No doubt, you have heard from someone on life’s journey say that the key to living a good life is to always ask: “What would Jesus do?”

For Christians, of which I am somewhere in the rank and file, I think this is a worthwhile question …. to ask oneself. But, that’s about as far as it goes.

Why? Because I believe matters of faith are to be self-directed and not proclamation as a means of seeking to declare one’s superiority over another.

So, basically the self-directed question (for a Christian – or perhaps one of another faith who is able to swing wide as to breadth and depth of their understanding of differing faiths) is perfectly fine.

To seek to ask that question as a means of forcing someone else’s faith … ‘not so much.’

That ecumenical clarity now aside, why the heck would I swap the name “Goggins” in for “Jesus”?

Oh, I’m glad you asked.

The reason for this is because on an early Saturday morning, this is the question that I am using to break the litigation that is going on in my mind?

The question is a very easy one and one that is immortalized by a song of The Clash on their “Combat Rock” Album (no less): “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” LISTEN [HERE].

Yes, that’s right. I was asking myself that very question!

See, last night (as I was finishing off the last of several new habits I am seeking to install all at once in the last few minutes of the 5th day of this new year) I noticed a FaceBook feed indicating that The Green Lake Running Group was having its 17th Anniversary and all runners – present and past – were invited.

Now, I am definitely a past runner; and a quick one at that … at least as a “flash in the pan.” To wit, I was a part of this group for about a couple of years before running the Seattle Marathon in 2019 … and then petered out quite a bit until Covid happened and well, that served as the excuse to let my “running career” go.

Now, I’m not only back to the weight that I was prior to the start of that journey to marathon … and then some, and of course no less than 5 years older.

An “old fart” of my age should take advice like Jack Nicholson’s character – Jake Giddis and …”Just Forget it Jake! [It’s China Town].” SEE my fairly recent blog post on the ‘other channel’ – [HERE].

But no, prior to going to bed a mere 4.5 hours ago, I signaled my intent to go to founder of this running group 17 years ago – Loka Murphy – that I would attend.

I wake up this morning though … because I am habituated to the Pacific Coast Boot Camp’s time and it’s raining outside and my mind of course tries to think of all the plausible excuses to keep me off purpose.

And then the perfect question to break the log jam comes to me …

What would Goggins do?

Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with David Goggins, just know that he’s the guy that went from being a lowly bug exterminator to arguably the word’s “baddest ass!”

David Goggins is a graduating member of (a) the United States Air Force Tactical Control Party; (b) the Navy Seal BUD/S training class 235; and (c) as an Army Ranger where he received a peerless, peer review and was awarded the “Enlisted Honor Man” award. Notably, he is the 36th African-American Navy Seal in US Navy Seal history!

So, by asking myself the question … “What would Goggins Do?” … I immediately have the answer.

Get off your candy-ass, get up, get ready, and … JUST DO IT!

And you know what’s so cool is that I still had enough time to take a pic of myself and bang out this blog post beforehand too!

Ok, I’m off to the Green Lake Runner’s Group Meetup just down the hill at Chinooks. Hell, maybe I should just run down there … that’s what Goggins would do!

Well, maybe I’m not ready to go FULL Goggins quite yet! 🙂

Cheers! BZ/JUSTICE SMILES, pllc