Luke

Finished reading the Gospel of Luke today. It's the longest of the gospels, and, I think, my favourite, because it emphasizes Jesus's mercy and includes the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, which the others leave out. This book is filled with stories of Jesus's life and teachings, as well as an account of his birth and youth, his baptism by John the Baptist, and his ministry and crucifixion.

There is so much in each gospel, it's hard to know what and how to summarize. One of the most important elements, as far as I can tell, though, is that Jesus is often asked what mankind should do to live righteously. To attain eternal life, Jesus says the most important thing to do is:

"Love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." -- Luke 10:27

This is obviously very important, because it is repeated more than once in this and the other gospels. Love God above all, and treat others as you would want them to treat you. So simple to understand, and yet so difficult to do.

**NEXT: John

Run...down

hu·brisNoun/ˈ(h)yo͞obris/

1. Excessive pride or self-confidence.

2. (in Greek tragedy) Excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.

I've been bragging the last couple of weeks about not being sick even a once this entire year... and now it's come back to bite me. This morning I woke up with a splitting headache and a sore throat so I haven't been for a run. And I skipped the 20 km workout on Sunday, opting to sleep in instead. Now I'm worried I'll be underprepared for the marathon, which is in 12 days. Hopefully it's nothing extra sleep and Cold FX can't take care of before the big day.

Three balls, 15 minutes

Every day for the past couple of weeks I've been setting my alarm for 15 minutes and practising tossing three balls in the air. I'm getting better. I can keep them going for up to 20 seconds now, but then I always end up throwing one too far in front of me and then the rhythm is broken. More practice time needed. Like, 10,000 more hours of practice. I want to eventually be able to juggle knives on fire while blindfolded.

Mark

Finished the Gospel of Mark this morning after breakfast. Mark is the shortest of the gospels, but it's still a lengthy 16 chapters. According to Cliffnotes, it's the oldest and therefore most reliable, or accurate account of the life of Jesus, from which the other three borrow heavily. One interesting point to make about Mark is that it leaves out any account of his birth or youth. This book begins with his baptism by John the Baptist, and ends with his crucifixion.

There are many well-known stories about and by Jesus in Mark, but one I wasn't familiar with before I read it, is that of the fig tree. It's something like this: Jesus and his disciples are travelling, spreading the Word of God, and they're hungry. Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance but when he gets to it finds it bears no fruit. So he curses it, saying out loud, "May you never bear fruit ever again." And by the next day the whole tree had shrivelled and died. So I'm thinking, what's the moral here? I don't exactly get the point of this one. Or is this just an account of Jesus losing his temper? Did he ever have moments of being "merely" human and just losing, it like any of us would do? Though it's pretty well understood that he was purely good, purely without sin, was he ever petty? Was he ever in a mood? There were many people who met him and didn't recognize him as the Son of God.

Here's another interesting thing to note about Mark, which makes it different from the other three gospels. The last twelve chapters of the book as they are now were not part of the first manuscript. As the original manuscript was lost, and in fact broke off mid-sentence, the last part had to be filled in by someone else at a later date. Who knows what the original ending was? We can only assume it's close to the first copy, but I'm sure any theologian would be pretty stoked to see the original. 

**NEXT: Luke

Matthew

For anyone who is totally unfamiliar with the Bible, the first four books of the New Testament are called the gospels ("gospel" meaning "good news"), and they were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They basically summarize the life of Jesus from birth to death.

The New Testament, beginning with Matthew, picks up about 400 years after the Old Testatment leaves off the story of the Isrealites, who had been struggling under one oppressive ruler after another. When Jesus enters the picture, the Jews are living under Roman rule, which wasn't totally bad, but wasn't too great either because the Romans were not God-fearing men. They preferred to revere Zeus and other Greek gods.

I've heard the stories from the New Testament many times in Church, but it's interesting to read them on my own, directly in the Bible. I'd never done that before. The story of Jesus, whether one believes it to be the truth or just a fairytale, is a riveting read. If I'd never heard of Jesus and had just randomly picked up this book called the Bible and flipped to Matthew, I would have been hooked. It really is a page turner, filled with stories within stories, intrigue, miracles, life lessons, high drama and inspiring quotes. It's history and religion and literature wrapped into one. I'm a fan.

Of course, I'm not sure I understand it all, what all the parables are about and what I believe is history and what is story (the gospels were written long after Jesus died, and by humans, who are, after all, fallible), but I'm glad to be getting it straight from the source. Whatever one believes, I think it has to be conceded that Jesus was a pretty cool guy.

**NEXT: Mark

Final Long Run (31 km)

SO happy today -- the final long run for marathon training is over! Three laps (31 km) around Burnaby Lake today (2:57) and now it's all downhill from here. As I write this I'm sitting in sweat pants, wearing knee-high compression socks, trying to ignore the aching in my hips and knees. It just freaking hurts. AND, it takes up so much time, all this running. There's no way to get around the time committment of training for a marathon. And all the hunger. I'm so hungry all the time. I could eat dog food right now, I'm just starving.

Anyway, next week it'll be 21 km, the next, 11 km, and then it's race weekend.

Cross Training - Grouse Grind

Hiked the Grind this afternoon in 51:21, which is a personal best. I read an article that says hiking is good cross-training for running, which I believe, 'cause this was killer. I was panting like crazy and huge splashes of sweat were dropping off me the whole way up. Next time I've just got to remember not to wear a heavy backpack and I'm sure I'll be able to shave off another minute at least!

