Wrecking Gators

I had a brush with death this morning.

Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I'm not one to exaggerate. Ever.

Today was our district cross country meet, and a coach from one of the other schools and I were in charge of parking at the stadium and driving two of the Gators over to the park. I had to do it last year, too, so I wasn't too worried about it.

When we got to the park, we were asked to drive the course and fix all of the markers that had blown down overnight. The other coach hopped in my Gator, and off we were. It took kind of a long time, but it was also kind of fun. It's a hilly course, so the Gator got a little adventurous out there. We were almost finished with the entire course, and everything was going smoothly.

And then the backstretch happened.

There is a part of the course with about 600 meters left where the path gets really narrow between a fence and some trees. I had gone around the trees and outside of the path on one really thin part, but then it appeared I would fit through the next scape. The other coach agreed, so I stayed on the path. But, for some reason, my depth perception was a bit off this morning, and I was too far to the right. Suddenly I felt a huge impact, and the next thing I realized was that the Gator was stuck in the fence. I had crashed us. I felt a throbbing in two of my left fingers and turned to the coach in the passenger seat—the side that crashed into the fence.

I was still able to coach.

I was certain I had killed him.

I immediately turned to ask him if he was OK. Thankfully, he was fine. I looked down at my fingers, and they were already black and blue and starting to swell pretty badly. I really wanted to be a baby and cry, but my tear ducts don't work very often. I managed to back out of the fence I had just splintered but then had to pause for a second. I just sat there staring at my fingers, and the other coach asked me if I wanted him to drive the rest of the way. (I'm sure he didn't want me behind the wheel any longer.) I told him I could drive the rest of the way, and we made it back to the start/finish safely, while my fingers continued to grow in size and get darker.

Now, I'm not one to overreact to anything—EVER—but I was certain I was going to have to get my fingers amputated. My mind had already started planning how I was going to live the remainder of my life without my middle and ring fingers on my left hand. I immediately realized I would never be able to get married since I wouldn't have a ring finger.

Like I said, I never overreact.

I've never been in a car wreck, and I definitely never want to experience one. That Gator incident was certainly enough. It was a reminder that sometimes we're not as in control as we think, and what we thought was a good path to follow isn't exactly the wisest choice. Had I gone left, a certain wooden fence would be a bit prettier, I wouldn't have lost two fingers (actually, they didn't have to be removed), and I wouldn't have freaked out a poor coach who had never even ridden in a Gator before today. (Hey, life is all about experience, right?) At least I was able to back up and try again.

Good news: the second attempt was much more successful.

We all get to make decisions every day in life, and every once in a while we're going to crash and burn when we take the wrong paths. But, thankfully, sometimes we get second chances.

Thank God for grace.

Calling branch

Even the best maps can't always prepare you for where you are going.

It's always nice to have people in your life to help you walk through the rough patches. And it's even better when they can warn you about upcoming troubles. Thankfully, the people with whom I run each Sunday are those I would want with me on any sort of battlegrounds.

This past Sunday morning, it was rather foggy and still dark when we started the run, and we were in a new area to most of us. Josh had thoughtfully mapped out a course and even printed written (and laminated) directions, but there wasn't enough light out to see what any of it said. So, we were basically just trusting his words as we ran.

But, even though he had already run part of the course that morning before all of us, he didn't know every little surprise that was going to be out there waiting for us.

It won't always be clear.

It stormed on Saturday night, so there were a lot of branches and muddy puddles on various parts of the path. Because it was still so dark out, and much of the run was lined with trees, all of this was rather difficult to see. So, we didn't notice them until they were right at our feet. That's when we had to trust each other in calling out "Branch!," "Mud!," or "Puddle!" The only thing we really couldn't shout was the random animal that ran out at our feet (somehow I didn't even see it), and I think Kiran even kicked it. We still aren't certain if it was an armadillo or a possum. Disco kept referring to it as a rabbit. Regardless, it was living—at least at that point it was.

