First Class Guy

Tonight was a special night.  I got in some small way to say goodbye and thank Mr. Jesse who was one of my Assistant Scout Masters in Boy Scout (BSA) Troop 65 in Mint Hill.

Mr. Jesse went by the book, but he never threw the book at you.  He was always respectful and always interested in that scared shy kid I was back almost 30 years.

I loved Mr. Jesse for who he was and for the fact that he never put me down, like some leadership at the time when I left Scouting.  If Mr. Jesse had been in charge I may have never left.  But that's an argument I can have with myself for the rest of my life and never win.  What happened, happened. At the time I felt like I had to stand up for myself in the fact that the leader at that time, I felt like treated us like were under a dictatorship and not in something that was supposed to taken serious, but at the same time fun.  Fun wasn't a word we heard or even thought about at that time or at least that's how I felt about the situation.

My brother Brian and I sat on the back row of the Mint Hill McEwen Chapel and I took in the "Court of Honor" a tradition in the BSA for special occasions and this was very special.

I was struck at how central God was to the service, and amazed that in our politically correct world that the Boy Scouts of America are still standing up for faith and respect for beliefs of others at the same time.

I ran into my cousin who is now the Scout Master for Troop 65, and couldn't help but be struck by the fact that one of wildest boys of the troop back in the day, turned out to be a great leader.  I sat there with a bit of pride in my cousin for how far he's come in life and how well spoken he is.  I could tell the boys respected him from just a few interactions I saw between them.  Respect for elders and authority is something sorely lacking in our all-about-me society.

And now I get to my title of this post and the badge you see above.  When I left Scouting, I was at rank of First Class.  Next would have been Star, then Life, then finally a very small number of boys go on to Eagle Scout rank.

I still admire boys that make it to the rank of Eagle, it's not an easy task.  It's a lot to remember and do and try to do for all the right reasons, but yet some do make it to that level.

I heard my cousin read part of an article that Mr. Jesse had brought in one Monday night (Monday night was/is the troop's meeting night) about how many former Boy Scouts go on in life to be very successful leaders and men in their communities.

I'm proud to be a former Boy Scout, the organization has been under attack the past decade or so and while I won't go into that debate, I'll just say that I full support their current beliefs even the most recent decisions because it is based on a Biblical view and the BSA are founded at the core with Christian values.

I'll close this post with what I tried to remember tonight and say with the other Scouts the Boy Scout Oath:

On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my Country 
and to obey the Scout Law;To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. 

If we could all follow that oath in life, what a better world this would be.

In respect for the above blog, I'll forgo my normal closing and just say Godspeed Mr. Jesse , I'll see you on the other side.

The Moral Of The Story?

I'm back again for another blog that probably no one will read, but that's o.k. when I run for political office someday it will give them something to fuel their fire of lies.  Just kidding.

In keeping with one of my previous blogs, this is an update of sorts on where I am in life and a few lessons I've learned along the way, and hopefully won't have to relearn again along this ride of life.  For those curious why I've got He-Man pictured, for those that never watched the show like I did as a kid, at the end of each show there was a "moral of the story" or whatever they called it.  Basically they recapped the show, told you what was good about what happened and what was bad about what Skeletor or another villain had done that show.  With that short explanation, along with the blog.

To start, I'm loving my new job!  TricorBraun is a distributor for bottles, caps, jars, all that sort of thing.  So it's a new industry for me, and I'm learning a lot and trying to catch up on this learning curve.

When I was let go from Aon Hewitt I was denied unemployment benefits.  I had no money coming in!  I was living off very little money, and trust me I was scared!  But this is where our story gets good.

God impressed upon me the scripture "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3: 5-6

To my best ability I started trying to do just that: trust that God was faithful and would take care of one of His kids while he was out of a job and trying to find one, and not having any money coming in.

God came through in so many big and small ways.  People would show up at restaurants I hadn't seen in a while and just pay for my meal, a friend sent me $200 out of the blue and my car had to have some work done that week, and my church and so many wonderful friends prayed long and hard for me.

I'm here to tell you that prayer works.  Now that doesn't mean we can demand God do what we want, but if we come to Him humbly and our friends and family are praying as well, God can do some amazing things in our lives if we just ask.  Jesus said "You have not, because you ask not.".  So don't be afraid to ask!  The worst thing God will say is "no".  We don't understand just how madly, head over heals God loves his children.  If you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, then God loves you and wants the best for you!

At this point I want to jump track a bit and say thanks to our Federal government.  What you say?  Actually giving kudos to the Obama administration?  Well, maybe not so much but hear me out.

One of the roles of the Federal/State governments in my opinion is to help people when they have no other place to turn and in all honesty they are in a desperate situation.

With no income, and no immediate hopes of a job I did something I had never done in my 20 years of adult work, I applied for food stamps or SNAP/EBT as they call it now.

It's humbling to have to go ask for help when you've always tried to provide for your own needs and not be a burden to anyone, but sometimes you just have to.

I was approved for the SNAP program and it was a huge  help to me!  Not having to come up with money to buy groceries each week was help beyond what you can imagine.

I know there are people out there that abuse this system, but there are also people like me that need the help and are very thankful to get it.  I did see that at least the agency does follow up and make sure people aren't abusing the program, so that's a good thing.

