July 19th, 2018 By Man Down

How do you celebrate 45 years in 45 minutes? No better way than with 15 of your F3 brothers in the Gloom! A powerful theme that has guided me this year has been “Extreme Ownership…Absolute Surrender.” Both are book titles as well, the first by an American Navy Seal, Jocko Willink, and the second by a South African Pastor, Andrew Murray. Click on the links to check them out. On birthdays we give and receive Gifts, so today I thought I would bring some Gifts of Wisdom by pulling quotes from both of these books to be read by PAX throughout the beatdown. Here’s how we celebrated…

Warmorama

• Disclaimer given, especially for the benefit of our FNG, but also as a reminder to all PAX to push yet pace themselves. Circle up at Intake.
• 45 SSH
• 45 Merkins
• 45 Sit-ups
  • Gift #1: Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. Discipline is the pathway to freedom.

The Thang

• Mosey to Great Wall. 45 Muscle-ups
• Line up in the Prison Yard for 45-foot (pole-to-pole) exercises.
• Bear Crawl 45 feet, then Crawl Bear 45 feet back to the line.
  • Gift #2: The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.
• Run at 50% 45 feet, then back.
• Run at 75% 45 feet, then back.
• Run at 100% 45 feet, then back.
• Mosey to Cinder Blocks, then into the Cell Block. Cue 1973 Billboard Hits from 45 Years ago! (A few burpees might have occurred whenever a female singer came on. Fortunately only happened twice.)
  • Gift #3: Leaders must own EVERYTHING in their world. There is no one else to blame.
• 45 Curls
• 45 Overhead Presses
  • Gift #4: Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.
• 45 Triceps Extensions
• 45 Upright Rows
• 45 Squats
  • Gift #5: For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.
• 45 Merkins
• 45 Sit-ups
• 45 Curls
• Cinder Blocks back.
  • Gift #6: I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly. … Can God work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him?
• Line back up in the Prison Yard for 45-foot (pole-to-pole) Burpee Broad Jumps.
  • Gift #7: One of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the want of love. … It is only when God’s people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see—it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God.
• Mosey back to Intake for Mary.

Mary

• 45 Low Flutters IC
• 45 LBCs IC
  • Gift #8: God can only reveal His will to a heart that is humble and tender and empty. God can only reveal His will in perplexities and special difficulties to a heart that has learned to obey and honor Him loyally in little things and in daily life.
• 45 Pretzel Sticks
• 45 Crunchy Frogs
• Recover Recover!!
  • Gift #9: The great question for us to ask of God in self-examination is that we may be shown whether our religious life is lived more in the power of the flesh than in the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • Gift #10: You can deceive yourself with beautiful thoughts about loving God. You must prove your love to God by your love to your brother; that is the one standard by which God will judge your love to Him. If the love of God is in your heart you will love your brother.

Moleskin

• “Extreme Ownership…Absolute Surrender” is a dichotomy. Picture one hand balled up in a tight fist and the other hand wide open. A leader must live with this tension. The apostle Paul captures the essence of this in 1 Corinthians 15:10 where he says, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” That’s Extreme Ownership. That’s Absolute Surrender. I am thankful for each and every man in F3 whom I have had the privilege to know. You have influenced me both in my Ownership of life and in my Surrender of it at the same time. Thank you!
• Welcome to newly-named Magellan! Thanks for making the trek all the way up from Matthews to join us twice this week! Maybe one day Do-Little will come out and join you?
• Prayers for Gentle Grizzly as he goes under the knife today to have a torn meniscus repaired.
• QSource and Whetstone are both going strong! Check out the links and join in on F3’s Leadership Development!

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