On December 11, 2022, I delivered the following sermon at Grace United Methodist Church in Wyckoff, NJ
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I’ll begin my sermon today by sharing some names that are out-of-date and out of season both in the holiday sense and in the sense of the sporting world.
I promise this will all come together…
Eventually.
Continue reading “Pinch-Hitting for Christ”
As I chronicle my recovery from Achilles Surgery along with my quest to get in the proper shape to run another marathon, I am pleased to report that I am making great progress.
Continue reading “Chronicle of a Comeback (vol. 25) – They Call This Progress!”
The other day I was making a congratulatory video for a great young man about to graduate from medical school. This soon-to-be doctor is going to be amazing. He is one of the best young people ever. I have known him for a long time as I was his principal when he was in middle school.
Time and life pass too quickly. I cannot believe he is now almost a doctor.
One of the special joys and delights of being an educator is seeing the great people your students grow up to be. I knew this child was going to be very successful. Even when he was ten-years-old, he was something special.
As I recorded the short video message, I shared what I hope is the most important advice he receives as he heads off to a successful practice.
I have told this story before, but it is one I love to tell. It needs telling, as well.
Especially in these times.
One of the most wonderful ministers of all-time, a pastor who preached from the heart, made church interesting, and even made God accessible, had moved on from our church.
There was an emptiness. I felt it deeply. The minister who had left was a man I admired greatly. I was thrilled that he had been the man who married my wife and I. We all missed him greatly…
Twelve weeks ago I arrived at the surgery center, walking in, knowing that I wouldn’t be walking out, and, in fact, that I wouldn’t be walking at all for quite some time.
When I checked into the surgery center, I told the receptionist that I was there to begin my training for the 2020 New York City Marathon. She smiled and said, “You must be Mr. Semendinger.”
Indeed I am.
I hobbled out of the surgery center on crutches my foot wrapped and in a heavy boot. The surgery was a success.
I woke up yesterday and enjoyed walking around my house doing tasks that I knew I wouldn’t get to do again for a number of weeks.
These tasks including exciting things like walking up and down the stairs, opening the refrigerator and grabbing items, standing at my computer, and taking a shower… things like that. Simple things. Things we often take for granted.
Continue reading “My 2020 NYC Marathon Training Began Yesterday (but not how you might think…)”
The Beatles song Hey Jude was in my head as I prepared to write my Weekly Memo to the teachers at the school where I serve as the principal.
As I started humming the melody and quietly singing that song to myself, I quickly realized that there is a great deal within the lyrics that delivers an important message. I quickly scrapped the original idea I had for the memo and began writing about this epic Beatles tune…
Let’s take a quick look at the messages that I took from one of the Beatles’ most famous songs:
Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better…
If that’s not one of the biggest lessons in life, I don’t know what is.
The message here is simple – Don’t make it bad. Just don’t. The world, life itself, is often filled with bad things, hurtful things, sad things… Each day (and sometimes it really is each day) we’re faced with things that upset us, things that hurt us, things that frustrate and annoy us. That’s life. It is what it is. Continue reading “Hey, It’s About YOU!”
I believe that the marathon is about equal amounts of physical and mental toughness. I think the mental toughness aspect of the race is often times more important than the physical side. There comes a time in every race, and in every training run, when most runners want to quit. I can say this unequivocally, there comes a time, usually multiple times, in every run when I want to quit.
Running is hard. Very hard. I have to continually and constantly resist the urge to quit.
I woke up today, April 6, feeling pretty terrible. Awfully terrible. I still feel terrible.
But yesterday I felt even worse – even if the actually feelings were different kinds of terrible.
In the end, terrible is terrible no matter how or where it feels.
Continue reading “One Last Shot… A Real Life Baseball Story (Part 5)”
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