Part II - Dr. Trent Rocks Chicago! (Read this second!)

Here's a picture and video of me walking into "Corral 7" with 1,000 of my new friends, and a video of the start for our group...

My biggest concern was the heat and humidity (Especially coming from Arizona, the land of dry heat). But we started running to early, and the weather was so nice, the race itself was half as hard as the training runs I'd one back home! (On my training runs, I'd run out of water half way, and the heat was brutal. At the Rock and Roll, it seemed like every ten feet someone was handing you water, and because you were running through downtown Chicago, the buildings are so tall, I was in the shade almost the whole time!

Dr. Trent Rocks Chicago! (And finishes the 1/2 Marathon!

Thanks to all those who prayed and supported me as I ran the Chicago Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon this past Sunday, August 2nd! What follows is a blow by blow account -- with an invitation at the end for you to come and join me and Rock Arizona on January 17th at the Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon in Phoenix!

Hi, StrongFamilies Friends!

Race Preparation!

It all started with an early morning plane flight from LAX to Chicago (Cindy and I had been speaking at Forest Home in California, so she fly home to Phoenix and I headed to the Windy City. I stepped off the plane, ran to the rental car desk, and then raced over to "check in" at a convention center near downtown. You can't run if you don't have your "race bib" (the race number you run with)and you have to check in before 5:00pm the day before race day. I made it with all of 45 minutes to spare!


I went to my hotel, about a mile from the start, and here's a picture of the race crew setting up the starting line!


That night, I went to Gino's East for a "carb" (and calorie load) deep dish Chicago pizza! The next morning, at 4:00am, here's what the view looked like from my room.



4:00am is actually 2:00am Pacific time (in Arizona and California where I was coming from) so it was an early start! If you haven't been in a marathon or 1/2 marathon like the Rock & Roll -- you're not alone! In fact, here I am going into my "corral." What that means is that the really good runners get in "Corral 1." And it goes down from there. In all but the first corral, there are roughly 1,000 people! They do this so that they can do what's called a "staggered" start, so you don't bunch up at the starting line. Here too is a video of the start! In the next "post" I'll continue to walk you through the run and post the picture and video of the start!

Instead of turning into the Casino...

Last post, I shared about looking out at the casino near our office. Let's look a little closer at what can keep us from turning into that parking lot -- by being willing to face something as scary as... a gas pump!
Dr. Tony Wheeler, the Director of our Midwest Center for StrongFamilies (www.midwestfamilycenter.com) is fond of sharing an amazing story.
In the state of New Jersey, like everywhere else across the country, the cost of gasoline has gone up and up. It seems that in 2006, in the face of soaring prices, their governor at the time decided to do something that experts calculated would drop the price of gasoline 5 to 10 cents per gallon immediately. There could be huge savings statewide if they could just make that small change – but even the suggestion brought a huge outcry. In fact, the Governor’s office retreated on making this change after being swamped with over 1,400 e-mails and calls that poured in from an outraged public! (That was five times the “outrage emails” they gotten regarding anything else the Governor had proposed).
What was it that fired up people so much that they shouted down making such a small change? The Governor had suggested that people be allowed to pump their own gas! But in New Jersey, motorists haven’t pumped their own gas in 57 years. Cries came that people would put the gas in the wrong hole! That the elderly couldn’t do it and would harm themselves! That gas stations would be blowing up all over the state from smokers filling their tanks!
In short, fear shouted down positive change. Proverbs 16:13 says, “The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A lion in the open square!” You’re not going to take a step outside if there are “lion-sized” problems out there! (Real or imagined). Fear blows up our problems and decreases our feelings that we can do anything about them.
So – if you’ve ever pumped your own gas without harming yourself or others – then you might think about sharing this story with someone you’re working with who is fearful of taking even that first small “step” towards a positive future. Or perhaps, as you think about your own life, you need to ask the hard question yourself. “Have your fears in these difficult times caused you to slow down, stopped you from moving forward, or caused you to question your faith not just in a positive future, but in the God of the future?”
I’ll start by being honest. Our little ministry has been hammered by the economic situation like never before. I’ve faced heart pounding, stomach tightening fears, just like many of you. But I promise I won’t turn into the casino on the way home, and like you, that I’ll keep turning towards a loving God who does have a positive future for us, and who sent His only Son who will “never leave us, nor forsake us.” (Hebrews 13:5b). Write more soon, JT

Where a loss of optimism can lead...

