tunes radio. Oddly enough the pooch isn't fazed in the least by the thunder and lightening.

So there are a couple significant things about this weekend. First off I am racing again. I think that is clear. I've blogged about the Baldwin Park race. It's on Sunday should any of you lurkers wish to cheer the ole LC on.

I must admit to feeling overly melancholy this evening. The race Sunday, my birthday on Monday. I suppose thats as good of a reason as any for introspection. Which is how I feel as I sit out on my back porch in the thunderstorm. So many memories on this porch, some even involve thunderstorms. I guess its inevitable that every year we add to the total one gets a little more introspective. The questions bubble to the surface. Am i as successful as I thought I would be? Am I establishing a legacy? How am I impacting the world? Have I prepared enough for my future? How did I end up alone for another birthday? Will I race strong on Sunday? Should I really be having a Makers and Coke and eating pizza before my swim workout tomorrow? and to many other thoughts to get all down. But BIG or small the questions are all there. I suppose the beauty of time is that she sorts it all out...eventually.

Well as I have been slacking on the Purpose Driven Life as well, here is today's question:
How can I stay focused on God's presence, especially when he feels distant? That's sort of the true definition of faith, isn't it? What kind of leap would it take if anytime you were feeling low or questioned God there was a gentle tap on the shoulder with God going "hey I'm right here" and you could see he was standing there 24/7. Sometimes you feel so good that you know there is someone beside you, supporting you it is such a positive vibe it can only be described as divine. But one of my favorite stories involves the times you think God is gone. I don't know who wrote or I would give them their credit.

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along
the beach with god.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed
two sets of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to him and the other to god.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the
very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This bothered him and he questioned god about it.

"God, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life there is
only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most
you would leave me."

God replied "My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints in the sand,
it was then that I carried you."

In those dark times when I find myself truly alone, I think of that poem. I think maybe i'm not walking maybe i'm being carried....

LC

Lucky # 13

First off, Congrats to my coach, Hector. He is currently running a marathon in Idaho. Did I mention he first swam 2.4 miles, in 1:13:49. He then biked 112 miles, in 6:49:28, thats an average of 16.41 mph, for almost 7 hrs. He wins the Kick @$$ award today.


Me, I pushed it pretty good yesterday. 33mile bike and a 5 mile run. Today I am resting and cleaning and organizing. It must be the Cancerian in me. Apparently people who fall under the sign of the Crab can be pretty big homebodies at times. Which is me this weekend, especially after the evil sinuses I had.

Why is it Lucky 13? Well I am on day 13 of my purpose driven life journey. That and I have always found thirteen to be an alright number. Today's Question: Which is more pleasing to God right now- my public worship or my private worship? What will I do about this?

I am very excited by this question. I have long had issues with "organized religion." The things I saw and was led to understand as both a Catholic and an observer of religion, left me with many questions to the validity of God's so called "flock." Instead, I often believed that it was more important to worship God in nature than in the brick and mortar of his churches. I have often said, "Why worship God inside a house we built for him, when I can step outside my door and worship him in the house he built for me." For the most part I still find this to be true. In the book, I suppose I fall into the naturalist form of worship. However, as I have been following First Baptist of Orlando, I am impressed with the level of leadership and the direction the church attempts to lead their parishioners in. It leads me to believe that there may be value once again in walking into a house man built for God. As for which is more pleasing to God? I believe it is my private worship outside the walls of the church. But I also think, I am being nudged to start becoming more active within the church community.

RACE COUNTDOWN: 7 days!