DATE: 11/17/22

QIC: Chappie

F3 First State doesn’t have hills by comparison to some other regions, we’re on the coast of Delaware and it would be nothing short of proper to call us “flat-landers.” Nonetheless, what hills we have we try to utilize. One location was fondly dubbed “Oh Hill No!” a number of years ago; its a grassing hill that rises to the Milton, DE water tower. Another is the hill on the street adjacent to it, aptly referred to as Merlot Hill–yes, that’s the reason why–and yes, the FNG was promptly given that nickname. Anyway, today it wasn’t “Oh, hill no!” it was “Oh, hill yeah! Like YHC said, we don’t have many [real] hills, so it was simply time to embrace the suck. But…it all started with a VQ Warm-O-Rama by the one and only Deez.

WARM-O-RAMA:

• Moroccan Night Club – 26 IC
• Merkins – 10 OYO
• Cherry Pickers – 21 IC
• Merkins – 10 OYO
• SSH – 20 IC
• Merkins – 10 IC
• Chairman Lap

Great job by a self-confessed very anxious Deez on his first time ever Warm-O-Rama

THE THANG:

PAX prepared to mosey to Merlot Hill, YHC divvied up some restrictor plates (1 40lb sandbag/2 20lb sandbags) among the normally faster PAX for making our .5 mile trek to the hill. Cool thing happened, PAX passed them around the entire journey there and back. In an act of genuine camaraderie every HIM embraced the suck.

Once at the base of the hill YHC set us up for a set of 11’s (i.e. not enough time for 21’s). Sandbags? Well, grab one whenever it becomes available either on your way up the hill or on your way down. They were vying for these things! Crazy PAX! Sandbags are for kids.

Big Boys at the bottom, 1 – Merkins at the top, 10 (Keep going until the numbers are switched 10 – 1)

For the PAX on teams participating in the @F3Alliance Merkins & Miles Challenge, the wrap up was an additional 10 Merkins to get to a total of 100 during the workout.

Midway through the set of 11’s YHC circled-up PAX for the following 3rdF:

If you’ve ever had a long year then you can probably relate to the lyrics of Toby Mac’s song titled Faithfully. Lyrics:

It’s been a long year

It almost took me down, I swear

Life was so good

I’m not sure we knew what we had

I’ll never be the same man

I’ll never feel like I felt before

It’s been a hard year

It almost took me down

Refrain But when my world broke into pieces

You were there faithfully

When I cried out to You, Jesus

You made a way for me

I may never be the same man (YHC’s commentary: Hard times change a man, for better or worse, depending upon who or what we depend…)

But I’m a man who still believes

When I cried out to You, Jesus

You were there faithfully

The song goes on to for several more verses… Refrain, Refrain, Refrain… Check out the full song here…

If you don’t know; the story behind the song is that Toby Mac and his wife lost their oldest son, Truitt, to an overdose in Oct. 2019.

I’ve never lost a child, and I won’t even pretend to know the pain of that experience. But he does say that Jesus was there faithfully. And I don’t know if anybody in this circle has experienced losing a child, but I can tell you this: Whatever the cause, we’ve all experienced, or will experience, some REALLY long/hard years.

• I’ve pastored a church where for the first few years a small group of people wanted my head on a platter…non-stop! They were hard years!
• I inexplicably went through 2 years of depression where I was immobilized, then tormented, daily, by plans of ending it all. (Thank you to Ruxpin for speaking about this recently…guys find it extremely difficult to broach this subject, but it has to be talked about.)
• I’ve faced long years with each of my boys, wondering if they’d ever turn the corner

And I’m certain you’ve had long years too! Regardless of whatever it was that made that year (those years) long, the truth that matters most, and the one we sometimes need to look for to see is that…

(Refrain adapted) …when my world broke into pieces God was there faithfully | When I cried out to You, Jesus | You made a way for me | I may never be the same man | But I’m a man who still believes | When I cried out to You, Jesus | You were there faithfully

That’s Toby Mac’s testimony, and it’s so relatable because it’s ours too! Yet it’s not the promise of the song that captures us, but rather it is the promise of Scripture:

• In Deut. 31: 6-8 Moses told Joshua 2x, “Be strong and courageous…God is the One who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” (Comment: Sometimes we need to hear it from someone else.)
• In 1 Chron. 28:20 David said to Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; Do not fear nor be dismayed…for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.” (Comment: Promises of God also have to be passed down from generation to generation. Others must hear it from us that “My God, the One true God, the God in whom I have come to trust, is with you.)
• The promise is found also in 1 Kings 8:57 “May the Lord our God be with us…may He not leave us nor forsake us.” (Comment: Here it a blessing we’re calling down upon ourselves.)
• And in Joshua 1 God spoke directly to Joshua and promises him 2x in the first nine verses: “I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.” And, “For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (vv.5, 9) (Comment: While we may need to hear it from others, or while we may be speaking forth this promise to someone who needs to hear it; the greatest moments are when we hear God speaking directly to us. BUT…that means we have to be listening. These promises are for those listening and longing to hear from God, to walk with God, and to trust Him and pursue Him with their whole heart. They are not for those pursuing a life without Him. …long silent pause…)

We find the same promise(s) in the NT:

• In a passage referred to as the Great Commission, in Matt. 28:20 Jesus’ parting words to His followers included the same promise, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, “Go therefore [in My authority] and [as you are going] make disciples [followers of Christ] of all nations [people groups], baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you,” and here it is: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
• One last place the promise is found is Hebrews 13:5 “…for He [Jesus] Himself said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.”

Anytime something is repeated, it’s because we need to hear it [again!]. And I don’t know who needs to be assured of this today, or who will need to hear this promise’s echo in the future, but it is God’s promise to us; one that we can all likely attest is true, that when everything breaks into pieces, when we’re in our darkest hour, and when we’ve come to a place of pain that we’ve never felt before, or when it has just simply turned into a long year, Jesus will be there with us faithfully. For “He will never leave us nor forsake us.” HIM rely on the Lord [especially] during those times.

After PAX wrapped their remaining rounds of 11’s, we grabbed the restrictor plates and headed back to the AO. Again, in a genuine display of camaraderie PAX were vying over the sandbags. Gimme, gimme, gimme…in a very unselfish and selfless way!

COT:

• Number-Rama – 19 PAX won THAT FIRST BATTLE and posted in yet another glorious Gloom
• Name-O-Rama
• Announcements: Turkey Day workout will be a full hour (05:15 – 06:15 hrs.), followed by Coffeeteria at Quattro’s, followed by a few hours of killing targets. (BYOG – Bring Your Own Guns & BYOB – Bring Your Own Bullets, or just show up and get a feel for shooting. Ah…I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning! …sorry, there will be no Napalm.)
• PRAYERS: For Rob; for the family who lost their 21-yr-old son to a heart attack; for a couple of other requests slipping YHC’s mind as of the writing of this Backblast. Nonetheless, God knows, He remembers)

Always a privilege to Q. Honored.

Chappie out, Aye!