Bare Foot Running and Living

I hurt my back about 3 years ago. Since then I have not been able to run, without pain, for more than 10 min. The most I have done in 3 years was about 3-4 miles, after that I just couldn't take the pain. Before my injury, I was running about 20-25 miles a week.

I heard about Bare Foot running from a friend who read the book, Born to run I thought he was nuts at first, but then he sold me on the idea. I did some research of my own and then changed my running style from Heel toe to running on the balls of my feet. The first time I did this, I had no back pain, but my calves hurt for about a week, I could barely walk the next day. I chalked this up to a change in style and it proved to be true. After running a couple times on the balls of my feet I decided to take the plunge and buy a pair of five fingers. Since then I haven't looked back. I have run on sand, dirt, tar, cement, no pain, except the good burn. I am able to run again.

I am writing this blog not just as an advert, but also as a challenge. I know I am confronted all the time with over thinking and conformity. In running conformity actually had detrimental results. If I had just run the way I was created to, chances are I would have been fine, but I was trained to run "the right way." Not that thinking is bad nor conformity, but I think they are bad when they no longer take into account the individual differences we all possess.

The past year I have run seminars helping people to figure out who they are and what they're particular strengths are in life. If we as people focus on our individual strengths to help us accomplish our goals we will be much more effective in our lives and experience less pain as well. I had a passion for running, but was running how others thought I should, when I stopped that and started running as I was individually created too, I had much less pain, and hopefully more success. In life, if we try to attain our passions with our own gifting I believe this will be the same out come.

I realize for some this may be a big jump, but I don't believe it is as far or a leap as we think. I you have a passion to teach, you have to bring your strengths to being a great teacher, you can't just copy a great teacher and expect the same results, because that teacher created a system or style based on their gifting, not yours. You can take from great teachers, but you always have to put your spin on it and in many cases just throw it out completely.

Is this more work, in the short run, yes, but in the long run, no. You will have to train yourself to work in a way that is life giving to you. Their will be a learning curve, just as my calves had a learning curve when they were asked to carry more of my body weight, a weight they were designed to carry, but never did. You will have some pain in adjusting, but once you do your life will be much better and you will be much happier. Once you learn to use your strengths toward your passion, you actually will be able to learn from others easier, because you will be more secure in how you are doing, because it will be natural to your life. As natural as my new running style is to me.

What the church should be...

I was up late the other night checking out different clips on You Tube and ran across one of my favorite stories from Tony Campolo. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWlMV-UmueM&feature=related

Facebook and Faith

here is an interesting article about how Facebook is engaging people's religious views.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/29/AR2009082902400.html?referrer=emailarticle

Forgiveness

This past weekend Rob Bell spoke at our church. I know he is a great speaker, but I didn't realize how good of a teacher he was. Rob's talk about forgiveness was so good. He was clear, engaging, and stayed focused on the point he wanted to make. I was impacted by the content of his message. Check it out if you have time.

http://www.whchurch.org/content/page_173.htm

The points I took away were, Forgiveness is personal, always personal. Forgiveness is not condoning something, its not forgetting what happened, its not necessarily reconciliation, and it does not wipe away consequences. Forgiveness is letting go, stopping the cycle of revenge. Revenge can be active or passive, either way it is about not aligning with God's justice, revenge is taking things into your own hands apart from God. Revenge is about give back what has been done to you, someone hit you, you hit them back, some one yells at you you yell back, you respond in kind.

I had forgotten about forgiveness and this message was a powerful wake up call and helped me to release somethings I was holding against other people. It was very freeing.

A Lesson from the Trip

I am home!! Back from 3 weeks on the road, driving through glorious mountains, freakishly hot deserts, the ocean and back through the mystical prairie land. It was an amazing trip and I had lots of good times. As we were driving through South Dakota on our way back to God's country (Minnesota), we were talking and reflecting on the past 3 weeks and I had this little challenge from God. On my reflection I felt as though God said "don't limit what I can do for you."

This was a challenging statement for me to hear, because it removes me from any control at all, other than to reject what is given. This has been a lesson I have been learning over the past year. Realizing what God can, will, and does do for me, its hard for me to come to a realization that I can do everything in my power and that is good most of the time, but when I am in a situation where its not good enough and the fact is we won't get there unless God gives us something that is a scary place for me.

I think the goal for me in the next year or lifetime is to become more comfortable depending on God to show up. Not that I work less or don't try as hard, but putting myself in situations where God has to show up or "we ain't gonna get there." This is a good word seeing as there are going to be new challenges in many areas for me coming up and I am sure for everyone else. The thing I am going to try and do this next year is not to be so safe. What I mean by that is not starting to jump off buildings or rob banks, but rather be more willing to put myself in situations where I know God has to show up. That is my challenge for the next year and with that to not reject the gift that God gives no matter what it is.

Hope you all are well,
Jason

Colorado

hey all,

We have begun our trip to LA for my Staff Candidate Orientation week next week. Yes, I could have flown, but driving is so much more fun, don't you think. Yesterday we went through Iowa, Nebraska and ended up in Colorado for the night. We are hanging out with my friend Mike L today. Mike took us on a killer hike, where we got up to about 9500 feet and over looked the entire valley and saw about 3 different mountain ranges.

It has been a good trip so far, but its also like heading out on a big adventure. It's weird to think I won't be in my bed for 3 weeks. I am looking forward to going places I have never gone and seeing people I have never seen. Also, getting more clarity on my job description is pretty exciting as well.

Hope you are all well. The thought for the day is what has happened in the last year to change the way you look at the world? Here is something I saw this morning that challenges my understanding of limits.

hair