God is a much better friend to me than I would be to him if the roles were reversed.
I wish I could see God. Hear him. Touch him. Have an audible conversation with him. The Christian life would be way easier. There are times when I can see God in his creation and hear him in the symphony of a summer night and touch him in the much needed hug from a friend. I wish I were more aware of these moments.
I long for stability in relationships, but am learning to appreciate instability. I don't like it, but it fosters growth.
In the words of Further Seems Forever, "This winter is lasting forever, at least for tonight."
It was really great to sing at CG last night. That's probably the thing I miss the most about my old CG. There's just something about singing praises to God in a small group that is really refreshing to my soul.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Kids are freakin hilarious
I teach a kindergarten/1st grade Sunday school class at church. Tonight (while the girls were all playing quietly and peacefully with each other, as girls do) the boys were being crazy and sword fighting with these swords they made out of these Lego type things. Eventually, the sword fighting regressed to typical boy-humor and they started strategically placing the swords in the genital region of their bodies and walking around with their, um, new endowments. In all fairness, it was actually really funny....but I had to be a responsible Sunday school teacher and tell them to stop. So then I had a huddle with the 3 boys and I was like "Guys, when there are ladies in the room, you cannot make jokes about your penis." And then one of the boys asks, "Is it ok if it's all boys?" I thought for a moment and then said "Yeah. It's not like a great thing to do, but it's ok." Those kids are so great.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Sweep Me Away
I like this song by Monk & Neagle. Life is funny. And difficult sometimes. Thank God for difficulties.
Standing in this valley
Broken down, all alone
I haven’t seen the sun
For so many days
I’m clinging to the promise
Of a mountain top
But right now, Lord
I’d settle for some rain
Sweep me away
By Your great love
Cover my life in Your holy flood
Let the currents of change
Come and carry away
All of my questions, my doubt, and my pain
Deliver my life from this valley, I pray
Sweep me away
There’s a blessing in the valley
I cry out in faith
But my mind begins to wonder
If I’ll ever see that day
I know that seasons are expected
But Winter leads to Spring
So I will thank You in the middle of everything
Thank You in everything
Standing in this valley
Broken down, all alone
I haven’t seen the sun
For so many days
I’m clinging to the promise
Of a mountain top
But right now, Lord
I’d settle for some rain
Sweep me away
By Your great love
Cover my life in Your holy flood
Let the currents of change
Come and carry away
All of my questions, my doubt, and my pain
Deliver my life from this valley, I pray
Sweep me away
There’s a blessing in the valley
I cry out in faith
But my mind begins to wonder
If I’ll ever see that day
I know that seasons are expected
But Winter leads to Spring
So I will thank You in the middle of everything
Thank You in everything
Friday, February 8, 2008
Two ways an afternoon can change from good to bad real quick
Overall, my Friday has been great. I had a rather productive an efficient day at the lab, got out of going to a boring seminar, the weather is nice, etc. I finished up everything I needed to do at the lab at 2:00, with plenty of time to spare before my meeting with a professor at 4:00. I decided I'd walk home and work on my proposal some until my meeting, and that would also allow me to drive to campus for the meeting instead of walking all the way to the Poultry Science building and back home. Let's just say the walk home was more eventful than normal.
Incident #1
I was walking down Dickson St. and just passed Bank of America and had come to the intersection of University and Dickson. There was a car waiting to turn left onto University. Now for those of you who don't walk my route regularly, sometimes it's hard to tell if a person is waiting to turn left on University or if they are just waiting at the stoplight at Arkansas and Dickson. Anyway, right as I get about 1/3 of the way out on the crosswalk, this lady finds a tiny opening in traffic and decides to go for it. She turned REAL fast and had no idea a freakin pedestrian was in the crosswalk until I did a nifty little jump move to avoid her taking out my knees. She simultaneously slammed on the brakes and I missed being hit by no more than a couple of inches. Definitely the closest I've ever been to being run over by a car.
Incident #2
So incident #1 definitely got my adrenaline going. I was kinda shaking and a little freaked out that I almost got run over real hard. My trek home continues down Dickson past Qdoba and George's and into the Walton Arts Center parking lot. By this point I wasn't quite paying attention to where I was walking because of all the death scenarios running around in my head. The lack of attention led to me missing a step down from a curb in the parking lot and I totally sprained my ankle. At first I was real mad and didn't think about it, and then after being mad for about 5 seconds I realized it hurt real bad. And I still had to walk the rest of the way home. Crap. I'm sure I had this hardcore gritty look of determination on my face, but deep down I think I just wanted to sit down in the parking lot and call people to come pick me up to take me the last 1/4 mile home. I made it home writhing in pain and without any more incidents, thankfully.
Hope y'all have a good weekend!
