Thanksgiving

I had a great Thanksgiving. I may someday get around to posting videos and pictures and such. My brother and I got out on the lake Saturday morning and skated the sun up. Then we sorta kinda played a game of curling (curled?) using some largish rocks that he dug out of the pile on the shore. We were really bad at it. It took an hour for him to get 15 points and me 13. Then the ice started cracking a lot more than it had been, and since it was only a few inches thick we vacated.

Barf

Some days the music on my French radio station is better than other days. This afternoon they had a number of obnoxious and/or poorly written songs. I was half-listening to one of the songs (in English), and the words went something like this:

"You are touching me
What else is there to believe?"

I almost dry heaved. That's what Christianity has been reduced to? A feeling? Being "touched" by God (whatever that is supposed to mean to you) is your ultimate goal, the final meaning of your faith? Does that mean that God isn't God when He isn't touching you?

God gave us brains. I furtively believe that he means for us to use them to glorify Him, to seek out His mysteries, and to constantly seek to know Him and His creation better, even when we don't feel warm fuzzies.
God gave us bodies. He wants us to use them to accomplish the good works that He appointed for us before we were born.
God gave us souls, which He wants us to give back to Him. Not after we die, NOW. Your soul is the part of you that is YOU. It is your will, your life, your being, your identity. That's what God wants. He wants you to give up your rights to yourself, to who you are and who you will be, in the faith that He can make you who you are MEANT to be. Unlike a fuzzy feeling, THAT is something worth believing in.

It's the Little Things

I will tell another tale of God's faithfulness. My friends had just gotten married, and the rest of us were supposedly driving back to our lodgings after the wedding. In reality, we were driving around the block and parking at a nearby grocery store so we could plan the traditional defacing of the newlyweds' car. Our convoy consisted of three vehicles and I drove the lead vehicle, a minivan. During our short drive the doors, which are supposed to automatically lock at 15 mph and then stay locked, kept locking, unlocking, and relocking themselves. Once everyone in the van had cleared themselves of all claims of being obnoxious, we dismissed it as the van being strange.
When we got to the grocery store I took the keys out of the ignition and left them on the driver's seat, since I didn't know who was driving next. As we stood around planning our attack, the owner of the vehicle tossed her purse onto the passenger seat and closed the door. As soon as she closed the door, the van locked itself. After taking quick stock, we realized that there were only two keys to the van. I had left one on the driver's seat, and the other was in her purse. Both keys were locked inside a van that nobody had locked, and that showed no interest in unlocking itself. I hadn't even realized that it would lock itself without the key in the ignition. in the next 10 or 15 minutes the van relocked itself two or three more times but never unlocked itself. As far as I know it only unlocked itself once, and that had been while we were driving. So we called the police.
Shortly after hanging up, we prayed that the van would unlock itself. About 15 seconds later we all heard a clunk. One of my friends, who was standing by the driver's door, yanked on it instantly. I was standing by the passenger door and opened it just as fast. There we stood, grinning at each other through the open van.
When my friends drove the van home, a 45 minute drive, they said that during the rest of the night it locked itself a number of times but never again unlocked itself. The next day it was back to normal, locking itself only at 15 mph. Oh, and we did a great job on J and J's getaway car.
These pictures were taken by Jamie the next morning.

Another shoot

I only cheated slightly to get this deer. Okay, fine, it was right off the road.
The shot below, on the other hand, was more carefully planned and I was at it until I nearly froze over.

