Face Paint, Cheese Heads, and Church Pews

    To raise funds for our missions endeavors, I, as well as the rest of the team work as supervisors of concession stands at the Georgia Dome, home of the Atlanta Falcons.

    I have worked every home game this season and, needless to say, have seen a lot of people come though my stand. I have seen every kind of fan there is and while trying to feed the masses I have noticed something.

    The people who come to football games are the same kinds of people who go to church.

    Don't believe me? Here is a list of the kind of fans I see at the Georgia Dome, see if you can't see some similarities. Which one are you?

The Bromancer- Of course you love football, it's what guys do. Together. Your greatest memories have revolved around football with a bunch of your closest dudes. Yelling at the TV when the referee makes a bad call is all about joining your brothers in a call for justice.

    Secretly though, you really only enjoy football to the extent that you do because you have friends who do. You have a real hard time watching the game by yourself because to you it is all about being with other people, not because you care about the team. If it weren't for the tailgating, the Sunday afternoon parties, or the fellowship you wouldn't be a fan at all. When your star quarter back makes a mistake that costs them the game you don't say anything, because your friends might think you are rooting for the other team. It's all about keeping the bros happy.

The Girlfriend- To be honest you have no idea what is going on. You gave up a long time ago asking questions because you figure you will never understand. You really don't even like football but you would never tell your boyfriend that, ever. So you clap and cheer at all the right moments, that is, whenever everybody else is clapping and cheering, just to make sure that your little pookie thinks you are just as excited as he is. It is not about the game, it is about spending time with that special someone who happens to be at the game.

The Geographically Convenient- You tried to avoid it but everyone in this city roots for the same team and is way too excited in expressing it. You are a fan because everyone around you is and you don't want to be an outcast. It is part of your culture to cheer for this particular team. Aside from it being expected of you, you really could care less about the game at all. Football is what you are expected to do because it is what everyone around you does, but it really isn't that important to you.

The Jerk- You are the easiest to identify. Everyone knows a jerk when they see one. You are the kind of guy that just yells at everything. You see a fan from the opposing team and just start yelling. Stirring up controversy is part of the game and you thrive when you get one-up on a stranger. Drama keeps the whole event exciting.

The Other Guy- You are a lot like the jerk, just a little bit more confused. You may not intend to stir up controversy but you do anyway because you deliberately wear a jersey of a team that is not even playing. Nobody thinks the cheese on your head is cute when nobody in the stadium has ever even been to Green Bay. Nobody is quite sure why you insist on always having opposing viewpoints on everything or why you are even at this stadium since you aren't cheering for anybody. You probably aren't too sure yourself but you know there is something these other fans have that you want.

The Megatron Lover- Your mission is simple: be seen. You have to be "that guy." You are the guy with obscene amounts of face paint and your own homemade costume. You are in a building with 70,000 plus people but you have to be the one who shows up on the Megatron, the godfather of all plasma TV's. You say it is all about the team, but you and I both know you want more people to notice you than they notice the game.

    You have a female counterpart too. There is no way you would wear four inch heels and a mini skirt to go walk a mile around a cement building and climb hundreds of step unless you were seen doing it. The game is all about people knowing you are there and nothing else. Who cares what the team does, you are your own entertainment.

The Die- Hard- Rain, snow, sleet or fumble you are there for your team. You come alone, because you don't need anyone else to enjoy the game. You wait for hours before hand just because you want to. You don't buy into the hype around you, they are all one time ticket holders who don't know any better but you my friend, have season tickets and you use them to their fullest extent. It doesn't matter how many times your team blows it, you still return every single Sunday. Nothing can keep you from the game you love.

The Paternally Affectionate- You are the greatest of all the fans that step into a stadium. You are the little kid whose eyes fill with wonder when you see the size of what you are stepping into. You don't know the ins and outs of the game and you don't speak the language but you do understand one thing: Your daddy loves this game and you love him. It is only natural that you would love what He is so crazy about. You are just excited to be with your daddy doing the things he loves to do. That is enough for you.

