One of the best weekends ever
For the past 5 months I have been on a journey to really discover my true faith and where I feel God is leading me. It has been an extremely incredible experience that I can't even begin to explain. I started this trip a broken and beaten person and the people at my Church have really brought out my true potential and my love for Christ.
Late last week I got an email flier from our Church that was talking about the current series we are in and was talking about embracing eternity. Because I have been really engaged by this series and all of the good things that have been happening in my life, I felt intrigued to tell someone my story. Now, I wasn't sure if anyone actually even read the emails when you hit the "Share your Story" tab. I just figured that I could write something, hit send and it would be saved in an email bank. Shortly after that one of the pastors, whom I have come to know and trust in the last few months, emailed me back and said thanks for sharing my story. I thought that was kinda cool since he knew my problems from the get-go. I got another email from him a couple of hours later asking me I would be able to tell my story to the congregation during our service. I have seen this done a thousand times before, but he threw a little caveat into the offer. He wanted it LIVE!!!! WOW. Could I do this? I haven't spoken to a large group in a few years, let alone probably a couple of thousand people that belong to my Church. I graciously accepted and spent the next couple of days asking God if this was the right decision.
The weekend that I had went like this. Friday after work I came home, got the girls ready and headed out the door to my Men's Fraternity graduation. We dropped Lil' Red off at some friends house and took Mini-Me with us. We showed up, socialized for a little, ate a fantastic dinner and listened to so many peoples story about how Men's Fraternity and Women's Sorority has changed their lives. Both of these classes are life changes experiences and I am suggesting to everyone I meet that they need to take one of them. After the ceremony was over and I got a really cool gift for finishing the class, my mentor came up to me to introduce his wife and to give me a gift. I have never met his wife and she is really nice. He handed me a box that contained a Bible. This was not an ordinary Bible, but one that was geared specifically for Godly Men. What a cool gift. I have never had anything like this and it was really special to come from such a great person.
So the next day, we got up and ran some errands before I had to sit down and write what I was going to say for the service. T-minus 4 hours and counting. When I sat down I asked God "Please just give me the right words to say" and my fingers just started flying. Everything came out and it was over 3 PAGES!!!!! Ouch, Tom would be really mad if I rambled on for 3 pages :) I did some creative editing and got it down to just under a page. Phew. After all of the writing, editing, reciting, editing and printing I was down to about an hour to get ready and get to Church. At this point I was running on pure adrenaline because I was so excited. I got to Church, had some mic problems and gave my speech. I was a little nervous, but I think that doing it on Saturday was a great practice run for the big dance on Sunday. The mistake I did make though Saturday night was going home and playing the Wii that we borrowed until about 1:30 AM. OOPS.
I woke up on Sunday morning truly fired up to give my speech again. I got there and really had just an incredible time speaking to people, most of which don't know me, and just telling them about me. I got great feedback from my wife and a couple of our friends that were there and my one hope is that maybe, just maybe, I might have helped at least 1 person the way that I have been helped by so many at my Church. It was such an incredible experience that I hope to be able to have again. PRAISE GOD!!!!
So real quick about the running lately. It is going really well. I did a couple of long runs last week and did some rockin' sprints on Friday. I think that I am finally getting ready for D-T-D. I'll keep you updated. Stay Strong, Run Long!!!!
Late last week I got an email flier from our Church that was talking about the current series we are in and was talking about embracing eternity. Because I have been really engaged by this series and all of the good things that have been happening in my life, I felt intrigued to tell someone my story. Now, I wasn't sure if anyone actually even read the emails when you hit the "Share your Story" tab. I just figured that I could write something, hit send and it would be saved in an email bank. Shortly after that one of the pastors, whom I have come to know and trust in the last few months, emailed me back and said thanks for sharing my story. I thought that was kinda cool since he knew my problems from the get-go. I got another email from him a couple of hours later asking me I would be able to tell my story to the congregation during our service. I have seen this done a thousand times before, but he threw a little caveat into the offer. He wanted it LIVE!!!! WOW. Could I do this? I haven't spoken to a large group in a few years, let alone probably a couple of thousand people that belong to my Church. I graciously accepted and spent the next couple of days asking God if this was the right decision.
The weekend that I had went like this. Friday after work I came home, got the girls ready and headed out the door to my Men's Fraternity graduation. We dropped Lil' Red off at some friends house and took Mini-Me with us. We showed up, socialized for a little, ate a fantastic dinner and listened to so many peoples story about how Men's Fraternity and Women's Sorority has changed their lives. Both of these classes are life changes experiences and I am suggesting to everyone I meet that they need to take one of them. After the ceremony was over and I got a really cool gift for finishing the class, my mentor came up to me to introduce his wife and to give me a gift. I have never met his wife and she is really nice. He handed me a box that contained a Bible. This was not an ordinary Bible, but one that was geared specifically for Godly Men. What a cool gift. I have never had anything like this and it was really special to come from such a great person.
So the next day, we got up and ran some errands before I had to sit down and write what I was going to say for the service. T-minus 4 hours and counting. When I sat down I asked God "Please just give me the right words to say" and my fingers just started flying. Everything came out and it was over 3 PAGES!!!!! Ouch, Tom would be really mad if I rambled on for 3 pages :) I did some creative editing and got it down to just under a page. Phew. After all of the writing, editing, reciting, editing and printing I was down to about an hour to get ready and get to Church. At this point I was running on pure adrenaline because I was so excited. I got to Church, had some mic problems and gave my speech. I was a little nervous, but I think that doing it on Saturday was a great practice run for the big dance on Sunday. The mistake I did make though Saturday night was going home and playing the Wii that we borrowed until about 1:30 AM. OOPS.
I woke up on Sunday morning truly fired up to give my speech again. I got there and really had just an incredible time speaking to people, most of which don't know me, and just telling them about me. I got great feedback from my wife and a couple of our friends that were there and my one hope is that maybe, just maybe, I might have helped at least 1 person the way that I have been helped by so many at my Church. It was such an incredible experience that I hope to be able to have again. PRAISE GOD!!!!
So real quick about the running lately. It is going really well. I did a couple of long runs last week and did some rockin' sprints on Friday. I think that I am finally getting ready for D-T-D. I'll keep you updated. Stay Strong, Run Long!!!!
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