Prologue

Over the years, I’ve worked harder and harder to find meaning in life. But the more I've looked, the more I’ve wondered if I was going about my search the wrong way.

I've been looking for meaning through experience, but I think now that I've always had it backwards. Life will never be defined by extravagant experience, but about finding extravagance in common experience. So for 2009, I'm going to focus less on living large, and focus more on living well. Each month I'll start a new month-long project (like trying to run 3 miles faster than George Bush), to find uncommon results from common experience. Each project will involve daily activity, so every day of 2009 you can check my progress on the monthly projects and see what I discover.

None of these projects will cost much—in fact, I think most will be free. So if you're looking for a year uncommonly rich, you can join me. There's no membership required, just participate and comment if you want. Either way, get ready for a year I hope is unlike any other.

Epilogue

I stumbled across the finish line, but I manage to complete 8 of the month-long projects successfully. Blogging is now over at Wonderfam!

It's February, and February was a …

A Month of Accomplishment (about)

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Forcing myself to finish something (about)

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Fringe benefits of running

Written by Nathan on January 21, 2009 at 11:59 pm from A Month of Resolve.

Being that I work at a church, there are a number of churchy things I do. Tonight I attended our annual mission fair, or at least our version of it. This August I’m leading a small team to Brazil to help support soccer camps run by a former member of the Brazilian soccer team and I spent the evening recruiting potential teammates. Recruiting was (and will continue to be) difficult, because the weather will be hot and the physical demands steep. Throughout the evening I kept wondering if I would even have considered myself a candidate a few weeks back. Would I consider myself even now?

There are many trip details yet unknown, but fitness tests will definitely be a part of the this trip’s requirements. What I thought I could do, and what I was actually able to accomplish these last few weeks have been very different. It’s been difficult discovering my physical limits, but when I try to imagine discovering them in the Amazon I shudder to think of the possible consequences.

None of this is to say that every trip participant would be required to run 3 miles faster than me (or faster than Bush). In fact, tonight I biked again (3 miles in 7:30). But this month I’ve rediscovered that even a silly physical project requires training. So as we get ready for a decidedly less-than-silly journey to play soccer in Brazil, I’ll count myself fortunate for the lessons I’m already learning.

If you love soccer and Jesus and think Brazil might be for you, let me know. I’m looking for 15 hardy souls and right now it’s just a team of one.

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