MMXI Resolutions

    So I apparently am weird in the fact that I actually take resolutions pretty seriously, probably because I can't stand letting another year pass without some sort of improvement. I like to do these publicly because that way there is some level of accountability and my list of resolutions actually happen. So here it goes…

• Continue last year's resolutions
  
• Read at least one book of my choice a month, including new nonfiction and old fiction
  
• Compliment one person everyday
  
• Make sleeping a daily habit (this is a big one)
  
• Finish all my credentialing education and be certified minister in the Assemblies of God
  
• Read the Bible through again
  
• Don't let my ideas of what God should be doing get in the way of what He is actually doing
  
• Maintain running shape as well as consistently work toward acquiring some upper body strength
  
• Keep old friends and keep making new ones
  
• Journal more frequently and write something productive every day
  
• Appreciate people and let them know about it
  
• Give at least an hour of my day every day to prayer about other people
  
• Develop a lifestyle in preparation for a life of ministry
  
• Continue mastering all the instruments and languages I have started learning
  
• Be content with what I cannot change but desperate for the things I can

December 26th- The Great Letdown

    An odd thing happened in the universe this morning.

    The Christian radio stations stopped playing Mariah Carey and the secular stations stopped playing Amy Grant. Stomachs around the country began growling at their owners on account of the perpetual stuffing of sweets that had been going on for the past few weeks. People began turning on the TV in a desperate attempt to watch a "normal" movie that doesn't have elves and lots of snow and someone in every family is inevitably asleep and snoring in their recliner. The biggest day of the year is over and this is the day after.

    I think it is weird how over the years we have started Christmas earlier and earlier but we end it as soon as possible. Most of the time, we are sick of Christmas by the end of Christmas day. We all hate that person who is still singing Christmas songs until New Years or the guy who keeps his lights up until St. Patrick's Day (unless you are like most people who live in Florida and are too old to ever take them down). We find ourselves in an odd paradox because the world is back to the way it was but your Christmas tree is still up and you keep finding bits of wrapping paper stuck to your feet reminding you that something big must have happened. It is a little anticlimactic to be honest.

    We have all seen the movies. Christmas is about spending time with family and being a good person. Everything is happy at Christmas if you just "believe." All the children of the world sing in the harmony of peace and friendship and everybody loves everybody. Miracles can happen now, because it is Christmas and all. Nothing could be better.

    Then it is all over the next day.

The world expects so much out of Christmas that it seems like the first chance we get we kick back and lower our expectations. You don't have to be the family loving, charitable, God-fearing and miracle believing person you have been for the last month and a half, Christmas is over. It is time to put Jesus and Santa back on the make believe shelf and get back to normal.

    I might be wrong here, but isn't the whole point of Christmas the fact that a baby came and changed everything so that we couldn't go back to "normal" after meeting Him. Everybody in your nativity scene was changed the night they visited that stable. Their lives were altered completely. If December 26^th looks the same as every other day of the year, doesn't it mean December 25^th wasn't real enough?

    Again, correct me if I'm wrong but don't homeless people need to eat on December 26^th too? Everybody does charity this time of year, but I understand. January is far too busy to keep spending time with your family and being nice to people, especially homeless people. After all, you have a whole list of resolutions you have to forget about by February and that is very time consuming.

    Imagine what the world would be like if we were the same people we are on Christmas every other day of the year. I hate that it takes a flood of media and tradition to get us to be who we were created to be every day of the year. I think we rob Christmas of what it was intended to be when we only celebrate it once a year. Now I am not saying we should do like that cheesy movie and have Christmas every day but we need to remember who we are capable of being on Christmas and apply that to every day. Sometimes we can surprise our self with how good a person we are on Christmas.

    The son of God came into this world of hate and rejection to change everything forever. Emmanuel means "God with us," not "God was with us." He is still here, changing everything no matter what day of the year it is. Let's do the same.

    

What I learned in 2010

It is that time of year when everyone reflects back on everything that has happened to them in the past twelve months. This has been one crazy year for me; the craziest I've had thus far. In one year I have graduated high school, left home, started doing ministry full time, lost a brother, and gained a brother. I have experienced the highest spiritual mountain and the lowest spiritual valley in the same week. The best things that have ever happened in my life as well as the worst things have happened in just twelve short months.