From my office, if I stand close to my upstairs window and look far out towards the horizon, I can see “it” poking it’s head above the trees and buildings. The “it” is a Casino. It’s right in the middle of town, with a parking lot that always looks full when I get on the freeway to go home. In fact, our local paper reported recently that with the economy being so bad and with so many businesses hurting for customers – attendance numbers at the casino was actually increasing!
But that only makes sense, right?
Surely, in these troubled times, people are flocking there who are optimistically thinking to themselves, “My luck is bound change! This time, when I pull the handle on the slot machine, I’m going to win a jackpot that will change everything for the better!”
People who frequently visit casinos are optimists, right? They just have to be it would seem. But if the truth be known, in clinical studies, people who frequent casinos aren’t optimists... they’re major league pessimists!
That took me by surprise when I first read that people weren’t numbly “pulling the handle” of a slot machine because they thought it would lead to a positive future. Most were pulling the handle because they felt they didn’t have a future – or at least a future that they could do anything about changing.
But certainly, that kind of fatalistic view of the future isn’t something Christians have to deal with, right? After all, we can lay claim to verses like Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans for welfare, not calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” And “Phillipians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be make known unto God.”
Those are great verses, and God’s word is absolutely true. But if the truth be known, I think many Christians today – like never before in my lifetime – are getting a chance to hold those verses in one hand, and the incredibly harsh economic and social realities we’re facing in the other. In fact, if I were a betting man, I would “wager” that some of us reading (or writing) this blog right now are fearful about a positive future. What's more, some are questioning whether with so many "rules of life" having changed so quickly... can we really impact our future in a positive way?
Let me start by being honest about being fearful of a positive future. Back in the months after 9/11, our small ministry almost went under. We do roughly 18 to 20 seminars a year, and those seminars at churches across the country represent about 75% of our income as a ministry. After 9/11, we had 14 seminars cancel -- and we nearly went out of ministry. I thought that was the toughest of tough times. However, to put things in perspective, we had our major February conference cancel... then our major March conference... then April... May... and two days ago, I got a call that our July conference had canceled. (Which makes June sound like a good month -- except we didn't have a June seminar!). All that to say that I had to sit down with my precious wife, Cindy, and have the same very challenging talk with her that I did back after 9/11. That is we not only won't be getting paycheck this month... but as it looks I won't be able to hand her a paycheck this summer. That's tough, but I know lots of folks who have had it tougher. And so that leads me back to where we began.
It's 6:13pm and I'm getting ready to go home, looking out my window at the office as I write this... and just barely able to see the casino in the distance. Tune in tomorrow, and I'll share with you what it is that keeps me from turning into that parking lot, and pulling a handle.
Lord bless and write more soon,
John Trent, Ph.D. StrongFamilies.com

