MACSSISTANCE

Well I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel on my personal blog, but I'm not yet sure how well I'll be able to keep up with it any longer.

I have a new website, which I need all of you to visit several times a day so I can pick up advertisers. Since I'm managing it, I can't promise it will be a great website, but I will post several interesting topics dealing with health and fitness. So if you want that kind of information but don't want to hire a personal trainer, consider macssistance your online (and free!!) strength coach. Here's the website:

www.macssistance.com

I'm Done!!!

Haven't heard about comps yet, but my thesis defense was a success! A project 1 1/2 years in the making is finally over. And now, since I have a master's degree I guess its off to the real world...???

Yeah, right! I'm a personal trainer. Deal with it world, I beat the system!

Grad School is Over!!!...maybe

As long as I passed my comps exam and successfully defend my thesis this Monday, I will be finished with graduate school. Comps is a comprehensive test that covers everything you've learned during your time in a master's program. Most graduate schools require either a thesis or comps, not both. For some reason, UALR does require both to finish with a master's. Its supposed to be pronounced "U-Lur," not "Yale-ur." What the crap are they thinking??? I'll post again after Monday to let both of you know how it went.


Well I'm headed to yet another wedding which I am a part of this weekend. Bret, the groom, is one of my best friends from high school. A side note on Bret: on our senior trip to Cancun, he was arrested for urinating on a side walk.

I realize this is a strange way to end a post, bu--

A Return to My First Love

A crazy thing happened this week...

I got a job!

The Country Club of Little Rock is allowing me to subject its patrons to pain and torture through personal training. My first client is tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. So all those days of working for free in the Arkansas Razorback weight room finally lead to a paycheck.

God is good. He always provides. And he allowed me to dodge a bullet...a few weeks ago I was ready to take another sales job. Training sweet old ladies and deep-pocketed golfers suites me much better, I think.

So for those enjoying the unemployment journal, sorry I won't be adding to that anymore. I am once again a contributor to society.

Men's Retreat With Cedar Heights Baptist Church

This weekend has been anticipated for quite a while.

Mike Reading

and I are getting to teach at a men's retreat for Cedar Heights Baptist Church of North Little Rock. This is the church where

Joel

serves as worship pastor. This is cool for a couple of reasons. First, because it seems like only a short time ago Mike and I were praying for a vision of how to do ministry together. Second, Cedar Heights is in the beginning stages of building a men's ministry

Here's a brief overview of the weekend:

Friday Night: The Story of God--An overview of the world's Creator and his pursuit of a relationship with mankind

Saturday Morning: The Story of Self--A look at the life of Jacob and how God transformed him from a deceiving coward to the identity he was created for

Saturday Afternoon: The Story of Community--Why community is important for man

Sunday Morning: Overall summary of the weekend plus the importance of each member in the Church playing his or her role

Eye of the Tiger

This smaller picture picture is me and my brother when we were 4 and 7, respectively.

No, no its not. But it easily could be. The similarities of these two to me and my brother are uncanny. This was a common scene at the McPherson household. We'd put on the gloves. Dad would referee. Daniel would cry. A vicious cycle that occurred almost every Sunday.

The top picture actually is my brother and I this past Christmas. Since I had the opportunity to train as a boxer for that Toughman contest last year, Douglas asked if I would take him through a session. After an hour and a half of punching each other in the face, we stopped to pose for this picture.

Boys will be boys.

Day 25 of Unemployment

Yes, its been 25 days since I had a job. If you want to keep up, you need only count the days since February 29. The unemployment office is no help. They will be deciding over the next 25 days whether or not I am entitled to receive unemployment. The good news is that the time off work gives me additional hours to dedicate to grad school and my other writing endeavors.

God bless Starbucks. As you see above, they allowed me my very own pot of French-pressed Arabian Mocha Sinani (my favorite blend) for the price of one cup! The problem is that this happened at about 8 tonight, and I have to be up at 5 a.m. tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm currently wired.

I want to share what I was working on tonight, as I believe it hits on a place where all of us find ourselves:

I believe that the power of Christ is more powerful than the power of the mind. But I cannot deny my past: when I convince myself that I am about to sin and there is nothing I can do about it, I always fall to temptation. How can I recognize that Christ is bigger than my sin and still fall? Why am I unable to escape such a vicious cycle? I empathize with Paul, who had this to say about such matters:

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

I have read these words many times over. How true they ring each time. My sin is not the real me. It is not the correct representation of my identity, as I am a new creation in Christ and not a slave to my sinful nature. It can, however, disrupt my progress. Just as sin separates lost souls from their Creator, it also interrupts the communication of sons and daughters with their Father.

But recognize that an interruption is not an eraser.

Hoping this encourages someone who finds themselves stuck in that vicious cycle. Remember friend, you are not your sin.