I have been reading through old blog posts and journal entries and am in awe of what God continues to teach me.

Needless to say, I have learned a lot. Here is some of it…

• Being a senior isn't as exciting as everyone says it is and graduation isn't really a big deal when you are more concerned with where you are going instead of what you are leaving
  
• The Department of Driver's Services really is out to get you
  
• People are in your life for a season but God is there for the long run
  
• Grief never comes how or when you expect it too
  
• I am not as smart as I think I am
  
• Insecurity is the first ingredient in the recipe for failure
  
• Pity parties aren't as fun as victorious celebrations
  
• Febreeze is absolutely necessary when 5 guys share one apartment
  
• God cares enough about me to mess up my plans and give me His own, which are far better anyway
  
• The ability to worship is an incredible privilege that none of us deserve
  
• Life may catch you by surprise but death shakes you even more
  
• Red Box is a gift from God to poor missionaries who love watching movies
  
• God will call you to the one area you tell Him you won't go
  
• Your pain today brings someone else's healing tomorrow
  
• Following Jesus is a balance between failing with insecurity and succeeding with pride
  
• "Our daily bread" only tastes good on the day it was given. I can't chew on yesterday's feelings when God has something new for me today.
  
• I can't have both hands to the plow when one hand is holding on to what I think God has for me
  
• They call it "peace like a river" because sometimes it flows continuously through you and sometimes you have to move where it is flowing. It is unpredictable and overwhelming at times but it is real. God really does bring unexplainable comfort when we think we need it and when we don't.
  
• Appreciate people, they may not always be there
  
• Sometimes a death can bring far more life than just living
  
• I will only be this age, in this place, with this much ahead of me once in my life- and it is right now
  
• No matter if I feel too young or too old, I am right where I was created to be
  
• Ukuleles are really fun to play
  
• A smile can change a life
  
• Every year gets quicker the older you get
  
• My whole life thus far has been preparing me for the rest of my life
  
• God can bring healing in ways you could never imagine
  
• The worst part about being away from home is not that they can't help you, but that you can't help them
  
• Life won't go the way I expect it to but it won't catch God off guard
  
• I have absolutely nothing to complain about
  

The Other Side of Luke 2

            Your job is to follow the man with the stick. Wherever he goes, you go- you and the hundreds of others around you. That is pretty much all you have to do so you have a pretty easy life. Once the man with the stick lets you and everybody else rest in a certain spot you are completely free to frolic around and eat as much grass as your heart desires.

            Oh I forgot to mention that you are a sheep. Anyway, you are a sheep, and consequently you are very stupid. It’s not your fault, all sheep are stupid and that’s not just being stereotypical, its fact.

            It is a rather chilly night tonight but thankfully you have a built in sweater. Usually, you and the guys spend your evenings telling sheep jokes and making fun of the shepherds that fall asleep every time they try and count you. Tonight, however, will be a little bit different.

            It started out with the blinding lights and the choir music that just completely disrupted your peaceful evening. Then, the men with the sticks decide to break camp and start moving. You are pretty ticked right now because you have been doing hard, strenuous, sheep labor all day and you have to rest your little sheep legs for the night before they collapsed from under you. Plus, you had some new jokes to try out on the guys and now you won’t get a chance.

            The men with the sticks led you out of the nice, comfortable pasture and into the busy city below. You hate the way people smell and you don’t want to be around any of them. Now you find yourself in an already crowded stable staring at some kid sleeping in a feeding trough.

            But wait! Something is different and you know there is something special about this baby. He isn’t like all the other smelly humans, he is like a lamb. Instantly you realize that this is far better than the evening you had planned for yourself. You realize that your rest, your needs, and your plans fail in comparison to this. The next time you feel like you are inconvenienced by your shepherd you remember that what he has planned for you is way better than sheep jokes.

