Got cabin fever? We've got the cure...

Me and the Vin-man, determined to make good use of yet another snow day:)

I Will Carry On. I Will...

"Carry each other’s burdens; in doing so you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are important when they aren't, they are deceiving themselves. Let everyone be sure that he is doing his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work well done and won’t need to compare himself with someone else. Each of us must bear our own faults and burdens. For none of us is perfect!

Those who are taught the word should share all good things with their teacher. Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant. Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit. Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith."

~ Galations 6:2-10

I love this passage of scripture. I think it sums up perfectly the daily mindset I strive to apply to all aspects of my life: As a husband, a father, a friend, in business, in my training, and in my spiritual walk with Christ.

It's an awesome framework for daily living if you take a step back and look at the big points:

*I need to seek out opportunities to SERVE others; in doing so I will please The Lord.

*I need to be HUMBLE because I'm not as cool as I think I am.

*Everyday I will give my VERY BEST so that - no matter the outcome - I will be happy with my EFFORT.

*When I SCREW UP, I will acknowledge it.

*Every ounce of blood, sweat, tears, energy, pain, and stress poured into each day is a deposit into what will someday be a handsome REWARD. I must carry on; I must Protect This House...

Love & Blessings! Have a happy Friday and an awesome weekend:)

~ Cochise

The Cry of My Heart

Father God,

Search my heart and illuminate my spirit,

Fill my soul with the warmth and breathe of Your everlasting love,

Give me the strength to seek You in all I do,

Grant me wisdom and clarity so I may discern and obey Your voice,

Forgive me for my many failures,

Lift me up and restore me when I am weak and broken,

Break me and humble me when I am victorious,

In all my ways, may I acknowledge and glorify You,

As You lead me, may I be a faithful leader to those whom you entrust to me,

Please protect me and my family from the enemy,

Guard us from those who would seek to do us any harm,

May I always strive to be quick to love, quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

Lord, You are the vine; I am a branch,

Help me to remain in You and You in me, so that my life might bear much fruit,

Apart from You, I can do nothing; With you, ALL things are possible,

Thank You for being so patient with me,

Thank You for extending grace and redemption to me through Your son, Jesus Christ

I remain eternally grateful for Your many blessings,

May my life be a worshipful reflection of my gratitude unto You,

It is with great praise and a joyful heart that I remain humbly Your servant,

Jeremy Mhire

COMMIT.

I scream this at my athletes daily. I speak this to myself before every lift. I pray every day for the strength and diligence to remain committed to all that God has called me to.

To commit means to put your trust entirely into a deed or an ideal. Too many people are wafflers these days. Hot one second and cold the next. All-in one second and no where to be found the next.

I am not a waffler. Quote me on that. Take it to the bank. I'd rather go with my gut making a decision and be dead wrong, learn from my mistake, and not repeat it than flounder in the breeze or sit idly in the ocean.

Young or old, your time is now. Take control. Take action.

COMMIT.

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” ~ James 1:4

Ultimate Bro-Out

Navy Chaplain Lt. Commander Tom Webber baptizes Corporal Albert Martinez in a sandbag lined pool during a ceremony at Camp Inchon, Kuwait, March 16, 2003. Photo by Hayne Palmour IV.

"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

~ Titus 3:4-7

All That Is Within YOU...

YOU.

YOU can breathe.

YOU have a great calling.

YOU are created for a divine purpose.

YOU are a leader with power to influence others.

YOU are a servant blessed with an abundance of good gifts worth sharing.

YOU are not driftwood, but rather a mighty ship with a beautiful final destination.

YOU were made to live with passion and vigor; to burn as a brilliant light.

YOU are hope in the face of adversity and chaos.

YOU have strength to fight every enemy.

YOU will be victorious.

YOU can smile.

YOU.

"The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in YOU. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within YOU." ~ Romans 8:11

Survive By Grace.

Mistakes. Failure. Missed opportunities. The pain of defeat. All life outcomes that SUCK. Well, guess what? Welcome to life. There WILL be pain. You WILL fail. You WILL fall. Guaranteed.

