Until Lambs Become Lions

Nick, Kelly, and I went and saw Robin Hood Sunday. Good flick, it's basically telling the story of how Robin Longstride became Robin Hood.

When Robin is returning Robert Loxley's sword home to Loxley's father, he sees the phrase "Rise and rise again until lambs become lions." on the hilt of the sword. That phrase led to Robin taking up his father’s cause for justice and freedom. A rallying cry for a mission - to never give up no matter how many tries it takes.

Never give up. Keep fighting. Rise up, mighty warriors.



What are you fighting for?

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer

Prayer is the single most important way to grow closer to God. Prayer is our response to God, our acknowledgment of who He is, and an indication that we want to be in relationship with Him. Communication is vital to any personal relationship, and your relationship with God grows stronger as you spend time talking together, expressing your love, your hopes, dreams, and concerns. A relationship with God is not relationship you will regret.

Prayer releases the Spirit of God to work freely in our lives; emotionally, physically and most importantly spiritually. Prayer is the single most effective weapon in the war against sin, suffering, injustice and evil.

So, dear readers, how may I pray for you? Leave me a comment or email me.

A walk in the woods

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous spring day, so we decided to take advantage of it by enjoying God's creation in a natural setting, and a hike in Shawnee Lookout Park was a great way to do so.

It's amazing to look on scenes like that and know that God created them just for me. He knew I would be up on that ridge overlooking this valley, and made sure I'd love it.

Even when the works of man intrude on God's wonder, it's still beautiful. Looking out over the wetlands here, you wouldn't know that 270 different species of bird call this home, but they're there.

This little guy here delighted in us, he flew around and posed for a picture, knowing how striking he would be against a field of green

The mighty Ohio River, looking out towards Kentucky. A natural highway God planned.

Camouflage? What could a tree be hiding from?

Carol loved this purple flower

New life springing from the old

And the happy hikers.

Next Sunday we're tackling Mitchell Memorial Forest, and hopefully soon Miami Whitewater Forest. The park district has a program where when you hike 7 different trails in the Park District in a year,you then become eligible to purchase a wooden hiking staff with the Park District emblem for $3.00. Each year following that you hike 7 trails in the Park District you are eligible to purchase the annual metal insignia for your hiking staff for $2.00. I think that's a cool incentive. I have 3 trails down already!

If you want to join us sometime, hit me up!

Frazzled

Psalm 73:25-26

Life, work, finances... I hate this constant weariness. So I’m going to push it aside, because I know who the strength of my heart is. And I know He will provide what I need when I need it, not what I want when I want it. So, instead of feeling defeated & frustrated, I will trust Him. I will hold Him to His promises.

The World Without Us

I forget what list I stumbled across this book on, but I'm thankful for it. This book has been pretty amazing so far, and I'm just halfway through it.

Basically, it's about what would happen to our planet should all human life vanish. It details how nature would slowly flex her muscles and take back what what we've claimed. It's really showing me how we as humans are not only consuming our planet, but destroying it as well.

Entire species have vanished. Vast forests have been decimated. Plants and animals have been imported into foreign ecosystems with devastating results. Rivers run dry, and there are deserts where there once was abundance. But there's hope.

Reading on you can see how God made this planet to cure itself. Without human interference, the balance will be restored. Scars will remain, but life will flourish and take back what we've paved over.

It's a book about hope and rebirth. Your library probably has it. Read it. Share your thoughts.

60.4

Just got back from my latest weigh-in.

Here I am in August 07 - 2 weeks after I started on WW (disregard the tiara!)

Here I am yesterday - 7 months later

60.4 pounds lighter! Yay God and yay me!

I feel a whole lot better - more energy, more stamina, I want to get out and do more stuff instead of vegging. I do need to buy a bunch of clothes, I'm hitting Goodwill for now for basic stuff like jeans and tee's, but I'm spending a little more on work clothes. I've pretty much had to replace everything I used to wear.

I want to get to 185, that's another 75 pounds. I'll be there hopefully by the end of the year - that's a conservative 8 lbs a month loss.

Truth

Click for the full size

Giving

A couple weeks ago, my mom let me know about a co-worker of hers that had injured her foot and would be unable to work for the next several weeks. This was very distressing to her, as her coworker is a single mom with two young kids, and there is no support from the father. I sent an email out to the guys in my life group, and they responded with almost $100 to help provide for them. In a prior weekend, our students had a talk on giving, and they donated $160.00. They were given 3 options to put the money towards, and the nearly unanimous choice was this mother and her two kids.

Today some of the adult volunteers took some of the students to Target to shop for the family they adopted. The kids had so much fun picking out gifts for people that they had not met, it was an amazing thing to see. They're bickering back and forth over the merits of a robot vs. a fire truck, or whether a Transformer puzzle is better than a board game. I was soundly corrected by one of the students for suggesting maybe picking out something educational. My bad... ;)

Joy. There was Joy there. Relational giving - giving a gift that means more than the latest gizmo. These kids not only gave their money, they gave the gift of love and hope to a single mom who was facing having to tell her kids that Santa might not show up this year. We hope to deliver the presents, along with a a Kroger gift card this Saturday. This should be an amazing display of God's love for all of us.

the gods aren't angry

Friday night I went with a bunch of awesome guys to check out Rob Bell's current speaking tour, the gods aren't angry. It was my first time seeing him speak, but I've been a fan of the Nooma videos and I've read both of his books.

You can see a synopsis of the talk here, my limited recollection wouldn't do it justice. The time spent roadtripping with the guys was just as relevant to me as the talk was. I love stuff like that, building bonds, iron sharpening iron.

The biggest thing I got out of the talk came at the end. Rob wound the talk down by sharing stories of people he's spoken with in the course of his ministry. Stories of amazing grace and incredible pain, of people being Christ on display and helping to heal this out-of-control world. He ended by saying "May you remember God is Love". God is love.

Logan, the sky angel cowboy

Thanks, Robin, for pointing me to this.

Tackle an elephant with me!

I've just decided to commit myself to the radically generous, outward-focused lifestyle Jesus has called his followers to. Christians in the modern Western World, including me, have failed in small and large ways to submit our economic ideals and values to Jesus and his Kingdom. This has been an often ignored elephant in the room for too long and I am going to do what I can to tackle this issue in my life.

I am hoping you might join me in this effort, by supporting me in my decision, and joining this Kingdom work as well.

Find out more by visiting Tackling the Elephant