So, I have taken up rowing again, something I enjoyed doing back about five years ago. In 2007 I completed the Concept2 Holiday Rowing Challenge, rowing more than 200,000m (i.e., 200 km, approximately 122 miles) between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. So I am committed to doing that again this year.

But—I am a cyclist who rows (not a rower who cycles), so I was thinking, how can I add a cycling element? So I started doing some numbers in my mind and figured that a good balance would be 200km rowing/800km on the bike (total of 1000km covered in two different ways). I have a three day trip to St. Charles next weekend, so I don’t have a clear path as far as workout days goes, and my grand daughter will be arriving during that time, too, so I will need to get a good jump on it to be sure.

But that’s just the physical side. I need some intellectual and spiritual goals too. So, I want to finish all of Sahih Al-Bukhari by Christmas Eve (that’s 40 hours worth of audio at normal speed, but about 32 at high speed). And I want to do some memorization work as well. Some will include some texts in the Qur’an (in both English as well as portions in Arabic), but on the positive side, I wish to memorize a few NT texts in Greek (Hebrews 1:1,3, John 6:37, Mark 5:30) some Proverbs (28:4 in English and Hebrew), and the 46th Psalm in English.

So how about you? I know, I know, it is a BUSY time. I preach eight times during that period, do a full seminar on the Trinity as well, do the Dividing Line, and all the family stuff that goes with it. But if you don’t set goals, you will never reach them! So as I seek to keep this aging body going strong (I enter my sixth decade during this month as well!) I need to combine goals of Scripture memorization as well. In my next blog article I will address some of the tools we have available to us to help. But for now, I hope you are challenged! Obviously, you do not have to do what I’m doing specifically—you can choose your own verses, your own workout patterns, etc., but I hope you will consider a full-orbed challenge for this holiday season!

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