The Tour De France is on. Believe it or not Lance Armstrong who has not raced for 3 1/2 years is right in the mix of it. Currently in 3rd place with over a week and a half to go. So today I took a rare day off. Well kind of. I spent the morning working in my sons apartment sheet rocking. This afternoon I met up with Tom from the camp. We put on our biking shorts and headed for the Highway. Having done this a few times we were dropped off at Wal-mart in Decorah so the wind was at our backs. 85 degrees and sunny we headed up hill toward Waukon. Now Tom being somewhat 10 years my younger and much better looking then me, I new I was in for a race! I felt my competition rise up. The hills tested my lungs and legs. The heat my sanity, but over all we arrived in Waukon with a great ride behind us. Feeling like we need to prepare more before the Bike2camp ride at the end of July.
Who won? Well Tom of course! Who encouraged him every mile of the way to victory? His Coach, Me! Who else. If you can't win, Coach. If you can't coach, make up stories about your trip.
Richard Baxter said: “This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.”
No matter where we have come from or what we have been through we are all moving like a shooting star through the night sky. Destined to reach it's target and to return to hand that has set us ablaze. This week I have finally come to an end of a road that I hope will lead to a place of some summer rest. With great things on the horizon and many pieces in place for the future I am ready for a rest. Feeling like the lyrics to a Kerry Livgren song I'll follow you, when he says:
"Searching horizons of hope For some long lost dream In one sweet moment I'm Plunged into Your healing stream
I'll follow You, 'cause You give me the desire I'll follow You, leaving the world behind I'll follow You, though You take me through the fire I know I can never be the same
The seasons of life come and go. We continue to step forward and we continue to believe. All that happens to us is not for naught, but rather an important part of the preparation for perfection. Painful, exhilarating,exasperating even bewildering at times. Perseverance builds character. We will become new!
"Always another word to be said Always another symphony in my heart Never repeating, ever so new Whatever the music, still I will cling to You One so true"
I can feel the meaning now in every breath I take Through the laughter and the tears, in every choice I make Not a moment passes by that I don't realize We never live, until we harmonize,
Well if you know us. You know that we are one car short. Too many directions to travel and not enough vehicles. What we are not short of is dogs! Maybe one problem can be solved by the other! LOL. Check out this little video./ If you see me running down the road like this, remember what Mark twain said.
“Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in”.
Well. It has been a long time. I have been through and am still going through what most likely is the busiest time of my life. I thought things were supposed to slow down as you got older? Not so! These are the days to run while you can.
We are just starting a new small group called Crazy Love. I expect it to yield great things in everyone's life as we work through it together.
One of my favorite books, the bible, has this saying in it. "in all your getting get understanding". I have been thinking lately about understanding. About our journey here on earth and how we are to go about getting that understanding as we move through it. About accomplishing meaningful goals and leaving some kind of a worthwhile impression on this place called earth and the lives it holds. One of the things I have noticed about this great land is the independence people have, myself included. It seems to be an integral part of who we are as Americans. In fact it seems to be the driving force behind our society. It has provided many things but it has also been costly.
Today working with a group of kids I was once again reminded what independence has cost us. It has cost us harmony. Not in the sense of everyone getting along. But harmony in the sense of oneness regardless of socio-economic status or race or geographic location. Independence has filled us with little regard for furthering us as humans and instead had filled us with desire to get to the top of whatever it is we are pursuing. Many people I happen to run into lack many of the basic social skills to impact others worlds even through a simple conversation and at every chance avoid those situations. I am not suggesting we abandon what we are, but I am suggesting we are leaving behind the things that matter most. "In all your getting get understanding". My understanding tells me we are a people far from God. I'm not getting all religious or supernatural on you. I am just saying that I see people who do not have God in their lives and I see the condition of their struggles. Mine included. I see lives that are unfulfilled but are filled. You know what I mean?
The bible says "apart from God we can do nothing". I have done a lot of things, but those things have not produced a filling. Really they were just traded for. Time traded for cars, time for stuff, time for position, time for authority. All that time went to those things. If you were not one of those things,you didn't get me! We tell our kids they are valuable, then we teach them to trade their time for things and rob others of those same great kids!
I may be entering another stage of life and I hope it will be different. I want more of what God has done to me. I want what I have stopped him from doing in me. I want to stop settling and I want to walk with Him. I want to be changed and filled by his presence and I don't want to be religious. I want to be a difference maker. I believe that's the difference between being religious and being in love. I want it at any cost. That is hard to say!
If you want my love, well you’ve got to get close to me If you need my love, well you’ve got to get closer to me Oh, if you want my love
I don’t understand why we can’t get close enough I want your kite strings tangled in my trees all wrapped up I don’t understand why we can’t get close enough I’ll be the comets that are fallin from the sky you light up
You’re my shirt, I an arm I’m the tick, you’re the bomb You’re the L and the V, I’m the O and the E, and we… Am I speaking clearly?
Mark Twain said "when I was 18 I knew everything and my parents knew nothing. When I turned 26 I was surprised how much they had learned".
I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile.
— Tom Clark
At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action. Bono
I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments. Oscar Wilde 1856-1900, British Author, Wit
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." C.S.Lewis
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." C.S.Lewis
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