Sunday Saying - Magic Show

"Our faith is not about magic, it’s about partnering with God to see remarkable things happen through faithfulness and consistency over a long-period of time. If we buy into the instant-results mindset of our culture (that is depressed and confused itself) we will become very frustrated with God. God has a system for growing food. If one farmer does no work, but prays and sings to God, and another farmer does work, and does not pray or sing to God, then the farmer who prayed will starve and the farmer who worked will eat, because even though the second farmer didn’t acknowledge God, he understood God’s ways and he adhered to the principles God created. The first farmer was just looking for a magic show." - Donald Miller

Wish I could hear this teaching series ...



Your thoughts about their thoughts shared here? 

Friday's Fave Five

Click on the image above to see more Friday's Fave posts.

My Five Favorite Things this Week

1. Completing six miles in the Garden Spot Village Marathon Relay on Saturday. 

2. Slowly, but surely getting over this darn cold. I had a slight cold before the race and I figured running would make it worse and it did. I was sicker on Saturday night then I've been in a long time. 

3. Though you are sick, you can still hang out with family - so Sunday afternoon I went to my sister's house, because my other sister from VA was here visiting.  (I have 4 sisters - 3 on earth, 1 in Heaven)

4. Registering for the BookExpo America in New York in May. Wasn't really considering going, but a few planets aligned and I'm registered. I have a ride and a place to stay. It's for anyone in the book industry. As a writer, it's a step ahead of where I am - it's for published authors, which I am not. But I'm going with Janelle Hertzler who is published. She has a book signing and podcast while there. 

5. Most importantly, I had a few good reminders this week about not assuming I know what someone else is feeling, but instead making sure I ask what they feel/think/want/need. 

What has been a fave part of your week? 

The Importance of Story in my Life

This post is about the importance of story in my life. It is an entry into Chris Brogan's giveaway of 100 copies of Donald Miller's book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years."

I was born into a controlled world - I escaped through stories in books. Then in my early twenties, I began to realize I had choices about how my life story did or didn't turn out. I slowly made my own choices, rather than allow my environment and circumstances to control me. Good change takes time, but over the next decade my life became better.  

In my late thirties, my husband helped me take another step in realizing the choices we have in writing the story we want to. We sold our business, put household stuff in storage, packed a motorhome and traveled the country for six months with our three sons. Life was good!

Until ...

A day in May when it all changed - we accidently met five semi-trucks on a highway. My husband and sons were fine, I was not. My injuries were massive and threatened my life. Somehow I defied the odds and lived. "Miracle!" The doctor said, "but I'm not sure you'll walk again."

The lessons of the previous decades lay dormant, until the words of a good therapist brought them back. "To some degree, your level of recovery is up to you." A glimmer of hope emerged as I realized I had choices in how this unwanted portion of my story turned out. I did every exercise given to me, plus a few extra. And I prayed. I did research and had a few repair surgeries, did more exercises and prayed more. 

I love books, so I read stories. Stories of people that overcame the "impossible." They helped me breathe and gave me hope. Though life would be different than I dreamed of, a good life was still possible. I soon realized that I retained and gained so much more from stories than from 3 or 5 or 7 point 'teaching' books.  

Last year, I went to a conference called STORY. The inspiration from this event was amazing and the long-term effects are still unseen. Then I read "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. Wow! This gave me even more information about how to live the story that I want to. 


Part of living the best story I can, involves telling and writing my story to share with others. As I work on that, I pray I can tell in an interesting story, because I know the value of great stories.

The Importance of Story in my Life is summed up with one word - priceless!

  

Garden Spot Village Marathon Relay

On Saturday by 7AM, hundreds of cars were rolling into New Holland, PA. The line into Garden Spot Village was slow, but organized and we were soon parked. The staff and volunteers at the race were wonderful - hats off to the race director Scott Miller and his team!

For the start, it was about 40 and breezy - about 20 degrees colder than I'd prefer, but with sweatshirts and jackets it was manageable. We meet up with the other "Running ... Because I Can" runners - we had 2 teams of four. 

(missing two runners)

Notice all the jackets on the ground - taken off for the picture to show off our great shirts. Shirts were compliments of Allegheny Valley Yogurt - the BEST yogurt in the country made half a mile from my house from cows I see grazing every day and they truly are happy cows :) 

And our smiles - you don't really want to know the jokes and/or conversations those are from. 

A relay involves a baton, so we practiced the hand-off - after all, we would be running at top-notch speeds ;) In reality, most team members stopped and hugged at the transfers. And most of us hate running with something in our hand, so the batons spent most of the morning in the car and were handed to the last runners right before the finish. 

There was a lot of energy in the air as about 900 people started the race at 8AM, while about 150 relay runners took the provided shuttle buses to the relay transfer spots for their sections of the race. 

I was scheduled for the 4th leg, which meant I waited until 11:45 to run. (I didn't complain about this at all, not once ...) We drove to each of the transfer spots to cheer on team members and watch the runners through beautiful Lancaster County.

Thankfully temps warmed up to about 60, but it stayed windy all day. Finally, a friend who was a bike marshal for the race told me that the runner that will hand off to me was only 10 minutes away. It was time to get this body ready - walk, potty break, stretch ... repeat 6 times and off I went!

I had started with a slight cold/sore throat/runny nose on Friday, so I loaded my pockets with tissues and lozenges. Other than an annoying sore throat, I felt great! I stuck with my plan to run 8 minutes and walk 2 minutes and was happy with the strength in my legs - yes, even the peg. 

Happy to see friends near the finish line.

A teammate joined me to cross the finish line. My hands are in the air - thrilled to be finished and happy with the time. I ran 6 miles in 1 hour, 11 minutes.

