Make Your Choice

The other day Tiffany and I stopped at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store. I always seem to make my way to the book section at these stores, looking for good religion or military books. On this day, Tiffany ran across a book titled “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. It had a good review on the back cover so I opened it to page 193….God put me there. In this part of the book Lee is interviewing a doctor by the name of Alexander Metherell. A little background on Mr. Metherell, he has a medical degree from the University of Miami and a doctorate in engineering from the University of Bristol in England and as Lee put it, he speaks with medical precision. Lee is interviewing him on the chilling details of the last day of Jesus’ life on earth. As I read pages 193-195, I was so moved that I closed the book and put it back on the shelf. Tiffany asked if it was a good one and I told her it was way too much for me to handle. We finished up and left the store. The next day we were out getting a few things and we decided to visit another Thrift Store (I don’t want to give you the impression we are junkies….well you can find some good deals there). I had the overwhelming feeling…the “Nudge” as I call it to travel back to the Salvation Army Thrift Store and purchase this book. We made the long trip to the store and it was still there. I brought it home and continued to read past where I had stopped the day before. As I read more into this interview it became very clear that the MAN that came to earth to save US from our sins was given the most horrific death, more than anyone could imagine…I know I was moved and I have read stories on Jesus’ beating and death. Let me provide you with some details. Dr. Metherell describes Jesus’ skin at the time of his initial flogging by roman soldiers. He had been under so much psychological stress that he was bleeding as he was sweating. This is known as hematidrosis. It is a very small amount of blood, but you can start to imagine the stress. This makes our skin very sensitive to anything that touches it…let alone a flogging. So you ask what is flogging like? For Romans this was extremely brutal. They consisted of 39 lashes (Hebrew Law, although the Romans had no limit except they wanted to make sure the victim had enough strength to carry his own cross). The gospels record that Jesus could not carry his cross; this is to suggest he was severely beaten. The whip used was of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them (generally two or three per whip). When the skin is hit by the balls it can cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break the skin wide open, this whip also had sharp bones which would cut the flesh severely. These thongs would literally shred the skin down to the bone of the back. The whipping would continue and sometimes go from the shoulders down the back to the buttocks and the back of the legs. Sometimes the beatings were so bad that the sufferer’s veins were laid bare and their bowels were open to exposure. I will stop here as you have gotten my point. As I read on Dr. Metherell continued to talk of the Agony suffered on the cross……

Let me give you a few facts about what happened to Jesus. It is estimated that he was lashed over 100 times. There were lash marks across the back, front of the upper body, head, shoulders and upper legs. The speed of each lash was equivalent to the energy released by the impact of 9 9mm bullets. From another perspective, this is equivalent to the energy released in the impact of 4 357 magnum rounds.       

So I ask you, would you go through this horrific death to save those you don’t even know, or those yet to come? Can you imagine as a father watching as your son is ruthlessly beaten to the point of being unrecognizable? He went through this to give YOU a HUGE gift…SALVATION and total forgiveness of sins. All he asked in return is a RELATIONSHIP, giving him the glory, following his commands, speak of him in all situations and have faith and trust to follow him all of your days…the choice is yours.

The Whisperer

When you saw the subject of this latest blog, I am sure you were not thinking of a little known book called "The Whisperer", by Donato Carrisi. In the book Donato talks of the many sources he used to put his novel together. "Whisperers" were addressed during the rise of cults and sects, but in the legal system they were hard to prove. Donato writes of a case from 1986; The Offelbeck case; were a housewife who received a series of mysterious phonecalls and then out of the blue killed her entire family by putting rat poison in their soup. Often times horrific crimes like this tend to come from a "voice" or a "WHISPERER". I hope I have not scared you, but this brings to light what I call the two whisperers on our shoulders, they are constantly competing for control of our thoughts and actions. Each are only a few inches in height. One is dressed in white with a bright light around him; always at peace, calm and graceful. The other, dressed in red, very hard to look at (Distorted face etc.), he is always moving like a tasmanian devil on steriods :). The one dressed in white is Jesus. He is always there waiting for you to ask him anything, craving for your full attention. Hopeful for obedience, but knows you are human and mistakes will be made. He always has something positive to say even in the darkest of days. At times he puts his arms around you for comfort. On the other shoulder we have the polar opposite dressed in red, always whispering tempting actions that will only hurt you if you follow thru, making you feel terrible, pushing you to do wrong in any situation. And when you finally give in to his temptation, he is overjoyed, excited and has you where he wants you, he looks over at the one dressed in white and just laughs...that evil laugh we all know at Halloween. So I ask you, are you going to give in to the whispering temptations of the little man dressed in red or the peaceful whispers of Jesus dressed in white? We wake up each and everyday to this constant battle, but there is a way to keep all your days peaceful...pray to God each and every morning, asking for comfort, guidance, a helping hand and to be strong not to give in to the little red Whisperer.   

