38th Birthday thoughts...

Another year has come and gone... and another birthday has too.  I creeped one year closer to 40... what a scary thought.

But for now: I'm still basking at 38.

I thought initially about doing 38 things that I'm thinking about right now... but I'm not sure that I have 38... so I'm just going to go for an old fashioned birthday brain dump.  What follows is an assortment of what is going on and what I'm thinking about.  There is no order of importance nor is this a comprehensive list.  Just some of what is happening in my life and over the past year.

1. I never could have imagined where I would be this year over last year.  Yesterday morning I was thinking about praying about the changes that have occurred in my life over the past year and it amazes what God brought us through and to.  I would never choose to go through what we went through to get here but I wouldn't trade what we have now for anything.  
2. I have an incredible wife who is an incredible mommy to Myles.  She is being stretched by living in NoVA but she is handling it way better than she thinks she is. 
3. I'm so excited to work for CFC and with the staff at CFC. 
4. I'm excited to work on a youth ministry team.  In the past, I was the team along with my leaders... here we have a full blown team of people who care about the success of youth ministry at CFC! Super exciting. 
5. Myles continues to grow.  He is learning new words and going crazy.  He is starting to try to sing along with songs... which is hilarious.  
6. I am running my 3rd marathon this fall... the Marine Corps Marathon.  It was on my bucket list and I got in the lottery on the first shot! 
7. Training back up mileage is hard.  My legs are sore after a 4 mile run yesterday... it used to take 14 to make them sore. 
8. I have become lazy with reading... I'm working on fixing that... 
9. I have become lazy with blogging... I'm also working on fixing that too... 
10. I love living in the suburbs again! It has it's moments but I enjoy being back in a busy area where things are growing. 
11. I miss folks from Zanesville... especially some of our close friends... but I in no way miss the city of Zanesville.  I had forgotten what community actually looked like in Zanesville.  While I miss the people, I have never once (in the past 3 months) thought, "I miss Zanesville."  
12. I am going to miss the Walking Dead until fall. 
13. I can't wait for baseball season to start. 
14. Jackie bought me baseball tickets for my birthday... the Cubs come to Washington at the beginning of June and we have tickets for a Saturday game.  It's going to be awesome!
15. Its a good day. 

Again... no rhyme or reason... just wanted to capture some of these thoughts.  Maybe some of these thoughts will become a full blown blog post later.  

JC

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Eyes on the Prize

Leave it to making it into a major marathon to restart both my serious running and my blogging in the same day... but it seems to have happened.

This morning, as I was scrolling through "my usual a.m. phone check-in with the world after waking up"... email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, etc... I saw this email!

I knew that the lottery was drawing today for the Marine Corps Marathon but I didn't realize it would be that early!

But... I won the participant lottery and made it into the Marine Corps Marathon on October 26th!

Yesterday I hung my shadow boxes of previous marathons and half-marathons that I've done... Akron 1/2 (2010), Flying Pig 1/2 (2011), Air Force full (2011), Cap City 1/2 (2012) and Chicago full (2012).  This morning as I was looking at the wall and imagining the shadow box that will soon hang there with my Marine Corps Marathon medal, I found myself thinking about the prize.

This verse popped to mind:
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

The thing that I love about having a marathon on my schedule, I know what I need to do... it brings discipline into my life (running, diet, sleeping, etc).  I know what the training looks like.  I know what the mileage looks like.  I know what it feels like to complete it.

When I don't have a marathon or a race on my calendar, I find myself lazy with my training.  I run what I want... when I want... how I want... But I don't accomplish anything.  I don't get anywhere.


I think it's easy to end up in the same spot in our spiritual lives.  When we don't have our eyes on the "prize" spiritually... when we do what we want... pray when we want... read when we want... without any discipline... we don't get anywhere.  We don't accomplish anything.

Paul says: Let's run in such a way to get the prize!

What are you running for spiritually??

I know that running a marathon will leave me with an awesome medal, some memorabilia, some photos and a great memory.  What will your spiritual marathon leave you with?  And are you running so as to get that stuff? Are you "running" with discipline?

Father: Help me to discipline myself spiritually as I discipline myself physically!

JC


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