You never know what your invitation might create. Last year friend Dave invited me to do the Ironman in Oceanside with him ... So we both signed up the morning enrollment opened. I texted my friend Jayson and within minutes he had a dozen more people signed up and gravitating towards and amazing event of common purpose and challenge. Dave had created far more with that invitation than he had in mind. Now personal fitness is great. And sport is great. And for sure doing an Ironman is about that. But when you get (what eventually widdled down to) 10 guys and their family and friends all cheering each other on to the victory of personal challenge and progress ... Its a whole other level of greatness. Theres something that happens in a group of friends when you move beyond events that feed ego and rank into the common goal of survival - its genuine community. For sure theres plenty of ego-feeding in triathlons (and golf, and work, and house-buying, and...) but when youre feeding your ego youre often too busy to see the magic God is creating in others. We watched Jesse Christensen master his fear of swimming and complete his first Ironman! Can you imagine being terrified of the swim and rocking a 1.2 mile open-water ocean swim? Incredible. Im truly blow away and inspired by this guys guts. We saw Victor Lawrence epically be the last runner to cross the finish line in the last minute before the cutoff... as he ran bare chested down the Oceanside boardwalk with his casual and confident stride. Together we were broken hearted about the 2 of us that didnt complete the event because of health and time ... When one of us hurts, we all feel it. Mike Christensen and Brian both finished the Ironman having never done a triathalon before! Victor and Jesse finished as well and completed their 1st Ironman! Mason James Ford finished strong again and Andy Wade and Jayson Orvis set the pace and finished together like pros. Jesse Winn and Russ Johnston will finish the next one and encourage those of us that dont. And others who opted out will finish their goals and enter the next one too! So how about you? What are you challenging yourself to and inviting others to join? Chances are that God can make much more of it than you expect!
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 22:02:29 +0000
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