Faith | F3 Birmingham

The day after

Some PAX that didn’t party too hard on the 4th of July decided to do the hard thing an wake up at the butt crack of dawn to play a little F3 Black Jack.

Warm up consisted of the Motivator and some Little baby arm circles

We played 2 separate rounds of Black Jack. If you have never heard of Black Jack, it looks like the following. The types of exercise can vary, but the count remains the same.

20 Merkins followed immediately by 1 Squat, then 19 Merkins followed by 2 squats and so on until you reach 1 Merkin and 20 Squats.

We then moseyed over to the playground for some more Black Jack

This time we used the swing set. Lying down on our backs below the swing, we did 20 chest pulls followed immediately by 1 Big Boy sit up. Then 19 Chest pulls followed by 2 Big Boy sits ups. I can keep going here, but my fingers are tired and you know the drill.

These hard core, do whatever it takes, always reliable, best of the best PAX were 3P0 (our Q), Mash, Matrix, Saturn, Bottleneck, Bates, and Myself (Roadrunner),

I hate mornings, I love sleep, and I’m not too fond of groups of people. That’s what I use to tell myself. At least, until I was reluctantly introduced to F3.

I fought F3 every time it was mentioned to me, starting with this weird group of guys with painted faces in the parking lot of Oak Mountain after a mud run in 40 degree weather. I fought it from the same friend I ran with after he decided to give F3 a try. It’s the mornings. Those sweet, precious moments when you are dead asleep in a warm bed, hopefully next to a beautiful woman. I thought there was nothing better. But there is!

Now I find sleep to be the necessary ingredient needed to help me have the energy to get up in the Gloom of the morning to crawl, sweat, hurt and fellowship with my new found Brothers. That initial rise out of bed in the wee hours of the morning gets overshadowed by the excitement I find when I pull up to a parking lot filled with guys I love and respect.

So, now I find myself attempting what F3 lovingly refers to as a Headlock. But, unlike most workout groups, I don’t find myself looking for that guy that is already in shape and may want to save money with a free workout (which you do). I literally tell everyone. Because everyone needs to be part of something bigger than themselves. It is less of a workout group and more of a brotherhood. Matthew 4:19 states – Jesus said to them “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to be fishers of men” There are few places to put that message from God into practice better than F3. Don’t just invite people to F3. Tell them your story. What does F3 mean to you?

This isn’t Fight Club. The first 2 rules are NOT “Don’t talk about F3”. Slumlord ends all of his emails with “ALWAYS BE HEADLOCKING”. So, lets do our part. We are 1,000 PAX strong. Imagine the impact we can have on our community if that number doubled or even tripled. Imagine the differences we can see in our 2.0s, our M’s that witness us attempting to better ourselves. You may not realize it, but it affects them too. Its like a spark igniting a flame. This world is in desperate need of Male leaders. I can’t imagine better leaders than men that have the discipline to do the hard thing in the gloom of the morning while also following God’s word.

Let’s go be Fishers of Men