Stay Strong - Run Long

I am sitting here with just 3 days until one of the greatest days of the year I figured that I would write one more blog of the year as I don't know when or if I will be able to write until 2009. As I am taking a little break from work sitting at my desk and just kind of reflecting on how great my life is, I hear two of the most annoying, selfish statements I have heard this Christmas season. "I will be really disappointed if I don't get (________)" and "What did you do about Santa?" Wow. What a shame that still 2000 years after we received the greatest gift that man will ever know someone says that they are going to be disappointed if they don't receive a certain gift and asks about Santa. Now I am not playing some "holier than thou" kind of thing here. I know that I have said the same thing about being disappointed about not getting a particular gift, but this is a grown woman. I don't know if she knows our Lord or not. It isn't somet

I have always heard the phrase "What a difference (fill in the blank) makes" but today I am going to make the statement, "What a difference a year makes." Why you ask? Well it was about this time last year that I made a couple of commitments that have changed my life and the life of my family. It was exactly one year ago today that I heard the service at church that changed my perception of my place on earth. Many of you have heard my testimony, if you haven't click here  and go down to week 5 of the WhyI series. But on this day one year ago God infected me and even though there was some resisitence I couldn't shake it. I was a broken person that had no direction in my life. I lost my job earlier in the year, I was lucky enough to get something quickly, but it was different and I wasn't happy. I was working a second job that took A LOT of my time from my family that had a new member. I felt like I didn't know myself, my wife, my kids. I made a commit

So due to some, what is being called "gentle prodding" (thanks Becky), I am writing a new blog entry. I haven't written anything lately because honestly I don't have much to talk about. Life is really good. I took on a new role at work. I am now on a committee that I have been wanting to get on for quite some time and home life is rolling right along. If I have one thing to talk about it really is the power of prayer. We here stories all of the time about how people have been affected by the power of prayer. I can honestly say, before I was "born-again" I didn't really believe it. I would do it just when I needed something. Most of the time it was prayers like "...please let me pass this class..." or "...please let me get this job..." but that really isn't what prayer should be about. I am reading a book that most consider the next book in line with the Bible called Purpose Driven Life and it talks about how this life is not abou

This is one of my favorite spots in the world and one of my favorite foods

Hey everyone, Most of you have wanted to know what my route is going to look like for the run below. Here it is: Stay Strong, Run Long, Tha Messenjah

This one is going to be a very real post so brace yourself This past weekend my wife and I had our first "date" in more than a year. We got a sitter and decided to go to the Purpose for the Pain tour event that was taking part at our church. This event was being put on by our student ministry and in conjunction with To Write Love On Her Arms . It is an organization that was started by a friend of a girl named Renee who had been turned away from treatment facilities while she was dealing with depression, cutting, drug abuse, etc. A couple of her friends took it upon themselves to live with her for every second for 5 days to "break" her self-destructive patterns and inject God back into her life. They then started a movement to help people just like Renee break the chains of her afflictions. It is a world wide phenomenon and what I feel is an important movement. I had heard about it a while ago and always thought that it was important, but never really delved into the

I stand here today writing this officially as a "race" organizer. Well, not really a race, but more like a fund raising campaign. We all go through life trying to find our purpose and a class that I am taking at Church is called "The Great Adventure" made me realize that even more recently. It is part of our Men's Fraternity group and some of what we have been talking about lately is finding your passion and using the gifts and talents you have to find that one thing in life that excites you. We are also going to be starting a great campaign at Church and I thought what better way to use my gifts to better the Church and a little part of the world. I have been praying for a long time to find my purpose and God has really been pushing my heart to use my love for running to do something. I have always wanted to run for a charity, but never found the right one. I could run for children's cancer research, I could run for cancer research, I could run for homeless

Hello all, Today I decided that I was going to get a real worthwhile run in. I wanted to do 10 since that would be the longest in the last couple of months. OUCH!!! I have done a couple longer runs 7-9 miles, but hadn't broken the double digits lately. I made sure to check the weather this morning before I left so I knew what lied ahead. Meterologist Jeriann said "Cold." Dang It!!! Why on the day that I decide to take a longer lunch and do a long run does she have to say stuff like that. I threw a long sleeve t in my bag and headed off to work. While I was at work all I could think about was fueling properly before I went. I had a great amount of water, a good breakfast and an apple about an hour before heading out. I also decided that I was going to take a different route, monotony kills your sense of adventure when running. I also decided that I that I was going to do something that I hadn't done in a while, take my iPod. There are a couple of reasons why I haven

