Living in the New Covenant: Thoughts on Healing

 

Learning of God's Goodness in Pain and Sickness

I’ve had a painful abscess on my back for a about a week now. At first I thought it was a pimple or ingrown hair. I was careful not to roll over on it while sleeping. But after a few days it started to become more painful; I went to a local clinic for some antibiotics. The doctor gave me a prescription and a phone number for a surgery center that, I guess, specializes in this kind of thing. What does that mean exactly? I’m not sure yet, but I think it’s a simple procedure to cut open the infection and drain it. The word surgeon sounds like “surgery” though. I hesitated to call, hoping the antibiotics would take care of it. They still might knock out the virus enough to cancel the procedure. The doctor was concerned that it hadn’t drained up to this point.

Clinic Trip

I set up an appointment with the surgery center for this Monday afternoon. Hopefully I’ll get there and they’ll say “It’s not necessary”. But we’ll see. I missed a lot of workouts this week. Partly because of missed sleep and partly because of the pain of moving around too much, I stayed in bed an extra hour. Today is supposed to be my big run day. I think we were slated for 12 or 14 miles. That’s not the kind of distance I can make up easy. Most people miss at least a few weeks during the training session, so I’m not too broken up about it. I won’t miss more than that though. After two consistent weeks of sleeping late, the gains you’ve made from weights and cardio start to fall off precipitously. At least it’s what I’ve been told.

A week is like a vacation, 2 weeks is a slide back to laziness. I can’t have that. Even it hurts to get up and jog I’m going to muscle up and make it happen.

Texas Trip

After going to Texas last week I picked up a cold from my brother. He was hacking and wheezing all weekend. In addition to the back pain, I’m congested and coughing. I Demand Your Pity!!! All things considered it’s not the worst cold I’ve ever had. Still, being even a little sick makes you appreciate health and fitness all the more. Maybe it takes getting older and realizing that your body isn’t going to recover like it did when you were 25. As Americans we’re more educated than ever about the food and weight loss and healthy living. But it still takes doing the unsexy thing and beefing up nutrition and some exercise.

But even the term “healthy eating” elicits groans and mental images of inedible plant food. Or maybe you imagine that ‘crunchy’ neighbor who shakes their head, disparagingly, when you fire up the grill. No one wants to be lectured about eating, or anything else. 

There has never been a country with such an amazing variety of food and drink. Prosperity is why. That’s not a criticism either, but it must be countered with personal restraint. What’s tough is not having a short cut to weight loss. I know about Ozempic and other weight loss drugs, but it’s likely that some awful side-effects are in store for long term users. If we learned nothing else about drug companies during Covid, we should’ve learned that they have no problem lying to the public about their studies.  

Garden of Eden Trip

This beautiful earth we live in is both life giving and life taking. Created by God for humans, turned over to Satan by the same humans. We have been given back authority because of the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ. It means that sickness and disease are cursed from our bodies (Isaiah 53:5-6). We still have to contend with illness. The time of Satan’s reign is not yet up, but his power was taken away in the resurrection (Colossians 2:15).

For followers of Christ, it’s up to us to understand and reclaim our authority under the New Covenant. That means cursing illness and avoiding behavior that makes illness likely. There are countless diseases that have nothing to do with poor eating or a risky lifestyle of course. There are too many to list. But it’s within our ability to develop healthy habits and avoid much of the excesses of a prosperous society.   

 Part of life is trusting in God’s promise of healing and restoration. We must remember too that faith is built when we hear the Scripture (Romans 10:17). In the same way that Adam and Eve had responsibility for the Garden of Eden, we have a similar responsibility for our bodies. It’s important to understand that God’s will is perfect healthy bodies and sound minds for His children. But the fight to see God’s will come to pass takes faith. This is the First Principles part of Christianity and the New Covenant.

Conclusion

When you understand the nature of God of and His free gifts, you won’t blame Him for your troubles. This took years for me to understand. But “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). And so it is with healing, we learn and grow.

 

Cowtown 25

 

The Cowtown Half Marathon, or Getting Robbed by a Towing Company?

The half marathon in Fort Worth was a success.

My tentative goal was to run in just under 2 minutes. Not having run a half marathon in a few years, I didn’t know what to expect. My training this year has been all about slow running and fat adaption. I’ve written about it a few times. The gains in heart rate have been minimal, so far I’m not impressed with this zone 2 heart rate stuff. But that’s a topic for another day.

I signed up with roughly a month to train. In my experience, the 13.1 distance is very doable for most people. They might walk on the hills and struggle with the last couple of miles, but unless they’re injured they aren’t going to walk for long stretches. Training meant running at least 1 day per week at a below 9 minute pace. The trick is to stay below 9 minutes for the entirety of the race. I lost time going uphill and gained time going downhill. But the average was a cool 8:57. Talk about close.

