April 18th, 2025 By Hops

BB 4.17.25

QIC: Mayweather

PAX 

Homeland

Neverland

Trick daddy 

Popeye

Spud

TP

Tombstone

Mayweather 

6 men arrived by 0530 only to find themselves leaderless. Alone and afraid, at 0532 they set out on their own. But as they were exiting the parking lot the Q came flying in on 2 wheels, yelling out the window for the pax to stop right there. I led these broken and terrified men down to the rehab lot to…

WARM UP 

SSH x20ic

Hillbillies x15ic

Loose Change x10ic

Arm circles forward and back 

Hammy and quad stretch

Mosey on out of there so we could…

RUN INTO TOMBSTONE 

Not only does he make me look smart, make me look handsome, and make me look tall, but he also makes me look early. With a grand total now of 8, we moseyed up to Hill 216 for…

THE THANG 

A simple ladder that would be anything but simple. 

15 core killers at the top 

5 merkins at the bottom 

More brutal than usual because they hadn’t cut the grass on ol’ Hill 216 and it was pretty wet, leading to downhill slips and soaking wet feet. But nevertheless, she persisted. All pax completed the ladder. We took the 5 extra minutes to get a little extra work in with 3 rounds of 10 jump squats followed by a lap around the parking lot. And then we would mosey on back where we came from for…

MARY 

Various stretches culminating with a finish at exactly 0615. Beatdown was 3 minutes shorter than normal, but twice as tough. 

PRAYERS/ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Praise for Joshua (?) Sullivan, the minister on a mission in South Africa who had been kidnapped mid-sermon and held for days. He was rescued in a dramatic shootout where he was being transported by the kidnappers and the “South African Police” shot up the vehicle killing everyone inside, but he walked away without a scratch. A miracle. Or more likely “American advisors to the South African Police” with the miracle of endless live fire range time put into action. But a miracle nonetheless. 

MOLESKIN

It is, of course, a very Holy weekend. And one thing I find amazing is that His message seems to transcend time, always being relevant. As if it were all crafted for this specific moment in time, 2000 years later. This Good Friday I have found myself thinking a lot about Jesus, the man not the Messiah, feeling the betrayal of the very people He was sent to save. In fact I find myself thinking more about the crowd than about Jesus. Even the ones that knew Him shouted “CRUCIFY HIM!!” without even thinking about what they were doing as they were caught up in the mob mentality. I cant help but wonder how they felt days, weeks, or even years later when they looked back at themselves. How ashamed they must have been. How did their children or their grandchildren feel about how they acted when caught up in the moment, too close to the picture to even see what they were doing at the time? And then I think about how incredibly relevant that is to today. How many of us join the mob and repeat things we could never have imagined shouting that we never would have thought we would shout? How many people comment on Facebook on the wrong side of things, saying stuff they would never have imagined saying in ways they would never have imagined taking to neither their friends nor even strangers? How many of us shout “CRUCIFY HIM!!” in some other shape or form?

This Good Friday I can’t stop thinking about how Jesus didn’t just sacrifice himself, we willingly killed him. “We” as in mankind. And we as individuals now all would like to think we wouldn’t have gotten caught up in it like that. But would we have? It has been 2000 years, and have we really learned our lesson? Do we let ourselves get caught up in it now? Are we diligent all of the time and cognizant of our emotions and our susceptibility to the mob mentality of social media in these hyper-partisan political times? Do we shout, cheer, and celebrate things that go completely against what Jesus clearly teaches us in the Bible? Do we mold our lives to fit His words, or do we mold His words to fit our lives? I know I’m guilty. Ask yourself if you are too. None of us would want to have been one of the crowd. So let’s not be one now. 

It is hard to stay up right now because I feel like everywhere I look I see people shouting “CRUCIFY HIM!!” in one way or another, and they don’t even realize they’re doing it.  There’s so much evil and hate in this world today, and the worst of it dresses up as righteousness. But that righteousness is just a disguise for selfishness. Just like 2000 years ago. BUT…2000 years ago that story had a happy ending. So maybe, if we have faith, this one can too. But that’s up to us. 

Happy Easter, men! 

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