Friday

My family.

Friday! Here we go. I'm sleepy from watching all the pre-royal wedding coverage. NOT! So I wake up in the 5 o'clock hour and turn on the TV to catch some weather. What do I see? Royal wedding. Click (next channel). Royal wedding. Click (next channel). Royal wedding. Click (next channel). Wow!

I am little sleep deprived today. Kedra and I attended the Mitchell Chamber of Commerce dinner last night. The ReGeneration Store received a nice award during the dinner, so I, along with a couple other board members, was there to receive it. The food was good, and the speaker, Lowell Grissom - Virgil's brother, was captivating. I could have listened to him for a long time. He did a masterful job of speaking and showing video. It made me proud to be from Mitchell. Also, Grissom's parents were faithful members of the church where I work. They were very kind and humble people. It was nice to talk about them with their youngest son.

It has been an unusual week or recognition. Monday Bryantsville Hunger Relief Project was recognized on the floor of state house of representatives and I was priviledged to be there for that, and then last night. Both Capstone Ministries (ReGen) and BHRP are really neat works that only work because of many many people who do all kinds of things. I am glad to be associated with both of them.

The sermon is not done. BOO! Oh well, I will try finish it, along with the slides, this morning. I also need to move about 20 mattresses from Camp. We are going to ship them to Honduras. Then I have a lunch meeting with an elder or two and a man from the Center for Congregations. We are trying to figure out how to best use the space that our two church buildings provide. This organization, funded by Lilly Endowment, provides grant money for studies.

IF I can get everything done today, I hope to ride my bike mid-afternoon. I have 27 miles of running for the week so far, and I plan on getting at least 8 tomorrow. I am going to Louisville to watch a lot of my friends run the Louisville marathon and half marathon. I figure I'll jump in and run some miles with some of them. I hope to provide some encouragement.

Silence

How do you like silence? I am becoming more and more a fan of it. I often ride without the radio on. It's a good time to pray. [I keep my eyes open.] It's a good time to think. I think too many of us have way too much noise in our lives. Of course some are trying to drown out the voices of a reality they don't want to face.

There is another kind of silence that I find so hard. This morning I read a really good post about it. You can read it here. Silence is so hard to interpret, and it often leads to insecurity and/or anger, it seems to me. I know there is a time to be silent, but there is also a time to speak. Consideration of the other should be a dominant factor in which one is required.

Thursday

"Hey lady, way to use your head!" I promise I did not shout that at this lady. I wanted to but exercised extreme discipline and self-control.

OK, here I am on Thursday morning pretty well clueless about how the sermon will go this week. My class last night was different. I didn't feel like I did a very good job of leading, eliciting, but we did have some interesting thoughts presented from time to time. I need to back off from the text, my study, and the class, and really look at what needs to happen with the passage. I did find that the discussion about the short/long ending of Mark's gospel is probably not going to get much time on Sunday. It's either uninteresting or disturbing.

I like the way Mark's gospel ends abruptly in verse 8. It's kind of the way his gospel begins - all of a sudden! We all have to wrestle with what it means to follow a risen Christ who is invisible. Frightening stuff when you think about it, and doesn't this push us right back to Faith?

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

The disciples were called to go back to Galilee, where it all began, and start over. This time they were to follow a Christ that was crucified (and risen), taking up their own cross, dying to self, believing/hoping in resurrection.

No.

I have a really hard time saying a certain word. NO. I don't like to say it. Sometimes I don't like saying it because I don't want to disappoint someone. At other times I don't want to say it because I want to do what I'm being asked to do.

This morning a good friend suggested I should come to a certain event that supports a really good work. I laughed and said that I love the work and would enjoy the event, but I need to say "no." This lead to a very friendly conversation about how many good things there are to be a part of, but there is just not enough time or energy. I think the energy part - emotional energy, desire, whatever you want to call it - is the biggest problem. Most of us just can't be that interested in but only a few things.

That's actually one of my frustrations in life. I would love to do so many other things and be involved in so many other works, including spending more time with specific people, but I don't have enough time and energy. We talked this morning about how a lot of people have this same problem and frustration and then others complain about having nothing to do or choose to do nothing. Such is life...

It all comes down to priorities and balance, which are fairly subjective I suppose. I know that in the context of seeking first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) my family gets top priority. I've done a lot of things wrong, but I feel that I've done fairly well with my family. It was/is an intentional move. I won't put others before them. Things related to loving God with all that I have and loving my neighbor as myself mean that church and service are high priorities. Of course there are so many ways to do all that. Choices.

My physical health is important to me, and I love endurance running and biking. They keep me healthy and help me deal with all the stress that comes with the work I do. The side benefit of my choice to be involved in these activities are the wonderful friends I have discovered. I thoroughly enjoy spending time with them.

I'm not sure why I wrote all this, but there it is!

Wednesday

How's your Wednesday going to be? Basically, the only thing we can control is our attitude, so I am praying for a good one. That should be the case everyday, and I don't see any particular challenge today that will be any more difficult than another day.

Wow, what a rambling start to this post! Oh well, I didn't want you to think that I am upset about anything in particular. Everything is clipping along just fine. The rain is about over, I think, and that is a good thing. I am needing some sunshine!

I put a picture of our semi trailer up for a couple of reasons. First, if you can collect some thing to put in it, I would be grateful. The other thing, less positive, is that graffiti artists (well, they are not artists, but I can't think of a good term for them...) put some obscene pictures on the trailer AND on the back side of our family life center, along with some of the same images on the storage facility doors we look at when we exit our assemblies. Really nice. We talked to the police, and they are going to talk to some of the kids who hang around a lot.

This morning I am going to grab a quick 5 mile run, load a bunch of mattresses up from Camp to ship to Honduras, and be in Bryantsville by 10 a.m. to load a semi with 700 bags of corn. I need the rain to quit soon to make all that a little more enjoyable.

I guess I better go for now...

Tuesday a.m.

Think we'll get any rain? I went to Indy yesterday morning and didn't come back until last night after 6. The White River rose a lot while I was gone yesterday.

I went to Indy yesterday, along with fellow board members, to be presented on the floor of the house of representative for being a part of the Bryantsville Hunger Relief Project. We are celebrating 25 years of service. Eric Koch arranged for all this, and it was a pretty neat experience. We were supposed to be presented around 10 a.m., but once we arrived we were informed that the session had been delayed until 1.30 p.m. That's a long delay!

Fortuneately I had other things to do, so I simply readjusted my schedule. I was planning on doing the house thing and then going up to Carmel to see a lady in a hospital and then running on the Monon trail. I went to Carmel and then came back to the House. Running had to wait. The presentation went well. I really like Eric Koch. I've worked with him a fair amount over the last 2-3 years on a board for Oakland City U. He is a genuinely good person I believe.

I decided to stop in Bedford on my home and run with my friends there. That worked out just about right, and I had one of the best runs I've had in a while. There was a light rain and I felt good. A lot of the run was under an 8 minute mile pace. I'm not really training for anything right now, so it was good to have a faster run.

Biking sure has been hit hard by the rain. Oh well. There will be plenty of opportunities coming up. I have about 3 weeks to build up to a 65 mile ride at Crane. It could be ugly! That's OK.

I hope to get back in a flow of writing this week, so check back from time to time. For now I need to go get organized.

Risus Paschalis