My overall time was 1:58:44.

I’ve had too many let downs on the full marathon. I needed a successful half. I like going to Texas. My brother and his family live near Fort Worth. Every run feels like a mini vacation. It’s why I’ll probably run the Cowtown again. It’s a cold weather race in a state that’s not that cold. But even Texas, like the rest of the country, was hit by the artic blast that pushed its way down the middle part of the map. It started to lift on Friday afternoon when I drove down there with my mom. We still had snow in Tulsa when I left. On race day (Sunday) it was sunny and in the high thirties. Great jogging weather. We were fortunate. Cowtown has been canceled before because of snow. It’s a risk to start so early in the year, even in Texas.

There were close to 12,000 participants between the half and full marathons. A large race but far from the nearly 20,000 that show up for the Oklahoma City Marathon. I enjoy these big races more than the little ones. There is something about being surrounded by people in pursuit of the same goal. At least I think that’s it.

My brother Phillip and my nephew Christian came with me. I couldn’t get to my starting gate at first. The throng of people standing between the convention center and the corals, where the runners wait for the gun, was too thick to move. The committee put the port-a-johns along the convention center wall which meant lines of people waiting to use the toilet were in the way of people trying to cross them going both ways. I had to push through by inching across the mass of humanity. Finally I got close enough to the coral to hop over. Definitely not the way the organizers drew it up. I wonder how many people didn’t make their start time?

The second event of note wasn’t related to running at all. My brother had taken the car to a midway point of the race so they could get a video of me coming up the hill. I was grateful for that. It adds motivation like you can’t believe. But afterwards he found a parking spot near the finish. Unfortunately, it was in the lot of a CVS. They had a sign for towing. We walked to the lot after the race to an empty slot. Standing close to us were another pair of people that were in the same unfortunate situation. We split an Uber, over to the towing yard, with another guy who’d run the half. The bill for the trouble, a whopping $321 just to get my SUV out.

Clearly these guys were running a racket. They have a right to have cars towed from their lot of course, but the prices were absurd. It felt like they waited for these race days and large events for big paydays. They attract people from out of town who don’t know the layout of the city very well. The towing yard was tucked into a tough looking residential neighborhood. It was a just a dumpy junkyard surrounded by high sheet metal barriers and barbed wire at the top. This was sketch city. What’s more the people who worked there knew it. The pay window had iron bars and a tinted glass window with one of those bank slots for sliding cash underneath. You couldn’t see anyone behind the glass but you could hear them as they asked for ID and credit card info.

God blesses me when I trust in Him. I’m trusting that my money will come back to me in some form, because I was wronged for sure. I didn’t let that ruin my day though. I hit my target pace and had a great run. As usual after the race, my brother grilled ribeye steaks for everyone. It’s become a tradition for me, the after race dinner. I’m just glad he’s doing the grilling.  

Blogging About Snow Days Past and Future

 

Snow Day: Thoughts on Cold Weather and Education

Oklahoma, like the rest of the nation is experiencing some winter weather this week. 

Yesterday the temperature dropped, and it snowed all day. The wind increased, pushing the wind chill into the minus category. The roads became slick, snow covered and treacherous. The plows couldn’t keep up. I left work at 2 in the afternoon, as did everyone else. Today is likely a full day off for everyone. You can’t expect people to come in and work after lunch and work till 5:00. Once you’ve said don’t come in, employees assume it means all day. There was only talk of taking today off. I don’t expect to come in until tomorrow.

Northern Exposure

There may be a zoom call later with the people from work. I’ve never gotten comfortable with zoom. It’s a poor substitute for the in person work group. But in this case it’s a fitting alternative to sliding into the parking lot and putting in an hour.

It reminds me a little bit of the snow days we used to get in Illinois. The snow would drift up and cover large portions of the road. Our school was just country enough. Surrounded by empty lots and undeveloped spaces, it was in the city but with the density much closer to farmland. The school was private and small. We canceled more than most but not nearly as much as the schools here in Oklahoma. It’s understandable as the plows don’t put in as much work. I’m not sure how many they run in the city, but it’s a lot less than a northern climate city would have. Most snow is usually gone the next day after an inevitable warming. The difference is when the whole country experiences a kind of artic blast that lasts a few days or a week.

Southern Exposure

Currently we’re in the middle of such a blast. Without looking it up, I’m fairly certain the last 10 years or so have seen colder days on average. We seem to be in a cycle of these artic blasts or “vortexes” that didn’t occur when I first moved here. I’ve seen more single digit cold days in Oklahoma than I thought possible.