           

            There are way too many warm bodies in here tonight. You don’t know why, but a whole lot of people came in to town yesterday and brought their stupid camels with them. Now they are all sleeping in your house, eating your food and sleeping in your bed.

            If that camel spits on you one more time, you swear you are going to stick a hoof where that camel doesn’t want it.

            Now there are people staying here and they brought a screaming one.

            You are not sure how long your patience can take all these stupid camels and their bad singing (“my humps, my humps, my lovely camel humps”) as well as this screaming woman. Suddenly a baby shows up, though you are not quite sure how it happened, and is placed right in your manger. Granted, you pride yourself in being able to chew the same piece of grass all day by spitting it up and swallowing it again, seeing as how you are in fact a cow, but you were ready to dig in to some fresh hay, but somebody dropped a baby in your manger and now dinner has to wait.

            Suddenly you hear the bleating of sheep and you know that your night is about to get worse. You hate sheep jokes. You can hardly move on account of so many animals being in that tiny stable and your frustration level is at an all time high.

            But then you see this baby smile and you know that this kid is not just any baby. You make up your mind that no matter how annoying your companions may be, how inconvenienced you might be, or how hungry you might be, seeing this kid makes it all worth it.

           

            You are an ass, but you prefer to be called a donkey.

            You are definitely a city donkey, and are very comfortable on the streets but you were not prepared for this. Your master has made you carry some heavy loads before on account of him being a carpenter and all but they were nothing compared to his fat fiancée.

            This girl was tiny a couple months ago but she has a growth on her stomach that seems to be a pain for everyone around her. No matter how hard you try, you cannot walk smoothly enough to get her to stop complaining. This journey is taking forever and you are not sure how much longer you can carry this load.

            You finally stop for the night only to find that the stable is full and that you will have no respite from the hormonal complainer tonight as she and her husband are sleeping with you. Great. Your legs are killing you and your back is stiff and all you can think about is how wrong it was for them to make you carry their load that long.

            Suddenly, the woman starts looking like she is in a lot of pain. She seems to be carrying a load much bigger than you were and you realize that her journey here was a lot harder than yours.  Now there is a baby and now you know exactly why you are here.

            After catching a glimpse of this baby you decide that no burden is too heavy as long as you get a reward like that.

            This Christmas your plans may have been ruined. Maybe you are surrounded by people who bring out the worst in you. Maybe you are tired and weary from carrying that load around so long. The only solution is to just catch a glimpse of your Savior and remember that it is not about you, but about what He did for you and is still doing for you. Remembering Him is the best way to forget your problems.

            Don’t let your expectations get in the way of God’s extra blessings. You have the privilege of taking part in something much bigger than your imagination as long as you are up for the journey.  

Saving Christmas, Again

Believe it or not but Christmas may not happen this year.
I had no idea either but apparently there is a good chance every year of Christmas not happening. If you don’t believe me just watch more Christmas movies, they will tell you all about it.
For instance, unbeknownst to the children of the world, the father of Christmas himself was very nearly prevented from making his annual deliveries on account of some blinding fog. Now, why Santa had not come into poor weather in the thousands of years he had been in the business or why he never thought of headlights before is beyond me. However, thanks to a mutant reindeer, who had to have been born near Chernobyl, and his rare gift (or curse) of nasal illumination, Santa was able to fly safely around the world and pervade the global spread of fog. The world would never have known about how Rudolph saved Christmas if Burl Ives didn’t write a song about it.
Later we find that Santa has gotten sick, for the first time ever apparently, as well as fed up with the greedy consumerism of today’s American child. He decided that he simply would cancel Christmas because he didn’t feel it was worth it. Incredible! One man decided not have Christmas so we almost didn’t. Luckily Mrs. Claus stepped in and with the help of two elves, Jingle and Jangle, went down to Summertown to prove that kids still needed Christmas after all. After a musical battle with the spoiled children of Mother Nature, Heat and Snow Miser, Mrs. Clause got the whole thing straightened out in true puppet fashion. I learned all that in “The Year Without a Santa Clause.”
Santa was accused of attacking a man on 34th street in New York, but thankfully a thrilling court case proved his innocence and Santa was free to return to his job at Macy’s and Christmas was saved again. In the nineties we almost missed Christmas on account of Tim Allen refusing to accept the undeniable fact that because the old Santa fell off his roof and for some reason he had been so compelled to wear the Old Santa’s pants that he was in fact, the new Father Christmas. In the next movie, Christmas almost didn’t happen because Santa found out he had to be married to continue being Santa.
I have seen tons of movies where Santa gets kidnapped and even one where he has amnesia. I just watched one movie where Santa’s time limit for being Santa had run up and he had to pick a replacement before the Earth split open in two and there would be some kind of rift in the space-time continuum or something. He chose Whoopi Goldberg to be the new Santa, and I am still trying to wrap my mind around that one.
With so much riding on just one night and one man, it is scary to think of how many times it almost didn’t happen.
It is a good thing Christmas isn’t about him. It is about a baby called Emmanuel, whose name means God with us, which means he will always be there.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”* Neither bad weather nor sickness, neither false accusations nor mistaken identity, will be able to separate Him from being with you this Christmas.

