Category: personal

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q day 2

basic thoughts from day 2

  • “youtube theologian” was my favorite term of the day. it was used in connection with the “i hate religion but love JESUS” video that was so popular in the past year.
  • good theology hits every part of life. miroslav volf talked today about the fear of GOD and its connections with how to live the good life. it was great. made all the more impact sense i am presently reading his work “embrace and exclusion”. good stuff.
  • the church has to get more involved in immigration reform. how we treat the “stranger inn our land” is of huge importance in scripture. if we are followers of CHRIST our attitude and approach to this issue should be determined by scripture.
  • the moral case for free interprise by arthur brooks was very interesting if for no other reason than his statement that “the moral argument will always overwehlm the material argument.”
  • i need to read some abraham kuyper. how have i missed this 19th century theologian.
  • there sure are a great number of “beautiful people” who come to and present at Q. makes me feel out of place.
  • three things i have already come away with are 1) i need to start work on a sabbath retreat for tapestry similar to what i did with youth at parkview in baton rouge, 2) i’m interested in getting together with a group of threads to read the new testament over 8 weeks, and 3) i need to start praying for all the other churches in point more purposefully. i think i am going to pick a different church each week and encourage tapestry to join me in praying for them.

i guess that is it for now.

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q day 1

so today was the 1st day of QDC. as usual it was fantastic. the presentations are always challenging and amazing. here are a few thoughts from today.

  • i have a love/hate relationship with the presentations. i love the ideas and hearing what others have done. i am always challenged to think differently and try new thinks. i hate the fact that hearing the presentations almost always leaves me wondering why i haven’t done anything in my life.  that’s not the presenter’s fault. it is just that these people areamazing. it is hard to measure up when you hear a 28 year old who has a phd, developed an entrepreneurial plan in africa, preaches better than me, and runs a 2:45 marathon.
  • GOD always provides opportunities but for some reason they are very easy to find at this conference. every year i end up meeting someone who does something that i am sure fits withwho we are in tapestry. it happened again last night. i ate supper with a couple who are involved in respite care in their church. has me wondering about us doing something.
  • it is alway a good thing when people start quoting c.s. lewis. there were 4 quotes today.
  • GOD is doing some really cool things through HIS people. lots of stories of interesting things being done in and through the kingdom of GOD?

i’ll write specifics when i get back. i don’t really have the time or desire right now. i’m also writing this on my nook color which is a pain.

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beautiful oceans

i saw this earlier today and thought it was well worth a quick share. gorgeous.

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the at journey

i’ll probably post more about adam’s and my backpacking experience on the AT in damascus, virginia. it was great and tiring at the same time. i spent most of the week feeling very thankful for the opportunity to do this with my oldest son.

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off the trail

adam and i are out of the woods after spending a few days hiking some of the appalacain trail around damascus, virginia. we did 32 miles pretty quickly (14 miles on day one, 13 miles on day two, and then a short day of 5 miles). we went over the peak of mount rodgers, white top mountain, pine mountain, and several other places that were high enough that both of us are now walking like 80 year olds. we met some interesting and great people, saw some amazing scenery, saw 40 to 50 wild ponies, and carried our packs a long way.

it was a blast.

i’ll post a few stories and photos later.

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the pack list

adam and i are hiking part of the appalachian trail over his school spring break. we are both really excited about the trip. i’ve been doing the planning with some help from bill, a friend of pam’s sister. bill has been a ton of help. he agreed to look over my pack list so i have been typing it out for the past few days. if you want to you can view it here.

while developing my pack list i gained a great deal of wisdom from this wonderful post concerning the author’s 27lb for 7 days pack list. it is a great pack list.

if you look over my list and see anything that i obviously missed please let me know.

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go read this now

while pam can be a little long winded (i love you my dear but, as you know, i am a fan of short blog posts) she is also brilliant and therefore you should go read what the wonderful woman i am privileged to be wed to writes. yesterday she wrote this post concerning whether “college is killing CHRISTianity” or not. it is well worth your time.

