LIFE Group – Runners Run, Christians Pray, LIFE Runners Do Both!

One of my favorite things to witness is when people figure out what they’re passionate about and use their passion for the greater good.  I hope that comes across here on TrueManhood.com – my passion of helping men grow into authentic masculinity in the image of Jesus Christ, the TrueMan exemplar.  As I often say, “I do this to help men who are where I was get out of that place, or if possible, help a man to never go where I was.”

One such group of people that are passionate about something and have put their passion to use for the greater good are my comrades in prayer and in the fight against the culture of death who founded The Living Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group; Pat Castle, Rich Reich, Steve Castle and others.  (LIFE Group, which can be found on the web at www.LIFEgroup413.org.)  Here’s how they got started…

FAITH JOURNEY: The Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group seed was planted by the Holy Spirit during faith conversations between running partners Pat Castle and Rich Reich, while they were training in the mountains around Colorado Springs in preparation for the Pikes Peak Ascent and Air Force Marathon in 2006.  That seed grew into more faith sharing/prayer time while reading the Living Faith devotional together before work, while serving as chemistry professors at the Air Force Academy.  When Rich moved to the Univ of FL for his PhD in 2007, that morning devotion continued over email.  In Dec 2007, Pat began sharing their morning devotion emails with family and friends.  In Jan 2008, Pat’s brother Steve suggested starting a blog…Rich set it up and came up with the name…and Pat took off sharing the LIFE Group Devotions with everyone he could reach.  The name, Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group, focuses on the Christian’s calling to live the faith by sharing and defending our faith.  The name also points us to the greatest of causes, LIFE, to save babies (and families).  In 2008, Pat and Rich co-founded the LIFE Runners half/full marathon team, feeding into and from the LIFE Group and focused on actively raising awareness/funds for ProLife.  Steve Castle joined as author #3 on 5 Aug 2009.  With Steve’s encouragement and Rich’s activation, on 22 Oct 2009 we began posting our devotions on Facebook.  On 10 Jun 2010, we began selecting our own verses from the daily Mass readings.  On 5 Oct 2010, Rob Rysavy sent out his first devotion as weekly author #4.  On 30 Sep 2010, we started posting a guest author devotion on Thursdays…our weekly author #5 to round out the weekdays.  On 15 Nov 2010, the authors launched our current website…and included Phil 4:13 in the name (http://lifegroup413.org).  What began as a faith conversation between Pat and Rich during a long mountain run…is now a Living in Faith Exchange between over 600 ProLife Christians!

If you’d like to get involved, visit the site and subscribe.  The devotions are great – and, if it’s not already part of your day, it might be a great way for you to start praying every day.  Another awesome thing they do, which you will see if you visit their website, is run half and full marathons in the name of saving babies and families.  What an awesome project!  Their goal for 2011 is to raise $25K for a pregnancy bus that gives pregnant women free ultrasounds.  87% of women who see their unborn child on ultrasound don’t abort.  LIFE Group runners are doing great work in decreasing the number of abortions in America.  “Runners run, Christians Pray… LIFE Runners do both!”  (You can follow LIFE Group on Facebook too.)

I want to highlight something here.  It’s how I started this post, when I spoke about passion.  When you are passionate about something, it becomes what you live for, what you put your efforts toward and an awesome way to witness to others.  Pat and Rich did this.  By remaining disciplined and devoted, they have now brought great meditations and prayers, especially prayers for the unborn and the end to abortion, to thousands of people, and brought them all to the foot of the cross and laid them down at Jesus’ feet.  Do you have something you’re passionate about?  Does something really get you going?  Can you use it for the greater good of society?  I challenge everyone to think about that and make it happen!

TrueMan up!

Play Through the Whistle

We’re into the second half of Lent, and I think some encouragement would do us all some good.  In 18 days (plus Sundays – these are feast days in the liturgical calendar and do not “count” towards days of fasting) Christ’s passion, death and resurrection will be remembered.  Whatever you decided to “give up” or add for Lent this year should bring you closer to this mystery of our faith.  It should unite your knowledge of what Jesus went through for you and me with the physical sacrifice in which you make for Lent, thus making Lent more meaningful and more purposeful.

Lent isn’t about impressing anybody with what we give up or with what Lenten devotions we increase, it’s about personal conversion – a turning away from sin and a turning towards God.  I’m struggling this Lent, anybody else?  There’s a lot on my plate and my Lenten devotions have gone by the wayside multiple times.  I try to remind myself that through perseverance we obtain holiness.  I really need to “get back on the wagon”, so to speak, and continue persevering through my laziness and indifference.  I encourage you, if you’ve let your Lenten sacrifices ride, to take the time and energy to decide if you really need(ed) the penance or not.  If so, keep doing it.  If not, find something else, more important for you.  Have a great rest of Lent.

“Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel.”

Man up!

7 Days of Virtue; Day 7 – Love

Think of virtues like your muscles.  You work your muscles out so that they can perform for you when needed.  Virtue is the same way.  You practice, work on the virtue and then, when the time comes, the virtue is there and ready.

Day 7 of the 7 Day Journey through the Virtues: DAY 7 – LOVE.

Love, also called charity, is the form of all virtue.  Love is friendship with God and love leads us to God.  An important aspect of love is that it is a verb; it requires action from us.   To perform acts of love, we must surpass our own abilities; we require supernatural grace.   (Supernatural = super –> beyond… natural –> nature… beyond our nature.) 

Society often tells us that love is something that we get, instead of something we give.  We’re often told to seek it for our good, instead of the good of another.  This leads us to selfishness and seeking our our passions, desires and wants.  Instead, we should love unconditionally, especially our spouse and our children – making a freely given gift of ourselves and our lives.  Love brings us:

• Joy – seeing love in others.
• Peace – right relations, when we are united (or under reconciliation)
• Mercy – a compassionate heart for another’s unhappiness.   (The greatest virtue in relation to others.)

Love also occurs in:

• Passion – the desire for something.
• Natural virtue – when you want what is best for someone else.
• Theological virtue – the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. 

Man up!