Duct tape comes in handy, when an idea hits a few days before a race. I think for the next race, I'll get a shirt or shorts printed with my info on. 

Tired, but happy with medal in hand.

Today, I'm still recovering from my cold, but praising God for bodies that heal and thinking of the next race. 
You want to join me? 

First and last photo - Jerry Oberholtzer, All others - Linda Wingard

Hope wins ...

Life can be tough and if you are in the middle of something hard right now, I'm so sorry. Pain of any kind sucks! Sometimes it's hard to have any hope and it seems impossible to think of brighter days. 


I've been there - felt that. 

Accident in California on May 20, 2004

I was a marathon runner pre-accident and woke from being in a medical coma for ten days to find out that I almost died, they almost amputated my leg and even if it healed, I might never walk again, due to that injury and several other severe ones (my pelvis and right femur were also shattered)

About two weeks post-accident - the docs didn't know if my left leg would still need to be amputated and/or if I would ever walk again.

Over the next few years, I became depressed from all my pain - physically and emotionally - and the lifelong effects of my injuries. I wrote my obituary. And I thought of ways to make that obituary needed. 


I'm not speaking from beyond the grave - so you know hope won over depression. Thank God!

Praise God - I healed better than anyone expected - 
though the scars are many.

With time, counseling and help from my creator, I found glimmers of hope again and learned to do "Did what I can, with what I have, where I am." (Roosevelt) As I did that, my hope was watered and grew. 


Last year I competed in a marathon relay for the first time, doing 4 1/2 miles - local TV clip about it. Today is another step forward (actually it's hundreds of steps :) ... I am competing in the marathon again, on a relay team. I will do 6 miles. I do a combo run/walk - run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes and repeat until I'm finished.


So when life hands you pain - breathe deep and know there is hope. Life might not be what it was, but it's still worth being alive. "That thing" that is causing you pain is not good, but there's other good in life. I don't view my injuries as good, but I have hope in spite of them and I'm celebrating how well I've recovered today!


I'll soon have a new website which will have more info/pics about my journey the past 5+ years and info about my upcoming memoir. 

WebCam for Garden Spot Village Marathon

Garden Spot Village 
Marathon WebCam

Click here for a live feed

On Saturday at 8AM about 1,000 people will be at this spot to begin running a full marathon, a half marathon or be part of a relay team. I will be here cheering, but my run doesn't start until about 11 or 11:30.

About 9:15 or so, the first finishers of the half-marathon will begin crossing the finish line here. 

I am running on a 4-person relay team which will complete the full 26.2 miles. I am doing the last 6 miles and should cross the finish here sometime between 12 and 1PM with a peach shirt that says "Running ... Because I Can" on it. 

Friday's Fave Five

My Five Favorite Things this Week

1. The weather!! Yes, I know it's boring to talk about the weather, but we had temps in the 80's for a few days and I loved it!

2. Watching my boys' reaction as they read "Stuff Christians Like"

3. Saw/heard Philip Yancey at Messiah College on Wednesday evening. He's a great writer and speaker ... and always says something to make you think. 

4. Massage - had a great massage from the lovely Monica, she's the best in the biz.

5. Getting our running club's shirts for the marathon relay tomorrow!

The girl in the back trying to catch up - that's me :)

I am running the 4th leg (6 miles) of a four-person relay team at the Garden Spot Village Marathon. Race starts tomorrow at 8AM, I will probably be running around 11 or so. Our club "Running ... Because I Can" has two teams in the race. I'm excited for all the runners, especially for Kim, who's doing her first race - that's always a combination of excitement and terror. Run on - Kim!!

Make the most of your weekend by 

"Doing what you can, with what you have, 

where you are!" - Roosevelt

Why do you do that?

"The reason you have a front lawn?"

"It's a tradition."

"Lawns were invented as a way for the landed gentry to demonstrate that they could afford to waste land. By taking the land away from the grazing sheep, they were sending a message to their neighbors. We're rich, we can happily waste the opportunity to make a few bucks from our front lawn."  - Seth Godin

So if our front lawns are a tradition, what else do we do that is a tradition? But we have labeled it a necessity. Or maybe we even labeled it spiritual. 


You don't have anything like that in your life - or do you?

The Stuff Christians Like Guest Post-a-thon

I'm back with a post a day earlier than planned because a few weeks ago, I signed up to be a guest at a party to discuss American Idol with Stuff Christians Like and today's the day for that. 

If you've come here via Stuff Christians Like - welcome!

If you haven't heard about the blog called Stuff Christians Like - you've been missing a great source of laughter. Here's some info about it ...

The site is written by Jonathan Acuff, a preacher’s kid/copywriter who lives in Atlanta with his wife and two kids. Started on March 21, 2008 as a reaction to the wildly popular blog Stuff White People Like which was created by Christian Lander, Stuff Christians Like is a blog about the funny things we Christians do. And what they just might reveal about our faith. 

The blog has now birthed a book by the same name, which was released recently. When my Amazon order with the "Stuff Christians Like" book came recently, the cover attracted the attention of my seventeen year old. He confiscated the book for the next hour or two and could not stop laughing. 

And the next day, my two college sons discovered the book and were busting a gut (seriously bad pun - because the son without the shirt has a scar on his abdomen from seriously busting a gut this winter) 

About 130 bloggers signed up for this massive Guest Post-a-thon today to answer this question: 

“Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian Scorecard”

Each of the bloggers received one line from the massive scorecard - here's the one I was sent:

5. The contestant is a missionary kid and his dad is in the audience with a machete and some sort of woven leather accoutrements = + 2 points  

To add up your score with over a 130 other ideas on this scorecard, visit stuffchristianslike.net.