With the state of our economy right now, I think that everyone has their own thoughts, opinions and worries. Some of which are justified and should concern us. I think that the government needs to "punish" the greedy heads of these companies but we all need to examine our own lives too and not just look at the government. As history has shown bankruptcy, foreclosures, unpaid debts, credit cards and money problems have been on the rise for decades and not just in the past 8 years. At the end of each presidency there is always an economic dip. Every new candidate has their own "plan" to stimulate the economy because according to every candidate that ever runs for the highest executive office in the country, our economic status is in trouble because of the other guy. Don't get me wrong. I think that we as a country are in trouble because of a few companies and governmental problems, but we also need to look at the way in which we conduct our lives. How many people

The other day (last Sunday) I received a phone call from a man that I consider to be one of the best, God-fearing men in the country and it really concerned me. He might read this so I won't give his name, but he is my uncle and one of my favorite relatives. It is not uncommon for him to give me a call just to check in. He has been here 100% on my spiritual journey and helping me to find Christ. He is a great supporter of mine and I love to just talk to him sometimes as someone who can relate. This was the day of our girls birthday party. All of the grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles were going to be at our house to help us celebrate, so I thought that might have been what he was calling about. I picked up the phone and he responded and then the phone went silent. Usually that means that I lost the call in my house but my phone didn't say "Call lost." I kept saying his name and telling him that I thought I was losing him. Finally I heard a sniffle and

A couple of months ago my lovely wife and I decided that we were going to take a vacation. Now, if you know us this is something that we haven't done in nearly 4 years (not counting the time off for the babies, which is hardly a vacation). We picked a week and just decided to fly by the seat of our pants. We went camping for 3 days, which was quite the adventure with two kids under the age of 3 in a tent. With no plans and fairly decent weather in the forecast we also decided that it was time to finally paint our house. For those of you who know, we have been attempting to paint our house for nearly 4 months, but with the weather the way that it has been we haven't been able to. We got back to our house around noon on Sunday and set out on the journey to have a perfectly painted home. It started off not all that bad. The weather was a little warm but we didn't realize that it was going to get much worse. We initially thought that we were going to spray on, but the sprayer s

So, if you know my wife, which most of you do, you know that she always likes to have projects around the house. That is just the way she is. Most of the time it really annoys me, but she is the love of my life and I have to do it for her. Anyway, we have been attempting to get our house ready to paint for nearly a month. We have the paint purchased, the house is sanded (yes I sanded the entire house using an orbital sander and yes it sucked), the windows and seems caulked, etc but the stupid freaking weather will not cooperate. UGH!!!! Why can't we just have a couple of nice days with little humidity where there is no chance of rain and it can even be 90 degrees as long as the other things fall in line. We have just spent a lot of time in the preparation that I would hate to see us do it and have something go wrong. The weather has been really weird lately. From the tornadoes, the floods, air so thick you could swim through it and scorching temps. Oh well. Weather is one of the th

I know that as a parent you are supposed to understand that your kids are going to fall and get cuts and "owies" but it is one of the scariest moments when you get a call from your wife saying that she is on her way to the doctor because your daughter split her head open. I have fallen plenty of times and have numerous battle scars to show it, but it is so much different when it is your baby. I am a pretty strong person, but when it comes to my kids anything will send me into hysterics. My wife called me at work yesterday wanting to know what she should do because Lil' Red fell at the daycare and cut her head open. My initial response was to call an ambulance. Obviously a huge overreaction on my part, but not knowing the extent of the injury I was freaking out. I told her to go to the ER because if it were serious I would rather have the ER docs take a look instead of having her sitting in an urgent care waiting room for an hour when she is bleeding profusely. All Mrs. Me