Incident #1
I was walking down Dickson St. and just passed Bank of America and had come to the intersection of University and Dickson. There was a car waiting to turn left onto University. Now for those of you who don't walk my route regularly, sometimes it's hard to tell if a person is waiting to turn left on University or if they are just waiting at the stoplight at Arkansas and Dickson. Anyway, right as I get about 1/3 of the way out on the crosswalk, this lady finds a tiny opening in traffic and decides to go for it. She turned REAL fast and had no idea a freakin pedestrian was in the crosswalk until I did a nifty little jump move to avoid her taking out my knees. She simultaneously slammed on the brakes and I missed being hit by no more than a couple of inches. Definitely the closest I've ever been to being run over by a car.
Incident #2
So incident #1 definitely got my adrenaline going. I was kinda shaking and a little freaked out that I almost got run over real hard. My trek home continues down Dickson past Qdoba and George's and into the Walton Arts Center parking lot. By this point I wasn't quite paying attention to where I was walking because of all the death scenarios running around in my head. The lack of attention led to me missing a step down from a curb in the parking lot and I totally sprained my ankle. At first I was real mad and didn't think about it, and then after being mad for about 5 seconds I realized it hurt real bad. And I still had to walk the rest of the way home. Crap. I'm sure I had this hardcore gritty look of determination on my face, but deep down I think I just wanted to sit down in the parking lot and call people to come pick me up to take me the last 1/4 mile home. I made it home writhing in pain and without any more incidents, thankfully.
Hope y'all have a good weekend!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Costa Rica Day 6 and 7
Finally, here is the rest of my trip to Costa Rica. I know you all have been eagerly awaiting it (I can pretend). Right after I posted Day 5, I got REALLY sick, then really busy, then really lazy, then kinda sick again. But anyway, here we go!
Lori bought this ice cream sandwich thing at a little grocery. It had graham cracker crust instead of chocolate and was really good!
That evening we went back to the hotel and relaxed by the pool at the hotel with Cuban cigars and Bavaria Dark, our favorite Costa Rican beer. It was a good way to spend our last night!
Day 7, we left the hotel in the morning and began our journey back to San Jose to fly home. Even though it was only about 100 miles, it took 4 hours...that's how awesome the roads are in Costa Rica. Overall, the journey was pretty uneventful except for getting pulled over twice. The first time was just to check passports, and the second time (less than 10 minutes after the first time) Dan got a speeding ticket for 88kph in a 60kph zone. It cost 20,000 colones ($40) and the cop "let us" pay him directly instead of filing it with the bank of Costa Rica, which is the standard procedure. We suspect a little shadiness. Below is a picture of our beloved car for the week. It was just barely big enough for the 3 of us with our bags. We had a couple of close calls, but in the end it got us where we needed to go.
A nice view in the mountains on the drive to San Jose.
Costa Rica was completely outstanding. I can't wait to go back someday. The Costa Rican people where honestly the nicest people I've ever met in the world. We didn't come across one single person that wasn't willing to help us -- even those that didn't speak English. We would speak our horrible Spanish to them, and they would speak their horrible English to us and somehow we always managed to understand each other. It really was beautiful.
We decided to make our last full day in Costa Rica a "beach day" and relax a little. We went to the public beach in Manuel Antonio and hung out there for a while and did some shopping at all the street vendors. We also rented some sea kayaks and snorkeling equipment for one and a half hours and paddled out to the 2 smaller rocks you can see in the picture below (just to the right of the big island). There was a couple of buoys out there to tie the kayaks to, and then we got out and snorkeled around. There were tons of cool fish to see!
After a day of fun in the sun -- our last sunset of the trip.
Yet another great seafood dinner. Dan really got intimate with his oysters.
Lori bought this ice cream sandwich thing at a little grocery. It had graham cracker crust instead of chocolate and was really good!
That evening we went back to the hotel and relaxed by the pool at the hotel with Cuban cigars and Bavaria Dark, our favorite Costa Rican beer. It was a good way to spend our last night!
Day 7, we left the hotel in the morning and began our journey back to San Jose to fly home. Even though it was only about 100 miles, it took 4 hours...that's how awesome the roads are in Costa Rica. Overall, the journey was pretty uneventful except for getting pulled over twice. The first time was just to check passports, and the second time (less than 10 minutes after the first time) Dan got a speeding ticket for 88kph in a 60kph zone. It cost 20,000 colones ($40) and the cop "let us" pay him directly instead of filing it with the bank of Costa Rica, which is the standard procedure. We suspect a little shadiness. Below is a picture of our beloved car for the week. It was just barely big enough for the 3 of us with our bags. We had a couple of close calls, but in the end it got us where we needed to go.
A nice view in the mountains on the drive to San Jose.
Costa Rica was completely outstanding. I can't wait to go back someday. The Costa Rican people where honestly the nicest people I've ever met in the world. We didn't come across one single person that wasn't willing to help us -- even those that didn't speak English. We would speak our horrible Spanish to them, and they would speak their horrible English to us and somehow we always managed to understand each other. It really was beautiful.
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