Rock and Roll, Washington DC

What an experience!! To be running through the streets of the Nation’s Capital, all the history our founding fathers created, the trees changing and the blossoms coming out along the Potomac River…awesome!!! It was also St Patrick’s Day, so you can imagine the sights. Some of the funny ones where a Leprechaun (He ran all 26 miles in the suite), multiple size and shape St Patrick’s Day hats, tights, multiple sightings of the Dad from “The Incredibles”, just not as muscular and he was on a bike (Cheater) and many outfits that I would have rather not seen. Normally, marathons bring out some rather strange signs for you to read, but for this race, not so much. There were a few crazy ones, but nothing really to write about.

Now to my race, it started at 8 am. I was up at 5am to eat as I always do. I had oatmeal, toast with Peanut Butter and one cup of coffee. This is my routine and I was sticking with it. I made sure I had my energy gels (Jello type) and granola bars before heading to the Metro. It took me about 40 mins to get to the starting point of the race. I immediately got in line for the porta-johns (pre-race ritual). I then moved to my corral. I was placed in Corral 10, which is an estimated finish of 4 hrs. The horn sounded and we were off. I like how the Rock and Roll Marathon’s start their marathon’s. Each Corral is let go about a minute and a half a part. This really helps with the huge amount of people at the start of the race, stopping congestion and it allows me to get into my rhythm faster. The first 8 miles moved quickly and before I knew it I was at mile 13….half-way home. I was not sure of my time, but I felt really good. As I pushed to mile 17, it happened……I had to stop at the porta john. This was good to make it to mile 17 and not have to stop, so it was a welcomed pit-stop. Luckily, there was no one in line so it was quick. It felt like a pit-stop at a NASCAR race :-). As I pushed into mile 20, I started to feel my legs getting heavier, but I was still moving at a good pace. Then at mile 23 the legs where going down quickly, I walked for about 20 secs that mile and then picked back up and ran comfortably until mile 25, again walking for about 30 secs. It was at this point that I told myself, SELF it is time for you to push with everything you have and finish strong! Two personal bests for me, Overall 4:06 and Half-way point: 1:56.

Your Quiet Place

When you hear someone say they are going to their quiet place, what is the first thing that pops in your head. The person has issues? They are talking to much? For me it simply means a place to have one on one time with God. You see, quiet time with God is so refreshing. What a wonderful way to start your day then personal time with your father? You can develop a purpose for your day. You can tell him all your personal thoughts, without judgement. There might be some disappointment, but it is quickly and unconditionally FORGIVEN and FORGOTTEN. How cool is that? Let us not forget that God looked at your entire life and gave you the tools and gifts to accomplish the job and during your quiet time you can think and discuss it with him.

2012 Running Goals

So my first blog….this should be an interesting adventureJ. Let me start by looking at 2012 and the goals I have set for running.

1.      Run 6 marathons.

2.      Run 100 miles a month.

3.      Decrease my finish time each marathon.

We will see how my goals play out as the year progresses.

I am only a few short weeks away from the Rock and Roll Marathon here in DC. This will be my second Rock and Roll (1^st one was in San Antonio). The race starts and finishes in RFK Stadium, which should be exciting. Washington DC has been very mild this winter so training has been better than previous winters I have trained.  Unfortunately, I have not taken full advantage, but I am still feeling good.

Learning to blog

Bear with me as I am trying to figure out blogging...I can't wait to put my thoughts to paper per say...