The Peanut Butter Club

It was years ago when my mother announced "we" (meaning, her three boys -- ages eight, five and five -- I'm a twin) were all "New members of the Peanut Butter Club!" As a little background, we loved peanut butter. As in, we'd eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day by choice at grade school, and every meal at home if we were allowed. Now, our dreams had come true! For the next three days, we were told that as official members of the "Peanut Butter Club" we could dine on our favorite sandwich morning, noon and night! Of course, what my single-parent mom wasn't saying in announcing our membership in the "club" was that she'd be eating those sandwiches with us as well. Not because she shared our love for all things peanut butter. But because there was still three days left in the month, and she had no money and little food in the cupboard -- except bread, peanut butter and jelly.
Mom got her check the first day of the month, and we'd all go to the store on "payday" and stock up on everything needed (and healthy) to fill up three growing boys. But Mom would always buy an extra jar of peanut butter -- and sure enough -- every month for years growing up, we'd get to "join the club" at the end of the month.
Maybe that's where you're at, or where a friend is at. As a child, I didn't understand the incredible courage it took for a single-parent mom, with no help from family or friends, to turn that pit-of-the-stomach fear and anxiety of being totally broke, into several days of "fun" for her kids. I'm grateful I understand a little better today. As I cross the country, I'm certainly talking to more and more people who are hurting "big time" financially. And closer to home, all I have to do is look at our own small ministry that, like so many others, is struggling to stay afloat in these challenging times. These are fearful, anxious times. But I'm incredibly thankful for that model of a loving mom who looked empty cupboards and an empty pocketbook in the eye -- and had the courage, faith and wisdom to start a "peanut butter club" instead of tossing up her hands or tossing in the towel.
Wishing you and your family God's best,
John Trent

Back from Dallas EXPO and a house of mirrors...

There are so many controdictory examples of whether things are getting worse -- or getting better in the world we're facing -- it's like living in a house of mirrors. Look in one mirror, one day, and things look small and shrunken. For example, I just got back from the Dallas Book Expo. They had expected, literally, at least 50,000 people to show up at the Dallas Convention Center. We bought a booth (see above) and were all set to help hundreds of families who walked by. On Friday, almost no one walked by all day. There were, literally, 400 people at the event -- not 50,000. On Saturday, it looked like 300 people. On Sunday, I was told that many of the events were canceled. It was incredible to see thousands of feet of convention floor space, filled with books and authors and book publishers -- and so few people. To put it in perspective, if Max Lucado was doing a book signing, how long would you expect his line to be? If you said, "Around the entire convention center!" You'd normally be right! However, at this Book Expo, I walked over, talked to my friend, Max, got caught with him for several minutes before finally, another person walked up to get a book signed by him! (By the way, Max has quit riding his road bike and is back to golfing, having golfed with Michael Hyatt, Publisher of Thomas Nelson, the day before).
That's the negative "mirror" I looked into over the weekend. Apparently, money so tight, people so scared of even buying a book -- they just stayed home.
Then on Monday it's like looking at another mirror!
The market goes up over 500 points! (Which in stock market terms is a lot in one day!!!). All that to say, I'm glad that we have a God who knows the future -- and knows us. Put in the words of 1Cor. 13:12, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known." I'm thankful that in these uncertain, "house of mirror" times, we can know that while we face lots of uncertainty today, one day we'll exchange it for a full picture of Jesus, and His love and plan for our lives.
Good news in confusing times! Write more later and Lord bless, John Trent

Cold hands warm hearts in South Dakota

Wow! Two days ago I was home in Scottsdale, mowing our yard and it was only 84 degrees. Last night it was zero here in South Dakota! What a difference a two hour plane flight can make! I spoke a few hours ago at a Priority Associates luncheon in downtown Souix Falls to about 100 business people. My topic. The 2 Degree Difference in their workplaces, homes and heart for God. During my talk, I held up a steering wheel and told a story of my falling asleep at the wheel in New Mexico -- waking up in "big trouble" when my car went across six lanes and started to go off the road -- and my making things worse by trying a "big solution" to my "big problem" by yanking the steering wheel 180 degrees. (Which, if you're a paramedic or police officer you know is how you roll your car over several times). For several of the people I talked to afterwards, that "picture" with the steering wheel was the very thing that had been holding them back in either growing, or coming to Christ -- namely, they were waiting for, or thinking that only a 180 degree change could bring change for them. For one "seeker", he told me "I have so many questions about evolution, I think I've been waiting for all my questions to be answered before I make any kind of decision about Jesus." For another, it was thinking that "there had to be one big thing" he could do to try and win back his wife (instead of making small 2 Degree changes right now). In short, it's so much like us to think that we have to do something "big" when we face a big problem. It's so much like Jesus to remind us to be "faithful in a little" and to have faith the size of a mustard seed. Hope you're doing great, making those 2 Degree changes, and staying warm! Post more later, JT