My Toughest Alleluia

Funny how sometimes I choose songs for Sunday morning.  As I was playing "All Creatures" this morning in the 8:15 service, I remembered the corresponding Sunday last year.
I went into church May 15th, 2011 not knowing what to expect.  I certainly didn't want to lead worship.  I felt I had nothing to offer.  I talked to the pastor and asked what we were going to do and his answer was that we were going to have church.  I didn't want to.  How could I lead worship when that happened?  How could I praise a God that did that to them?  My job is to lead a group of believers to worship the God of the universe and I wasn't sure I could worship him myself.
All creatures of our God a King, lift up your voice and with us sing, oh praise Him, Alleluia.
Let all things their Creator bless.  And worship Him in humbleness.  Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son.  And praise the Spirit, Three in One.  
And then it came.  A bunch of alleluias.  I normally do the set of 4, 3 times.  Since it was just me and my guitar, no band, I went longer.  I angrily screamed "alleluia" at my God.  I sang as loud as I could, I cried out to God, I didn't want to worship Him.  He had done what I thought was unthinkable, and then I had to lead these people worshiping Him.  
I continued.  I just looked up alleluia.  It's an interjection, an expression.  I don't know if there is a word for interjection confusion, but I was feeling that.  It wasn't an alleluia like a sarcastic "thanks a lot," it was as if told Middle to apologize to Little for stealing her ice cream.  The only reason she would do that is to not get in trouble.  She doesn't mean it, she doesn't even really open her mouth when she says it.  I was singing a word that is supposed to be a holy, worshiping, glorifying word to God and I am screaming it as angry as I could.
As tears rolled down my cheeks, I felt it.  I don't know what it exactly was, but I knew I could stop singing.  He heard my cry.  I realized that there was a plan.  Who am I to question it?  Over the next three days I would be so incredibly privileged to witness and experience God's Love in a way that I'd never seen before, and hope to never see again, because it would, most likely, mean the unthinkable.
Carrie and I were asked to be involved in the planning.  We asked her mom to take the kids for those next few days, and without a question she gladly did.  We got a bunch of pictures and put together a bulletin for the service and a bookmark that Grandma wanted to make, the girl at Kinkos found out what we were doing and gave us her employee discount.  We knew parking was going to be an issue for the viewing, so we asked Anderson Grove (the small group) to man the parking lots.  They gladly stood in the rain and directed traffic.  Video feed in the overflow room for the service at 11:30pm the night before?  "Let me go home and get any cables that we might need.  Let's do this."  Take off a work day to lead worship for the service for a family we've never met?  Boom, I have a band.
The next few days were Church.  I couldn't believe the outpouring of Love that came that week.  That week I fell in love with my church.  The Bride of Christ served Her Groom by reaching out to one of Her own.  By loving on people at their weakest.
When the kids finally came home all we did was hug them.  They knew something was up.  So we told them the best we could.  After those days, we made sure our daughters (and eventually our son) knew 2 things.  
1.  God is always in control
2.  Mommy and Daddy will never stop loving you, no matter what you do. 
Thank you to all of you who helped us that week.  Thank you for those of you that let us serve you that week.  Thank You, God, for always being in control.

Running the race

The other day I wore one of my race shirts to volleyball.  Almost after a whole season of practice where I almost exclusively wore my race shirts, one of the kids asked me if I run marathons.  Since I have signed up for Disney 2013, I could again say, "yes, I run marathons."  Before last month, I could only say that I have run marathons.  

I first decided to go after the marathon when I was in Disney World in 2007.  I didn't realize it was marathon weekend.  But through the magic of Facebook I found out one of my friends was running.  So Carrie and I got up early and watched people run through EPCOT and I was hooked.  EPCOT is the last mile and a half of the Disney marathon.  I saw kids cheering on their dads and people of all sizes and ages who had been running for 5-6 hours and knew that that is an accomplishment worth going after.  There were rumors of Pittsburgh reestablishing their marathon, but it didn't happen until 2009.  So my first was the 2008 Disney (4:13:55), followed by 2009 Pittsburgh(4:15:45) and finally the 2010 Goofy Race and a Half (all the way at the bottom of page 1 of 6)(PR a day after running a half isn't bad either.  However, being so close to sub4 has been bothering me for over 2 years now.)

Pittsburgh Marathon Expo opening

"Do you like to run?"  I get asked that a lot.  The honest truth is, I don't really know.  I hate going to run, and since that is the first step of running, I could say, "no, I don't like to run."  However, for the most part, I do like running.  I like riding my bike too.  I got this text from my brother-in-law this week. I feel the exact same way.  I just don't want to get off my lazy butt and do it.  However, for the most part, when I'm running I love the experience.  Whether it is listening to Mr Tony, worship tunes, or my own thoughts, I love being on the road.

So the question of "why do I run."  Race atmosphere.  I volunteered for 18 hours this weekend at the Pittsburgh Marathon Expo.  I love it.  I love talking "race."  I love seeing people excited to accomplish their goals.  The Expo opened at 11:00 on Friday.  People were lined up to get into the expo hall and get their bibs and bags, as well as new shoes, t-shirts and greatest new running product.

I love being at the start line waiting in anticipation.  I love the energy that people exude as they realize that the last 3+ months of training is coming down to this next few hours.  It is something that I don't know if I've experienced anywhere else. 
Think of it, at a football game, yes there are 60,000 people cheering for the same team, but there isn't that sense of accomplishment at the end if you win.  Even if it's the Super Bowl, only about 100 people can claim that they were part of it.  Everyone is going in the same direction, after the same goal.  26.2, 13.1, 10K, or for the really stupid 100 miles.  You chat to people on the course.  The spectators attempt to read my name on my bib correctly, if they don't say it right, how many "Barrettes" are out there anyway, they're cheering for me.  If you see someone breaking down, you shout encouragement.

If you've never run a race before, try it.  A 5k is only 3.1 miles.  You may think that's a long way, but you can even walk it in less than an hour.  Usually they benefit a local charity or group.  So you can feel doubly good about yourself.  If you need a nice small race to start out with, try the Romp.  It helps the Penn Hills Track Team give scholarships to their graduating seniors.
I don't know where I'm going with this, whether it is to encourage or just for me to reminisce about my running past.  I guess the thing that I can suggest to all of us that is mutually edifying is, if you see a runner (or bicyclist) on the road, please swerve away from them, and for heaven's sake, don't honk, that's annoying.  If you are a runner or rider, be kind to the motorists.