When I “played,” practiced may be a better term, football for a Division I-AA non-scholarship, small liberal arts college up in the North Country, the prominence of our program was evidenced by the fact that, when it came time to renovate the school’s basketball facility, our weight room was relocated to the bottom of an empty pool.  The squat and bench press racks and curl bars were set up in the shallow end; the deep end was set up for powercleans.  Inevitably someone would drop a weight and it would roll down to the deep end, which led to an unintended poly-drill as you tried to hop out of the way.​

For the coaches,this was an ideal setup.  As distant and disconnected authority figures, they paced the pool deck, yelling at us from high above.

The setup was similar to how many of us perceive our relationship with God. Down at the bottom of the pool, we go about our daily toil, while he watches from above, clipboard in hand, judging our efforts.  Disconnected from the divine, we naturally become wary of how Faith – the 3rd F in F3 – would impact our daily routine.

The 3rd F effort, of which I am the Q, is designed to break through the idea of the Great Clipboarder in the same way that F3’s 1st F format puts workout leaders in the trenches with participants.  I want F3’s men of faith to engage with a deity who comes off the pool deck and gets down into the mess of the deep end of life for the purpose of connecting us to each other, to God and to the bigger world.  In the Bible, Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another…”

Much of F3’s profound success in changing the lives of the PAX lies in its use of peer leadership.  Having neighbors, business partners, friends and fellow congregants shoulder-to-shoulder with us, locking shields in the Gloom, makes us better, stronger and leaders.  Not only as athletes, but also as men, fathers, husbands, workers, bosses, sons, uncles…

As we move past the resolutionary phase of January and early February, I challenge us to keep that passage from Hebrews in mind and let it spur us to new and deeper efforts as the year continues.  F3 is open to men of all faith backgrounds and no faith backgrounds, and as men we will dig deep into deep end of our lives challenging and encouraging each other.  Right now we have groups digging into the Bible, but welcome groups forming as the PAX demand them.

If you have been strengthening the 1st F, how about deepening the 2nd F?  And what about dipping your toe in the deep end and start exploring the 3rd F?

Using the model of our 1st F workouts, click here to find the Key Elements to a 3rd F workout.

​For those in the F3-Metro, there are three 3rd F gathering: #ABS (Fridays at the Dowd), #BIB (Tuesdays at Panera on Providence); #Smokey (Wednesdays at Caribou on East Blvd.) with another group launching after Atlas on February 27th in Cotswold.

​If you are a Q in another region, and already have a 3rd F gathering going let me know.  Or if you want to get some support getting a 3rd F gathering going, contact me as well: agonyF3@gmail.com