When it got a little easier to see, Josh even started picking up the random branches blocking the path as he was running so that the people behind him wouldn't even have to worry about tripping over them. Now that's a friend.

There were some points during the dark times where I was in front, and the person next to me and I really had to watch our steps. It sure was a lot easier when we had other people in front of us navigating our steps with admonitions and precedents.

Often it's good to lead in life, but there are also those moments when you need others there with you to help guide your footing. You never know when branches are going to get in your way, and you won't always have the perfect amount of light to reveal the dangers that lay in front of you. That's why it's nice to have those voices shouting out in protection mode.

Life isn't always going to have clear skies, and there are going to be storms we face. There will also be the ensuing effects of those times, where branches and puddles of mud will plague us as we run through winding and unfamiliar paths. But, what's so comforting is that God has given us those special angels with familiar voices who are there to encourage and help us along the way.

You aren't always going to know where you are or where you're going, and you certainly won't always have a clear path. But God is there to direct your steps, and sometimes He provides people to point us in the exact directions we need to go. In those moments, it's all about listening and obeying.

And even those foggy mornings won't keep you from smiling about the adventures ahead.

Free love but not free bagels

I don't care what economics might tell you—there are some things in life that are truly free.

When I was getting my blueberry bagel at Einstein's this morning, the woman behind me in line was getting pretty heated up about something, so I couldn't help but listen in on her ranting. She was complaining to the guy behind the counter that she wasn't charged for something. She kept going on and on about how upset she was that she received something for free. The nerve!

"I don't want this! I don't like getting things without paying for them! I can't accept things that are free!"

Now, I know I probably should have just stayed out of it completely, but I sometimes can't control the things that come out of my mouth. This was one of those awkward moments.

"What about love? That's free."

I'd take this freely.

She stopped her banter with the manager for a second to give me a look that I thought might actually pierce right through me. I think I even saw a little bit of fire spark.

"Excuse me?"

I just couldn't help myself.

"I mean, even J-Lo says her love don't cost a thing."

The look she was giving me started getting worse, so I just smiled and wished her a happy Monday. I can't say I was too shocked when she didn't offer me the same.

It isn't often that I hear people complaining about accepting things that don't cost them anything at all, so it got me thinking a little about how people actually do it more often than I imagined. My economics teacher in high school tried to tell me that "there's no such thing as a free lunch," and she emphasized how people actually always have to pay something whether they know it or not. Even though I didn't hit a home run on that AP test, I still argue that she's wrong.

Because she couldn't answer my Jesus question.

Jesus paid the debt for our sin, so we don't have to pay anything at all. Nothing, nada, zilch, zippo. I suppose that's the point I was hoping to get across this morning to the lady at the bagel shop, but I don't think my J-Lo reference struck the nail on the head on that one. I probably should have asked her to sit down and eat our bagels together so we could talk about it more, even though she didn't want to eat whatever was in her little bag that was mistakenly given to her. And I know she wasn't my biggest fan at the time, but it could have been fun.

Just like our soul sista Jennifer Lopez, the love of Jesus "don't cost a thing." And His love is the greatest we'll ever know.

But I think all true love is just the same: whether or not someone actually returns it, the love offered comes without cost for those receiving it. Screech freely gave his love to Lisa for years, even though she usually threw nothing but meanness back in his face; Pepé le pew continues to chase Penelope the kitty and offer his love unconditionally, despite her wanting to have nothing to do with him; and Forrest continually pursued Jenny and showed her countless acts of love, even after she broke his heart on multiple occasions.

I hope more people will let the truth set them free—even if they don't like things that don't come with costs.

Currahee cheers

Life is definitely not a cake walk.

There are moments we face that prove to be sometimes more than we ever thought we could handle. But it's in those moments that we can also develop and discover our true characters.

I got to see one of those instances in the lives of some of my runners this morning.

I coach both cross country and track, and they are definitely two extremes. My group of sprinters struggles with the offseason workouts, and today was no exception. There is a hill at our school (known as the Currahee Hill) that many students have come to fear. When you run this hill, you have to go around each tree—up and down, up and down, up and down…you get the picture. Well, let's just say that the tree line is quite extensive, so it's a daunting task for many of the athletes. My cross country runners have to do multiple Currahees on our hill workouts, but one is certainly enough for most of the sports.