So, today was such a nice day I decided to take an extended lunch and go for a long run. I went out for the first long run in a very long time without my iPod so I really got to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. One thing though that really sets me off is smoking on a running, walking, biking trail. I understand that you are outside and due to one of the best legislation ever passed in Iowa it is illegal to smoke in all establishments minus casinos, but there are people that are on this trail trying improve their lives and you keep blowing your smoke right in my face. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! It ruins a perfectly good day/run when you have to run through 2-3 people standing on the sidewalk or walking on the trail puffing on their cancer sticks. Have some common courtesy for your fellow human being. If you want to pollute your lungs and your body with that crap, don't get me involved. I have had several family members killed by this silent killer and I don't want that stuff affect

When you look at the title of this blog you really have to open your mind up to how bad life really could be and people that are living in absolute hell. Yesterday as I was walking in to work, with sitting at my desk all day on my mind, I saw a homeless man standing in front of Starbucks. My initial human response is to avoid eye contact and just keep walking. Which is what I did. As I crossed the street I tried to envision what this guy might have gone through to end up sitting outside of Starbucks, wearing no shoes asking people for money. I obviously don't know him and don't know his ambitions or his past, but a guy driving his Cadillac CTS (one of my favorite cars) comes out of Starbucks and just walks past like I did. I realized that this was an extremely arrogant and pompous gesture as I have been blessed with a job that pays well and I don't have to beg for money. I didn't have any money on me as I never carry cash or credit cards, so I did the only thing that I

With the rumbling of chainsaws, the groaning of tractors and the still of a once bustling small town I entered what was once known as southern Parkersburg, IA. I, like many of you, have been trying to keep an eye on what has been happening after one of the most destructive tornadoes ripped through a town of nearly 2,000 people destroying homes and lives. A small group has formed in the company that I work for to act as a disaster response team and this was our very first assignment. I don't want to say that we have been waiting for something to happen, but the people involved have been itching to get out and help people that have recently effected by severe weather. With the heavy rains that have hit Iowa in the past couple of months causing flooding we all thought that we would be heading out to sandbag or clean up debris left by rising flood waters. We never really thought that our first assignment would be something that basically flattened a town. We all have been watching the

Last week while I was sitting in my basement on my computer I was thinking to myself "Your birthday is tomorrow. What is your calling?" I know, kind of a weird thing to think about with so many places I could go on the internet. So during my nightly prayer I asked God to help me discover what my purpose is and how I can use some of my passions to find it. I wasn't asking for a lightning strike and a burning bush, I was just asking to help me find out what my true calling in life is. A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a daily devotional type of thing from a place called Teen Hope Line.com . I know, I know, 28 is not a teenager anymore, but this website was founded by the lead singer of Seventh Day Slumber and I love them. While I was at the concert a couple of weeks ago I signed up for the newsletter just as another resource to strengthen my walk. I really haven't thought too much about my question to God in the last week, but I open my email this morning and there

Alright. The time has arrived. With one week until the Dam to Dam here is where I am at. Had a little set back in my training schedule late last week, much too long of a story so I will not even go into it. It is a work thing that upsets me, so enough said. I decided late Tuesday afternoon that I had to get out and get at least one more long run in before the race, so when I got home I threw on my gear and headed out. I had initially planned to just do another 10 miler and call it good, but when I got out I felt really good (albeit a little tired) and decided to keep going. I got back in to town, looked down at my watch and saw "11.80 m" and "1:53". FREAKING SWEET!!!!!!!! I think that I will be able to break my previous D-T-D time by almost 10 minutes. I called my best friend (besides my wife of course) last night (Wednesday) and found out that had also run the same distance at almost exactly the same pace. YES!!!! We are going to Git-R-Done and beat the crap out o

So I haven't written on here for a while, but it is not because I have forgotten about the one or two people that read this. I have been insanely busy with family, work and all of the cool things that are happening in my life. Last week I was listening to the radio on my way in to work and heard the DJ talking about a concert that was coming to a Church a few miles from our house and really wanted to win tickets to the show. As the DJ was talking he was saying that he had a few tickets to give away in a few minutes, but to my dismay I was just getting ready to head in to work. This station has recently changed their format at bit to "recruit" non-believers to listening to music that has a Christian spin. They have changed their name, call letters and slogan (if you live in Des Moines and listen to Christian music you know which station I am talking about) and one of the things that was supposed to disappear with the old station was the on-line stream. I am still a fan of