*(Romans 8:38-39 NIV)

The Mean Time

Everyone at some point in their lives will find themselves waiting. Waiting at the grocery store, waiting in line at Starbucks, waiting for the weekend, waiting for the Avengers movie to finally come out or waiting for a beard to magically appear on your face (those last two may have just been me).
When I think of waiting the most obvious place that comes to mind is a waiting room in a doctor’s office. It is a room built solely for waiting, hence the name.
These waiting rooms aren’t very exciting; most of the time they are just filled with sick people and old magazines.
A lot of us are waiting for something more important. We are waiting for something God promised us, freedom from the things that keep us down, or that person to finally be on the same page as you.
We find ourselves stuck in a waiting room hoping that the next name called will be ours.
I have been in waiting rooms a lot, and probably will be in more, and here is what I have learned. God always has more to teach you than just patience when you are waiting on Him. I think a lot of times we get this idea in our head that we are exactly where we need to be with God, that our butts are completely covered and all we have to do is wait patiently on the Lord and one day he will realize how awesome we are and remember to overwhelmingly bless us.
I call this going into martyr mode. Go ahead and get your sackcloth and ashes and wait until you have made God look like a bad guy for not blessing someone so righteous as yourself.
Don’t get me wrong, patience is one of those things that someone truly seeking after God must learn to acquire. It is absolutely vital to your walk with God. However, there is always more to learn. If you are still in the waiting room it means that you are not completely ready to leave. It isn’t like God is keeping you in a place because He didn’t expect you to make so soon and now He isn’t ready for you. He has things to plant inside of you, He has things that only this season of wait can prepare you for.
It is all about what we learn in the meantime. Notice it is called meantime and not “happytime.” More often than not the times in between are not pleasant or enjoyable, but they can be. Most of the time they are filled with questions like “OK God, what did that do?, What was I supposed to learn from that? Now what?”
The meantime is where we find time to read old magazines.
You may have read these magazines before, even multiple times, and you thought you knew everything they had to say. Sometimes what God has to teach us is an old magazine, a re-run, something you need to be reminded of or something you have never perfected but thought you had. Our prayer in those times of confusion should be “God teach me what I do not know, or help me remember what You have already taught me.”
The Israelites wandered for forty years in a big, hot, waiting room. Sure they were being punished for doubting that God could do what He said He would but why do you think God made them wait instead of just sending a plague or wiping some of them out like He did every other time? You see, the Israelites were coming out of the pagan nation of Egypt and into the pagan land of Canaan. These people had been raised under idol worship and polytheism. If there was no waiting room there would not have been any distinction between them and the inhabitants of the land. God used this time of wait to teach patience yes, but also to weed out everything that wasn’t Him, to teach them how to live the rest of their existence, and to set them apart as His holy people. They had a lot of old magazines to read, they had to learn some lessons multiple times.
If you are waiting it is probably because God is preparing you for what you are waiting for. This would be the perfect opportunity to learn how to worship God, and not where He is taking you. This would be a perfect time to go deeper with God than you ever have before. This would be a perfect time to remember everything He has done in your life. Read your old journals, they are like old magazines.