The real questions is: When you fall, how will you respond? Will you get back up? More importantly, will you get back up the 3rd time and 30th time and 300th time?

This is GRACE. This is how you survive.

Grace is the ability to get back up, dust yourself off, and to charge once again into the fray.

In order to appreciate grace, you must be willing to sacrifice your pride. You must be willing to commit yourself to action. You must be willing to take chances.

DO NOT FEAR FAILURE. FEAR THE INABILITY TO LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES.

Take this concept and apply it to your life. Teach it to your kids. Coach it to your athletes. Let it be an encouragement to a co-worker or a friend.

As I recently heard Pastor John Burns say at the 2013 Men's Conference at James River Assembly, "Teach your kids to never FALL and they'll find a way. Teach them to get back up and they'll always WIN."

Great victory almost always comes on the other side of great adversity. Now get back up, keep fighting, and go for the WIN.

TRANSFORMERS

So many of us live our lives day-in and day-out stuck within the boundaries of our own perceived limitations. Yet as children, we were once not so jaded. We were unafraid to dream big dreams. That's the beauty of childhood, right? Kids have clean slates, unwritten stories, and no overdeveloped patterns of negative thinking. Us grown-ups are cesspools of doubt and self-doubt. The ruts of life's trials, failures and losses leave scars on our psyche. Those scars always seem to consciously and subconsciously remind us of our defeats, which oftentimes leads to us just throwing in the towel and giving up. Giving up, I might add, is for turds. Don't be a turd; be a champion by recognizing this simple fact: Failure is the most important ingredient to success.

I have a saying that I throw at my athletes whenever they miss a lift or fall awkwardly during an attempt of a movement. I'll smile and tell them casually, "If you're not failing, you're not trying." It's a simple thought, really. But the reality of it is profound. When we truly try, when we give an honest effort to achieve ANYTHING great in life, we will be met at some point with "THE STRUGGLE". It doesn't matter what it is - be it relationships, careers, sports, etc., the struggle will be there. It's difficult to persevere through the "No's", to smile through the tough times, to apologize and acknowledge when we're in the wrong. Winners persevere. Winners keep smiling. Winners acknowledge and embrace their weaknesses, even rejoice in them, in an effort to beat them into submission.

  

Patterns of failure are hard to break. Kind of reminds me of a brilliant song by U2. Bono said it best...sometimes we get "Stuck In A Moment" that we can't seem to get out of. The best way to not get stuck is to KEEP MOVING. Each day brings you the opportunity to begin anew, to rewire your head and your heart so to speak. Make the most of that opportunity:)

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

~ Romans 12:2

~ Cochise

What Kind Of A Tree Are YOU?

It's been such a long time since this ole' tree has blogged or, "shared any fruit", so to speak. Too long. Quite frankly, I've experienced a long season which has included a healthy dose of pruning, some great weather, some not-so-great weather, maybe a little fertilization here and there (some might more lovingly and accurately refer to this as "getting shat upon") and, ultimately, the good stuff: GROWTH. Without question, I've felt the desire to write but have known deep down that I lacked both the time and the energy to do it well. So, it's taken a back-seat. Basically, I've kept my nose to the grindstone and tried my level best to pour my all into my spiritual walk, my family, CFS, and my training. Although everyone knows there are a million moving pieces to all the aforementioned puzzles (faith, family, work, and competing) here's my quick and dirty summation of the most recent leg of my life's journey: I'm thankful for all that has transpired in my world this past year; adding a few rings to my trunk has made me a STRONGER TREE indeed.