Post-run fast food

Mediocre run this evening. Meant to do two laps at Mundy Park, but only got through one before I felt heavy and kinda sick to my stomach, so I ran home... and THEN suddenly felt RAVENOUS so I went out and got a big, greasy bag of buger, onion rings and a Coke from A&W. Now I feel awesome. Not physically awesome, granted, but definitely mentally awesome. Yay for fast food, post-run. Never in my life have I felt more justified in eating so many calories in one sitting. These days I don't think food spends any time hanging out in my stomach, it just gets sucked straight into my starving brain and limbs. A little marathon training will go a long way to increasing appetite and enjoyment of food, lemme tell ya.

Old Testament

Finished the Old Testament today, ending with the final 12 "minor prophets." After the Big Four (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel), you have:

1. Hosea
2. Joel
3. Amos
4. Obadiah
5. Jonah
6. Micah
7. Nahum
8. Habakkuk
9. Zephaniah
10. Haggai
11. Zechariah
12. Malachi

So these guys pretty much all had the same thing to prophesy about: God's gonna get mad if you don't smarten up. Well, technically, I know you ain't gonna smarten up, and He's gonna get mad regardless, but you should still make an effort 'cause He's forgiving.

"And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." -- Malachi 3:10

My favourite prophet, and probably the most famous, is Jonah, as in Jonah and the Whale. The guy gets swallowed by a "big fish" for trying to shirk his prophetic duties, and then gets vomited out by the fish onto the shore because Jonah repented, praying for days inside the belly of the beast. I have no idea how anyone can take this story seriously, but supposedly Jesus later speaks of it like it's fact. Not sure what to make of this, but anyway, a great story, no doubt.

All told, the Old Testament took me almost 10 months of almost daily reading. It's a very long collection of historical, wisdom and prophetic books written by several different people over a long period in history around what is today known as the Middle East.

There is SO much that can be said about the Old Testament, and it depends from what context you read it (religious, scholarly, historical, etc.), and I've learned A LOT. The Old Testament is by far the majority of the Bible -- about three quarters of the whole book -- and I've realized the books can pretty much be read in any order, because they're not chronological. Oh, and one other thing I noted as I was reading through the many books, was the use of the word "selah," which I've learned is a Hebrew word without a good translation, but which means something like "stop and think of that." Maybe kind of like "Amen"? Anyway...

I am eagerly now awaiting the story of Jesus in the New Testament.

**NEXT: Matthew

1984 Women's Olympic Marathon

 Los Angeles, 1984.

Women were allowed to compete in the Olympic marathon event for the first time. American Joan Benoit won Gold, but the best finish was from the Swiss runner, Gabrielle Andersen-Scheiss who came in 37th place with the most inspiring finish ever seen.

Personal Training

Running up a hill past a group of fairly overweight folks this afternoon, I overheard a woman among them with a thick Dutch accent remark as she turned to watch me pass, "Uphill... My God!"

It was a hot late summer afternoon, yes, and it was uphill, sure, but it wasn't until I heard that comment that I truly felt like a superstar. Sometimes people will say things that give you rocket fuel for the final lap, without them even intending it to be so motivating. So a shout out to my new Dutch fan. Thanks, lady.

Today I also signed up for some weekly personal training at Innovative Fitness in Port Moody. My first session will be tomorrow and every Friday after that till race day. I need to work on core strength, flexibility and overall conditioning. I'm hoping with the cross-training at the gym I'll be able to run faster and with better form, thereby getting a good time and, more importantly, avoiding an injury. My hip flexors have been strained the last couple of long weekend runs, so I it's time to bring in the pros for some expert advice. Plus, it's just cool to be able to say I have a personal trainer. "Yeah, sorry, but I'm going to have to cut our coffee date short... I have to go see my personal trainer to shred my quads and whale on my abs. At the gym. With my personal trainer."

Long Run (31 km)

To use the vernacular of teenagers everywhere, OMG and WTF.

Three laps around Burnaby Lake is 31.8 km. Just over three hours of running. Ouch. Very ouch. The final lap I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish but I realized the pain had plateaued, and at a certain point, as long as you're not damaging yourself, does it really matter how much your quads, hamstrings and hip joints cry out in agony? Just keep going, put Lynyrd Skynyrd on repeat, and finish it. That's all you can do. Oh, and drink a lot of water and pop energy candy things (my brother calls them snotballs). 

Just five weeks to go till marathon race day. I can't wait till it's over....

Daniel

"Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words." -- Daniel, 10:12

Those are the words of the angel Michael, one of only two angels who are mentioned by name in the whole Bible. The other is Gabriel, who also happens to make his appearance in the Book of Daniel.

I finished reading Daniel today, and was quite moved by this one, especially in contrast to the previous prophets, Jeremaiah and Ezekiel. The Book of Daniel is actually a work of encouragement to those who are righteous among the Jews, who follow their God despite persecution from the ruling Babylonian king. The book is basically written in two parts; the first is a series of stories about hardships facing the Jews, and the second about the series of visions Daniel has predicting future events.

[One thing I'm still confused about, even with the help of Idiot's Guide to the Bible, and Cliff Notes, is when the Isrealites became known as Hebrews and then Jews.]

Daniel is considered an apocalyptic text, part of the wisdom literature, but is included in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. As noted in the Cliff Notes, this placement is perhaps erroneous. Unlike with the other prophets, who lament their people's sins and try to get them to be good, warning of coming punishment, Daniel warns of coming suffering that will happen regardless of what the Jews do or don't do.

Ironically, I found this book to be more uplifting and hopeful in the larger context of the Old Testament because of the message of hope for those who trust in, and obey God. The end may be nigh, but those who are righteous will be saved. In the most famous example among the parables in Daniel, he is thrown to the lions for worshipping his God, but the next morning the king finds him unharmed and realizes his God has saved him. In the end, king Darius tells everyone they must worship Daniel's God because He is awesome.

"I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion that be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." -- Daniel 6:26-27

**NEXT: the minor prophets