I’ve always been the type of person to say “yes” to something, and worry about how to get it done later.  Although, I must admit that running 26.2 miles gave me pause, I had pretty much surrendered to the idea that I would run the New Orleans Rock n Roll Marathon.  Thanks to my cousin Nick and my Aunt Karmen, I was encouraged enough to make the brave decision to tackle my first marathon.

So…back to my issues with running!  I’ve always had this expectation of myself that I needed to be this fantastic, fit (read, sleek and thin) and able-bodied runner.  More often than not, after starting a new running regimen, I would abandon it quickly because I wasn’t meeting my own expectations of myself. And everything would come tumbling down – enter, shame and guilt and self-rejection.

There’s good news in this post, I promise!  Even though I have only run about a half-dozen times or so, I am beginning to see the benefits of running.  Obviously, there’s the health benefits, but also the emotional benefits have been great.  Over the last couple of runs, I’ve been finding my grove quickly and have found that running provides this escape for me.

You see, I love getting up early in the morning.  However, sometimes my mind runs rampant, and I can’t seem to get all this negative self-talk to subside…but running has been my answer.  I am so glad to finally find a way to escape in the early hours of the morning!

Running so far, has been healing in more ways than one! I cannot wait until I can get some solid long runs under my belt…and I can escape for a couple of hours at a time! So looking forward to that…

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I have several runs under my belt now, okay maybe 5 or so.  But still, I can feel myself getting stronger, taking less walk breaks and slowly trudging up hills that originally left me completely winded.  I am ecstatic that I can see some physicality returning.

Today’s 3 miler was desperately needed.  Gearing up for a busy and intense work week and shaking off a few stressers of the weekend and last week, I quickly got in a groove and began trudging along.  I prayed on my way to the trail where I run, that God would begin joining me on my runs.  I wake up in the early morning, when it’s still dark outside and drive over to the trail near my office.  I am beginning to enjoy early morning runs more and more. I hope I can get to a level of fitness that allows me to focus on Him during my runs and not the pain in my legs or the tightness in my chest.

Just a bit of nonsense this morning, ramblings- I guess.

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I’ve always envied runners who talk about how healing and powerful running is for them.  I never quite understood it.  I’ve always looked at running as a time to push everything out of my mind and focus solely on running.  But this past Wednesday, I took a different approach.  I intentionally brought up some things that have been irritating me lately – whether that be hurtful words, self-doubt, etc.  What I found, rather quickly (aside from me running super crazy fast because I was feeling a bit of anger) was after my run…I had this lighter sense about me.  I feel like I had dealt with my resentment or doubt.

You often hear of running being therapeutic.  The rhythm of running, the side to side motion of putting one step in front of the other, actually does wonders for working out problems and providing some mental healing.  So, I hope this journey to 26.2 becomes a healing one for me.  I will have to log a lot of miles which gives me ample time for healing.  I’m looking forward to it. I am going to be logging some thoughts and runs on my blog…hopefully some insightful thinking will come as a result of all this running.

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One of the more revealing things about that trip, is how penetrating absolute silence can be.  With the first step onto my first hike, it was so easy to forget the cares of the world and just experience the vastness and serenity of the place.  Full disclosure: the only fear and concern I had was whether I was going to get eaten by a bear. It’s pretty unnerving when you are the only crazy person out there without bear spray.

I thought I would share some photos of the trip and let you experience the open sky through your computer screen!

I can honestly say I have never seen a place more beautiful.  I hope one day I will be able to see this place again and get acquainted with the silence and big sky that I miss so much.  Make a trip to Glacier National Park….you won’t be sorry you did.

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P.S. Thanks Wayne for encouraging me to keep posting!

Although most of my family is out of town (it’s Spring Break ’round here) it has been great just getting to spend time with the Big Sis and Little One.  Although they weren’t able to come to the church service today, I went and was blessed to have been able to go.

One of the associate pastors spoke today, and he is amazing.  One of the things he spoke about was questioning our motive in life.

