It’s Amazing Grace

I feel like its been awhile. I’ve been busy coaching my athletes through league prelims on Monday and league finals this evening. And, I gotta tell you, they sure did put on a show! But it’s late and I’m tired, so I’ll tell you about it this weekend…or maybe Friday.

I started B4A (Beauty for Ashes)…this will be my third time going through the 14 week program. It’s a relational healing group for women who have been sexually abused…most of the time as a child, like myself. I was frightened and excited all at the same time. All I know is, I felt like I needed to protect my “space”. It went well; we sang songs to Jesus and ate a whole lot of fattening foods. If you ask me, the strawberry whip cream cake was the bomb! I must have eaten four of five pieces. In addition, I am excited to be playing keyboards for the band the group is forming. Maybe I get the confidence again to play the song I wrote for my group the second time I went through the program.

   For the past week I have been looking at this thing…telling myself I gotta blog soon! It was a hectic week because there was no way that was going to happen. I was too exhausted…maybe, beyond exhausted is a better description. But, here I am, back and in action!

Well…this track and field season is finally coming to a close. League Prelims in on Monday and Finals (for those who make it) will be on Wednesday at our school site. We just got a new upgraded sound system installed on the light posts around our track. The electrician’s told me we should have a blastin’ time for league finals. It was so loud people couldn’t here themselves on the field. They said, “People will be able to hear our sound system at least three blocks away.” And not only that…they said they only had the volume up 30% today when they were testing it! I’m worrying about my eardrums now.

I got a call before leaving practice today from our distance coach. He told me he was looking at the Boy’s 4×400 meter times in CIF Division II and said my Boy’s have a really good chance of winning CIF finals! I’m excited, and I’m sure the Boy’s will be pumped up for that…if anything, hopefully it’ll help them to mentally “get in the zone.” At this point in the season I’ve been focusing on feeding them a lot of sports psychology stuff to get them mentally ready.

Oh, and it was nice seeing my former college teammate in track from CBU this past Thursday. You know, Milton, the guy I told you about that ran in the Olympics and World Championship, and that asked me to come work with him in his personal training business. It was awesome getting to see him and Angela, his wife, again. She ran with us too in  college. She told me that she always ran next to me in practice because she wanted to get faster, and she knew I would push her. She also told me about this one time when I got injured at a collegiate meet. Now, I don’t ever remember getting injured during a meet. But she said she had to take my spot, anchoring the 4×400m relay. She told me she was so scared to run anchor because of the pressure of being the fourth leg to bring the race to a close and hopefully winning. I’m sure she did just fine.

Drive carefully. 90 of the people on the road are caused by accident.

   I’ve been at home for almost and two hours and my nerves still haven’t calmed down from a long days work. This has got to be the longest dual track meet ever! I wish we had the head honcho starter–we would have been out of there by 5:15pm or earlier. But no, instead, we didn’t get to fly the coo coos nest until 7:40pm…7:40pm people!!! Why me!!! Anyway, we were hopeful that our Varsity Boy’s might have won the meet–they didn’t, but it was close. We’re either going to get second or third in league as a team. However, we are hopefull that our boy’s 4×400m relay team will make it to state–especially after running their fastest time of the season at Arcadia Invitational…3:19…that’s 3 minutes and nineteen seconds in only four laps around the track. Two years ago, I had my best 4×100m relay team ever for the Varsity boy’s at Norco High School. Now, I can say with a smile, that I have had my best 4×400m relay team for Varsity boy’s ever! They are very worthy of state…I just hope they get to go.

