The Way

Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand Ugh! Has it really been almost four months since I posted, I am going to do a better job of blogging more lately. Uh, well . . . I guess that makes me a liar. And I hate being caught in a lie. I really am longing for the day when I am not afraid of getting caught in a lie, but just give up lying or trying to make myself look a little better than I really am. So . . .  what's been happening since early February? That's a whole season and a half ago! If any of you keep up with me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook then you know that in early March Sondra, me, Shelbi, Mark, Morgan and Wilson made our way to New Zealand. We all arrived there separately (by couples that is) and the kids met up at the airport in Auckland and began their trek towards Taupo, while Sondra and I pretty much headed to Taupo directly so I could get acclimated and situated for Ironman New Zealand. We met up with our friends Dave and Kimberly (Dave was also do...

Some of you know that I have been training to complete an IRONMAN competition. Some of you know it all too well. I have posted to Twitter and Facebook incessantly and you have endured those posts. What you may not have known is that the reason I post my silly workouts is because there are many folks who hold me accountable to do the workouts. Twitter and FB are the easiest way to keep those few informed. Thanks for enduring. If you have known me for awhile, you have known that I enjoy being outside; I enjoy physical exercise; I like to set some goals that I just cannot go out and accomplish without some pretty strong disciplined and regimented plans; and that I am a tad bit obsessive. (I may have understated that last statement.) I have a friend at work who has completed 8 IRONMAN competitions and a couple of years ago I went to support him at IRONMAN Florida. I wrote about it here if you are interested. It was at that event that I realized that I believed I could finish one of t...

Photo by Harrison's Lens It has been a bit of a whirlwind since the Big Day of the Wil and Morgan wedding. They honeymooned in Mexico and came back relaxed and tanned and ready to start real life together and 6 weeks in to their marriage they are doing great. Their apartment is set up and they are back into a routine of work and living life. I do want to share this picture with you of Morgan and me walking down the aisle. The first time I saw it, well, I might have teared up a little. So honored to be dad to both Morgan and Shelbi and now dad-in-law to Wil and Mark. Who knew it could be this good? Mark and Shelbi are doing great and extremely busy. Mark's season of work is much like mine in the summer. We work about 10 months behind the scenes and then summer hits and we run like crazy as campers hit our respective sites. Mark is training for IRONMAN Arizona which takes place in November so he is swimming, biking and riding whenever he can between a busy work schedule. ...

Confession time for me here. I have been a leader, minister, staff person for many years in local churches in MO, TX and TN. I have led 100s of training conferences for student ministry and discipleship leaders in almost every state and in 12 or 13 countries. I have encouraged leaders who were about to quit due to frustration, depression, burn out; leaders just getting started in a new venture; and others who are on the backside of their sweet spot in ministry years and people in between. But . . . this past weekend I got a fresh, new perspective on how to treat volunteers. IRONMAN Chattanooga took place on Sunday, 9/28 with about 2600 participants and who knows how many volunteers. I would say a whole bunch, would be a pretty accurate number. Each volunteer was given a green shirt with all the appropriate IRONMAN Chattanooga and sponsors logos plastered on it and a huge VOLUNTEER written on it. Volunteers served the races in many various ways from water stops to handing out bags, c...

One thing that has not been happening is me posting to the blog. It seems that about the time I get more disciplined in one area of my life (more about that later) I seem to drop some other things. Writing down my thoughts and meanderings seems to have taken a back seat the last month. I will attempt to do better. We'll see. Our Christmas and New Year's were wonderful. I had the last couple of weeks of 2012 off from work and we decided that we would not travel during the holiday season. Shelbi and Mark spent about 5 days with us right around Christmas and we thoroughly enjoyed having them here. Of course, they brought Bear, their new dog with them and he is a great addition to their family. We watched alot of football, enjoyed the company of family and friends and the weather broke a couple of days so I was able to get a couple of outdoor bike rides in and even jumped in the lake with my new wet suit in Dec. Sondra enjoyed her time off from school and we enjoyed lots o...

This past weekend I found myself in Panama City Beach, Florida spectating and supporting my buddy, Dave MacNeill, as he competed and completed the Ironman Florida Triathlon. Dave and I work together at LifeWay and over the past couple of years have become pretty good friends. Dave is an Ironman. He has been an Ironman for a number of years and you may recall that back in the Spring, I completed my first triathlon, much to the encouragement of Dave. An Ironman Triathlon consists of these three sports and distances: Swimming -2.4 miles Biking - 112 miles Running - 26.2 miles All of those miles add up to 140.6 miles and a pretty tired body evidently. I had a blast spectating and supporting this triathlon. I really did. I found myself encouraging and supporting people that I have never seen before and quite possibly, never will see again. But that did not really matter to me. What mattered is that they competed to the best of their ability and I wanted to help them do that by ...