Romans

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans is a letter written by Paul -- the guy who had the miraculous conversion to Christianity -- to the Romans, whom he was urging to follow Jesus Christ's teachings - the gospels.

Romans is beautifully written, with a message of hope for all, Jews, Gentiles, anyone in the world who is willing to hear the Word of God. Paul's main message in much of this book is that it is more important to follow the laws of God in one's heart rather than simply follow the "rules" in order to be a good Christian and come to understand God/Christ in eternal life. Belief in Jesus as God incarnate is essential, says Paul. And to love Jesus, we have to love one another.

"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." -- Romans 12:21

I think this is beautiful. Evilness itself cannot be overcome without the essential act of goodness, just as the only way out of darkness is into light.

Having studied moral philosophy, I'd like to delve much deeper into the New Testament, especially Romans, to pull out the bare essentials of what Paul was preaching. There is so much to what Jesus taught, and I've barely scratched the surface in reading the Bible for the first time. When I get to the end of Revelation I think that will just be the beginning of my Bible studying. I want to REALLY understand what Jesus said.

**NEXT: I & II Corinthians

Acts

Finished the Book of Acts tonight. To sum up, it's basically a narrative about the early Church and what the 12 Apostles did to spread the gospel of Jesus. One of the main elements is how Saul the bad Roman became Paul the good Christian. (I can't help but wonder if Tolkien drew his inspiration for Smeagol/Gollum from this book...)

Acts was written by Luke the Evangelist, aka, the author of the gospel of Luke.

A quick summary: the Apostles elect Mattias to replace Judas (who hanged himself for betraying Jesus) and the Holy Spirit descends on the Twelve who suddenly have the ability to "speak in tongues" and talk to large groups of people wherever they go in their own language, thereby more easily spreading the Word of God. By preaching the story of Jesus, as well as performing miracles (like casting out evil spirits, raising the dead, etc.), the Apostles manage to convert thousands to Christianity wherever they go. But then their numbers grow too big, the authorities freak out, and Christians start getting persecuted. Stephen, accused of blasphemy, is stoned to death, thus becoming the first Christian martyr.
After a while, even the Gentiles (non-Jews) start converting to Christianity. The second half of Acts is devoted to Saul/Paul's story of conversion and mission to spread the gospel. He's loving his role as a persecutor of the new Christians, but then one day is struck blind by a light from heaven and a voice from Jesus asking him why he's persecuting Him (Jesus). Saul is told to go and preach about Jesus, and he makes a sudden conversion when he's given his sight back a few days later -- with scales falling from his eyes, he sees as though for the first time -- and he begins his new life as Paul, one of the most influential Christians ever.

One of the main themes of Acts is the universality of Christianity. Anyone and everyone is welcome and encouraged to join the church and become of follower of Christ.

**NEXT: Romans

Juggling demo

This is where I am so far. Maybe I've plateaued, or maybe I just need to keep practising. 

Any advice is appreciated, all you clowns out there!

Weak abs/small arms

Last night I had my last session with my personal trainer at Innovative Fitness. I asked her to show me how to do a proper push-up and a proper sit-up and give me some advice on how to generally develop a kick-ass upper body. Right now I look more like Grover (think long, thin, weak arms) than G.I. Jane. I'd like to feel strong all over, not just in my legs. I'd like to know I can bench press more than just the bar, and that I can have abs that are functional and not just for show.

So she put me through the ringer in a one-hour workout as usual, and I realized I can do a push-up or two, but nowhere near 50... yet... and as for sit-ups, well, let's just say there's a reason my hip flexors are so tight. They've been doing all the work. So I'm going to start small by sticking my feet under my dresser while I do one or two sit-ups a day. I'm also going to do "girly" half-push-ups (knees on the ground) until I can do 50 of those before I move on to the real thing.

It's a big goal, and I'm way far off, but I've started and I don't want to turn back. I will prevail! Prevalence is mine!

Goal: 50 "girly" push-ups and one genuine sit-up by Nov. 30.

#2 - Marathon Completed

Pavel and me with medals.

(Left to right: my brother, my mom, me, my dad.)

As I crossed the finish line this afternoon at the Royal Victoria Marathon (4:39:38) (check it out on YouTube, scroll to 5:53:21), my brother called my name and asked me how I felt. "Like I just ran a marathon," I said, and that was the truth.

I hardly know how to describe the feeling of getting to the end of 42.2 km (26.2 miles) and finally being able to stop pounding the pavement. It wasn't exactly what I'd expected it to be. It hurt so much. I almost cried at 34 km. Almost.

