"I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength." Philippians 4:13
When people ask me, was 2009 a good year or a bad year for you? I pause for a moment to think about how I want to answer that. I look back at where I was a year ago on the eve of 2009 and I was a very scared man.
I was about to lose my job, there were no immediate opportunities and the doom and gloom being broadcast on the news was that it was only going to get worse. And at the time, I thought I could do it all by myself that I didn't need anything or anybody to help me overcome this problem. I was afraid!!
I was disconnected with my family, my wife, my two sons and my parents. I never spoke to my sister. I was alone.
But then something happened. I started to pray to God. I needed help and he was the only one I could turn to. In late January, I was attending a Between Jobs Ministry meeting and I heard the following verse.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to GOD. And the peace of GOD which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phillippians 4:6-7
From that moment on, my life changed. I came back to Jesus!! I turned everything over to him. The guilt and anguish was washed away. Hope came back into my life. And yes even though money was tight, we still managed to pay our bills and put food on the table. He provided for my family and took care of us. All I had to do was Love him and try and become a better man.
So the story of 2009 is this; God got me back on the road to him. He helped me see that the most important things in life are not how much money I make or possessing the latest and greatest gadgets. No, I realized that the most important thing in Life is my family and that I am here on this earth to Love people and spread the Good News about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And yes there are still things in my life that make me nervous about 2010, but I also know this.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
So if you ask me if 2009 was a good year and my answer is YES, because I have one thing back that I had not had for a long time, HOPE..
Happy New Year!!
Rich
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The Day After Christmas
"With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21.
Praying
The Christmas holiday was so awesome!! It started by attending Christmas Service at our church Fellowship of the Woodlands. All I can say is WOW. This was the first Christmas for me where I realized the true meaning. I understand now that if it wasn't for God sending his one and only son to earth that we would be living a life without hope.
Can you imagine that? A life with no hope. I shudder at the thought. Millions of people out there who live with sickness or disease have to have hope that someday they will be cured. God provides us with that comfort. You see by sending his son to Earth to live among us, it gave Jesus an understanding of what it was like to live in this World without Hope or Grace.
I know my sister Kellye lives with Hope everyday that someday a cure will be found for MS. I live with that hope as well. The Myelin Repair Foundation is working through its research to help cure MS. One thing I have learned about them is that all their doctors doing the research are working with each other and not competing to see who comes up with a cure first.
I spoke with Kellye yesterday and she sounded great!! In fact, it was the best she had sounded in a long time, not being on the drugs has really helped her regain some of her life back. God is watching after her and taking care of her needs.
Running
It was tough to get out of my warm bed this morning. The temperture at 6:30 was 32 degrees but I knew that running in the cold weather would not be a problem. I had laid out my cloths the night before and made sure that I had a few layers to keep me warm. My biggest concern was how I would feel physically since I had just done 21-miles a week ago. Of course the big Christmas meal from yesterday would provide me with plenty of fuel for the 12-mile run.
I finished in 1:53.49 which was a pace of about 9:26 per mile. I am very suprised with that pace because it didn't feel like I was running that fast. I started out slow and for the first 6 miles or so I think I was running a lot slower, probably more like a pace of 9:45. But for the second half of the run I wanted to push it a little bit and try and run at my goal pace which is now around 9:30 or so.
I am really feeling pretty good right now, my form and balance are there and running seems to be effortless. This week I will push it one more time and then begin to taper for the big day on January 17th. Tuesday and Thursday's workouts will be especially important. I'm not sure how far I'll run next Saturday, but I'll probably end up running between 10 to 12 miles.
Praying
The Christmas holiday was so awesome!! It started by attending Christmas Service at our church Fellowship of the Woodlands. All I can say is WOW. This was the first Christmas for me where I realized the true meaning. I understand now that if it wasn't for God sending his one and only son to earth that we would be living a life without hope.
Can you imagine that? A life with no hope. I shudder at the thought. Millions of people out there who live with sickness or disease have to have hope that someday they will be cured. God provides us with that comfort. You see by sending his son to Earth to live among us, it gave Jesus an understanding of what it was like to live in this World without Hope or Grace.
I know my sister Kellye lives with Hope everyday that someday a cure will be found for MS. I live with that hope as well. The Myelin Repair Foundation is working through its research to help cure MS. One thing I have learned about them is that all their doctors doing the research are working with each other and not competing to see who comes up with a cure first.
I spoke with Kellye yesterday and she sounded great!! In fact, it was the best she had sounded in a long time, not being on the drugs has really helped her regain some of her life back. God is watching after her and taking care of her needs.
Running
It was tough to get out of my warm bed this morning. The temperture at 6:30 was 32 degrees but I knew that running in the cold weather would not be a problem. I had laid out my cloths the night before and made sure that I had a few layers to keep me warm. My biggest concern was how I would feel physically since I had just done 21-miles a week ago. Of course the big Christmas meal from yesterday would provide me with plenty of fuel for the 12-mile run.
I finished in 1:53.49 which was a pace of about 9:26 per mile. I am very suprised with that pace because it didn't feel like I was running that fast. I started out slow and for the first 6 miles or so I think I was running a lot slower, probably more like a pace of 9:45. But for the second half of the run I wanted to push it a little bit and try and run at my goal pace which is now around 9:30 or so.
I am really feeling pretty good right now, my form and balance are there and running seems to be effortless. This week I will push it one more time and then begin to taper for the big day on January 17th. Tuesday and Thursday's workouts will be especially important. I'm not sure how far I'll run next Saturday, but I'll probably end up running between 10 to 12 miles.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Catching up
"When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers." Galatians 6:10
Good evening to all on this fine day. It has been awhile since I posted to my blog but timing is running short.