That didn’t happen much my first 5 years here. On one other occasion we had a massive blizzard that shut down the city for a whole week. That was 2011, February. A freakish one off as I remember. I had been living in my current home for just over a year. It’s the first time I’d experienced cabin fever. My brother was here too. There’s only so many movies you can watch. We made a few trips to the grocery store by walking through knee deep snow. That was real work. We grabbed a few DVDs at the Redbox and chalked it up to needed exercise. We were bored enough where it felt necessary. And the grocery store stayed open which was the biggest surprise.

One major difference between the upper Midwest and Oklahoma is the lack of plowing that happens of the neighborhood roads. I don’t mean the suburban areas. I live in the city; I’ve never had my roads plowed. But it’s a short 200 yards or so to the main city street. It’s not a complaint, there just aren’t the resources available to send large plows through the neighborhoods. It’s not usually necessary anyway. Schools cancel at the very suggestion of snow, ice or extreme cold. We always laugh about how little school these kids attend. Distance learning is the culprit. Most of them have zoom classes if the district cancels. The Covid years changed a lot of this and I’ll think we’ll regret how damaging it was for learning.

National Exposure

Nearly all measures on education show a dismal picture of learning. Test scores are a disaster. Previous benchmarks of literacy are collapsing in all age groups. This is a blog topic for another day, but our reliance on distance learning is largely to blame in my opinion. Covid shows the learning falling off a cliff. Most states did away with the SAT requirements, in 2020, for entrance into college. When the kids suffer we all suffer.

I’m far from an expert on education, but we’re in a time of tearing down old systems and exposing tax funded failures. I’m optimistic that the exposure of federal waste (DOGE) will inspire reformers to restart critical thinking across this country. Ideas that redirect money away from government schools in the form of vouchers are a good start. Much of the education establishment exists to feed the teacher unions and by extension, support damaging philosophies like DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion).

I’m optimistic about the future. There is an Iron will, for once, to show all the corruption we’ve just assumed is part of doing business in Washington DC. Real reform should follow real exposure. Maybe in 10 years we won’t worry as much about a few snow days that shut down the school. The principles of education will be sound enough to withstand a rough winter.

Conclusion

I’m OK with missing a few days here and there of work or church or whichever social event gets canceled because of the weather. We all need a break in the routine once in a while. A quite morning with nothing on the agenda and a full pot of coffee is a bit like heaven on earth. When the off-day comes as a surprise, it’s even better. I can think of a few ways to spend it that don’t include sleeping 12 hours. Catching up on my blog posts, now there’s a thought.

 

The Upcoming Cowtown Race

 

Final Prep Week Before the Half Marathon: Cowtown in February

I ran an extra 4 miles yesterday morning. 

The regular route called for 10 miles. Ever since my slower running trend, 10 miles has started to much easier. I’ve learned that if I feel good after the initial run, it’s best to try for extra. Some weeks you aren’t able to get all your miles in. Adding extra on Saturday is a good way to bulk up the totals on a slow week. Not to mention, I run at around 11 minutes and want to feel what a harder pace is like. I normally run at a harder pace on at least one day. I’m used to it. But I’ve never run hard after a slow start.

I did 4 miles at around 9:35 per mile. It’s useful for dealing with exhaustion at the half marathon distance.

My reasoning being, I have a race next weekend. I’m going to run in the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas. I haven’t trained for that race for at least 3 years. It was basically my introduction to big races. I’d never seen a race on that scale. I’d done a few 5K races and even a small half marathon in Missouri. Those were useful for the experience and distance, but the size made them feel more amateurish. My brother, who lives in Fort Worth, drove me to the Will Rogers Memorial Center on that blustery Sunday morning. The temperature was in the low 30s. That’s not as cold as it seemed at the time. I’ve run in much colder temps since then, but at the time it felt impossible. 

We started in groups to avoid tripping over others along the way. The organizers set up race stalls based on either your time or when you signed up. Each stall is released every few minutes. One of the unique things about the Oklahoma City Memorial race is the All Start. That’s not an official phrase but it sounds good. I’ve heard that elite runners hate it. 20,000 people all taking off at the same time can be a disaster unless you’re near the front. The fast guys usually are, so it’s kind of a moot point. Also, you’d think a marathon in February would be risky in every U.S. city except Miami. Texas is certainly a better option than Michigan, but cold and snow still threaten to shut it down.

 A woman in my group signed up for this very race a few years ago. It was canceled because of a snow storm. It does happen.

