So proud of my family!  This weekend they participated in a Tough Mudder event.  What’s a tough mudder? Here’s what their website states:

Tough Mudder events are hardcore obstacle courses designed to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses, over one million inspiring participants worldwide to date, and more than $5 million raised for the Wounded Warrior Project, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world. But Tough Mudder is more than an event; it’s a way of thinking. By running a Tough Mudder challenge, you’ll unlock a true sense of accomplishment, have a great time and discover a camaraderie with your fellow participants that’s experienced all too rarely these days.  If you want to learn more, visit their website at http://www.toughmudder.com.

Before the event:

It was really inspiring.  They launched several groups throughout the day and each time they would go through a ritual with them.  They would thank them for supporting the Wounded Warriors Project (you pay a fee to go through the course), they would play the Star Spangled Banner, and then they would get them pumped up. They would ask everyone to take a knee, and then they asked anyone who served in the military past or present to stand and everyone cheered. Then they would ask police, firefighters, teachers, students, etc to stand until everyone in the group was standing. They explained how they were all heroes to someone.  Then they asked everyone to place a hand on the shoulder of the person next to them and explained how this course was a team effort…no man/woman left behind.

I didn’t get to experience the event as a participant because my body wouldn’t let me, but I would have loved to join them.  Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that I’m pretty tough so I think I could have held my own (smile).  But I had to settle for being a spectator.  Part of the fun of the day was seeing all the different outfits people wore.  As you can see, my family chose to be superheroes.  I saw girls in tutus, guys in unicorn shirts and hats, painted faces…you name it.

They had a path for the spectators to follow so we could watch some of the obstacles.  The first one I went to was the burn zone which was a bunch of very steep hills one after the other.  Following that was the artic enema which is a container filled with 28 degree water.  Participants have to jump in the water and swim under a bar to get to the exit. They have a special gel in the water to keep it from freezing.

One of my favorite spots was at the Electric Eel.  Here they made participants army crawl through water while getting shocked by wires hanging down.  Some of the reactions were hilarious…especially from the guys.  Most of the girls handled it much better then the men.  Too funny!  I tried video taping some of it, but the language was too bad.

It was a grueling course and the temperature didn’t get above 60 that day.  I was cold with 3 layers on so I can’t imagine how cold they were having to swim in water several times throughout the course…especially the artic enema. Their purple lips were confirmation that it was rough.  This is the team picture at the end(the group that participated from Mike’s place of work).

It took 5 hours for them to complete the 12 mile course.  It gave me time to reflect.  Do you know that you are a hero to someone?  Do you know that someone sees what you are going through and how you handle it inspires them?

There was a lot of dirt on this course.  The participants were messy and tired. But their faces at the end showed the satisfaction of completing something they thought might be beyond their capabilities.  They didn’t complete the course alone…someone always had their back to provide a helping hand or word of encouragement.  It reminded me of life.  It can be messy, but we have Someone to walk us through the mess giving us strength, hope, encouragement.  He can take our messy life and make it clean if we let Him.

Jesus can take our mess and through His sacrifice make us clean.  Be kind to each other…be a hero…we are in this mess called life together.