“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” -Proverbs 27:17

When I ran the Chicago Maragthon in October, I wrote periodically about the lessons I was learning from running a marathon. I want to continue that practice now that I’m training for my 2nd marathon (Pittsburgh).

I want to talk to you about the power of facing challenge, whether it’s running a marathon or just going through life, with people. I’ve found that without going through life with people, most achievements aren’t possible and even if we do achieve something it can feel hollow. I trained and ran the Chicago Marathon with Pastor Larry and it was great – I wrote about that experience as well. However, for this marathon I’m training with several people. I run with Pastor Moore who will be running his fourth marathon, Scott Dozier and Chris Martin who will be running their first, and Steph Moore who will be running her first half marathon. Here are some of my observations of the power of going through this experience with these people:

• You Create Memories that will last a Lifetime – going through life together is so much richer when we do it with people. The picture above is right before we all ran when it was -10 degrees out. Our eyebrows and nose hairs all froze (except for Stephs haha) – I’ll never forget that experience as long as I live!

• You Create a Bond between People - I love when I see one of the people I train with at church or in public because it’s an instant connection. I almost feel like I’ve been on the battlefield with them – when we meet in person and share the memories of the hardships and victories we had while running.
  

• People need Encouragement and so do You – We all have off days where we just need someone to help pick us up. In encouraging each other while we run – I’m really learning the power of encouragement – it pushes you to give your all. There are definitely days where I don’t want to run, but the second I see one of these guys and hear “Are you ready” – I get fired up and ready to go

• Helping People Achieve the “Impossible” in Their Life is so Rewarding - when I was training for Chicago – it was my first marathon and PL helped me achieve the impossible when I crossed the finish line. Now, I’m helping Chris and Scott achieve some milestones in their lives. It’s so rewarding for me when I hear them say things like “I’m pumped!!! I just ran 12 miles for the first time! I did it!” – bringing people with you while you go after the dreams of your heart is so worth it!

Who are you going through life with? Who do you have in your life that encourages you? Takes you to another level? Helps you achieve the impossible in your life?

So last night I got to see this movie – I heard good things about it. After seeing it I have a few thoughts – if you’re looking for a great action movie – you’ll love this. However, be prepared to get really ticked off. Not because the movie was bad, but because the movie shows some of the realities of human trafficking around the world. I literally couldn’t and still can’t comprehend that stuff like that is actually happening in places all of the world everyday.

It really made me think – what are we doing to truly make a difference in this world? How long can we sit around and just allow things like that to happen while we sit back and enjoy our luxuries. This movie really got my heart stirring up to go out into the world and be a part of changing it. Long story short – see the movie and let me hear your thoughts.

Final Grade: A

Punching the Koala Bear Made this Commercial!

Anyone else excited about this?

Ok – so this commercial was actually horrible, but I put it on here because after it, David Faulk looked at me and said, “Dude, that was weird, I’ll never eat Cheetos again” – Priceless!

You can check the rest of the Super Bowl Ads on Hulu.com