The ultimate encouragers

So today in track I had my athletes run one Currahee, and it was a pretty big struggle for quite a few of them. I started to get frustrated when I saw some walking going on, but then something happened that truly warmed my heart. There was one girl in the back who was having a really, really hard time finishing this workout. I kept trying to encourage her, but I can only say so much—she's the one who actually has to do the work, and it looked like she was about to give up entirely.

Until something beautiful happened.

When she had about eight trees to go, one of the other girls who had already finished started running with her to offer extra encouragement. On the next tree, another joined. Then another. And another. By the time she made it to the last tree, a total of nine girls were running up that hill, and two of the girls had their hands on the back of the girl who was struggling so much, as they were literally pushing her to the top. What was even more refreshing was the fact that I hadn't told them to do this at all—it was all on their own accord that they stepped up to help their teammate, a girl some of them don't even know very well yet.

When she was finished, she gave me a hug and said, "Thank you. Thank you so much, Coach Merrill, for not giving up on me."

This journey is not easy, and there are going to be more times than we'd like when we find ourselves facing our own Currahee challenges. But it doesn't always have to be such a painful endeavor, especially when we have people there to cheer us on and help us to the finish. God places certain people in our lives at the exact moments when we need them to be our Currahee cheerleaders.

Life may not be a cakewalk, but it's definitely an adventure better lived with others right alongside you.

In the words of the great High School Musical, "We're all in this together."

Let it be

Even the smallest decisions we make in life can have bigger impacts than we thought they would.

And sometimes they change others' lives, as well.

About a year ago, I was in my second-to-last semester of grad school and taking classes a couple of nights a week. At the end of the semester, one of my classes got out super early on our very last meeting. There was a guy in that class who had talked Rangers and football with me a lot each week, and he asked me if I wanted to go hang out that night. Then he added that he wanted to get to know me better, because he thought we had a lot in common and were placed in the same class by Cupid's fate.

Umm, no.

I declined. He seemed nice enough, but I wasn't interested in him, and I figured it was silly to waste either of our time. There was nothing Cupid-related between us. At all.

This picture has very little relevance.

I didn't see him after that, and I can't say I was disappointed when we didn't have any classes together in my final semester in the spring. I honestly never even thought of that situation anymore until the other day when I received an email from the guy. He was basically thanking me for turning him down, because that night he went to meet his friends at a bar, instead, and he ended up meeting the girl of his dreams there, as well. He just recently proposed, and they are getting married in the spring. He dropped some truth in his little note: "If I had been hanging out with you, I might not have met the most amazing woman ever to walk the earth."

You're welcome?

It made me start to think about a lot of decisions I've made—whether big or small—and how things might be different right now if I had gone other directions. Where would I be if I had just stayed at A&M all four years of college? What would have happened if I had continued my career in sports reporting? How different would running and group of friends be if I had never started running with some of those crazies in Dallas? Why did I choose the blueberry bagel over the cinnamon sugar last Friday?

Some of life's mysteries we will never know.

And then I had to stop thinking about these things, because I know they all happened for some special purpose. It's silly to sit there and ponder how my life would be different, because it's never going to be that way. It is the way it is for a reason, because that's how God intended it to be. I didn't hang out with Cupid-loving-grad-class guy, because I was not supposed to, and he was clearly meant to end up with someone else.

Life is full of decisions. Some of them seem monumental; some of them seem itsy-bitsy. Yet, all of them impact our lives—and sometimes those of others—more than we'll ever know. Sure, we might not always like our decisions, and we could often regret many of them, but they all led us to where we are. We wouldn't be the people we are without the choices we make on a daily basis.

So, instead of harping on choices you've made in the past, just embrace the notion that you're being molded into the person you're supposed to be.

Hidden treasures

You can't always believe everything people tell you.