So often, I doubt my coaching abilities because I critique myself more than others would. I always stop and think, “how am I doing this?!!!”. God must truly be with me because it’s not something I ever thought I’d do. But I’m here and loving the many memorable moments of it. As long as I’m coaching, I seem to be able to put my negative thoughts aside and just do what I’m suppose to do. But if you take me away from coaching, just for a little while, then fear and inadequacy sets in and I wonder how the heck am I going to do this. Every year I go through this turmoil, and every year I decide to step out of my comfort zone and Just Do It…you know…like the Nike commercial. Oh man, I coach many high school boy’s who tower over me. And, I think to myself, “how can these be high school kids”?!! But despite how massive they are, I take the stand to be their leader…their coach…every year.

Their as big or bigger than these world class sprinters

It amazes me that females can do this as high as 15 feet in the air, going over a pole, while using another pole to do it!

I was tagged by Diana, to list 8 interesting things about myself…so I’ll try to do my best.

1. OCD with checking things

2. Crowd and Fear of the worst to happen anxiety

3. People have told me I have a nice singing voice

4.  I’m allergic to beef, white potatoe and nickel

5. I’m mildly allergic to codfish, tuna, lobster, oyster, sunflower, apple, orange, green bean, dog, mixed feathers, some weeds, a tree called the “Red Alder”…where ever that is, and any fragrances of dyes in any product put directly on the skin (specifically arms and legs the most)

6. I don’t like chocolate cake, chocolate cookies…let’s just say I don’t like most deserts. However, I do like Apple Pie, Peach Cobbler, Angel Food Cake, and Vanilla/plain cake, and carrot cake to name a few.

7. I’m a picky eater…but I do love to eat.

8. I have an M.S. degree in Sports Medicine; specifically Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics

There you go Diana…sorry it took so long.

Well, it was another hot beautiful day. I went to the worship team prayer tonight–I missed the last one or two Sundays. It felt comforting to see James, both Rob’s, Brittany, and both Matt’s again. This kind of feeling always reminds me of where my heart is. I love these guys as if they were my own blood relatives. In fact, in reality, we truly are…and God is our Father! It would burden me deeply if anything bad ever happened to one of them.

I came home feeling sad, because my friend is sad. It burdens me deeply to see her being troubled. I will pray for her. And even though you don’t know her or what’s wrong, could you pray for my friend too? I would greatly appreciate it. Dear Jesus, could you comfort her and give her security in You while in distress? Amen.

In prayer, Rob asked us to pray for someone on our hearts. So, despite my arguments and frustrations with Scott–I decided to pray for him. I prayed that God would soften his heart and allow him to forgive people for their mistakes against him. I prayed that he would turn back to following Christ wholeheartedly, and not let the mistakes of others determine where He should stand with Christ. I prayed that he would know and believe Jesus Christ loves him dearly and wants to fill his emptiness inside. As the band went back on stage, the first song we sang was “Hosanna” by Hillsong. I started singing it’s normal version, then, as I was thinking of Scott, instead of saying, “heal my heart and make it clean,” I said, “Lord, heal his heart and make it clean, open up his eyes to the things unseen”. And, it went on from there with, “Break his heart for what breaks yours, everything he is for your kingdom’s cause, show him how to love like you have loved him…” And then my heart felt a heavy spiritual weight and compassion for Scott, and I broke down crying. I could hardly contain my tears and the aching that was going on in my soul, heart, and mind. And then I realized, despite my arguments with Scott…I still loved him enough to feel a glimpse of the love God has for him. After months of wanted to give up and move on, my soul felt hope and encouragement. I did as Rob suggested–I sang, knowing that there was a spiritual war going on for his soul, and as I sang, I worshiped God for Scott because he was not able to worship God himself. And, I just trusted God to end the spiritual battle that has been going on some time now for his soul.

