“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” – The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 4:7

Some closing words from Paul in prison who assumes that the end of his ministry is near and is commissioning Timothy to carry on that ministry. Obviously Paul spent some time behind the desk writing a few papers that later became books of the Bible, at least seven of them and maybe a few others. While he has claim to some of today’s most influential writing, it would seem that much of his ministry didn’t happen behind a desk, and in fact for much of his writing he was in prison where he probably didn’t have a desk. Paul was stoned (yes, literally) to the point where people thought he was dead (Acts 14:19), beaten (22:1-21, and several other occasions), and bit by a poisonous snake and survived (28:3-6). Paul catalogs these and many other physical trials he has endured to share the gospel in 2 Corinthians 11:16-31 which also include 3 ship wrecks! He adds, “And besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.” He closes though by saying that this is not all to bring attention to himself, but rather to illustrate his weakness and to bless God who sends him and as we see thereafter, continues to send him and sustain him.

Since coming to seminary I’ve certainly experienced anxiety, but very few physical journeys to share the gospel that didn’t involve a car. My other taxation has been weight gain while I sit about and read and write for the majority of my time, and spend my free time playing board games, watching TV, or playing video games. The only muscle that’s really gotten a workout since I quit Pepsi and started seminary is my brain. In short, I’m a desk jockey. So while I have faith that God will help me to endure whatever he has set before me, if there’s going to be any degree of trial that Paul had gone through (even simply the amount of traveling he did, read about all his journeys here) I feel as though it’s time I started exercising the rest of this body I’ve been granted.

The idea for this all came about as I was up late one evening preparing a bottle of milk for our son Judah. I was looking on Facebook while I waited for the milk to warm up and noticed an add that my nephew had “liked” on the side bar called Tough Mudder (I guess all that advertising money for fb works). I thought I’d check it out and it turns out it’s a world wide traveling 5k obstacle course. Now I’ve never been much for the idea of running just because. I haven’t found a lot of joy in that, but an obstacle course,now that actually sounds fun! This Tough Mudder though… well, I think you get the idea from the name. It’s designed by the British special forces. There’s no snake biting or beating or stoning or assasins seeking you out, but it’s not for the timid. The cool thing about it though is that it’s designed so that you can’t take it on by yourself. People have to help one another get through it, whether as teams, or just random people helping one another. Take a look

Although there’s one in Somerset Wisconsin, not far from where I live at the moment, I’m sure I wasn’t going to be up for it this year. I do want to do it sometime though. My plan takes me back to 4H in middleschool were we were always having to make goals. So my long term goal is to do this Tough Mudder, hopefully in 2014 when we return to the Twin Cities after internship. What between now and then you say? Well, as I got interested in this Tough Mudder race I remembered a conversation with another friend about a smaller scale version that’s held here in the Twin Cities every year called Go Commando! (Apparently you have to come up with a clever name in order to have an obstacle course race still waiting on the 2012 date).

As I’m very out of shape I figured the first thing I’d work on is the running part. There’s not much hope if I can’t make it from one obstacle to the next so being able to run the 5k is the first step. I started a program this week that a friend recommended over a year ago called Couch Potato to 5k or C25K. I works you into it pretty slowly, but after nine weeks your supposed to be able to run a 5k (about 3 miles) in a reasonable amount of time. Once I’ve got that down I’ll look into the obstacles a bit more and start training for that.

In the mean time, as Paul suggested to Timothy to get some help (2 Tim. 4:11), I’ve enlisted the help of my friend who introduced me to Go Commando! and one of my older brothers while I wait from a word from the other brother. In the mean time if you who are reading this want to join in or share a word of support as I work towards a me physically more capable of sharing the Word of God I’d love to hear from you. More to follow here.