Please pray for my friends David and Stefanie. They desperately need to find a house. Their baby is due September 17th, and babies don't wait to be born because you don't have a bedroom for them.
Love!
While in the shower, listening to Nirvana, I made a connection in my mind that I have never made before. It had nothing to do with the shower or Nirvana, but just to be clear, you must know I was totally rocking out.
Anywho, I was actually looking at my tattoo and pondering what it means to bear that cross every day. In Jesus' day it was not a symbol of love, forgiveness, or grace, but DEATH. Yes, I wear on my leg everyday the symbol for death, because I have been sentenced to death. On my own I would end up far from God, with only evil flowing through me... but Jesus has saved me. He took His cross, wore it, and then it wore him. Now I wear mine everyday, and I need not forget that I have signed up to join Him. By accepting Jesus, His love, His grace, and His glory, I have joined Him on his quest to save the world. By carrying my cross next to Him, I have surrendered myself, my life, completely.
Amen.
PS- I love Nirvana. Don't be shocked.
Don't make fun now, but I got hot today, and it's 78 degrees. Cut me some slack though, I'm not used to it! I went for my run and I got overheated. It was slightly overcast, but the sun was still hot and I was wearing all black. Whoo! I only made it about 2.5 miles before I was too hot! For those who have been keeping up with my progress, I ran 10 miles last week, but ran today for the first time this week.
The Lalli's were in town Sun-Wed morning this week , and we did everything there is to do touristy it seems! We went to the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, Navy Pier, an architecture cruise, the Museum of Science and Industry, and then they went to the Sears Tower without me (because I had class). Needless to say I was pooped! I needed a vacation from my vacation. Maybe I'll post some pictures on here later.
Anyway, as always, I'm trying to stay ahead on class work. I'm doing fine, but would like to get ahead before the next group of friends come in town. Jacob and Janet Henry will be here at the end of this month, which is actually very soon! They will be here the last week of my 6 week class online, so I'd like to get all of my work done for it before hand.
My 5 year high school reunion is this Saturday, but I won't be there. Only a few of my good friends are going, so I won't miss out on much. One of my friends said he would take pictures for me, so that's good. Five years... guess I'm startin to get old! ha ha.
Yesterday a bunch of us church planting type folks got together and just day dreamed about our "quest." It was interesting and a lot of great things were said:
"Everybody can pray for the city" -even though we are all in different communities and meeting at different locations.
In regards to huge congregations not always being optimal (that's saying it lightly)- "I just don't know about 5000 people listening to one guy preach... unless it's Jesus."
"My quest is Love."
Those are just the few I wrote down, but everyone participated in this "think tank" as Mark called it, and it was very encouraging.
I noticed that it's been a while since I've posted. The main reason for this is because our internet has been... less than optimal. We switched to AT&T because Comcast was unreliable, but then AT&T sent us a bad modem. SO we have been without reliable internet for a few weeks. That's pretty much the only bad news though!
I got all A's my first semester, went to see my in-laws for a few days, celebrated my third anniversary with the love of my life, went to my first Sox game, saw Magan and Justin get married (and was in my first wedding), spent a few days with my parents, had dinner with friends and family multiple times, met with church elders and ministers about our work, finished the homework for the first two weeks of my summer classes, and bought a new couch!! That was just three weeks!!!
I suddenly feel very accomplished after writing all that down. ha ha. God keeps us sane, that is for sure. I haven't had much time to run, but I'm ready to rock and roll again. I took a lot of pictures this month, but I'm not going to put them on here... HERE is the link to the album on Facebook.
I'll try not to wait so long to write!