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kony 2012–meh?

by now many of you have seen the above video from invisible children. perhaps you have received facebook invites to join a group that is organizing people to be a part of the planned plastering of posters and everything else to raise awareness.

i have mixed feelings about all this. to be honest if it wasn’t for invisible children i would have most likely known absolutely nothing about the about the lord’s resistance army (lra) and the terrible things joseph kony has lead them to do to kids in uganda. i am thankful for what invisible children did initially in raising awareness and sparking some action but thanks to a friend of mine i have my questions about their latest film and campaign (kony 2012).

david is a former student from the student ministry i led at parkview baptist church in baton rouge. david’s background both culturally and educationally makes him someone i automatically respect in regards to anything african (actually i just pretty much respect david because he is an awesome person). david posted his thoughts on the kony 2012 campaign on his blog (you can find his post here). he basically says that the kony 2012 campaign is dealing with a problem that isn’t the main issue anymore in uganda. he describes it as selling 6 year old newspapers.

i’m still not sure how i feel about the kony 2012 campaign but i am sure that you should read david’s post and that his thoughts are shaping my opinion. so go read his post.

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baptism & my afternoon

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tonight was a tapestry baptism gathering. for us that means we baptize a thread who has become a follower of CHRIST and then we potluck together to celebrate what GOD is doing in us and through us. it is always a wonderful night. in the above photos you might notice some steam. that’s what happens when you use a hot tub on a screened in porch because the river that we usually use for our baptisms is still WAY to cold. the plan/hope is that the plover river will be suitable in april. we’ll see.

SIDE NOTE – we’ve had a VERY mild winter this year. there are advantages to that but also disadvantages. one of the disadvantages is that there hasn’t been as much snow to do some of the things that pam and i love to do during the winter. thankfully we received a few good inches this week (i think around 6”) so i was finally able to go into the forest behind our house and do this today. it was wonderful.

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2012 bock run

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today was the 2012 point bock run, which is one of my favorite runs. there is always a great atmosphere around it and i end up seeing lots of friends in the race. i ran the race today not really expecting much since i’ve only been running about 30-40 miles a month for the past 4 months. not enough miles to really improve from my personal best from last year of 40:36 (8:08 per mile). i was just hoping to keep a pace of 9:45 per mile (around 48:45 for the 5 mile course). i figured i couldn’t do much better than that considering how little running i have done.

i was pretty pleased when i crossed the finish line at 46:34 (9:17 per mile). my overall time and the fact that my last mile was at an 8:43 per mile pace encourages me to think that with the proper practice i might get close to my half marathon personal best (1:58:40 – 9:04 per mile) by the time of the oshkosh half marathon on april 22.

as you can see from the above time stats i am a slow runner. i realize that i am not one of the speed demons and i don’t try to pretend like i am. i try to start in a position in the pack that is appropriate for my speed level. that is why it drives me nuts how many people who walk the race decide that they should be in the front of the pack for the starting gun. i’m sure they have very valid reasons in their minds for why they should start at the front of the pack. for example, they might think…

  • they are distantly related to steve prefontaine and thereby will go from a walker to an extremely fast runner at some time during the race.
  • they have a really fast friend who they believe absolutely needs their encouragement for the 50 feet that this walker is able to keep up with his/her friend.
  • they are convinced that if they start at the front of the pack they will end up drafting on the back of the pack and be pulled along to a faster time.
  • perhaps they had beans for supper the night before and want to share the beans’ effect with all the other runners as a practical joke and therefore need to start in the front of the pack.

or perhaps they have less noble reasons like not caring. i really don’t begrudge them being slow. after all i am slow. and i’m definitely not talking about people who are doing the galloway run/walk system. i completely understand the run/walk system and i don’t blame them at all when i see them walking (mainly because they will probably pass me later). i’m talking about the people who walk the entire race. why would any such walker start the race in the 6:00 per mile pace group? i can’t imagine a good reason (though there may be one and if so please forgive me and explain it to me). all i know is that they clogged up the beginning of the bock run and slowed down my first 2 miles.

here are my mile breaks:

  • mile 1 – 9:42
  • mile 2 – 9:29
  • mile 3 – 9:20
  • mile 4 – 9:07
  • mile 5 – 8:43

notice how every mile was faster? i tend to think this is because of all the time i ended up being stuck behind walkers in the first two miles. this happened more times than i care to remember.

please don’t think that i am down on people walking races. i am not. i think it is great for people to walk races. just start at a reasonable part of the pack. i figured i would run around 9:45 per mile so i started at the 10:00 per mile pace group. when i went faster it didn’t cause anyone any trouble. people, just pick an appropriate spot in the pack people. come on!

SIDE NOTE – i think my tv is going to begin thinking that we are british because of all the bbc tv series pam has been watching recently. eat least it is fun to watch the guys fight in these british dramas. every argument seems to end with someone saying sternly “i say good day to you sir.” if it continues that say even louder “i said good day sir!” i think i will start doing this.