The past couple of years, Santini has challenged our F3 brothers to choose one word to focus on that year to help make a meaningful impact in their life and the people closest to them.  See here – http://f3nation.com/2015/12/28/your-one-word-for-2016/

Some intial words I came up withe were GOALS, PLANS, and SERVE with each being an acronym for something else.  I saw Santini at church last week and told him my word would be PLANS.  He asked me to search deeper.  So deeper I would search and spend some time in prayer trying to decide on a word.  The word Sacrifice kept coming to mind (it was part of the S in each of the acronyms above).  So I decided that Sacrifice would be my word for the year.

Definition of sacrifice

  • : the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone

  •    destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else

  • :  something given up or lost <the sacrifices made by parents>

Hebrews 13:16

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

So I started looking at my life and searching for areas where I could make some sacrifices for the betterment of my family.  I looked at finances, family, work, and other areas of my life and made a list of sacrifices.

  1.  Would give up on always trying to prove I was right when having a disagreement with my wife and stepkids.  Sometimes keeping the peace is is better than having an argument over something stupid just to prove that you are right.  In the end nobody wins.
  2. Sacrifice having the newest running shoes or running gear, or more F3 shirts, etc. so I can pay off all of my credit card debt by the end of the year (hold me to this guys #accountability)
  3. Giving up what I want to do everyday after work, so I can spend more quality time with my family and actually plan things to do with the family.
  4. Sacrifice my wants to line up with what God wants of me.

So this morning before the Joe Davis Memorial Run, I saw Santini and told him word.  His response “that’s a dangerous a word.”  It is a dangerous word, but a word I know that will challenge me throughout the year.  I didn’t know at the time what this word would truly mean, until about 45 minutes later and 1.25 miles into Joe Davis 10k.  At that point, my arrhythmia started to flare up.  I made the decision to stop running and DNF the race (I know not very F3 like to quit). But I could tell even before the race that something wasn’t right.  F3 brother after F3 brother slowed down as they passed me to ask if I was okay.  Told them to continue on (as I know how hard most of them trained for this race).  As I was coming up one of the hills to walk back to WEP, I saw Double D come back to get me.  No man left behind was his response.  In short, he sacrificed his time (which I know was going to be pretty good), to make sure that I got back to WEP and that I was medically taken care of.  It hammered home a point to me that Sacrifice goes 2 ways.  We often think about what we must give up and seldom realize what others give up for us.  It really hammered home that my word for the year is two fold.  Not only to recognize what I need to give up but what others have given up for me, with the ultimate sacrifice being Jesus laying down his life for the forgiveness of not only my sins but all of yours as well.

MOLESKIN – WHY F3 WORKS

There I was, Disappointed!!  First race of 2016 and my first DNF ever.  I was bummed not only for me, but for Double D as well.  After being cleared by Medics, I told Double D we should go towards the Finish Line to cheer everyone on as they finished.  I know it would bring me some joy (and also some hurt) to see my F3 brothers finish.  One by one they came across the line asking what happened to me.  And I told them.  And this is why F3 works.  It wasn’t a bunch of guys calling you a p*ssy for quitting or telling you that you should have just sucked it up and finished.  It was a group of guys that were sincerely concerned with how I was doing and feeling.  Where else will a group of guys do that?  And it really doesn’t matter if its a 5k/10k/half marathon or something else going on in your home life, work life, etc.  These guys are always here for you.  It’s why F3 works!!  Thank you Double D for helping to reinforce my word for 2016.

John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends