Blockheads

THE SCENE: Decent 77, but already dripping sweat from pre-ruck. nice.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Welcomed my 2 brothers. Is that it? Aye. Must have been my comment about ‘FUN’. Asked Big Combo and Ricky Bobby (as newbs) if they knew the mission of F3. Got it mostly right. Not bad for fairly new PAX. It took me 10 months to get it mostly right.

Arm circles x 20 IC, Reverse AC x 20 IC, Daisy Pickers x 20 IC, SSH x 30 IC (Memphis Thang)
Pick up CMUs from stash and Mosey to Berm Hill by playground

THA-THANG:
Cora 1-2-3 Partner workout with only 3 PAX becomes group effort.
Soooo, modify.

1. PAX performed 10 Burpees, Bear Block Crawl up and down hill,
   then carry CMU back around to start point. RINSE and REPEAT until 5 sets done (50 Burpees).
2. Mosey to circle next to playground. PAX perform 20 Overheads with CMU, mosey around slides back to CMUs. RINSE and REPEAT until 5 sets complete (100 OH).
3. Carry CMUs back to stash ~1500 ft

MARY:
Freddy Mercury x 20 IC, Am Hammers x 20 IC,
Hold Plank for 1.5 minutes while giving thanks

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
3 PAX: Ricky Bobby, Big Combo, Photoshop (AOQ/QiC)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I Declare War

In the words of Warren Wiersbe: “The Christian life is not a playground; it is a battleground, and we must be on our guard at all times.” Before we even jump into this idea of declaring war, we have to acknowledge this reality: whether we want to admit it or not, we are in a war, and you can’t win a battle you won’t admit you are in. The Christian life is a war of fighting to live in the spirit and not in the flesh. Paul put it this way in *Romans 7: “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”*

If that Dr. Seuss tongue twister doesn’t perfectly exemplify the internal struggle bouncing around in all of our minds, I don’t know what does. We are masters of getting in our own way. Yes, the devil hates you. Yes, the world is out to get you, but you’ve got enough going on under the hood to take yourself out of the game.

Your self-sabotaging mechanism might be your negative thoughts, it might be your actions (or lack thereof), your bad behavior or short temper. It might be your harsh speech or the way you mindlessly turn to social media or food to distract yourself from what is really going on. We all have a vice. The problem isn’t that we struggle with these things, the problem comes when we refuse to acknowledge them, when we decide it is easier to go quietly into the night instead of putting up a fight.

I don’t believe that we don’t desire victory in our lives; no one wants to be stagnant – stuck in a rut of the same ol’ roadblocks. It’s just that we don’t want to put in the hard yards or commit to God’s instructions that show us the way we can live as victors. Let me tell you, our world offers lots of distractions to thwart the chaos caused by our unruly actions and thought lives, but these “fixes” at their best are simply that: distractions. Jesus offers something better.

So this is the day. God brought you to this moment to declare war. On your darkness, on your demons, on your self-sabotaging tendencies, on the version of yourself that you don’t want to be, to throw off the gloves, and rise to the fight, to commit to leaning in as we tackle vital components of the inner struggle.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. — Sun Tzu from Art of War

Questions to ask yourself:
What are three things holding me back?
Who can I tell about this list to keep me accountable?

Prayers:
Big Combo – interviewed for career path job, waiting on offer
Ricky Bobby – reading Grief Observed by CS Lewis, picking up pieces along with M

MOLESKIN:
Where are our brothers in their journey? Pay attention, be open to listen and respond with love. We are not alone and we are stronger together.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
F3 Memphis Anniversary Convergence at Mothership on August 17.
Berm Anniversary Convergence with Inner Loopers on August 23.