place of nathan.

Last night I had a hard run. I ran 4 x 5-minute hard, with 2:30 recovery.

The thing is, I’ve tried doing this before, but I’ve never succeeded. Actually, I’ve tried this about three times in the past two months, and I couldn’t do it. But last night, I did it with flying colors–and I have sore legs today to prove it!

This time, there was only ONE difference. No, I didn’t eat differently. Nor did I purchase new shoes, sleep more or take days off ahead of time. The only difference: I ran with Isaac. I had someone to keep me accountable.

There is not a chance in the world I could have ran this by myself. Not a flipping chance. I would have slowed down, i know because that’s what I do every time I try to do that workout alone.

Is that at all like our Spiritual life? During the hard times, we cannot make it on our own. There is no possible way. Alone, we would stop. But that is why Christian community is such an important thing!

Stay tuned for more thoughts on Christian Community….

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Years ago, long before I met my wonderful wife (who, thankfully, is nothing like this girl I will describe!), I was dating a girl, who I’ll call Billy Jean. We were having some issues, and not getting along very well.
The end of my interest in her went like this (the best I can remember):
- Billy Jean told me she couldn’t hang out because she had to go out of town all day.
- A friend of mine saw her around town, during the time she wasn’t supposed to be there.
- I asked her about it, and she said she wasn’t in town, she was out of town all day.
- When I told her she was lying, and my friend saw her there, she made excuse after excuse, and refused to admit she told a lie.

I couldn’t believe she would not admit she lied. I finally got her to admit to telling an ‘untruth,’ but Billy Jean was very adamant that she never told me a lie.

Is an untruth a lie, or is it okay to tell an ‘untruth’?
Is it ever okay to tell an ‘untruth’?

What do you do with people who continue to tell ‘untruth’ after ‘untruth’ and refuse to admit there is anything wrong?

I cut my losses, and ran as far away from Billy Jean as I could. Is that what you think I should have done, or would you advise something different?

Can I just say, I am so thankful my wife Emily is nothing like this girl. Hallelujah! God has richly blessed me with a wife who considers an untruth a lie–and who doesn’t do either! Woohoo! I have the best wife ever–seriously. I am a lucky guy.

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The past few weeks, I’ve been working quietly, behind the scenes, on starting up my own small business.

It’s still in the works, and I’m not ready to announce the launch (nor the name), but it’s coming along, and is an exciting time for me. My business will provide services to small businesses at an affordable price. No price gouging here. Quick, turn-key solutions geared for small business. I think it’s a huge scam to charge businesses sometimes $200-300/hour for work. My time is valuable, but $200/hour? I think not.

Surprising it is, that even though I haven’t officially publicly launched the business, I am busy. People contact me and ask for my services. So this is a good thing! I already have enough jobs lined up to pay cash for a notebook computer, which would really help the business by being able to provide the mobility to showcase work for a prospective client.

I say that just to let you know what’s going on in my life, and let you know I’ve been moving on my Goal #4 for the year. It’s becoming a reality, and I’m excited about reaching my goals!

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I have successfully migrated the site. It actually wasn’t as seamless as I had initially thought, because although I migrated to a different physical server, I stayed with the same hosting company, which meant the domain name wasn’t available in the new server until it was removed from the old server.
About three complications later, we’re back up and running.

You do have to love WordPress, though. It’s a great system, and I’m loving it. I’m also thankful for the great tech support at ChurchQuest.

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Today I am migrating this blog to a different physical server.

This is completely transparent to you, the end user, but I wanted to let you know that because comments left from this point on (until i post again) will not be migrated to the new server.

God bless and have yourself a wonderful day!

While you’re waiting for my site to come back up, why don’t you check out this blog:
Todd Helmkamp’s Pensees

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It was just in the paper last night that a current Waterloo Councilman stands accused of battery. According to the report, the man “did knowingly or intentionally touch another person in a rude, insolent or angry manner by placing his hands on her chest.”
At his initial hearing June 1, he entered a not guilty plea. His next hearing is set for August 15.

How does this reflect on the town–that a Town Councilman is charged with battery? Even if he’s not guilty, it is still bad press for the town. not cool.

I am dedicated to fighting for integrity, honesty and ethics. I think it’s sad that we actually have to fight for those, but alas, we do. And I will.

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Mark Batterson posted some really wonderful thoughts on Elder Brother Spirit.

I think if we aren’t very careful, the church can adopt this nasty, ungodly spirit.

The key word there, is careful. We must have the effort to not adopt this spirit. it is easy to adopt. It is hard to keep away. Which will we do?

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Well, it happened last night. Barry Bonds hit his 756 career home run.

I remember watching Barry play for the Pirates when I was a young boy. I used to love baseball. I collected thousands of baseball cards. I thought it was very cool that Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonds were Son and Dad, respectfully, both in baseball.

Now Barry is officially the career home run leader for major league baseball, surpassing Hank Aaron’s mark.

This is not without controversy, as Bonds was rumored to have used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs en route to this record. But…did you know that using steroids and all performance enhancing drugs was never against baseball rules (until last year)? Even IF Bonds took steroids every day, he never broke any rule, and therefore, I do not believe there should be any controversy on this record.

What do you think?

I say, ‘Congratulations Mr. Bonds! Congratulations indeed!’

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I recently posted this, but thought it was prudent to post again. Please read, and figure out why i posted this again.

Vision leaks.
- Andy Stanley

Just because someone bought into a vision at one time, it does not mean they will always remain in tune with that vision, because vision leaks. The excitement slows down, and eventually become frustration.

It is impossible to present the vision too frequently. Vision large and visions for smaller segments of the whole as well.

You can’t share the vision enough. Try it.

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Last night I took a hard run with Isaac. As we started, my legs were not feeling very good. It took several miles, but somewhere around mile 3 or 4, i realized I was running at a nice pace and had established a good rhythm–I no longer strained at every step.

This got me thinking about Matt Keller’s recent blogs about rhythm. I encourage you to read through these recent blog entries, and be sure you leave comments for Matt as well!

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Today, with temperatures in the upper 80s and very high humidity, I took a hard, 4 1/2 mile run with Isaac. Boy, that one was rough. When I got home, I drank about a quarter gallon, cooled off, and went outside and mowed the lawn–with our push mower. That was hard work as well, and the sweat kept dripping off my brow and onto my sunglasses (which reminds me, I will need to clean those).
After mowing and cooling off, I went out for an 18-minute run with my wife. That felt pretty good, but again, it was very hot.

I exercised a lot today! Have you exercised today? If not, may I suggest you go for a walk–preferably at least 45 minutes.

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