Was God telling the truth when He said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart?” I truly, without a shadow of a doubt, believe with all my heart this is true. Even if the physical evidence wasn’t there…I know I would have a hard time NOT believing. There’s just something about the presence of God that the soul cannot ignore. Unfortunately, many people who don’t believe and choose to accept Jesus Christ as their savior from their sins, will never know. Or, is there still hope for many of them. I would never want to play Russian Roulette with my soul! What will they say when they come face to face with the living God? What will they do? What can they do? Well, nothing at that point, because Jesus never knew them because they never pursued an unconditional relationship with Him. As soon as troubles come, they flee far away from God. And, the funny thing is, God is still there! They say God is not a loving God because He lets so much turmoil happen in the world. And, they say he’s not loving because, a loving God would not send them to Hell. But how can they expect to be accepted by the living God when they are full of sin and He’s not. Sin cannot dwell with Him because He is holy. There is no place for sin where He is. God is sinless! God cannot sin because it’s not in His nature to do so. He sees all sin (little and big) exactly as they are…all the same evil. And, they want to know why a loving and forgiving God would send them away, out of His presence, to Hell. God made everything we can see…including the heavens (everything in the universe). And, there’s a spiritual battle going on for the saving of their souls…but ultimately, only they can make that choice…that unforced, loving, of your own will choice. Father, please help them to see with their spiritual eyes and know that you are God and you loved them so much to sacrifice your only son for our sins. Satan can kill this body we currently live in, which is a ‘tent’ for our souls. But he can never touch our souls unless we let him. Don’t they know it is worst to loose your soul for all eternity, than to loose the temporary bodies we have now? Don’t they know that the creator of everything said He will give us new bodies when He decides to return and a new earth! It saddens me deeply that many will loose the part of them that is lasting…there souls. God wants to save us all from the sin Satan contaminated us with. Jesus Christ lived the perfect life and is the perfect, flawless sacrifice…no other sacrifice will do, because no other sacrifice is perfect, pure, and free from sin. Even on your best day…the day you think you were as good as a person can get, you are still a sinner and need His saving sacrifice. So, please, I beg of you to start a relationship with Jesus Christ–not just to believe in His existence–even the Devil and his demons believe Jesus exists. But, get to know God through the “Inspired Word…that which is the bible, and now in almost every translation possible. Put it this way, do you have a best friend, or a spouse, or someone you are close to and who you talk to, and share your heart with? That is what a real relationship with Jesus is! And, not just saying you believe in Him. God says in the bible that many will call on Him…Lord…Lord? And He says He will say depart from him, because He never really knew you and…and you not Him.

Jesus bridging the gap for us.

   Curtis surprised me on this, “hotter than a monkeys aspirin, minus the prin” day by taking me to Jamba Juice. We saw three Sandalites at Jamba Juice, two driving in the same shopping center. We also saw a former Sandelite leaving the apartment complex. Curtis says, “Here a Sandalite, there a Sandelite…man, we’re everywhere!” This must be Sandal nation; wait a minute…that makes it sound like a cult…or does, being real with yourself, others and God sound more cultish?…Because we all no people are afraid to cross that barrier (I’m being sarcastic). No, seriously, what makes us different is that we know we’re saved by the grace of God, and not by trying to be perfect and pretend there’s nothing wrong. Come on people!

Then, we went to check out some condos, we know we can’t afford…it was for fun and future planning ideas. Curtis, then took me to Panera Bread, were we had a Fandango Salad and a Chicken Bacon Dijon toasted half sandwhich. We saw this lady rippin’ this boy a new one! She sure wanted him to know whose in charge. It was all because he left the door open…of all things. Well…I’m pretty sure he knows now.

It’s official…we’re moving to the apartment next door on May 3, 2008, Saturday . Basically, the plan is to move everything next door in the same place it’s in now in our old apartment. Curtis is going to provide pizza for our helpers. We will need approximately 5 guy helpers and some females. I’m putting this info. on the blog, just in case some helpers have a change of plans. We don’t have enough money to provide a big group with pizza, but if you still would like to help for any amount of time–even if it’s 20-30 minutes–then that will be great. Curtis and I are going to start moving at 10 am . So far, Paul B., Jessica B., Rob V., Leah V., and Flo F. We’re in apartment 62 upstairs.

Thanks,

Grace

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