He is Risen!

Happy Resurrection Day!  Today is the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Jesus, our Savior, from the dead.  Hebrews 9:22 says "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness."  Christ died on the cross to shed his blood to pay for our sins.  Today, we recognize that he did not stay dead.  He returned from death to life, and He lives today.  By believing, and accepting that this price was paid, we too can have life, eternally, in heaven.  I often tell people that everyone is going to have eternal life.  God has given us free will to accept the payment for our sins and spend that life in paradise or to suffer eternally in Hell.  Christ said I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)  That is pretty clear to me how important it is to accept his gift.

Yesterday was a great day for Bruce and I at the Ridgway triathlon.  I ran the 5 miles, and then we biked together for about 15.5, then we paddled the swollen Clarion River for 9 miles.  The race organizers gave the option of skipping the paddle portion and I told Bruce that I would make the decision when we got off the bikes whether we would canoe or not.  I decided to go ahead, which caused my wife and my mom quite a lot of worry.  To their credit, they did not question my decision at all.  I'm honored that they trusted me.  It was a great experience doing the race with Bruce.  We got to chat for a couple of hours with no one else around, and Bruce got a chance to push himself physically to a place, I am sure, he has never been before.  I don't think either of us will soon forget the experience.  I am so happy that we got to do this together.

The day was not so good for my friend Pat.  A couple of miles into the canoe portion, he capsized in some rough water.  He quickly became hypothermic in the 44 degree water.  Brenda and Ken, or as they are better known, Doc and Thundercloud, came upon Pat clinging to the river bank on the side opposite the road.  They worked to get him across the river and to the road.  It was not an easy task as Pat was fairly incoherent and uncoordinated from hypothermia.  Praise God that so many things came together for his rescue.
It is to Pat's credit that he was grateful for his safety and not at all concerned for the loss of all of his gear.   He said that he really thought that this might have been the end of his life in this world.  The good side of that is that he is ready and knows where he will spend eternity.  But, with few exceptions, I am fairly certain that most would rather not end this segment of life just yet :)

So, the training has been pretty much nonexistent, but yesterday was a kick start.  I had spoken with Ray Zahab and asked him for some advice.  He recommended taking a week off and not even thinking about running.  Of course, it was then that I woke up every morning thinking maybe I would go.  I did once or twice, but the big thing was that I didn't feel guilty for not going.  That made a big difference in my mental state.  Today, I got up and actually did some core work.  As much as I don't like it, it needs to be done.  I want to allow my running to become just for fun again.  Even though I am certainly not competitive, it seemed that every time I started out on a run, I would start to think about what it could do for me instead of enjoying the run.  Funny thing is that when I run for fun, I actually run faster and further.  Go figure.  So back to running for fun.  More tag, more ball games with the kids, and more listening to birds singing in the peaceful mornings.

If you contributed last year, look for a letter this week.  I am really slow in getting out fundraising letters, but I have been so hesitant in this economy.  Please do what you can to help.

He is risen!
He is risen indeed!