Let me be frank, or somebody else

Sometimes it is all about me. There are many time when the world does, in fact, revolve around me.
To be honest, most of the time I just want to better myself. I want to be the next C.S. Lewis, the next Billy Graham, the next spiritual giant. Unfortunately this becomes my motive for growing closer to God. I get in these places where I worship what God has promised me and not Him. I worship His presents not His presence. I forget that He is my destination, not my means of transportation.
I tell God that I will go anywhere and do anything for Him, but secretly I just want a good story to impress people. I want people to compliment me and talk about how much I inspired them with my words of brilliance. My pride is a drug and I seem to be a junkie.
It just goes to show that doing all the right things for the wrong reasons will fail. I have to ask myself if no one recognized how Christian I was, if no one read this stupid blog, or if I never was given the opportunity to speak in front of an audience; would I still be in love with my Creator? If God never gave me anything else, what He has done in my life already and in the history of this planet would be enough to deserve more than what a million “me”s could give Him. It can’t be about what I get in return. My relationship to the God of the universe should be more than me having a good reputation.
A thought came into my head awhile ago that my pride can’t handle the pulpit I was called to. Imagine if God looked down and decided to hold back on what He had promised and created you for because he knew that if you had it you would just use it to flatter yourself.
I hate it when God has to put me in my place.
I have had to ask for forgiveness because I was using the opportunities God has given me for ministry to make myself feel good. Even in asking forgiveness I have to question my motives.
Proverbs 27: 21 says “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise he receives.”
I failed the test. It became all about me.
You see, it isn’t my name that makes demons tremble. It isn’t my name that when called on can move mountains. It isn’t my name that brings life to the world and healing to the broken.
At the end of the day knowing me won’t change your life. Kyle Semple is awkward, insecure, and over cynical. Kyle Semple thinks way too highly of himself. Kyle Semple just recycles old jokes pretends he made them up himself. Kyle Semple is still speaking in third person even though he should have stopped awhile ago.
It is Jesus Christ who is worth following.
Greater is He that is in me than he who is just me.

Smacking Weathermen

It has happened several times every year and I never learn. It gets me every time. It usually goes something like this:
I wake up before the sun does and drag myself out of bed. I go to the bathroom and come back into my room and sit down trying to find motivation to go for a run. Sometime later I find and get ready to run. I have my shorts, a dry fit T Shirt, and running shoes that have put in a couple hundred miles. I walk outside and suddenly get the urge to smack a weatherman.
Don’t act like you don’t do it too. You know those days when you walk outside and find yourself in excruciating pain because a gust of icy wind seems to be beating you up and giving you a wedgie. The weatherman didn’t tell me it was going to be this cold, not that I was really listening anyway.
I was complaining to myself about how cold it suddenly was when I realized, “Dude, its 5:30 in the morning in November.” I should have definitely seen this coming.
I do this all the time with God.
I am fully aware that every year fall comes after summer, and I am fully aware that seasons in my life are going to change yet I am surprised by both. Should I find it surprising that a season of “everything is awesome with God” would be followed by a season “What’s going on God?”
Should I find it surprising that a season in the valley would be followed by a season on a mountain?
I get so focused on what is going on right here, right now that when everything changes I get mad at God, even though I can look back on my life and see change all over the place.
Jesus told the Pharisees and the Sadducees when they demanded a sign from Him about seasons.
“When evening comes, you say, ‘it will be fair weather for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Mt 16:2-3 NIV)
One of the biggest problems with Christians today is that we don’t recognize what season we are in. We pray for warmth in winter and a cool breeze in summer. We pray for direction when we are in a season of growing and rest when we are in a season of going. Instead of recognizing that God has specific times for specific purposes we get mad when He changes things on us. We want to smack a weatherman.
Solomon wrote about seasons in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and then British Invasion rockers named The Byrds wrote a song about it. Now you have that song stuck in your head, it will most likely be there all day. You’re welcome.
The point of what Solomon was talking about was that there is a season for everything so we shouldn’t get stuck in the season you are most comfortable with. I am really comfortable in the season of being on the mountain and not so much the season of learning how to rock climb.
Paul tells Timothy in his second letter in the fourth chapter to “be prepared in season and out of season.” This means dressing like a Georgian.
I have discovered that Georgia does not have true seasons, we just have days of the week with each day having an entirely new pattern of weather of its own. True Georgians never pack away their winter clothes because they know some random day in April it is going to start snowing and then be 80 degrees the next day. That is what it means to be ready in season and out. You cannot leave behind the things you used in your last season when you move on to your next season or it would defeat the point.
I find it interesting the in the English language the word “season” is remarkably close to the word “seasoning,” which has a very different meaning. My thinking is that the more seasons you get to go through the better you will taste to the world in the end. Just a thought.
What season are you in? What is God doing in you right now? What season do you think is next?
“Through everything, turn, turn, turn. There is a season turn, turn, turn. And a time for every purpose, under heaven.”