There...I spared you the boring details...you're welcome. The bottom line is that I've learned and had to relearn - the hard way at times - that VIRTUOSITY applies to far more than just my squats, deadlifts, and handstands. I know, I know...seems like an easy enough concept to grasp in theory but, for some odd reason, when it's YOUR LIFE and not someone else's it's much tougher to put the idea of virtuosity or, "mastering the basics", into practice. When life happens, the fragile castle walls to our kingdoms are broken down and we're no longer allowed to rely solely on our bogus self-absorbed Facebook status updates, our worldly possessions, our bank statements, our precious egos, or yes, even our elite fitness levels (GASP!), we are left with only one thing: Our relationships. We are husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, workers and co-workers. True beauty in every type of relationship is found in mastering the basics. I've found beauty in the relationships of my life most often when I'm living out, striving diligently to achieve, and praying for God to help me live a life filled with the essence of Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." You don't have to be a Christ follower to acknowledge that infusing these traits into your life would probably benefit, not butcher, your relationships.

I have a large tree tattooed up my side and onto my chest and back. The tree is sharp and jagged looking. It has on its branches no leaves, no fruit, no life...or so it would seem, but it is far from dead...

Most who know me well know the story of what happened to Jenny and I the morning of April 7th, 2008. I've touched on it before here on my Proximal Strength blog, but never fully explained what took place...here goes:

We woke up that morning with great excitement cause we were headed off to Lawrence, KS to cheer on the Kansas Jayhawks (for the purposes of this story, lets all just agree to refer to KU as "God's team") from Allen Fieldhouse as they were playing the Kentucky Wildcats (obviously not "God's team") in the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship game. I loaded an 8-week-old Vincent Lee Mhire into his car seat, Jenny buckled herself up in the back seat next to the baby, and I took the helm as we hit I-44 West toward Joplin. Our plan was to stop there and drop Vin off with his grandparents and then continue on toward Kansas to see God's team win the big game. We were about 30 minutes into the trip near Sarcoxie, MO - Jenny and Vin had dozed off, napping peacefully in the back, when all of the sudden, a semi truck I was passing came over hard and fast into our lane. I apparently was in his blind spot. He was attempting to change lanes, completely impervious to our position alongside him. I laid on the horn, slammed on my brakes, and braced myself for a collision. It never came. Instead, as the driver recognized he'd almost side-swiped us and veered back into his lane, I looked up in my rear view mirror to see Jenny suddenly awake, clearly startled. She sat upright, took one deep breath, and then slumped over lifelessly onto Vincent's lap. Her eyes were wide open. For a brief moment I thought maybe she was having a seizure or something. I turned around screaming her name over and over to try to get her to come out of whatever she'd gone into. But nothing. I panicked. "Jesus!", I cried out. "Jesus, please help me!" Sidebar: It's easy for one to assume that at this moment I was crying out to God to help me know how to save my wife's life, but I kidd you not, I was pulled over and was simply looking for the dang emergency lights button and couldn't find it anywhere! At some point I realized I needed to stop freaking out about the button and get Jenny out of the car to check her pulse and breathing. I got out, ran around the car to her door, unbuckled her seatbelt, and pulled my wife from the car down to the roadside. At this point, baby Vincent could be heard screaming and crying in the car. Through the chaos of the moment I remember telling myself to breath, stay calm and check Jenny's vitals. I checked to see if Jenny was breathing; she was not. I checked her pulse; none. We didn't know it at the time but Jenny had gone into cardiac arrest due to a heart condition where the electrical impulses of her heart stop firing properly. It's a condition called Long QT Syndrome. Those, like Jenny, who go undiagnosed but have Long QT have only a 2% chance of survival should they experience a cardiac event like she did that April 7th morning on I-44 West.