Half marathons don’t require the same kind of training as the full. For one thing you run much faster for the half. Maintaining a pace is tough for all the usual reasons, exhaustion and cramping. Not to mention, if you don’t run fast often enough you won’t know when to slow down. Calories don’t come into play like they do for the marathon either. I don’t need to cram in a lot of food or GU gels for the half. One is enough. You could almost get the impression that a half marathon is an easy challenge. It’s not, but it’s also not the grueling exercise of that a whole 26.2 miles can be.

Finally, I remember how much fun I had at Cowtown. It’s on a Sunday. The route goes past a few churches which have a band outside playing as you zip past. Neighborhood communities line the streets as people hold funny signs and high five you as you run by. The old Stockyards area is full of music too. Bar tenders hold trays of whisky shots for those who prefer an eye opener to a Gatorade. And no, I’m not one of them. On second thought, it does get chilly in the morning. Maybe a whisky fireball isn’t the worst idea.

But the biggest difference between the two types of distances is the fun. The half is doable for most people and manages to be fun without being too exhausting. I’m glad I started with this distance. I’ll have a follow up blog after the race too. I’d like to finish in 2 hours. I won’t be broken up if I’m a little slower than that. I’ve been running closer to 11:00 minutes per mile these days anyway. But I’m shooting for 2 hours or just under this time. Having family there to cheer me on is the real win. For now I'm praying for good weather. 

 

 

 

 

Trump 2.0 and the Blitzkrieg Campaign

 

The Trump Administration's Quick Moving Attack is Keeping the Press Off Balance

The word Blitzkrieg, lightning war, describes the attack from the Trump administration on the media. By moving fast and throwing a lot of information at them, they can’t focus their artillery. Not only is the administration moving fast and tearing down corrupt institutions like USAID, they’re doing it on multiple fronts.

 I recognize the connection of the word to the German military from World War II, and I’m careful with applying it. But as a tactic of warfare it’s genius. The Trump administration knows its enemies are largely in media. Remember the ‘kids in cages’ nonsense from the first administration? You have to separate children from adults at the border. It’s necessary to protect the kids. Until you can verify that the child is related to the adult, it’s irresponsible not to. Trump and co were blindsided by the media attack. It didn’t matter that the Obama administration used the same ‘cages’.

On Trump 2.0

In too many ways, Trump 1.0 wasn’t ready for the onslaught. I believe he really expected to change the minds of people of the Left by growing the economy and keeping the country safe. I’m not making excuses for his lack of success at the border. He accomplished far more by making it a priority, but he was hampered by a powerful deep state. His Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was openly hostile. His AG, Jeff Sessions, checked out once the Russian collusion scam began. The useless Jim Mattis was more aligned with the swamp than the American people. He didn’t even want to keep transgender soldiers out of the Army. General Milly was even worse. He publicly apologized for the president’s photo op with a Bible, after the church was nearly set alight by rioters.

On The Team

The ones that stayed with him through the lean years have learned a few tricks. Move fast and don’t explain. Trump 2.0 was thwarted by a fraudulent election. Their plans for the second term would have to wait. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro spend time in prison for a few months because they wouldn’t testify before congress. President’s can classify documents about their time in office. Trump had classified some papers (Executive Privilege) related to January 6^th. Both men would’ve broken the law by revealing that information to congress. Stephen Miller is back, as is Dan Scavino and Charlie Kirk. It was obvious on day 1 that this was going to be a fast moving attack. After the flurry of Executive Orders, he started talking up Panama and the canal. Not to mention Greenland and the Gaza strip, both of which he’s threatened to take.

On Foreign Policy

In all of these cases, Trump’s goals are probably more muted. He wants China out of Latin America and Russia out of Greenland. Is he prepared to take back the canal and buy Greenland? Possibly, but if all he gets is a new deal where the US essentially manages the canal it might be enough. Talking like this puts people on the defensive and softens them up to make deals. Marco Rubio is pushing Trump’s agenda through the Secretary of State’s office. That’s huge. The State Department is usually the first to tell the president why he can’t do something.  

Greenland isn’t for sale but the Danes, the official owners, have sent additional troops there for security. And they're rounding up support from the European countries to resist Trump. Both Greenland and Panama are perfect examples of areas that weren’t even mentioned in the campaign. But right after he is elected, it’s a race to get these items in the news and propose takeovers. After taking his oath, it’s like someone fired a starter pistol and the race to take back America was on.

On Immigration

Border Czar Tom Homan is on TV practically everyday. He’s become a play by play announcer on immigration raids and deportations. This is strategic as well. Let people know directly from the Czar what’s going on with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Show criminals being cuffed and tossed into a van. Detail their crimes and talk about where they’ve been hiding out. Let everyone know the Democrats are responsible for this because they don’t care. Do it every single day and the press won’t be able to keep up with the amount of information. Instead of trying to explain away ‘kids in cages’ they’re creating their own news and speaking directly to the American people.

