With Christmas behind us and New Years just around the corner, everyone is going to be figuring out what they are going to do for their New Year’s resolution.  Goals will be set.  Exercise equipment will be purchased.  Books will be read.  The plans will be made, the goals will be set, and a few months into the new year failure will creep in.  So how do you make a new years resolution that you’ll actually keep?

Why do we fail?  Are new years resolutions cursed?  Is there any way to be successful?  Some would say no, but I think there is.  I think the problem is with the type of resolution and not with the ideas of resolutions itself.  A few years back I had the opportunity to listen to Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma Communities in Washington share his thoughts on churches having values.  I think his ideas help answer this issue perfectly.

He stated that the problem with values is that they fall short.  Values can be narrow minded and ultimately don’t help us accomplish what we want.  Values are generally based just upon actions.  At the heart of values is the idea that we need to DO something. But we need to call people to BE something.  When we help people find a new identity, their actions will automatically follow.

In this same mindset, I think we need to give up goals and action plans and exchange them for new identities (these identities should always be subservient to our identity in Jesus). Let me give you an example.  Here is a typical New Years resolution:

I will run a 5k.

It seems simple enough.  There are even apps that will help you accomplish this goal.  But many of us will fail and those that accomplish it will only have to set another goal.  But what if we changed this from an action to an identity?

I will become a runner.

The difference in my mind is world’s apart.  With the first, you might run a 5k, but then what do you do?  With the second, you will run many 5k’s.  You’ll change your diet.  You’ll find fellow runners. You’ll buy they right equipment.  You will change your lifestyle.  Why?  Because you are a runner and that is what runners do.

When you simply set a goal, you’re done when you accomplish it.  When you decide to become something (change your identity), you change everything about you for the rest of your life.

This perspective of a missional church starkly contrasts the typical church today that sees itself as a church that has missions.  In these churches, missions are always done by a specially called person who is a missionary.  Missions is always done in a foreign country.  Missions is a program or ministry that is run by a committee in the church.  The church goes on mission trips, has a missions fund, and has a missions bulletin board in the foyer with a map of the world with colored pushpins in it.  Missions is completely separate from the church and exist out of the church.  The church has missions.

Whereas a missional church understands the opposite—the mission of God has a church.  This perspective changes everything.  This means that the mission field is where the church is.  We are all missionaries.  There is no missions program.  Instead, every program and ministry is a missional program.  The church doesn’t run missions—the mission runs the church.  The church doesn’t have a mission.  The mission has a church.  This is what it means to be a missional church.  Being missional isn’t the next catchy fad, but instead it is being caught up in the mission of God.

I ran my first triathlon today…this is a video recapping the event. As soon as they post the results, I put up the results for me and all my friends from church that ran with me.

UPDATE:
The results from the tri have been poster. You can go here to see everyone’s results.

Here are the results for me and my friends:
Men:
49th Nathan Schmidt 1:34:09.15
64th David Williams 1:40:27.80
71st Ryan Wallace 1:44:25.10
74th Greg Qualls 1:49:20.55

Women:
21st Misty Davis 1:42:18.00
33rd Tracey Odonnell 1:48:36.85
67th April Barreiro 2:22:52.05

As you go through your day today….don’t forget.
While you run your errands,
While you sit at your desk,
While you check your email,
While you play with your kids,
While you eat your lunch,
While you drink your Starbucks,
Don’t forget.

While you are going through your day, Jesus was beaten beyond recognition, hung on a cross, and died for your sins.

Don’t forget.

Hello,

With only a few days away from running in my first triathlon, I wanted to share some words of encouragement and wisdom with my fellow athletes out there.  I didn’t grow up a very athletic person.  I’m not that coordinated, and I’m not that strong.

I tried playing basketball, but I was to aggressive.  I would generally only get to play for five minutes before I would foul out.  I tried playing football, but I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, fast enough, or aggressive enough to be any good (it didn’t help that the coach wanted me to play center at 6′ and 135 lbs).  There was really only one sport I was good at…track.

It doesn’t take a lot of strength or skill to run.  So I did really well.  I wasn’t fast, so I ran longer distance events.  I wasn’t the best, but I always placed.  I ran on the varsity track team at my school starting in eighth grade until I graduated. (we were a small division school).  I loved pushing my body to it’s limit and then some.  I loved competing.  It’s this history of competition that starts to bring up some long lost feelings inside of me.

Some of my feelings are good and some are bad.  I think sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (and sometimes at the same time).  I know from experience that sports and competition can bring out a laundry list of sins in people…pride, selfishness, arrogance, timidity, course language, unrighteous anger, belittlement, ect.

I have seen people pray before a game and in the same breath speak crude and prideful words against the other team. I have been an arrogant winner and a sore loser.  I have been poor sport.  I have cheated.  I have belittled and demeaned other athletes and teammates.

But I have also seen athletes become even more Christ-like through competition and sports.  I’ve seen teamwork and unity abound.  I’ve seen men with great talent and heart walk humbly in a knowledge of Who gave them their gifts.  I have seen men suffer well in harsh anti-christian environments.  I have seen men point to Jesus as their true prize and not some medal or ribbon.