Back to the battle for LIFE. Jenny was losing color and turning blue although I had already begun CPR breaths and chest compressions. All I had learned up to that point in my Sports Medicine and Athletic Training Degree Program at Missouri State University prepared me to know how to properly give CPR but I also knew I didn't have much time if Jenny were going to be able to survive. Time seemed to be creeping by slowly. In between breaths and chest compressions, I prayed that an ambulance would arrive fast so that Jenny could receive a defibrillator and have her heart shocked back into rhythm. Finally, thanks to good Samaritans who had called 911, a highway patrolman named Sam and an ambulance arrived about 5-10 minutes after the whole ordeal had begun. After placing the electrodes and delivering the first shock, I heard the machine's robotic female voice say, "analyzing for heart rhythm...no rhythm detected." Again, PANICK. "Please God, don't let this happen." The defibrillator then reset and began cycling through it's order of operations: "Analyzing heart for rhythm, no rhythm detected, shock advised- deliver shock." The EMT pushed the button. This time, it worked - Jenny's heart went into what's called "V-tach", an unstable and very dangerous arrhythmia but, hey, at this point I think it was pretty safe to say we were all encouraged any type of heart beat!

The road to recovery and healing from here was long. An elderly couple had pulled over to help us and while Jenny went in the ambulance, the man's wife drove her vehicle to Freeman Hospital in Joplin while the man drove me and Vincent there in our car. As we began the 20 to 25 minute drive to the hospital the reality of what had just occurred hit me. Jenny, my wife, my love and best friend, had just basically died right in my arms and at the last possible second I received a glimmer of hope in an extremely unstable and dangerous heart rhythm. The faces of the EMT workers were very telling as they loaded her into the ambulance. I'll never forget their eyes. They didn't exactly instill in me confidence that Jenny would be alright. Their eyes told me it wasn't likely that Jenny would survive at all or that if she did, she'd likely be a brain-damaged vegetable.

I felt hopeless. I needed something. I needed God to speak to me. As I sat in the right back seat next to a tiny baby Vincent, who, at this point, had fallen back asleep in his car seat in the middle, I remembered that my bible was in the vehicle underneath the passenger side seat. I grabbed it and opened it up, haphazardly attempting to land somewhere in the Psalms (I have Psalm 28:7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield" tattooed on my back so it was the first verse that came to my mind). "God give me something, please! I don't wanna lose Jenny!" My eyes scanned...I saw Psalm 28 but my eyes were pulled away from it and upward...my eyes shifted to the verse right above Psalm 28...The last verses of Psalm chapter 27...Psalm 27:13-14..."I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD".

My heart was helped. I felt peace...peace that I'll never be able to truly or fully explain. But IN THAT MOMENT God's Spirit spoke ever so clearly to my heart saying, "Jeremy, she's not yours; she's MINE if I would choose to take her. Either way, whether Jenny lives or dies today, I am with you. I am in control. Be brave. Be patient. Trust in me to fulfill my will and purpose for you and for Jenny."

So, there you go. I almost argued, but decided against it as God has proven himself over the years as quite the formidable opponent for me to argue with. Instead, as best I could, I listened. Later that day in the ICU at Freeman Hospital, doctors took me into the room just as Jenny came out of a coma. I swear it remains just as memorable and precious a moment for me as the days that each of my children, Vin and Emille, were born.

Here's the grand finale: If the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and you find yourself lacking these things in your life, check first the roots of your tree. Are they dug in deep? Are they healthy? Are you doing your part to make sure they're watered and fed? Even if the tree looks dead at the time - even if you are worn and weary - when you dig deep within your soul, can you sense the thirst and desire you have for goodness? You and I both know it's there. See, my bet is that at the root of all humanity most of us would agree that our greatest desire is not to be evil, but it is actually to be HOLY.

So I'm asking you: What kind of a tree are you? We're all to an extent bruised and battered - we all have our baggage and circumstances. Continue to LOVE. Be JOYFUL. Pray for PEACE in your life and in the lives of your loved ones. Practice PATIENCE. Be KIND. Look for the GOODNESS in life and in others. Remain FAITHFUL in all you do. Be GENTLE. Remain in CONTROL, show restraint, and practice SELF-CONTROL. Lord knows we'll all still fail, maybe break a branch or two along the way - but when we do, let us be like the strong, well-aged trees that withstand the test of seasons and of time, not like the weak trees that bend and break so easily.

"By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." ~ Matthew 7:16-19

Stay thirsty, my friends.

~ Cochise