On Tariffs

I never thought the threat of tariffs on Canada and Mexico were real. Not that he wouldn’t do it, but that Trump was more concerned with protecting the borders. He wanted a concrete commitment from them to put the military and law enforcement at the borders and shut down illegal traffic. It’s not just illegal aliens, but fentanyl from China. Thankfully that’s what happened. Canada and Mexico remain are biggest trading partners. I’m hopeful that this will put a massive dent in the cartels as well.

Conclusion

In keeping with the Blitzkrieg tactic, the administration isn’t wasting time explaining much either. Elon Musk’s DODGE rehired Marko Elez after some of his racist social media posts came to light. He tried to resign but the Vice President supported rehiring him and basically said, we all make mistakes. The press would love to take a week on this but they can’t. The administration has already moved on to something else. I expect to see a lot more of this tactic on the media. Move fast, create flash news and speak directly to the American people.

Michael Connelly "The Waiting": book review

 

"The Waiting" Introduces New Characters and Solves Historic Murders

I read the Michael Connelly’s most recent book “The Waiting” over the last week.

It features Renee Ballard, the surfer detective with an unfinished backstory about her life in Hawaii. This is the 6th addition with this character if my counting is right. If you’re new to the series, Renee was a tough detective that worked the overnight shift until she came across Harry Bosch while researching a case. In the first book she sued a high ranking official for sexual harassment. Her relationship with the department is frosty to say the least. Harry’s primary role in these new books is researcher and undercover investigator. He knows a lot of old cop tricks and finds a way to keep her away from any departmental blowback. Not to mention, showing her how to maneuver around legal roadblocks.

They’ve both settled into a comfortable arrangement. Ballard heads up the Open Unsolved Unit and uses Bosch when she thinks the department may not approve of her decisions. Think of the Open Unsolved Unit as a library of cold case files that Renee’s crew works from. She has a handful of volunteers that dig up old addresses and social security numbers to connect murderers to deaths. “The Waiting” gets its name from the Tom Petty song of the same title. As the lyric goes, “The waiting is the hardest part”. It sums up police work. Whether waiting for the results of an autopsy or a stakeout, it’s both tense and boring at the same time.

Renee goes surfing and has her badge and gun stolen from her car while in the water. She can’t report it missing or she’ll lose the ability to run the cold case unit. She’s made a lot of enemies since leaving the LAPD. Some of the higher ups would love to kill the unit altogether. She calls Harry for help. The trick is to get her badge back from the thieves while keeping the loss a secret until they can locate it. Another new piece to this story is the addition of Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter. She needs access to the Open Unsolved Unit because of some information she ran across on one of her cases. It just happens to be one of Los Angeles's most notorious homicides, the Black Dahlia murder.

I’m not sure if this is the first book that has Maddie as a cop. It feels like she was written in a few books ago, but I must have missed it. To me she’s always Harry’s kid, away at college or visiting her mom. But she knows Renee Ballard from all the times spent working with Harry finding a murderer. It makes me think she’s going to be another regular character with her own case load and missing person’s. Most of the fan reviews about this book were positive. But across the board, people want more Harry Bosch out of these stories. Readers complained that he didn’t have a large part to play. Although true, it’s not a Bosch novel. It does make me wonder if author Michael Connelly wants to write Renee Ballard as a stand alone character with only occasional references to Harry Bosch. Bosch is still the reader’s choice though.

I think we can expect to see Renee’s mother make an appearance in the series as well. She is alluded to a few times via Renee’s visits with her therapist. So there’s another possible link to Hawaii and her past. Connelly’s a wonderful writer who could probably be a detective himself. The city must give him a lot of access to records and police files in order to put such compelling stories together. I don’t mean they’re all true, but the process and politics feel very real. He had to stop writing his latest book in order to incorporate the recent fires into the narrative. I feel like I know Los Angeles a little better every time I read a Michael Connelly book.

Bears Hire New Coach from Division Rival

 

Bears Hire a Coach and Try to Put 2024 Behind Them

The Chicago Bears just hired Ben Johnson as their head coach for the 2025 season. He was the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions for the last 3 years. Their season ended this last weekend. Both of their coordinators found head coaching spots around the league.

I started paying attention to the NFL just this year again. Since Covid and George Floyd, professional sports had become another wedge for left wing groups to divide the country over. It was a good time to tune out. I won’t recount my personal animosity towards the league here. I’ve written about it before enough times. But I did start miss it. My dad had the Lions and Bears game on when I went over there for Thanksgiving this year and it reignited my fandom just enough.

