Tuesday morning

Good morning! I hope your week is off to a great start! Today is going to be one of the nicest days of the week. January was been really, really easy on us this year, and we're getting close to the end of it - just one more week. Once February comes, you know that we start getting some nice, mild days.

I had a good day yesterday; got a lot done and felt good about it. I got up early yesterday morning, 4.40. I don't know why. I just woke up and was ready to go, and I never really crashed all day. I think it was because I didn't run Saturday or Sunday. I don't need as much sleep, I suppose. I usually only get 7 hours per night. That's all my body seems to want/need, even when I'm training hard.

Yesterday morning, after the school traffic cleared, I coasted down the hill to Spice Valley Baptist Church, where I park for my Spice Valley to Bryantsville hilly run. I was doing 7, so I was going out 3.5 miles, crossing Highway 50, heading toward Stumphole. (It was nice going up my "hill repeat" hills at a relaxed pace.) I could tell going out that I had a strong tailwind. "Going back will be tough but it will build strength. There could be a headwind in Boston, the whole way," I told myself. That was before the clouds thickened/darkened and became quite ominous looking. I decided to turn a half mile early and make up the 7th mile closer to the truck. It was a good decision, because it started raining some. I got the 7 in and was satisfied.

I love the expression, "where you stand determines what you see." It's so true, no matter how you look at it. We're using this expression a lot in my present sermon series about the Story of God.

Where you stand determines what you see.

If, by faith, we step inside the Story of God, then we will see life and the world in a different way.

It really matters which story you stand in. The confusion comes when we stand in the story of the world and try to make sense of God’s Story.

Leslie Newbigin: "The question is whether the faith that finds its focus in Jesus is the faith with which we seek to understand the whole of history, or whether we limit this faith to a private world of religion and hand over the public history of the world to other principles of explanation."

Where do you stand to understand life? Where you stand makes a big difference.

For example: What does it mean to be human? Who are we? The world’s story says, "You are no more than a random product of time and chance, an accident on this spinning ball of mud!"

The answer that comes from the Story of God says something drastically different! It says that we are God’s masterpieces! We are God’s handiwork, the highpoint of his creation, his image bearers.

Tonight is Tempo Tuesday! Last week I made a vow to go 3 miles at a 6.47 pace. Now I will be slightly nervous all day, which may seem silly to most of you, but some of you will understand! ha ha.