August 12, 2022 | AO – The Combine | Kiewit Middle School | Feels like 79°
How do you even prepare to celebrate something like four years of being clean/sober? YHC has spent a lot of time reflecting on the past four years and the transformation God has made in my life. Someone asked me if it feels longer or shorter than four years. Great question…honestly it feels longer. I’m a completely different person than I was four years ago, my habits, my daily routines, the things I enjoy…I actually have defined values and what I think are real feelings today. I was a zombie four years ago and didn’t know how to feel or how to live.
In preparing for this day, I spent way more time on my CoT than the beatdown. Honestly, I’m sure I’ve done this same workout several times but the CoT is what I wanted to focus on because I thought maybe there’s something I could share that would impact someone or be the thing someone needed to hear to drive change in their life. The reality is that “We cannot force anyone to stop using. We cannot give someone the results of working the steps, nor can we grow for them. We cannot magically remove someone else’s loneliness or pain. Not only are we powerless over our own addiction, we are powerless over everyone else’s. We can only carry the message, we cannot determine who will receive it.” How true is that? I can plan the best CoT but God, THE Sky-Q, is the only one who can make others hear it and change their hearts and minds.
I went through my NA text and underlined several sentences that I think align with F3. I see men coming into this group as sad clowns and beginning their fitness journey. I hear men talk about faith and lost connection with religion. But I wonder how we’re doing at developing personal relationships with a higher power. Are we helping each other connect with Sky-Q in a meaningful way that allows us to surrender control of our lives? I think the sad clown is similar to the addict that we’re trying to control our lives but are constantly reminded that our own power is insufficient as evidenced by our experience of the same results no matter what we try. Our lives become the definition of chaos and we find F3 which gives us hope for something different. With our hope for a different life, both the addict and the sad clown, should start the process of coming to believe in a power greater than ourselves. When we watch others recover/stay clean or remove the sad clown, we see the compelling proof of the existence of a power greater than ourselves.
Much of our problem seems to center around our search for something to make us feel whole. It is a tremendous struggle to stop relying on our own reasoning and ask for help, especially given the self-centered nature of our disease. Our self-centered obsessions and its accompanying insanity have made our lives unmanageable. Acting on our own self-will has kept us trapped in a continuous cycle of fear and pain. We wore ourselves out in fruitless attempts to control everyone and everything. The conscious decision to trust a Higher Power to care for us better than we could results in a relationship with God that will revolutionize our existence.
So we start to explore this idea of a personal relationship with a higher power despite our past relationship with religion. We begin to see positive results and see that we are being relieved of a burden we’ve carried far too long: the need to control everything and everyone. We begin to react differently to situations and people around us. As we gain acceptance, we cease to struggle against life on life’s terms. Striving to maintain and build on our surrender, we are better able to live and enjoy life in the moment.
So how are we doing F3 Omaha? How’s your personal relationship with God? That’s where I started developing the message for my CoT. I can’t change you. I can’t make you seek a personal relationship with God. I can share my experience, strength and hope. I can tell you that all the glory in my life goes to God and without him, I’d still be using drugs. Real talk. So I selected the message for my CoT developed the workout, printed it out and tucked the kids in for bed.
I woke up and found a card from my M – blew my mind! I shared the card during the CoT and only got through half of it before tearing up. Four years ago we were on the edge of divorce. Any woman would have the right to leave me for the betrayal and chaos I had caused in our marriage. My M stayed. She supported. She loved. And today – she wrote me a card saying things I had always hoped I could be for her but could never achieve until I surrendered my will and my life to God. Wow. I’m blessed beyond what I deserve for sure.
So, I wiped the tears from my eyes, drove to The Combine for a Smurph at 0430 and to my surprise nobody else was there. So, I set up the workout and was able to join a few guys for a Pre-Run.
PAX [22]: Tater Tot, Wentworth, Lilypad, Ketchup, Kill Switch, Cataracts, Nailed It, Supafly, Misti, Amputee, Al Borland, LPC, Skipper, Chucky, Pantyhose, Thomas, Specimen, Kryptonite, Bubbles, Khakis, Patton, Mustard, Stapler, Sweet Sweet, Sandbag, Sparty, The Plague.