That being said, the unemployment system really does need to be looked at.  When someone like me who has only been on unemployment ONE time in 20 years applies for a second time, in this economy, you shouldn't automatically deny them benefits.  If there is say a 15 week backlog, like there is right now, wouldn't it be better to help people out with say SOME income until you can review the case and make an educated decision?

But I'll leave that alone for now, it's water under the bridge and I hope I never have to apply for unemployment again, ever.  Being let go from 2 jobs within 3 years was an experience I never want to repeat.

So what are a few lessons I've learned the past 6 months on this ride of life?

1. Save more money!!!  Money can't provide everything, but if I had had a better savings, my time of unemployment would've been a bit less scary.
2. Trust God even more!  God has proved in a bigger and even more powerful way than I've ever experienced in my life how good, and faithful He is and will always be to me.  Me personally, not just me as part of a collective of Christians but me on a personal level.
3. I'm stronger than I thought I was.  This goes beyond what I've said above, to my boot camp workouts, to riding longer rides on the bike and just life in general.  I can certainly whine like the best of them, but when it comes down to it, I've found I can dig in there and surprise myself and even others sometimes too!
4. I've been reminded yet again the value of family, friends and faith.  So many people prayed for me during those dark months of unemployment, when I was trying my best to stay positive and trust God, but sometimes my humanity would get the best of me and when I needed an encouraging word, someone always gave one.  While having a lot of money would be great, friends are way more precious than gold.

I'm sure there are many lessons I've learned/been reminded of the past 6 months, but that's good enough for now. If I can get those 4 down in my life, I will be going a long way down the right path.

I hope this is an encouragement to someone if they ever read it. There is a lot of darkness in our world but God is still the light and can shine His love and light into YOUR life today!

Until next time, remember to sit on your sandals!

Shift Into Turbo!

For those of you that remember Power Rangers Turbo, you'll remember this guy pictured and my subject line.  Lately I feel like I've shifted into another gear in my workouts and life in general.  I guess you could say I've shifted into turbo!

After a couple months of plateauing and not losing any weight, I suddenly started losing again although the scale doesn't seem to show it, my clothes are getting looser.  And to boot I can tell I've gained some muscle mass as well.

I've started working harder at our Mt. Harmony boot camp workouts and adding more mileage on the bicycle.  One weekend I logged 60 miles on the bike on my Easter 3-day weekend!

This leads me to my next challenge.

I've made a commitment to do my fist long range cycling event in probably 10 years.  I'm planning to ride 130 miles on my bike, on one weekend in September (with a group of other insane people) to help raise money for Multiple Sclerosis!

I used to do these MS rides back in the late 90s and early 00s but then I let my weight come back and got lazy (just keeping it real) before I knew it, I was over 300 lbs.  At my smallest weight as an adult I weighed 185 in 1998, by 2005 I was around 300.  Crazy.

But then Jason Rhymer and his insane boot camps at Mt. Harmony helped me to refocus and get excited about getting back in shape. 

It's taken about 3 years to get to where I am on this journey, and if the Lord doesn't split the Eastern Sky this year (which would be fine with me if He did) then I'm challenging myself to ride 130 miles over 2 days, with a great finale ending at Sunset Beach, NC!  Last time I rode this MS ride, it ended at N. Myrtle Beach, SC... so this will be a whole new route for me and I'm looking forward to it!

If you'd like to help me out with my fundraising goal for MS, please visit this link!

So the "Ride of Life" is taking on a new meaning, referring originally to my love for roller coaster and the general analogy for life.  But now with my desire to get back on the bike in a big way, it will take on the significance of my big ride coming up in September!

In other news (you knew there had to be a roller coaster story coming up at some point)... I can now ride Afterburn at Carowinds on the back row again!  *Happy dance time!*

I have been denied riding the "sweet spot" on this, one of my favorite coasters not just at my home park Carowinds, but in the entire United States until opening Friday March 29 when I got to ride it without any problems.  The two previous seasons I was relegated to riding the "big boy" seats, which are bigger and would allow me to ride, but are in the middle of the train and aren't nearly as exciting as the far right, back row seat.

So my next milestone will be when I can belt myself in on the back row without any help.  I'm so very close to this happening, I hope to have this milestone in my rear view mirror very soon.

Until next time... Please sit on your sandals and join me on this journey and shift into turbo with me!

Got To Brag On God A Bit

It's been a few months since my last post and a lot has happened in that timeframe.

In December I lost my job and was also denied unemployment benefits.  To say that I was scared and fearing the worst would be an understatement.

I had many nights when my mind would race and think the worst, but then I would turn it over to God the best I could and He always gave me peace and I was able to sleep through the night.

During this time, I prayed that God would give me a verse to hold on to until I found work and while I was trusting God to meet my needs.

I believe God gave me Proverbs 3: 5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths."

After i felt like God gave me those verses it was just amazing how God would remind me of that verse.  It popped up on Facebook one day, showed up strangely enough in a funeral I attended and just today after my good news (getting to that) a church close to where I live posted it on their outdoor billboard.  

Yesterday I was offered a job!  And to see that verse today yet again, it was like God saying: "See, I had you in my hand all the time."  

I write this to encourage you, whether you are a believer or not to trust God and reach out to him in your good times and bad and watch what He does.  He doesn't work in our timeframe, but He is working it out for our good and working on our character in the meantime.  

If you're not sure if you have a relationship with God, check out this link.

Until next time, please sit on your sandals!