How I Spent My Sunday Morning
I spent this past Sunday morning running the inaugural Louisiana Marathon. Close to two thousand marathoners and half-marathoners lined up at the start line on Sunday morning. It was cold but not unbearable. The sun was just beginning to make its way above the trees surrounding the state capitol as we got ready to begin.
I met a guy who had recently been transferred from Okinawa to San Antonio. He was hoping to finish in under five hours but really just wanted to finish. He hadn’t been able to train in over a month. I thought I might keep pace with him but after the race started, I lost sight of him.
At 7am sharp the starter’s pistol went off and we were underway. As with any large race, the group surges forward and then everyone realizes there is no where to go unto the people ahead get moving. There was a pacesetter for a five hour run which is 11:27/mile. On some of my long runs I had been averaging between 11:10 to 11:40. I set that as an unofficial goal but decided I would start out slow and make a decision at mile 20 on whether to go for a sub-five hour time. Read more
Getting Away & Being Still
NPS PHOTO BY KRIS ILLENBERGER
Things have been really slow at work the last couple of weeks. Sometime last week, I started looking at places to go on vacation. I looked around Colorado and New Mexico. Doing the typical vacation thing of staying in a hotel was just going to be out of my price range. So I started looking at camping. That was a little more economical, put still more than I wanted to spend. I then looked at some national parks and learned that I can camp for a week for the $3 entrance fee. That’s more like it. Read more
Cambodia 2009 Recap
People have asked me what I liked about Cambodia or what I learned. It’s been hard to synthesize my thoughts because in part I was adjusting to being back in the states and also the stress of looking for a job.
The biggest thing that stands out in my mind is the sense of family and community. You’ve got a group of people that come from various nationalities and backgrounds yet have a common bond in Jesus Christ. Despite the cultural and language differences, they are a family. Our idea of family in the states has been skewed because of our frantic schedules and our geographic dispersion. This group in Cambodia eats together, works together, worships together and plays together. They care for each other and serve each other. This just stirred a longing in me for the same kind of community here. Read more
Triggering Old Memories
I went out for a drive this afternoon. I needed to clear my head after a day of reading about the Synoptic Problem. I enjoyed watching the sky change hues as the sun slipped beyond the horizon. Later I caught a hint of wood smoke in the air. That smell combined with the crispness of the air, conjured up old memories. It reminded me of home. Read more
Getting my kicks on Route 66
So a couple of weeks ago I was in one of my lulls at work, so I decided to look around and mind a place I’d like to go on my vacation. I wanted somewhere fairly close because of the price of gas but I wanted to get out of Texas. So I pulled up a map of KOA campgrounds and found one outside Elk City, Oklahoma. I did some looking and it sounded promising. Read more
This is just so beautiful.
Ok, ignore the goofy looking guy on the left. I have the dumbest look on my face. The other guys were from a church in Rogers, AR. They were in Alberta on a mission trip. I was too, I was working separately but for a few days I hooked up with their group.
So the point of this post is just the majestic beauty in the background. This lake is fed by a melting glacier so that is why the water is so blue. All the minerals in the ice. I was digging through my pictures and I just had to post this.
Crashing Waves and Ancient Monuments
It’s been an interesting week. We only had 3 days of class last week and on Wednesday morning I woke up to hear that a car bomb had gone off in Madrid. The ETA, a Basque separatist group, set it off in a shopping center downtown. No one was killed but there was a lot of building damage. We all were kinda on edge for most of the day. The ETA wants Northern Spain to become their own independent nation.
We left for Barcelona on Thursday morning and that night we went downtown to the Ramblas. It’s a long line of shops, restaurants and sidewalk stands. Friday we took a tour bus and saw the Olympic stadium, the Sagrada Familia, which is a modern cathedral which was started by Gaudí back around 1909 and it still isn’t completed. We also saw la Castillo Montjüic. It’s a 17th century castle that overlooks the Mediterranean and all of Barcelona. Saturday we went to the beach and that night we went to the Magic fountain. They set the water to lights and music. It was really cool. Sunday, Justin and I wandered around and ended up on some back streets and then at the old Gothic cathedral. They were having some kind of festival with music and folk dancing.
Every time we go to the beach it seems like there are a lot of naked women around. It also seems like every time we go to the beach I find myself running. I think I know how Joesph felt when he ran from Potiphars’s wife. I told everybody I was going for a walk and I found my way down along the seawall. I walked for probably a mile and found a secluded spot among the rocks and sat down. I just sat and listened to the waves crash. I sat and watched the water wash over the rocks time and time again. God just revealed something to me. Our way of thinking is that it would take thousands of years for that rock to be worn down by the waves but for God that is only days.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
I then started thinking that when things that we really want in our lives seem to be taking forever, God’s just waiting for the right SECOND to bring about these things in our life. I got bored on the train and figured out how long a year is to God. Taking literally that a 1000 yrs are like a day then a year is like 2 minutes to God. I know this isn’t literal but it just shows how God is ever-faithful and ever-mindful of his promises and of our lives.
On the train ride to Barcelona I started thinking about all the ruins that are around Spain. The Romans were here and so were the Muslims. The Egyptians gave Madrid a temple back in 1972. So I’ve seen the temple and was thinking about that and the Roman aqueducts and theaters that are still standing. If you think about it, that’s all that is left of those empires. Giant documentation of their once great empire. The Egyptians once ruled the known world and enslaved the Hebrews. God brought out the children of Israel and Egypt eventually fell from its lofty height. Take Rome. Its empire spanned from Spain to Asia to Africa. Rome was a giant in the eyes of the world. The new Christians were tortured and persecuted. The Romans wanted to exterminate the Christians. What happened was the opposite. The Roman empire collapsed and the cause of Christ grew by leaps and bounds.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
Well that’s all I’ve got for now, also I’m about to run out of time on my computer. Talk to you later.
