Swim: 7800 yards or 4.43 Miles
Bike: 146 Miles
Run: 40.39 Miles
Friday, February 26, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
"Where Jesus Waits"
Week 2 of Training
"Where Jesus Waits"; by Louis Gander
The path of least resistance
is popular and wide.
It's trampled by the simple
until they all have died.
The wind tears homes to pieces
and kills without remorse.
The path of least resistance
will have its way, of course.
But running wise with purpose,
I'm braced against the wind.
I fight the lies that bellow on
the path where all have sinned.
Water flows so freely
while cutting out with force -
the path of least resistance,
while winding its own course.
I swim against the current
and seek the truth upstream,
ignoring cries from foolish
and sin's deceptions dream.
Yes, steadfast I have journeyed -
escaped both wind and flood -
I hold my sights on footsteps
that follow drops of blood.
So follow in the footsteps,
on straight and narrow path -
escape deceptions of this world
where death is sure - and wrath.
Yes, paths of least resistance
are popular and wide.
They carry off the simple
until they all have died.
The wide and easy path is trod
where foolish still discuss -
but walk the straight and narrow one
where Jesus waits for us.
This week was tough, one of the toughest weeks of training by far. But for some reason I stuck with it. My legs were heavy, my arms were sore, and my head was aching but I still dragged my body along. Why? It certainly wasn't the easy thing to do. I would have had a much easier week sitting on my butt doing nothing all day. But I stepped out there and did what I needed to do. What does this teach me?
It brings several questions to my mind. Why do I seem to have the endurance to conquer the pains of my body and continued training all for a silly race, but i don't have the endurance to spend time with God every day. Nor do I have the strength or endurance to combat the sin in my life, in the race that really matters.
This year I have found myself quite often a prideful and self absorbed man. I am motivated more by how others see me than anything else. I am sinful, and a failure. I constantly fall short of my spiritual goals and I take the easy way out of everything. How in the world am I going to be able to walk the straight and narrow path? I am constantly falling away, taking the easy way and falling hard. Again and again I turn away from the bloody footsteps and follow my own foolish "easy way".
God has a special message for me I believe, and it came in the form of triathlon. In triathlon and in life, you can recall the past (what you did) or look to the future (what you want to do) but only live in the present (what you are doing). Each day is a new day, you can't make the swim you did yesterday count for today or the run you'll do tomorrow for today. All you can do is jump in the pool, and start pounding the pavement TODAY.
That's easy for me to understand in triathlon training, I mean I know my soreness is only temporary. But in life, my screw ups and guilt about everything I mentioned a couple of paragraphs above isn't so easy to forget. I dwell on it, and worry about it and I can feel myself saying "you can't do anything about it, you are doomed to screw up again". But by doing so I am letting my past speak for my present, I am saying whats happened has happened and it will only happen again. But the fact is I have a choice. I have the opportunity to live this life TODAY. I choose TODAY to follow the straight and narrow path where Jesus waits for me.
"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid before me. Brothers, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philipians 3:12-14"
"Where Jesus Waits"; by Louis Gander
The path of least resistance
is popular and wide.
It's trampled by the simple
until they all have died.
The wind tears homes to pieces
and kills without remorse.
The path of least resistance
will have its way, of course.
But running wise with purpose,
I'm braced against the wind.
I fight the lies that bellow on
the path where all have sinned.
Water flows so freely
while cutting out with force -
the path of least resistance,
while winding its own course.
I swim against the current
and seek the truth upstream,
ignoring cries from foolish
and sin's deceptions dream.
Yes, steadfast I have journeyed -
escaped both wind and flood -
I hold my sights on footsteps
that follow drops of blood.
So follow in the footsteps,
on straight and narrow path -
escape deceptions of this world
where death is sure - and wrath.
Yes, paths of least resistance
are popular and wide.
They carry off the simple
until they all have died.
The wide and easy path is trod
where foolish still discuss -
but walk the straight and narrow one
where Jesus waits for us.
This week was tough, one of the toughest weeks of training by far. But for some reason I stuck with it. My legs were heavy, my arms were sore, and my head was aching but I still dragged my body along. Why? It certainly wasn't the easy thing to do. I would have had a much easier week sitting on my butt doing nothing all day. But I stepped out there and did what I needed to do. What does this teach me?
It brings several questions to my mind. Why do I seem to have the endurance to conquer the pains of my body and continued training all for a silly race, but i don't have the endurance to spend time with God every day. Nor do I have the strength or endurance to combat the sin in my life, in the race that really matters.
This year I have found myself quite often a prideful and self absorbed man. I am motivated more by how others see me than anything else. I am sinful, and a failure. I constantly fall short of my spiritual goals and I take the easy way out of everything. How in the world am I going to be able to walk the straight and narrow path? I am constantly falling away, taking the easy way and falling hard. Again and again I turn away from the bloody footsteps and follow my own foolish "easy way".
God has a special message for me I believe, and it came in the form of triathlon. In triathlon and in life, you can recall the past (what you did) or look to the future (what you want to do) but only live in the present (what you are doing). Each day is a new day, you can't make the swim you did yesterday count for today or the run you'll do tomorrow for today. All you can do is jump in the pool, and start pounding the pavement TODAY.
That's easy for me to understand in triathlon training, I mean I know my soreness is only temporary. But in life, my screw ups and guilt about everything I mentioned a couple of paragraphs above isn't so easy to forget. I dwell on it, and worry about it and I can feel myself saying "you can't do anything about it, you are doomed to screw up again". But by doing so I am letting my past speak for my present, I am saying whats happened has happened and it will only happen again. But the fact is I have a choice. I have the opportunity to live this life TODAY. I choose TODAY to follow the straight and narrow path where Jesus waits for me.
"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid before me. Brothers, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philipians 3:12-14"
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