Is your greatest pursuit in life, knowing God?  Not just knowing of Him and His ways, but having a personal interaction with Him.  Sometimes it’s easy to have an image of God that is so different from His real character, that it takes experiencing the truth of His character to vividly understand Him.  I often forget that God has a mind, a will, and emotions that we can interact with.  In other words, God thinks!

Pastor Dave told a story about how when his son was little, Dave would snatch him up and give him a big kiss.  But one day Dave and his son were playing around and his son randomly came running over a planted a big wet kiss on Him.  Dave was so excited that his son initiated that interaction and Dave didn’t have to do it on his own.  Dave said it filled his heart with joy.  Pastor Dave then said that the Greek word (I think it was Greek, it could have been Hebrew) for “worship” means to “kiss toward God”.  With the knowledge that God has emotions and a mind of His own, isn’t it amazing that we can have an interaction so amazing and pleasing to God when we stand in His churches and worship Him on Sunday (or any other day of the week).  I love knowing that despite what I do that may hurt God, I can still freely worship Him and bring Him pleasure and fill His heart with pride and happiness.

Then Pastor Dave asked a whopper of a question: When I first see Jesus when I go to Heaven, will He be familiar to me because of what I’ve read about Him and experienced through my relationship with Him?  Because of my lack of pursuit to know Him more, will I be shocked to find that Jesus is a completely different person than what I thought of Him to be?

Is my greatest pursuit in life knowing Him more?  In all honestly, no.  Full disclosure: I am saddened to say that despite the many blessings in my life, my relationship with God is not the greatest pursuit of my existence.  Some days go by with little thought to how I can further His kingdom and experience Him more. Because of where I am right now, starting a new career, getting my feet on the ground and so many life challenges, it’s very easy to become distracted away from Him.  I’m so grateful that God waits patiently for people like me, just smiling…knowing that sooner or later, I will figure it out (let’s hope I do).

I felt like sharing…hope someone is out there listening.  God bless!!!

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The last few months have been great!  I was incredibly blessed to find a great job, with a great company and feel so at peace about where that area of my life is now.  For the last year or so, life had many ups and plenty of downs and I have learned a great deal about who God is, and our relationship.  I am discovering the morning after the darkness in this time in my life, and I feel unworthy of the blessings God has given me.

When I became a Christian, I was pretty young, probably around seven or eight. Not fully understanding the relationship between God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and myself, I hadn’t fully realized that God doesn’t call us to an easy life as Christians.  I have my fair share of valleys, that’s for sure, but it’s in those times that God surprises us with a blessing {getting a great job, finding peace in a certain area of your life, etc) that we can see the depth of God’s majesty.

But the Christian life isn’t solely about surviving the valleys in our life.  I am learning that God wants us to enjoy His blessings and He finds joy in our happiness.  While learning and persevering through our struggles, we catch glimpses of God’s activity in our life and these small nuggets of refreshment carry us through the storm. The challenge is keeping your eye focused solely on God’s character and it’s manifestations in our lives while seemingly bearing the weight of the world on our shoulders.

Speaking from experience, our life as Christians is certainly riddled with struggles, trials and mistakes.  However, those struggles only make the blessings that much sweeter!  And God is good enough to shed His grace on us, so that we may live a passionate life free of guilt and shame.

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Up next…some hilarious photos of the family going white water rafting in Georgia. Be back soon!!

Where to start? Where to start?

