Day: May 17, 2018

5 men rolled into Grits N Greens for a meal and a short study on self-control. Proverbs 25:28 says Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” I asked each man  what would they do if someone came into the restaurant and slapped them across the face. How would you handle that when you were 20? How would you handle that if your family was sitting there? How would you handle that if you were sitting in a church service? Would you have any self-control to “turn the other cheek” as the scriptures ask us to do. I am sure most of us aren’t where we need to be as far as 100% self-control but we should be striving to get better each day. Self-Control is a very broad subject but a very personal one. We each are faced daily with decisions that test our self-control. A Focus on The Family article said this, Self-Control is the discipline of saying “no” for the sake of a bigger and better “yes”. We discussed a few of the areas that require self-control. Overeating, greed, gossip, lust, anger, materialistic and pride. We discussed what we gain when we have self-control, not what we lose for each item on this list

How do we improve our self-control? The end of Galatians 5:25 says “let us keep in step with the Spirit”. I believe attending church regularly is one of the best ways to “keep in step with the Spirit” as I have seen this work many times in my own life when I was straying away from areas of self-control. We can improve self-control also by keeping company with people who exhibit it. I remember what Moses (our F3 Moses, not the Old Testament one) said when he began coming to Forge. He said he thought he needed some better friends. That is an excellent recognition of someone striving to be better. Do you need better friends? Are you improving your friends or are they influencing you in a negative way? I told of a friend of mine who I have seen in several situations keep his mouth shut and his anger inside when I would’ve not been so inclined. He knew to “keep in step with the Spirit” in a way that amazed me. We should all be striving to have that kind of self-control in all situations. You don’t want to be known for the one time in your life when you lost control. Our F3 brothers can help inspire us and help us keep in step with our self-control  if we stay plugged in to the group and keep posting.

Thanks to the men who came out and if you don’t have a place to be each Wednesday at 6:30 pm, give Forge a try. We will begin next week studying different men from the Bible. Our F3 Moses will discuss Gideon. Freight wanted me to tell everyone (especially Roscoe) that Sparky had strawberry cobbler with ice cream.

It’s been a while since YHC has Q’d a workout, and it showed…there were multiple Q fails.  When Stroganoff posted the opening for Gashouse, I knew it was time to knock off the rust (shake off the Sad Clown) and get back after it.  I’ve had great excuses for slowly drifting into a Sad Clown (knee injury, coaching soccer for the 2.0s, moving to a new home, preparing the old home to be sold, etc.); however, these are still excuses.

At 0700 the Pax circled up (both bootcamp & pain lab). We identified an FNG (Asher Greer, Dolf’s 2.0…forever more to be known as Dijon) and I gave a quick disclaimer before jumping into the warm up & pledge:

SSH x 25

Don Quixotes x 20

Morocan Nightclub x 20

PLEDGE

After the warm up, the PAX divided into two group: bootcamp & pain lab.  YHC was the QIC for the bootcamp & Hipaa was the QIC for pain lab. 12 HIMS participated in the bootcamp workout, and the PAX was given a quick overview of the WEINKE and introduced to the figurative Sad Clown (a 6” x 6” x 8 ‘ pressure treated timber decorated as a Sad Clown thanks to my 2.0, Monet) that we planned to carry around.  I thanked the PAX for following up with me over the last several months…literally, many of them came along side me to help shoulder my Sad Clown burdens.

The Thang.

The PAX ran 0.25 miles while carrying the figurative Sad Clown then stopped for some exercises (30 seconds per exercise) through 12 pain stations.  The PAX carried the Sad Clown (approx. 65 lbs) in groups of 2 and alternated frequently to shoulder the weight.

Station #1 – Mercans, Lunges

Station #2 – CDDs (Def push ups), LBCs

Station #3 – Hillbillies, Monkey Humpers

Station #4 – Time for some Dora: 100 Freddy Mercuries, 200 Alternating Shoulder Taps, 300 Flutter Kicks

Station #5 – Imperial Walkers, Broad Jump Burpees

Station #6 – American Hammers, Bear Crawl

Station #7 – Rocky Balboas (in honor of Stage Coach’s Philadelphia roots), Mike Tyson Pushups

Station #8 – Donkey Kicks, People’s Chair, Hip Slappers

Station #9 – Joe Hendrix

Station #10 – Crabwalk

Station #11 – Mtn Climbers

Station #12 – skipped the exercise because low on time

Bootcamp & Pain Lab finished with some Mary (WWI sit ups, Dying Cockroches) before the bells rang.

After the bells, Linus confirmed the PAX covered +3.2 miles (including the Dora run). Who says you can’t complete a 5k run with Speed for Need?

Hippa shared announcements, took prayer requests, and named our FNG (Asher Greer). Welcome Dijon!!!

YHC thanked the PAX again for “not leaving me behind” the past several months and encouraged the PAX to continue to be intentional to reach out to our other MIA brothers….it makes a difference knowing that someone cares. We concluded our time in a COT in prayer.