As is typical of the Bears however, they blew a big chance to win in the last couple of minutes. Poor clock management doomed their 2 minute drill at the end. Chalk up another loss. Their rookie quarterback, Caleb Williams, put together a decent second half but fell apart at the end. The coach (Matt Eberflus) sounded circumspect about the whole thing during the post game wrap up. The Chicago media was apoplectic over the loss and blamed the coach. I’m not one for blaming the coach, but he didn’t inspire confidence either. But does it really matter? There are a lot of inspiring, take-no-prisoners types of coaches that don’t win too. Rod Marinelli was like this. Great defensive coordinator, poor head coach.

I think fans get too caught up on optics. We get irritated with the way the loosing coach answers questions. The sports radio guys analyze interviews hoping to dig up some unknown piece of information. They assume the organization is always hiding something. A lot of times they are, but it’s never an issue when the team wins. It's loosing that invites carping. After the Thanksgiving Day loss, the Bears canned Coach Eberflus after an unceremonious Q&A with the press. The decision to send him out and get grilled was either a parting shot from the organization or miscommunication from management to staff.

You don’t send a guy out there to field questions if you’ve decided to fire him.

That was my reentry into the season. I’d been loosely following the pick of Caleb Williams in the offseason. He was clearly the best available in 2024 and the Bears, having yet another first pick, grabbed him up. I’m not a great evaluator of college talent, but the Bears haven’t been able to get quarterback right in years. Just the opposite is true. For whatever reason the team can’t coach the position. I’m not even sure whose fault it is. But it’s noticeable and embarrassing. My attitude on draft night was “I guess we’ll wait and see”. 

Like most fans, I just want a team that looks promising. Optimism among the Chicago media and fans was stratospheric. A ‘savior’ had arrived.

I never fall into that trap. I talked to a guy who came into my store the other day. He had played college football and rooted for the Bears as well. We talked at length about the upcoming season and the future quarterback. He had the same reservation about the team as I did. Not because Caleb Williams didn’t show promise. But if it rains on your annual family picnic every year, you start to look for secondary places to meet. If every quarterback the Bears pick gets traded in their 3^rd year, you start to cautiously evaluate their chances. 

I heard a few TV people pick the team to go to the playoffs in the first year. I never trusted that opinion. After the midseason firing of the coach, the team seemed to spiral. They’d already fired the offensive coordinator (Shane Waldron) weeks prior to that. After the head coach was shown the door, they elevated the newly named offensive coordinator to the top slot. This was a team without a rudder. It’s clear they expected to win more at this point in the season. When they didn’t, the organization scapegoated whoever they could, to appease the gods for the time. I watched them on a few occasions recently. They played a game at home on a Thursday right after Christmas. They lost. I had the sense that despite all the sacks and missed opportunities, this team was emotionally done for the year. They weren’t talentless, just effortless. The air had gone out of the balloon.

I guess we’ll see if Ben Johnson can pull this group out of the trash heap and demand better than they’ve given. Like usual I’m hopeful but not expectant. I’ve been to this picnic too many times. The chance of rain is always strong.

Running in the Cold--or Not?

 

Treadmill Running or Cold Weather Running: Get to It

I’m back to running in the cold. It takes a lot of effort to get outside when it’s cold. Not 30’s and 40s cold either, I’m talking 20’s and teens cold. This particular week is setting up to feel truly wintry. But it’s January, so whatever. Most of the country is having a very cold week. A good chunk of the Midwest is experiencing snow and ice. We aren’t getting snow until tomorrow and even then, just an inch or so. It’s enough to cancel schools, but not enough to disrupt much other than that. I was hoping for a milder winter this year. It’s been a few years since we’ve had one. I’d say close to 5 years ago the temperature never dropped below freezing. That’s not normal but it’s always a nice break when it happens.

I’m supposed to go for a run in the morning and I’m having second thoughts. Whatever the weather is up to I’ll go for a run, but it might be on the treadmill in a climate-controlled gym. But going 6 miles on the treadmill is almost worse than just bundling up a little and jogging at the park. Treadmills are a convenience, I’m at the gym 3 times a week anyway. Lifting weights and then going for a run outdoors would take too long.  Besides I’ve gotten used to it over the years. The difficult thing about indoor running is your hyperawareness of the time, distance and heart rate. The giant blinking screen stares at you.

 Sometimes you want to drift off and enjoy the run but you can’t. It’s dangerous.

Jogging in place on a moving conveyer belt requires a little dexterity too. Ever lost your balance? It’s embarrassing. Usually, you can catch yourself before you go flying off the back into the elliptical machine. But not always. A lot of people don’t have the balance to do it. They find out the hard way. It’s not like riding a unicycle, but it’s certainly trickier than jogging on a sidewalk. And trying to ramp it up without having the energy to match the speed can be disastrous as well. I’ve seen people wipe out on them. I nearly wiped out myself a few times. Runners hate them. I can’t think of one runner that I’ve met who trains on a treadmill even some of the time. That makes me an outlier.

If I hadn’t already been used to it from years of doing short runs at the gym, I might not either. But I also don’t know many others that lift weights and run. For me the best part is that I can choose to do hills at any point. Unless you know where to look for hills, it’s much tougher to do a set of hill work. Some neighborhoods are known for their hills but it’s not a consistent way to train. Treadmills allow you to put a specific hill work routine in place. I do this at least once a week. It’s great for stamina. It’s also great for your posterior leg muscles. Without intentional hill work I’d be gassed at a lot of the city running we do. It’s slow grinding work on the machine, but the payoff is big.

Winter running is so dependent on clothing it almost feels like it’s not worth it. You spend more time thinking about how to dress than anything else. If you’ve done it for any length of time, it gets easier to figure out. A rookie mistake, everyone makes is dressing too warm. I used to wear a tee-shirt with a heavy fleece under a windbreaker when the temps were in the low 30s. It doesn’t sound like it but that’s way too much clothing. I’d sweat through both the fleece and the jacket, then shiver when a gust of wind blew across my body. I learned to layer and dress lightly. You warm up quick on a run.

Like most exercise related things, it’s kind of miserable at first. But getting over the discomfort is so worth it. Cold weather jogging is its own special kind of exhilaration. And the only way to feel it is to go through it. 

Purpose in All Things: Life is a Gift

 

Finding Purpose in a Christ Centered Life

I helped my brother rearrange some of his furniture yesterday. My Saturdays are basically on repeat. Early morning runs are followed by breakfast at home, then a few hours of writing before heading to church. My brother texted me the night before. He worked in the morning and had to pull down the baby clothes from the attic. I was impressed with the tidy assortment, 0-3 months, 3-6 months and so on.

Our task was to rearrange a few of the rooms and make one a nursery for his and his wife's incoming baby. I thought he might need help putting the dresser together, or the crib. He’d already taken care of that. The biggest part was pulling down the plastic tubs of clothes and setting up the nursery.

It took two looks at the new set up. We couldn’t figure out how to make the space look open. Every direction and corner the crib ended up in felt cramped. Placing it under the window was a non starter. I guess the noise from street could wake her up. It’s not a terribly loud street but the neighborhood does have a lot of kids. That only left two options for how to angle the crib. The second one just looked better. The middle of the floor was open, the dresser under the window and the bed along the long wall seemed like the best arrangement.

Purpose

We talked for a few hours about life and relationships.

He gives good advice. As an older brother I’m not used to any of my younger siblings doing this. They do though. The married ones at least. For years, some of the best relationship advice I’ve received has been through one of them. ‘Older brothers sort everyone else out, not the other way around. At least that’s been my default attitude towards help, advice and scolding. But it hasn’t been true for a long time. Thankfully, default attitudes fall off when we let them. What was helpful for a time can become a hindrance if we don’t cut it loose.

Refusing to hear advice from younger siblings is called pride. Good advice doesn’t just flow one way when humans are involved. Leaders often struggle with this. Especially if they’ve had success being the go-to font of wisdom. Business CEOs that adjust to changing times can ruin their company with an obstinate attitude and a hardened stance. This doesn’t apply to values and service culture, which hopefully remain, but on course corrections. Churches fall into this as well. A dynamic leader that’s built a large congregation might be loathe to hand it off to a son or daughter. It’s an understandable reaction. When you do something well it becomes your reason for existing, fairly or unfairly. You found your gift. Let others find theirs.

Fulfillment

Purpose drives us. When it’s from God, it’s particularly fulfilling. Even moving furniture and sorting baby clothes is purposeful. It’s not the big picture creative stuff, but it’s critical and worthwhile.

God fashioned us for a reason and put us on this earth to complete a specific plan to meet the needs of others. How we do that varies. It’s something that goes beyond career or skill or interest. Those play a role, but the goal is to share Christ in a meaningful way. Even that description doesn’t quite get at it. Jesus isn’t just a story about a manger, or a ministry, or a death followed by a resurrection. It’s a plan. It’s redemption. It’s victory over sin and death and disease. Life is a gift, but life with purpose is something eternal that we get to discover every day we’re on this earth.