Especially when it's really just an opinion, anyway.

I don't often hear people say many positive things about Waco, Texas. Sure, the Baylor faithful take pride in their school, but when it comes to the actual town, the general consensus is that "there is nothing to do."

False.

My friend Wendy and I really didn't have much going on today, so we decided it would be in our best interest to make the drive down I-35 to Waco. We were on a double mission: eat at Fazoli's and make a music video. I'm very happy to say that we were successful on both accounts, and I'm even more thrilled to say that people are very wrong about Waco—there is SO much to do there.

After we ate at breadstick heaven—so worth the trip after being deprived for about seven years—we drove to the Baylor campus, which is actually quite lovely. We just happened to pull into a parking lot right in front of a live bear display, so you can bet that we shot some of our music video in front of those cages. I mean, why would you not have a bear in the background of something that will likely be up for a VMA next year?

Go find a bear.

We also sought out the RG3 Heisman trophy and found it inside the locked athletics building. While this was a rather big letdown, Wendy was able to get a pretty legit picture through the glass doors. It almost looks like we were inside the building. We still think there should be a bigger statue of him somewhere outside where people can take pictures with him. I don't want to say it ruined our music video any, but it did hurt it a little. I hope Baylor officials take this into consideration.

I can't give many more details, because the music video has yet to be released (plus, I haven't even edited it yet), but I will say that we sang and danced with caged animals, on campus, on a bridge over the Brazos, in front of some buildings in what we guessed was downtown, and in local retail stores. We even hit up some swanky little coffee shop that had a taco truck right next to it after we bugged our friend Andrew who had to work in Waco for the day.

In the past, I only stopped in Waco for restroom breaks on road trips to College Station or Austin. But I must say I now have a new appreciation for this place.

So many times in life, we get the wrong impression of people or things simply because we don't take the time to get to know them. As trite as it is to say, you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, because you don't exactly know what adventures opening it will bring to your life. God created everything for a purpose, but sometimes you just have to peel back the layers to discover the true beauty underneath the surface.

Life only happens once, and it seems silly not to find the positives in as much as you can. Things, people, and under-appreciated towns aren't always going to seem perfect, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy them.

And who doesn't love a little joy?

Construction zones

I feel like the highways in the area are in perpetual states of construction.

And, to be honest, that's a pretty accurate description of all of us, as well.

Road construction can be so frustrating, because it often causes major delays and traffic buildups. A lot of people are pretty time urgent and like to think the rest of the world should be operating on their schedules, so you can imagine the thoughts we have and actions we take when faced with these construction zones. After all, most of us are probably guilty of being, well, not the greatest of people when we spot those daunting orange signs.

And then come the detours.

Welcome to the fun zone.

I don't like detours. I have a hard enough time trying to navigate my way to places on normal paths, and my maps app doesn't really know when detours are going to throw curve balls into the plans laid out before me. Changing up routes just adds more time and frustration to already disliked situations.

What's even worse about road construction and all that ensues from it is that there is really nothing you can do about it. You're helpless. Maybe that's one reason why people honk so much and yell things behind their closed doors and rolled-up windows: it puts just a little bit of power back into their hands.

The truth is, though, is that we live a good portion of our lives in construction zones. God is constantly working on our hearts and changing us. We face so many detours that there is no way Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps or any other mapping service could possibly give you a route that makes sense. He's the only One who knows what it is, and—just like when you're sitting in a never-ending line of cars suffering through what seems like a giant parking lot of cars traveling at 7 mph—all you can do is wait.

Recently, some of the construction that was going on near where I live finally finished, and roads opened up. As expected, it made things so much better. I'd like to think that a lot more people are smiling while their driving now, instead of secretly cursing the cars in front of them that didn't speed up through those yellow lights.

That's the hope we can have: with all of the construction occurring in us and all around our lives, better things are on the way. We are being perfected by the moment, and God's going to make sure that we become the best we can be.

It's not always fun to go through the work, alternate routes and traffic jams to get there, but it's definitely worth it.