So about three weeks ago, I applied for a job with a small company called North Star Destination Strategies located here in the beautiful city of Nashville.  Given my recent track record of applying for jobs, I figured I wouldn’t hear anything back.  Is it just me or are HR people sort of getting on your nerves?  Sorry to anyone who’s an HR manager out there! But to my surprise, I got an email response just a few hours after I sent in my resume, and a peculiar thing happened:  North Star wanted me to complete a project for them.  I quickly sat down and looked over the project and its details and tried to figure out how I was going to tackle it…

You see, it was a pretty hefty lil’ project but I was okay with that.  So after 3-4 days working on the project I decided to turn it in.  To give you a little background information on North Star and how I’ve heard about them before, we have to go way back to 2008.  I was in a great marketing class at Belmont University and North Star’s Director of Research, at the time, spoke to my class on their research abilities, techniques, and gave us general, albeit super-interesting, tidbits about his company.  I was HOOKED, to say the least.  I knew after speaking with him after class, that North Star was a company that I was interested in working for.  Ever since then I kept North Star on my radar when looking for potential opportunities and was elated when I saw that they had a position open.  That was week 1…

Week 2 welcomed many new challenges for my family.  Over the last couple of months, my mom has been contemplating moving to Nashville and she accepted a job here in Franklin, TN.  Keep in mind, my mom has wanted to live in Franklin for, I don’t know, like, 20 years.  She said “you have to be careful what you pray for, because sure enough it will happen”.  So week 2 my sister and I travelled to the Memphis area, and helped pack up my mom my mom’s belongings for her move to Middle TN.  During that week my dad was put in the hospital for heat exhaustion in Chattanooga…he’s fine, he’s fine!  But it was scary for a little bit there.  So we moved mom and all of her belongings up to a great 2 bedroom apartment in Franklin, and we couldn’t be happier.  It’s going to be a bit hectic over the next few months trying to keep the family together as much as possible, but it’s a small price to pay for happiness!

Last week rolled around and we were still trying to get mom situated and settle back in to our daily routines.  I also had a second interview with the folks at North Star and was really pumped to see everyone there again.  Then 4th of July weekend was upon us and we celebrated with Brisket Tacos {dad-gum them thangs are good, thanks Todd}, some delicious guacamole {again courtesy of Todd, way to put some orange juice in there} and a lackluster fireworks display.  But it was still great to spend time with everyone.

Is this post long enough yet?  Not quite sure, but there’s more to come…

So far this week, the trend for busyness hasn’t stopped.  So yesterday, I was prepared to hear whether or not I got the job at North Star…I was keeping my fingers crossed and prayin’ like mad that God would work a miracle.  I decided to take a quick shower around mid-morning, and as luck would have it, the folks from North Star called.  So I scrambled to call them back, and…………………………..

Once I got on the phone, I was greeted with this, “if you’re still interested in working for North Star, we would love to have you on our team”!  Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!  With a big smile on my face I said, “absolutely”.  I am now a super-proud employee of the rockin’ company North Star Destination Strategies!!! And I couldn’t be happier.  I cannot wait to get started and work closely with some great minds…I’m definitely going to learn a lot.

To celebrate (actually we had planned on going anyway, but it just so happened that it was a celebration) Jen and I drove to Memphis last night and went and saw Chris Tomlin and TobyMac in concert!  It was a great time and a spectacular performance by both singers.  I was truly overwhelmed at times, not only by the vibrations of my shirt and chest from the speakers, but also at God’s amazing ability to make a way out of no way!

What a journey the last year has been.  I never would have thought in a million years, that I would be blessed with a great job at a wonderful company after everything I have been through at my last job.  It is truly God’s work and plan for my life and I am literally a spectator in His sport.  I hope this post shows the glory of God and how God can work both through us and for us all for His purposes and plans.

Lovin’ it!!!!

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This morning has been pretty rough on me.  As you know by now, brotha is unemployed and with that comes loads of pressure, feelings of shame and fear, and most of all an opportunity for God to work.  I spent the majority of the morning wallowing in the problems that I am currently faced with.  That’s never a good place to be, let me tell ya!

Anyways, I had taken a break from daily reading of the Word. With the move and the trip to Destin, my daily reading has, sort of, well, ya know, been put on the back burner.  This morning I wrote out a long prayer to God, seeking His guidance and wisdom through this part of my journey.  And in that prayer I wrote, “above my need for a job and money to pay the bills, I first and foremost need You”.

