faithrunner

Do you see it? It's right there. Behind the flowers. It's Poison Ivy. I hate the weed because I'm allergic to it, but it fades so nicely behind the scene. The beauty of the flowers in front hide the weed in the back. I have two options here: 1) leave the weed and keep it in the background, hoping no one will come in contact with it; or, 2) I can intentionally get a broad-leaf herbicide and kill it. My bad habits springing from my heart are like that poison ivy growing in my flowerbed . I think they go unnoticed because the flowers of my public behavior built on good habits masks them, but they are there. They betray my heart's deepest motives even when I think they don't. My "unseen" habits, however, do affect those who come near me whether I tell them they are there or not. People are made ill, or, at least, irritated by my selfish behaviors. Like poison ivy in the flowerbed, I have two options with my habits: 1) I can leave them alone and t...

I am preparing again to summit Mt. Rainier . I gave it a go in 2011 but turned back on the top of Disappointment Cleaver.  This year my plans are to summit on August 12, my 60th birthday . I'll keep you posted and share the results, but I wanted to share some of the training I am doing to prepare for the climb and how that relates to my life-long spiritual training. I am climbing again with the best guides on the mountain , RMI Expeditions . As part of their support, they offer a 16-week training program to get you ready for your climb.  The foundation of the program is what they call, The Rainier Dozen .  Here's the list: 1.  Steam engine 2.  Three quarter squats 3.  Turkish Get Up 4.  Lunge 5.  Arm extender 6.  Triceps Dip 7.  Deep squat 8.  Steam engine laying down 9.  Mountain climber 10.  Push up 11.  Ranger crawl 12.  8 Point Body Builder These exercises can be done in ...

What are the symptoms of spiritual illness? How can you know if your religious and life activities are squeezing out your spiritual vitality? Here are some symptoms you may find in your own life.             Shortness of breath – this indicates you are able to spend only a minute or two in prayer at a time; wandering thoughts and a short-lived attention span are key characteristics.             Spiritual obesity – this symptom occurs when you spend too much time in religious activity at the church so that you have no time to minister to those Jesus has called you to serve.   Other symptoms include knowing more names of church friends than those without Christ or spending more time at potluck dinners at church than at neighborhood block parties to meet your neighbors.             High blood pressur...

To Grizzly Gulch In my new book, A New Way of Living , I draw parallels between physical wellness and training and spiritual wellness and training . I want to start us on this wellness program as I see it laid out in the Beatitudes of Jesus . I believe the Beatitudes provide a path to spiritual wellness that transform us into the "peacemakers" Jesus calls us to become where we live, learn, work, and play. That path begins like a hike to the summit begins, in the valley. But, how does that journey begin? If the summit of our path is the presence of God that fills our "hunger and thirst for righteousness," then, The journey into the presence of God begins with the confession "I need help!" It is only when we realize we are unbelievably unfit to stand before God and equally unable to honorably wear the title Christ follower without His help that we are in the most prime position to be used by and for God's will. (66) I believe "the poor...

(c) 2012 New Hope Publishers My next book is here!  ( The Kindle version ) I am most excited about this one because it combines my love for physical exercise with my love for Scripture and spiritual exercise.  Thanks to those of you who helped pick the cover . It looks great! A New Way of Living: practicing the Beatitudes in everyday life, published by New Hope Publishers , is a training manual for spiritual growth . It follows the foundational path of spiritual development Jesus laid out at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, we call the Beatitudes. ( Matthew 5:3-10 ) My goal in the book is to apply what I have learned from running, cycling, and hiking to spiritual growth and wellness. I share spiritual exercises that create margin in our lives so that the characteristics Jesus describes in the Beatitudes can grow and flourish. Just as we develop physical wellness through a series of exercises and disciplines, we develop spiritual wellness through t...

A staff member informed me the other day that a couple of ministers we knew had extra-marital affairs and were no longer serving in their churches. He wanted to know what I was doing to safeguard my marriage and my role as a spiritual leader . That conversation led me to reflect on what I have done to stay faithful to my best friend for over thirty-six years . (Most of what I wrote in my previous blog applies to this topic, too.) In my book, An Angel in the Flame: A Tale of Two Saviors , the story of Samson with an eye to Jesus, our true Savior,  I write: You can tell a man's character by two things: how he prays and how he manages his sex drive. How a man prays exposes his heart and to whom he bends his knee. How he manages his sexual urges exposes the depth of discipline in his life. Hypocrisy can mask both aspects of his life, and he can act out a persona many will accept as real. However, crisis and leisure are crucibles that reveal a person's true character. No Oscar...

My mother's birthday was Saturday, April 2. On that day she turned 80. Yes, count 'em, you Pine Covers, 80; and, to celebrate this milestone of maturity she decided to skydive! When asked, "Why would you do such a thing?" she said, "I always wanted to do it." However, when she announced she planned to jump out of a plane on her birthday this past Christmas, that was the first I had heard about it. Her daredevil desire to plunge to the earth at 120 miles-per-hour from 2.5 miles in the air for a minute and then hang from a nylon parachute harnessed to a man half her age had somehow come alive late in life. My mother is not a risk taker. She's a great-grandmother who teaches Sunday School each week and hosts a book club once a month. Her big adventure each week is driving to Palestine from her farm in Grapeland for groceries. She helped my Dad with the cows and projects on the farm up until about two years ago and they traveled in an RV around the ...

This past Sunday, I tackled another spiritual discipline, giving , as part of our Shift! series . Cheers went up throughout the auditorium when I announced the topic, while others texted their friends to hurry and get to the building to hear what the Pastor had to say about giving. Then I woke from my daydream. I get why so many look at the organized church in America askance . We give them many reasons to wonder what we do with the money. Our buildings and programs make the outsider guess why we don't use that money to solve problems like poverty and housing. We tend to hide what is on our books, and we do a lousy job of showing people how we help the community and people around the world. But, giving is at the heart of the church's message . Why? God is a giving God , ( John 3:16 ) and we who have been captured by God's suffering, sacrificial love given to us through His Son, Jesus, cannot help but share that love with others in tangible ways. Grace motivates u...