First, I would like to update everybody on how my sister Kellye is doing.
As many of you know Kellye has had multiple sclerosis (MS) since 2003. As of today for the first time in a few years she is no longer taking any medication. She has stopped taking the pain meds and the other drugs that can really cause some nasty side affects. Not only that, she quit smoking just over a month ago.
My sister is such a strong person and I'm amazed at how brave she is. Her faith in God never waivers. He is always with her and helps her through her bad days.
When we were growing up, Kellye was the strong one. If somebody picked on me or bullied me, she was the one who stuck up and fought them. She always had my back. If I needed my bike fixed, Kellye did it.
Before she had MS she was very active. She enjoyed snow sking, playing softball, kayaking and many other activities. She was always doing something. And every Thanksgiving and Christmas she spent time at her Church mentoring the young teens. BUT, by not being on the drugs she is making a comeback!! She is making it a point to exercise everyday and next week a new addition to her family will arrive. She's adapting a nine year old chocolate lab named Chance.
In July of this year, I decided to run the Houston Marathon for my sister and to raise funds and awareness for the Myelin Repair Foundation. Their mission is to accelerate the discovery of myelin repair treatments to improve the lives of people suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS), and to establish the Accelerated Research Collaboration™ (ARC™) model as a new paradigm for medical research.
What's really cool about them is that 85% of the funds they raise goes to this research. In this day and age that is totally amazing!! So please support my effort next month and donate to this cause.
Running Update
"You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. So run to win! All those who compete in the games use self control so they can win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time, but ours will never be destroyed. So I do not run without a goal, I fight like a boxer who is hitting something - not just the air. I treat my body hard and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified after I have preached to other." 1 Corinthians 24-27.
The last couple of months have been filled with ups and downs. All of the races I have competed in so far have not really produced impressive results. My Half Marathon in October was one of the worst ever. I didn't run PR's in any of the races I competed in over the Thanksgiving weekend. But, I have trained hard the last 22 weeks. In the month of November, I logged over a 110 miles on the road. That is most I have run in over 5 years. It's been tough on my wife Ginger, she has put up with me training but I know she can't wait until this thing is over. My reasoning for doing this is that my sister lives with pain everyday, so putting myself through 4 and a half hours of pain is nothing.
Things have started to turn though and especially at the right time. Last week I did a 3.1 mile time trial and finished in 23:18, the second fastest time for me in over 4 years. And last Saturday, I ran 21 miles in just over 3:31, which is under a 10 minute mile. What was so cool about that is I was getting stronger as the distance progressed. In the past it's usually been the opposite. So we are now four weeks away from the Houston Marathon and I'm pretty excited about it.
Finally, my running is inspiring my sister to exercise everyday. God is with us in our walk to Glory!!
My goal until that faithful day is to continue to add posts to keep all of you informed on what my sister and I are doing.
Good evening to all on this fine day. It has been awhile since I posted to my blog but timing is running short.
First, I would like to update everybody on how my sister Kellye is doing.
As many of you know Kellye has had multiple sclerosis (MS) since 2003. As of today for the first time in a few years she is no longer taking any medication. She has stopped taking the pain meds and the other drugs that can really cause some nasty side affects. Not only that, she quit smoking just over a month ago.
My sister is such a strong person and I'm amazed at how brave she is. Her faith in God never waivers. He is always with her and helps her through her bad days.
When we were growing up, Kellye was the strong one. If somebody picked on me or bullied me, she was the one who stuck up and fought them. She always had my back. If I needed my bike fixed, Kellye did it.
Before she had MS she was very active. She enjoyed snow sking, playing softball, kayaking and many other activities. She was always doing something. And every Thanksgiving and Christmas she spent time at her Church mentoring the young teens. BUT, by not being on the drugs she is making a comeback!! She is making it a point to exercise everyday and next week a new addition to her family will arrive. She's adapting a nine year old chocolate lab named Chance.
In July of this year, I decided to run the Houston Marathon for my sister and to raise funds and awareness for the Myelin Repair Foundation. Their mission is to accelerate the discovery of myelin repair treatments to improve the lives of people suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS), and to establish the Accelerated Research Collaboration™ (ARC™) model as a new paradigm for medical research.
What's really cool about them is that 85% of the funds they raise goes to this research. In this day and age that is totally amazing!! So please support my effort next month and donate to this cause.
Running Update
"You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. So run to win! All those who compete in the games use self control so they can win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time, but ours will never be destroyed. So I do not run without a goal, I fight like a boxer who is hitting something - not just the air. I treat my body hard and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified after I have preached to other." 1 Corinthians 24-27.
The last couple of months have been filled with ups and downs. All of the races I have competed in so far have not really produced impressive results. My Half Marathon in October was one of the worst ever. I didn't run PR's in any of the races I competed in over the Thanksgiving weekend. But, I have trained hard the last 22 weeks. In the month of November, I logged over a 110 miles on the road. That is most I have run in over 5 years. It's been tough on my wife Ginger, she has put up with me training but I know she can't wait until this thing is over. My reasoning for doing this is that my sister lives with pain everyday, so putting myself through 4 and a half hours of pain is nothing.
Things have started to turn though and especially at the right time. Last week I did a 3.1 mile time trial and finished in 23:18, the second fastest time for me in over 4 years. And last Saturday, I ran 21 miles in just over 3:31, which is under a 10 minute mile. What was so cool about that is I was getting stronger as the distance progressed. In the past it's usually been the opposite. So we are now four weeks away from the Houston Marathon and I'm pretty excited about it.
Finally, my running is inspiring my sister to exercise everyday. God is with us in our walk to Glory!!
My goal until that faithful day is to continue to add posts to keep all of you informed on what my sister and I are doing.
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