Like any race, it started well. It was a gorgeous sunny autumn day here in Victoria, and my brother and I were in good spirits this morning. As we crossed the start line I told him to go on ahead of me because he's fast. I had my MP3 player with a good two hours of inspiring tunes (everything from Beyonce to Josh Groban) to keep me company and the first half (21.1) was a piece of cake. I cheered out loud as I crossed the halfway mark. If that had been it, I'd have been ecstatic, because I got a PR for the half, coming in at 1:58.

But then things turned ugly. Well, just painful. At the 23 km mark, I started to feel my quads seize up, and they just got tighter and tighter until at around 28 km I started to wonder if I'd have to stop. I ate the banana I'd been holding in my sweaty hand, but it didn't help. It was a really awful feeling, both physically and emotionally. Though I didn't really have any kind of goal for the race, I knew I wanted to complete it and not walk any of the course (which I managed to accomplish), but I secretly hoped to run a sub-four marathon. My brother Pavel managed to finish in 4:03, which is fantastic, especially since we clearly didn't put in enough training. I hadn't run in three weeks, and yesterday and this morning I woke up with a headache and a sore throat.

Anyway, I did have to pause for a few seconds a couple of times to do the classic bend at the waist, hands on knees, grimacing with head hanging in defeat. But I soldiered on, despite wondering if I was irreparably damaging the blood vessels in my lower legs. (I'm sure the veins would explode right now if not for the fact that I'm siting with my feet up and in compression socks.) From 28 km to 40 km I basically just plodded along in pain. Screaming, wrenching, awful, indescribable burning pain from my hips to my ankles.

Fake it till you make it.

Truth: a marathon is not just double a half-marathon. It's a half marathon immediately followed by another two hours of totally masochistic torture. Can you believe runners pay a lot of money to voluntarily end up on the couch icing their knees and popping Ibuprofen for the rest of race day? And all I got was this lousy T-shirt... Actually the shirts are pretty bitchin' this year. The medal's nothing outstanding as far as medals go, but hey, it says "marathon" on it, so that's all I need.

By the time I got to the 39 km sign, trying to enjoy the amazing views of the ocean as I plodded along, I was wondering why God had forsaken me (well, not really, but I did have to seriously contemplate Jesus on the cross to motivate myself to keep going) and then I saw my parents and family friends on the sidewalk, with cameras and cowbells. My mom ran next to me for about a kilometer (ringing the cow bell until I had to tell her I couldn't take it anymore) and then the sign for the final mile came into view around the bend and I picked up my head and straightened my shoulders and picked it up again. And then I saw the finish. And like in all my best running fantasies, there was a crowd on either side of the fence, cheering and yelling and clapping... for me. I thought, well, there are two people ahead of me in this final 100 meters and they're walking... so I'd better put on a show for the people. So I furrowed my brow, pursed my lips, and leaned into a sprint, my arms pumping and Lady Gaga reminding me I was on the edge of glory.

And then... KATHRINE SWITZER gave me a hug!!! The first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1967 (despite women not being allowed to participate until 1972) was at the finish line of the Victoria Marathon today congratulating women on running... and she hugged me! (Or maybe I hugged her in my shock and admiration, but she didn't seem to mind either way.) The only thing I could think to say was, "Kathrine Switzer!" and she said, "Haha, yes!" to which I replied, "Thank you!" and then walked away in a daze. (For those who don't run, just imagine Sydney Crosby surprising you with a high five after your recreational hockey game.) Very cool.

I don't know if I'll do another marathon again, being able to cross this off my list but I -- oh, who am I kidding? I've got to try to beat my time... 4:40 just isn't good enough, and I know with better training I could do a sub-four. And I don't want to do any plodding next time. Just a strong, steady race.

What a day. What a run.

John

The best known verse in the entire Bible:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." -- John 3:16

John is the fourth and final gospel, written later than the other three, and focusing more on Jesus as the Word of God and less on the miracles He performed and some of the details of his life the other gospels include. I like this one best of all. The man, Jesus, is most apparent as a person to whom I think anyone can relate and understand best, if understood in reading this book.

Along with the Bible, I'm also reading a book right now that my brother lent me called The Holy Longing, by Ronald Rolheiser. The author talks about how Jesus is literally the Word of God,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." -- John 1:1

which is the meaning of the word incarnation, "in flesh" -- I'm inspired by the idea that not only should we strive to be more like Jesus, but that we CAN be more like him, by literally embodying his Word, which means, literally embodying him. When Jesus said to his followers, eat my body, he meant don't just undertand His words intellectually... take them into your very being and don't just TELL, but SHOW the world the Word of God through your physical self, your actions, your very existance.

"Preach the word of God wherever you go, even use words, if necessary." -- Francis of Assisi

**NEXT: Acts