2.10.2013

1 Kings 13-18

These series a of chapters show goes through a series of kings a shows Israel's general down hill tumble into pagan worship, civil war, and corrupt leadership. This all began with Solomon allowing and encouraging his wives to worship other gods. 

towards the end of this series, God finally sends Elijah the prophet to kinda shake some sense into the people. Elijah starts performing miracles and glorifying the lord will simultaneously discrediting all the false gods that have taken a foothold in Israel.

Elijah/the Lord's intervention and wake up call is exactly what was needed. sometimes, we get caught up in sin so much that we don't even know what is going on until we are shaken and shown the errors of our ways. For Israel, God's method of waking them up is Elijah the prophet. in our own lives, constant study of God's word and our relationship with God and other christians are what serve to be our wake up calls when we need them. this passage made me think a lot about accountability, but also about looking at my life and trying to recognize my own places in my life where i am oblivious to failings and sin. 

 Strength Bit: On Mentors/Coaches

Probably the very best way to become stronger or more successful is to have those who are better than you coach and guide you. In my own training, I have had periods where I made friends who were significantly stronger and more skilled than me and i made an effort to follow their lead by lifting and eating like they do and trying to understand their thought process, cues, programming and anything else that could possible make them be good at what they do. When I am fortunate enough to be in these situations, I generally progress leaps and bounds over what i would normally be accomplishing on my own efforts.

perfect example is for the longest time i have been trying to figure out a way to get my cleans off my hips more than my mid thigh so i get a higher pull and a more powerful hip vs. upper body drive. Today I had the opportunity to lift with a friend who is also a good/competitive weightlifter. After 15-30 mins of dicking around, he was able to make a few simple cues and points that instantly improved my clean and allowed me to understand how to get it into my hips better. the funny part was it also set me up better for my jerk.

My point of this fairly quick post is if you want to be good or at least better at something, find someone who is talented in the area you want to be good at and listen to/hangout with them. chances are you'll get improve quickly and save yourself a lot of time and grief.