The End is Near

The work load is reducing at my temp job, and I think my final day will come in the next two weeks. In other news, it is a little bit cold outside. I went for a run today and felt really nice and toasting running with the wind, and frighteningly like a icicle running into the wind. I thought about my pitiful mileage and contemplated trashing my running log. Compared to the mileage I used to run, it is humiliating. However, I have decided to keep it up for now, even if I must fill it with zeros. I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps the reason will come to me presently.
In yet other news, the radio station I listen to has added Michelle Tumes and Eleventyseven to my list of favorite music-makers, which is odd because they are completely different. I'm not even sure how they ended up on the same radio station, to say nothing of one that broadcasts out of France. And in yet other news, my audio listening sessions while I make and eat supper each night have brought me to chapter 32 of Jane Eyre, a delightfully long book. I held it in deep suspicion until chapter 27. It has been growing on me since then. The conversation at the end of chapter 32 was particularly interesting to me- and maybe even helpful.
I am sure there is other news that might be good to disseminate, but I can't think of it now.
Picture Time! I haven't posted any pictures in a long time. Let's see... a sunset from the airplane would be cool. I saw another sunset from an airplane flying back home, and it was the shortest sunset of my life because we were descending on the final approach into Atlanta. From the time the bottom of the sun touched the horizon to the moment that no part of the sun was visible took less than 30 seconds-probably closer to 15. I would have gotten video, but they had already told us to turn off all electronic devices.

I will also post a picture that I took from an undisclosed secret location while on a mission with NASA.

--or perhaps I used the Gimp to touch up a picture that I took out of an airplane window. Perhaps. You will never know for sure, will you?

Lonely

I have to confess, it is hard being in a wedding when I am single. While I was actually with the love birds I was busy enough to not think much about myself, but since getting back I have been feeling a little lonely. This morning I woke up and, after saying my normal good morning to God, thought about how nice it would be to wake up to a wife. And then I thought, "I wonder what it would be like to wake up without Jesus?" For half a second I imagined what it would be like if Jesus didn't exist. I should have waited until I was more awake, because I half believed it, and it terrified me. My loneliness skyrocketed, and I was hit by a terror and depression that I have not felt since I recovered from my nervous breakdown or panic attack or whatever it was 5 years ago. Fortunately I snapped out of it in less than a second. But it made me realize just how much my life and my being is tied up in God. That's good. I want it that way. I'm sure many people would think me weak because of this. Let them think that. If my weakness is dependence upon the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, I don't think it a loss.

weddings and such

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I flew down to my friend's wedding last Thursday. It was a success. They are married. And we had a lot of fun. The only problem is, we didn't get much sleep. So today I kept almost falling asleep at work. Which means I should go to bed tonight. But my to-do list is very long, and I have a lot of emails to answer.

I appreciate your prayers.

I Make God Work Overtime

I was cruising through an unfamiliar four-lane intersection on my way home, when the SUV ahead of me suddenly merged to the left, revealing a stopped bus in my lane on the other side of the intersection. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure I could merge, flicked my signal, and slid to the left. There was one car sitting behind the stopped bus, and as I was about to pull up alongside it, the driver suddenly cranked his wheel hard to the left and shot right in front of me, clearly not seeing me coming. I slammed on my brakes, and he barely squeezed between my rapidly decelerating hulk of a car and the even more hulking bus.
I had specifically prayed that God would protect me on that journey. You could compliment me on my reaction time or call it shear luck that the driver (who I later recognized as a teenager) didn't get his lightweight sedan smeared between me and a bus- an accident which might have killed him, especially if I had nailed his door. Or you can join me in praising God that He got me home safely one more night.

Things That Make Me Smile

Here are some things that have made me happy in the days since I last posted:
1. Spending the weekend with my parents on the family farm
2. Cheering for my friends at the conference cross country meet
3. Visiting my home church
4. Beating my dad at disc golf by one point
5. Taking pretty pictures of the lake I have run more miles around than most people run in their entire lives.
6. Finding a French radio station that I can listen to at work.
7. Finally getting the Bible on Tape, so I can listen to it in the car during my commute
8. Encountering a Southern-style roundabout and watching the Minnesota drivers who don't know what to do with it.
9. Cheering on my friends as they crushed an interval practice
10. Finally getting around to updating my blog
I have also really enjoyed talking to some good friends, either in person or online. Even when I feel frustrated, God is good!