The purpose is the gospel, the “how” is ours to find. The big change of direction for me is seeing life in that order, Christ first and me second. When we put our gifts first, it limits plan of God. We’ve handed Him a matrix through which we offer our service. Here and not there. “I’m a singer Lord, use me”. Or “I’m great with children but not the homeless”. Our interests or skills can be a starting point but they don’t define the mission. When we understand the first principles of following the Lord, our gifts will come alive. We worry about gifts at the expense of the mission.

Conclusion

Paul sums it up like this:

 “There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities; but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all”. (I Corinthians 12:4-7)

We all want to matter. Giving our gifts to God ensures that they’ll be used in the best way. Comparison gets us all in trouble. It’s easy to feel that we aren’t doing enough with our talents. But our task is to be useful where we can and show Christ in every action. The big picture in life will take shape when we let God be the author of our story. Sometimes it’s writing an essay and sometimes it’s moving furniture.

 

2025 A Year of Optimism for Americans

 

A Sense of Optimism About America’s Future is Back: 2025

New Year’s Day again. This time it’s 2025 and I’m looking forward to a better year.

Optimism on Tap

It’s easy to think of the political turmoil of the last year and be grateful that Joe Biden is out of office. Not that politics is everything, but it does set the tone for a lot of people. When we feel better about ourselves and our country, a sense of optimism pervades. When Trump asked Tom Homan to come back and be his Homeland security chief, he came out of retirement. In an interview with Tucker, Tom said that so many retired border patrol officers offered to come back once he was selected. The reason is obvious. We know instinctively that patriots are going to run key positions in DC. They love the country and want to help. It’s knowing that your leadership is for you. That’s inspiring.

Presidents Matter

I don’t buy anymore that the economy isn’t really affected by the president’s policies. The Wall Street Journal and others would always run these snotty articles about how it doesn’t make a huge difference. They think the ‘rubes’ need an education on how unimportant the president is to the economy. I wish it were true, but anti-business moves, flooding the country with illegals and canceling drilling leases for oil companies have trickle down effects.

There may have been a time when policies were similar enough from Republicans to Democrats. In the 90s and even early 00s, the economic policies weren’t that different. Candidates talked like they were. Democrats always sounded like FDR and Republicans like Reagan, but in reality, the big budget stuff was always signed off on. No one was going to seriously threaten social security or defense spending or Medicare. Even today, those programs are fully funded without a lot of fuss. The difference is what the democrats restrict, the climate mullahs have attacked oil and gas by shutting down new leases for drilling. President Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline that’s been hanging by a thread since Obama’s term.

Climate Hysteria and Insurance Fraud

In the same vein, Uncle Sam subsidizes electric vehicles and forces CAFÉ standards on automakers. EV’s come with a discount ($7,500) for the buyer and upwards of $10,000 with the state subsidy. This is an industry that shouldn’t need the boost anymore. But taxpayers still have to shell out for plug ins that are getting less popular by the year.

 Since President Obama’s two terms, the separation of a private and public sector in medical insurance is a joke. Most of the big insurers are owned by the federal government after Obamacare. You may hate insurance companies but they’re hardly even making their own decisions anymore. They signed on to impossible rules that govern their businesses, like covering pre-existing conditions. They also signed up to limit their own profits. Costs continue to go up for the ACA (Affordable Care Act) while Insurers denied more claims than ever last year. They took something complicated, insurance, and wrapped in more red tape. They wanted windfall profits and didn’t care about the future. Obamacare is probably the biggest single reason that the president does make a difference on the economy. It ruined what was at least marginally a private industry.

Somewhere in those Obama years I stopped being a libertarian. It’s laughable to think there exists a sharp distinction between federal and private business anymore.

Rising Pride Lifts all Boats

If investor exuberance can hold the stock market afloat, then so can pride in country boost the mood in future ventures. People need leadership and it doesn’t even have to be perfect. It does however, need to be genuine. Joe Biden was never the duly elected president and he knew it, everyone knew it. Most didn’t admit it. The sense of hopefulness after the Trump win is about the future and progress. It’s difficult to describe a sense of optimism but you know it when you see it.

It’s like when the substitute teacher, who’d been filling in for the sick teacher finally leaves. This particular substitute was teaching Marxism and letting the bullies pick on the other kids. He was deconstructing the whole idea of education and telling lies about the country, God and gender norms. He did real damage. But now the regular teacher is back and a sense of optimism has returned.

Conclusion

Not that it won’t be an uphill struggle. But Trump won a mandate and if he doesn’t root out the poisonous corruptocrats it will be for naught. He has a much better sense of what needs to happen in this term. Hopefully, he won’t trust the swamp dwellers in the Republican party this time. I mostly like his cabinet picks. I’m not completely sold on Kennedy (RFK Jr), but there’s time.