It is with this in mind that I write this letter.  I am determined that sports and competition will not bring me down.  I am determined to not seek glory for myself.  But I pray that my competing will be done in a way that brings glory to Jesus. I am determined that it is more important to finish the race with integrity proclaiming the good news of Jesus than to win and dishonor his name (not like I have a chance of winning).  I am determined that Jesus is my ultimate prize.  The reason I compete is to draw closer to Jesus and humbly point others to Him.

Whether I win or lose, I am determined to “run the good race.”  I hope you are determined too.

To the glory of God,

Greg Qualls

So I’m writing this post in an effort to get my butt in gear.  I’m running my first triathlon ever in two weeks (April 11th to be exact).  I ran long distance in High School and haven’t really done much since.  Luckily I have my grandfathers metabolism.  So I’m not really overweight, but I’m definitely not in shape.

So to get myself motivated to be more healthy and be able to be around to be grandfather myself some day, I decided I needed something to motivate myself to work out.  So when several friends announced a few months ago that they were deciding to run a triathlon, I decided to sign up.  I determined that the competition and the distance wold require me to work out.

Now the past several months have been the most active in recent years.  From running long distance in high school, I have a natural level of conditioning built in already.   But I haven’t been training as much as I need to be for this triathlon.  For example, the total amount of training I did for last week was running 4 miles.  I say this as a sort of confession and hope for accountability and motivation.

So with two weeks left before the tri, I’m throwing out a life line.  What suggestions do you guys have for me?  Have you been in this situation before?  Any tips from you athletes out there?  What goals should I set for the next two weeks?  Should wear business socks and put tassels on my handlebars?  Does my swimming suit make me look fat?

So I’m following Brook’s footsteps and taking over a month to do this.  I was tagged…the idea is this:

1. Post these rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of you post
4. If you tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.

So here I go….

1. I can wiggle my ears…independently.  I can wiggle just my right ear, or I can wiggle just my left ear.  This is what happens when you have no life.
2. I had a dog named Vern when I was growing up.  It was so dumb that it would run into the fence when you would call it from the other side….needless to say this would happen often.
3. In Jr. High I was the stinky kid.  I hit puberty and no one really told me that I needed to take a bath more than once a week.  I’ve gotten better though.
4. I was a die hard anti-Apple until about 2 years ago.  I saw the errors of my ways and converted to the one true computer…and I’ll never go back.
5. I have a tattoo on my back of a cross with tribal print behind it.  I would get two sleeves too if UPS and my wife would let me.
6. I’m my own uncle….yep…try to figure that one out.  Just so you know…there was no incest involved and everything was legal.

So there you go….now here are my six.

Shannon, Dustin, Brad, CJ, Clayton, and BK

So about six months ago Shannon and I started our search for a home to buy.  Being first time home owners we had a vague idea of what we wanted in a house….three bedroom, two bath, lots a space to grow.  Our realtor started showing us houses in Albquerque, and we started to get depressed.

It seemed like there weren’t really any good houses in our price range.  They were either to small or so run down that they were on the verge of being condemened.  That was until we came accross “the house.”  The second we walked through the front door we fell in love.  It had everything we were looking for in a house and then some.  Most importantly it was in our price range.

There was some small problems though.  The Realtor for the house was a little crooked.  He was part owner and was trying to do a short sale.  But he failed to mention that he was a part owner and that the house was going to foreclose on if he didn’t get someone to pay cash for it in the few days he had left.  By God’s grace we found out and didn’t get caught in a huge mess that could have happened.

So fast forward to this last Sunday.  The house ended up going into forclosure, and no one bought it at auction.  So it came back on the market this last Sunday as a HUD home.  That brought up some small problems since we are qualified for a FHA loan and generally it’s hard to buy HUD houses with FHA loans.  Things are ok though, but we have one last issue to overcome.

HUD houses are sold by a bidding process.  Everyone interested in the house puts in a bid (not knowing if anyone else is bidding or the other bids if there are any) and the most cost effective bid for the government wins.  There’s no counter offers or anything.  You get one chance.  So now we are seeking the prayer support of all our friends.

We really feel like God is opening up the doors for us to get this house (there is so much more to the story that I’m not sharing due to time).  This house is more than a house.  We see it as a place where we can truly do ministry for God.  The only thing we have left to figure out is how much we need to bid.

So please pray that God would give us a clear direction on what to bid for the house.  Pray that He would give us wisdom. Pray that He would give us peace.  Pray that He would ulitimatly give us the house.  Thanks so much and feel free to pass this along to anyone else.  We are meeting with our realtor on Thursday to put in our bid and will find out on Monday if we got the house or not.

We went out and saw my grandparents on my dad’s side for their 61st wedding aniversary a few weeks ago.  I got this pic of my dad with Asa on his bike.  From the looks of things, motercycles run in our blood.  Asa was having a great time on my dad’s bike.