Thinking Medium

Several years ago when our pastor first came to our church he mentioned in a sermon about “thinking medium”. The concept was not to think of yourself more highly than you should, nor too low either. He summarized that in the term “think medium”. From then on I have thought about that a lot, and tend to agree with it more and more. Actually I find great comfort in the concept. I have some gifts and some accomplishments, but all in all, not that much. I also know for a fact that in many cases I am a miserable lot.

Well today I’m home sick which thankfully doesn’t happen very often, and I happened to listen to Chip Ingram on the radio this morning. I ended up checking out his website http://www.livingontheedge.org and also listened to his talk on R12. Low and behold, it basically validates the “think medium” concept in Romans 12:3-8. Nice to know the concept has real depth to it.

While thinking about goals for 2010, which I do a lot these days, I remind myself that the journey is more important than the goal itself. This sort of thinking in the proper perspective is most comforting. I would really like to accomplish a sub 5 hour 70.3 Ironman race. Maybe in doing so I could qualify for the 70.3 championship race in Clearwater Florida. If I make my goal or not, I will try to keep it in medium think.

Thought for the day while my nose is running faster than I can …

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• 09:42 Short story on my recent waterproof video camera purchase trying to improve my swim: paulasay.blogspot.com #

Sanyo Xacti Waterproof Video Camera, Friend or Foe?

Recently I had a talk with a friend and professional triathlete Daniel Bretscher about helping me with my swim. He mentioned the first step might be to video tape my swim so he could take a look at it. From there maybe some individual lessons would be in order. He then mentioned someone else he was working with did this with a fairly inexpensive and waterproof video camera, specifically the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 model. With $165 and a week’s wait from Amazon.com my shiny new camera arrived in the mail.

On a Monday morning at the Student Rec Center I met Joe for a swim workout with the camera. After a brief warm up I videotaped him for a few minutes, then he did the same for me. I thought I was swimming fairly smooth, but I know my swim technique was not particularly good, but I thought it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t really do any lap swimming until I was 30 so no real swimming background to go from. I have to admit when I did swim in high school gym class I was terrible.

Well I returned to the office and later in the day when I had a few minutes I replayed the video just watching on the LCD screen from the camera itself. Here is where the foe part comes in. The long and short of it is my swim technique stinks. To be honest I woke up in the middle of the night just thinking how bad it was. It passed my mind that maybe I should give up swimming, but then I not much for giving up. I still have high hopes of competing at the top of my age group in the Ironman 70.3 series, so the next alternative is to use the camera to make my swim better no matter how long it takes.

As the camera itself goes, it seems to be a real bargain for a fairly moderate price. Hopefully we will become more friends in the future and less of a foe. One can only wonder if we videotaped our everyday life and played it back. How many times would we shake our head and wonder why we made so many mistakes. Even the things we think we are okay at might be exposed as something much less than desirable. Something to think about for the future …

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• 09:58 Colts Win! Went to bed at 11 PM after they were down 17 points. Big mistake. #

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• 08:34 Hard swim before work and no time for the hot tub. What was i thinking ... #

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• 09:37 Just back from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods college for a little work, what a nice place, sun shining, leaves turning, it's all good. #
• 10:51 Life is not Rocket Science or so I think paulasay.blogspot.com/ #

Life is not Rocket Science

Saw the headline today on the BBC that taking low dose aspirin is only good for those who have had heart attacks or stroke. Doesn’t seem to work as a preventative and might cause gastrointestinal bleeds. Guess I’ll ditch taking low dose aspirin, and stick with just the multi-vitamin and some anti-oxidants. At the end of the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8338763.stm it says "The best way to reduce your risk of developing this disease is to avoid smoking, eat a diet low in saturated fat and rich in fruit and vegetables and take regular physical activity."

While contemplating this on my drive out to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, enjoying the sunshine and fall leaves, it just goes to show, life is not Rocket Science. So here are my top 10 ideas on how to enjoy the non Rocket Science life:

1. Have some faith that God exists and wants good things for you when all is said and done

2. Take a walk in the park on regular occasions no matter the weather and enjoy the serenity

3. Invest in some friendships by being a friend first

4. Take an adventure trip at least once a year, sometimes fun things like a cruise, and sometimes rough it things

5. Go on a mission trip to a third world county and invest some quality time with those less fortunate

6. Challenge you metal ever so often just to see what you’re made of

7. Find a positive group of people to hang around with. Those with a common goal of something inspiring

8. Read regularly and often books that inspire, instruct and grow you as a person

9. Make a commitment to learning truth, but be careful how you share it when you find it

10. Oh yeah, eat right, and exercise every day possible cause you know the good life is not Rocket Science