And with that prayer, I opened up the Bible and sat down for a quiet reading of the Word.  In minutes, I was greeted with a few great scriptures and themes that directly relate to where I’m at.  Funny how the Word of God works that way!

I’m currently reading from Exodus 14 and it revealed a few things to me. After the Isrealites had been running from the Egyptians and their tyrannical Pharaoh, they were getting weary, fearful, and dare I say it, a bit mutinous {look out Moses}.  But Moses uses this line to get the Isrealites back in the right frame of mind…

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm,

and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.

…The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Exodus 14: 13-14

To me, these verses were refreshing and continues to give me strength.  I cannot continue to wallow in fear and anxiety and allow myself to get to a place where I’m not focused on the truth of the Word of God, and the very nature of my Savior.  To me, Moses is saying, “Listen here people…do not let fear get the best of you, stand firm and know who our God is and what He is capable of.  Know that our God will fight for us, and take care of us!  And all we have to do is believe and be silent!”

I love that!!!  In the next few verses, God speaks to Moses and gives him some direction on what to do next.  {Check out Exodus 14: 15-18} However, in those directions, He tells Moses to raise his staff and the waters will be separated so that the Israelites can cross.  What God doesn’t say, is how He will defeat the Egyptians.  He gives Moses and the Israelites just the right amount of information to get them to the next step in the journey….continually asking them to put their faith in Him.

As the Israelites cross the sea, they have no idea that God had planned to have the waters come crashing down on the pursuing Egyptians…

The theme I recognize here is this:  God provides and takes care of us in illogical ways at times {I mean, who would have thought Moses could part the Red Sea}, and He blesses us with enough information to get us through to the next step in the journey!!  And throughout the process, God is continually revealed as a Savior, and glory is given to Him in every circumstance!!

Thought I should share my thoughts from this morning!!

Signing off…

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Sorry I haven’t been around much lately.  It’s been crazy, hectic in my world and haven’t had an opportunity to stop by the ol’ blog.  Last week, my entire family convened in the beautiful beach town of Destin, FL and we are happy to report, we are not covered in that oily mess.  The beach was absolutely stunning and amazing and we were so fortunate to be able to spend time there before the disaster strikes the area.

While we were there, we celebrated the recent graduates in our family! We had 5 this year.

{From Left} Kyle, Wilson, Randi, Grayson, and Nick… we are so proud of you all!

This year, our vacation consisted mostly of a lot of catching up, eating {as always with our family} and some serious beach time!  Some of my greatest memories from the trip were just our family being able to get together to hang out at the beach as the sun went down!  Did I mention that my family plays a mean game of botchiball (had to look that one up) and we ain’t playin’ around either!  Put ya game face on!!

Here are some pictures of our trip, albeit not conclusive of our stay at Sandpiper Cove!!  Also, thanks Emily and Val for our amazing shirts for picture day!  They are totally rad!!!

The fam…missing a few!!

The matriarch and her children!!

Our fishin’ master!!

It was great getting to see all of you again!  And I am certainly looking forward to next year, wherever we decide to go!!

Signing off…

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This past weekend was quite busy, and I have to apologize for not posting more regularly last week.  I had to move from my apartment and things were quite busy all last week.  So…here’s me apologizing to you!

Anywho…this past weekend Grayson graduated from Pre-K at McKay’s Mill Academy here in Franklin, TN.  I’m such a proud Uncle and love her so much.  It has been amazing to watch her grow up and learn so much.  I’m telling you, the girl can talk as if she’s 15 years old.  Her vocabulary rivals any adult, and she’s an amazing artist to boot.  Did I mention the girl’s only 5 years old.

I took some pics during her graduation and I hope you like them!!

She wanted to go to Five Guy’s for dinner {my kinda girl} to have some juicy cheeseburgers! They totally hit the spot.  When we all woke up Saturday morning we then went to the Pfunky Griddle and had some delicious pancakes.  I had a great time with the family on Friday night and hope Grayson continues to grow into the big girl God has planned for her.

Love you little one…

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