QIC: The Plague
This is F3 – Fitness, Fellowship and Faith. F3 is an international network of free, peer-led workouts for men. Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.
Core principles:
- Are free of charge
- Are open to all men
- Are held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
- Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary
- End with a Circle of Trust
Disclaimer: The Plague is not a professional – PAX need to modify as necessary.
PAX moseyed one lap around the track and met at mid-field for WaR
Warm-A-Rama
- 5 Burpees
- 20 SSH
- 10 Burpees
- 20 Mountain Climbers
- 15 Burpees
- 15 Tappy Taps
The Thang – Four Corners
PAX counted off into fours and started at their respective station.
Station 1:
- 25 Kraken Burpees
- 50 Mountain Climbers IC
- 75 Jump Squats
- 100 Bonnie Blairs – Single Count
- Run a lap then next station
Station 2:
- 25 T-Merkins
- 50 High Knees IC
- 75 Jump Tucks
- 100 Big Boy Situps
- Run a lap then next station
Station 3:
- 25 Low Dollies
- 50 Sumo Squats IC
- 75 Bobby Hurley’s
- 100 Air Squats
- Run a lap then next station
Station 4:
- 25 Freddie Mercuries IC
- 50 Burpees
- 75 Makhtar N’Diayes
- 100 Apollo Ohnos – Single Count
- Run a lap then next station
PAX moseyed to the shovel flag for a round of Gas Pumpers then American Hammers Rancid-style.
Announcements/COT:
- Announcements:
- 8/13 – Canyon shovel flag pass
- 8/15 – Boundary Line launch
- 8/18 – The Maize shovel flag pass
- Prayers
- Prayers for Rancid and Flowers families with recent loss
- Prayers for Kryptonite’s daughter, Charlotte, having surgery
- Prayers for other PAX with injuries, surgeries, and family member health
- CoT – What message are you carrying? I wanted to share some statements from the NA Text.
- 1,461 days ago, I stepped into a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and began my journey of recovery. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid relapse and have continued working a program to stay clean.
- Where do you find your higher power? We may find that we are able to feel our Higher Power in the group, in our friends, or in talking to our sponsor. By tapping into that power we begin to trust and rely on it. We can cease questioning why painful things happen and trust that walking through the difficult times in our lives can strengthen our recovery. We can grow in spite of our pain, or perhaps, in response to it.
- Unconditional Love – the principle of unconditional love is expressed in our attitude. Anyone who reaches out for help is entitled to our compassion, our attention, and our unconditional acceptance. Any addict, regardless of clean time, should be able to pour our their pain in an atmosphere free of judgment.
- Gratitude – even in silence the voice of our gratitude does not go unheard. It speaks most clearly as we walk the path of recovery, selflessly giving to those we meet along the way. We venture forth on our spiritual journey, our lives enriched, our spirits awakened, and our horizons ever-expanding. The quintessential spirit that lies inside each one of us, the spark of life that was almost extinguished by our disease, has been renewed through working the steps. It is on the path paved with these steps that our future journey begins.
- YHC asked the PAX to close their eyes and get into a head space with just them and their Sky-Q
- The words in this song from Maverick City is how God feels about you – listen and receive these words from God
- I can be real with you
Say anything and not be afraid
You made me in your life what you made
You made me and you don’t make mistakes
I can be real with you
- You take me just as I am
You’d choose me all over again
Cuz’ I am the one you love
I am the one you love
I don’t have to prove anything
There’s room at your table for me
Cuz’ I am the one you love
I am the one you love
- And I know you’re proud of me
Even though I don’t deserve it sometimes
No, I’m not a perfect child
But I still make my father smile
And I know you’re proud of me
- It’s me you love
I know you love me, the real me
You know everything and you still love
You know everything and you still love me
They live up on rumors but you stay with the truth
Your love, your love never fails, your love never fails
- I can be real with you
- The words in this song from Maverick City is how God feels about you – listen and receive these words from God
- Coffeteria/Q-Source of 4.6 – Team Development at Karma
Aye!
The Plague