Doing Something Epic

 Since I last wrote it definitely has been a struggle. My body just doesn’t have the energy to keep up with everything I want to do. With the body not being able to keep up the mind slowly wanders and it’s hard to keep things positive. After researching on the internet I learned that fatigue is one of the main complaints with AS. The body uses most of the energy to counteract the inflammation. 

 I’m a big fan of “The Art of Manliness” and they had a good article that showed a lot of the emotions and feelings that I was having. It is called “The 3 Obstacles to Doing Epic Deeds and How to Overcome them”

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/05/29/the-3-obstacles-to-doing-epic-deeds-and-how-to-overcome-them/

If you ever feel like you want to do something out of the ordinary I encourage you to read it. It’s super good. So the background to his article is a man who decided he wanted to do something, but didn’t want to just do something he wanted to do something epic so he could push himself. He decided to do what is known as the 4 deserts grand slam. It’s races where you run 155 miles across most brutal deserts. The runners carry everything they will need on their backs. Crazy race. So here are the obstacles that most of us will face as we try to do something beyond the norm of what we think is possible for us, whether that be the 4 deserts grand slam to running a marathon.

The first obstacle is going from “I’m just an average guy to I’m destined for greatness.” I have many feelings about this, but if someone has a goal that they want to achieve, I say go for it. The other side to this is the gospel standpoint. That is the first thing I thought of when I read, “I’m destined for greatness.” Here we all are on earth trying to live a life to make it back to our Heavenly Father. What a daunting task.  It is achievable depending on the mindset that we have and the amount of perseverance that we put into our efforts to accomplish that task.

The second obstacle is a social issue. Some possible friends that we have would rather us come spend time with them then allow us to prepare for or train for are goals. Doing something epic is going to take extra time and we might loose those so called friends who try to distract us, but in doing this we attract friends who want to help and give support. It’s a leap of faith on this one, but comes out good in the end.

The third obstacle is in the trenches. It is overcome with those you have surrounded yourself with who are willing to lift you up and motivate you. The article talks about the man getting his luggage lost and having to run in two sizes smaller of shoes. He was starting to complain, but then realized everyone was limping and in the same boat as he was. He changed his attitude from complaining to helping others out. This last obstacle has been my trouble for a long time. It always seems like if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. I see it now as there are just some things that we don’t have any power over and just have to make do with what comes our way. I learned this lesson while I was in Africa. It’s hot. There is nothing I can do about that except learn to enjoy the heat. Now I love it. The pump to the water well breaks. Only thing to do at that moment is to get a bucket with a rope and fetch it the old fashioned way.

Another thought that came to my mind this week had to deal more with my body’s energy. Even after getting 8 hours of sleep after working out for a while I would come home and fall asleep for an hour or so. I was physically exhausted. My workouts weren’t that hard either. The thought came to me of the apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. I heard it during General Conference, but for the life of me couldn’t find the reference. Anyways ita talks about it in Mark 14 and Luke 22. As a recap the disciples go with Christ to the Garden and they become sore amazed at the feelings of sorrow and the heavy gloomy feelings that they are having. They succumb to these feelings and fall asleep. They state, “ The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak.”

A lot of people bag on the disciples for sleeping in the Garden while Christ was suffering, but I don’t think we have much room to talk. I feel I would have done the same. These last couple of weeks I truly have experienced the spirit is ready, but the body is weak. I know for a fact I would have fallen asleep just as the disciples.  I think of them later as they were able to overcome those physical limitations. Truly the body can be trained and conditioned to overcome many things.