God First at The Ricky Bobby

I recently heard a story that reminded me of the importance of “living third.” (More on this below.) Living third means making sure our most basic, fundamental priorities are in order. We live for (1) God, (2) others, and (3) ourselves – in that order. December is a perfect time to remember and reflect on these basic priorities, so we’ll do that at The Ricky Bobby throughout this December.

OK, 0530, go time and it’s raining.  I’m grateful that 5 PAX left the fartsack to join me here.  We circle up near the entrance to the school for quick disclaimer and warmup of SSH, Imperial walkers, Merkins, Nolan Ryans, mountain climbers (all 10xIC).

The Thang is a classic Dora routine of 100 merkins, 200 squats, 300 flutters.  It’s not raining hard, so non-working partner lunge-walks across the driveway to the grass and back.  Next we take a short mosey to the corner of the school where there’s just enough wall for 5 of us, leaving Tesla around the corner in the rain.  We take a seat and pass “Frank” and “Hank” (18 lbs each) down and back twice.  Then move to the next Dora set: PAX choice of hand-release merkins, big boy sit ups, and American hammers.  This round of Dora was much tougher than the first one…  Time’s up – quicker than I’d planned – so let’s come back to “living third.”

Living third means making sure our most basic, fundamental priorities are in order. We live for (1) God, (2) others, and (3) ourselves – in that order. Most of the time, the first and second priorities align with each other: We glorify God by serving others, and vice versa. But it’s utterly critical that God comes first. That struck me when I learned about a 23-yr old kid who openly wants to die. Though he suffers from diabetes and is nearly blind, he’s not in extreme pain or despair. He simply feels like life is too burdensome on himself as well as his family who care for him. His conscious, “rational” choice to end his life is aimed at making life better for others. Sadly, that thought process ignores the fact that each and every life created by God has dignity and value. This is true whether we understand it or not. And very often, we don’t understand what God’s plan is. Whoopee nicely reinforced this by pointing to the Mustang mat in front of the school.  If the 4-foot-by-6-foot picture on that mat is God’s plan, then what we can see is less than one square inch of it. Tube brought up Nehemiah as a positive example of keeping God first.  If you don’t know who Nehemiah is, ask Tube.  Seriously, ask him.

More ways to put this into practice are:
 – Check Slack for an opportunity to help get Turtleman’s Christmas lights and decorations out.
 – Come out next Wednesday for Roscoe’s take on “living third.”

Announcements:
 – Christmas party Dec 3.
 – Vote for PAX awards
 – Order shirts and gear (see Slack for details)

Prayer requests:
 – Turtleman
 – Tesla
 – Bondo

Privileged to lead a great group of HIM’s this morning
Nutria