The Last Mile Workout

Life experiences tend to teach life lessons. I know I haven’t been around a real long time but I have acquired enough life experience to get quite a few sermon illustrations and blog ideas, as you can probably see. I have gotten a lot of these life lessons from running cross country for three years. For instance, I have learned that my legs are really white (like seriously- you don’t understand… especially in those shorts, I have to wear sunglasses or I will be blinded by them). I have also learned that the whole world thinks you are a freak if you slightly enjoy running at all but I think they are just jealous of my meaty 150 pounds and tall lanky body that was crafted to do nothing else but run for miles on the side of the highway.
I have learned a lot about myself and my walk with God by running as well. What God reminded me of today is what is called the “Last Mile Workout.”
In high school, cross country is a sport (yes, it is a sport) in which the participants run a 3.1 mile course through woods, parking lots, or whatever else they can come up with and compete against up to a couple hundred runners at a time. Practice is more than just running for an hour or so, most of the time. A good coach will have different workouts that train the runner for different parts of the race.
I ran my first race in a year this past Saturday and as I hit my last mile I realized that in my training I had neglected my Last Mile Workout that would prepare me to finish the race strong. I was less than 400 meters behind first place and I did not have the strength I should have to catch him for the win.
As a beginning runner, I never understood when my coach would have us do a Last Mile Workout. We always had to run weird distances in weird times with weird paces. I discovered that the first half of the workout was designed to completely exhaust you while the second half is to show you what you are capable of when you are almost dead.
These past couple weeks for me have been a lot like the Last Mile Workout. I am learning things that don’t really seem to apply to where I am right now. Sometimes I don’t understand why I go through the things I go through. I don’t understand what I am supposed get from all of this.
Then I realize that I am being trained for the whole race, not just the first mile.
Some things I have just to file away for later and use when I need them.
If there is one thing I have learned about running, it is that if you do not have the end of the race in mind you will lose at the beginning.
I am in training to be in ministry, a field that has had its’ reputation burned since its’ inception. Ministers have broken families, destroyed faiths, and continually re-crucified their Savior with their actions.
The divorce rate is the same for clergy as it is for layman.
The Bible tells us that God gave about 400 people the responsibility of leadership. Only 25% of them ended their lives still in accordance with God’s will.
Anybody can start ministry, but I am here to finish. Every day we are one day closer to the return of Christ and I don’t think this world can afford another Jim Baker, another Jimmy Swaggert, or more recently another Eddie Long. I want to be who God created me to be 20, 40, and 60 years from now.
This does not just apply to ministry. If God has promised you something, every moment from the receiving of the promise to the fulfillment of the promise is preparation and training for the promise. God is always teaching you more than patience. Your whole life has trained you for today. What you do right now might not teach you what you need to know for tomorrow, but it might teach you what you need to know for the day after tomorrow.
So when you don’t understand what is going on or what the heck you are supposed to be learning just write it all down. You will use it later.
This nugget may not have been super spiritual but who knows what it will look like once I am in my last mile.