February 23, 2012

Well, we are coming up on Face 2 Face, our week long intensive, set at Camp Quaker Ridge in Woodland Park, CO. In one sense I am really excited about the time there again. About what God is going to show all of us, how He is going to work in me, and being up in the mountains. And at the same time I have apprehension over it all too. Leaving Audrey for over a week is going to be hard, facing things that God might bring into my life that I might not necessarily want to face, etc... It's a both/and. A God thing that happened this past week was that I am reading Spiritual Friendship by Aelred, and I am also in a men's study going through Disciplines of a Godly Man, and the chapter that we talked about Wed. was on friendship. It was neat to see the similarities between the two books and also that I got an opportunity to share about what I had been reading from Aelred.

February 19, 2012

Wow! This week I have been reading Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Revelux and it's something that I have never really thought about before. The true act of friendship and what it looks like and having Christ at the center of those friendships. Friendship is not something that I have really entered into with a specific purpose. It has just kind of happened, and I've never gone deeper into what true spiritual friendship should be. One of the things that caught me by surprise was that Aelred said at one point in his life he knew he wasn't fit to be somebody's friend. That we need to have things in our life in a place where we are able to be a friend. I've never thought that before. I am looking forward to reading further to see what else comes to the surface.

February 18, 2012

With the reading this week from Inside Out, I have been looking more "beneath the surface" of myself. This transition is not an easy one. I have had to say sorry to my wife more than once this week once I have been able to process through some of my emotions. But it has been good at the same time too. Being able to realize why I have acted in the way that I did, and pinpointing it. The next part, and in my mind, maybe the biggest is the continuation of this process in a habitual way.

February 10, 2012

Journal Entry #2 Over the past few weeks Audrey and I have set a goal for each week. The first one we did was to run 29 miles in the week of my birthday. Boom, done. The second one for the second week was to do a Body Rock Workout everyday of the week. Boom, done. This week the goal has been to read Psalm 46 at least once a day and to memorize the entire Psalm. Reading the Psalm has been accomplished so far, the memorizing part is still in the works, but we do have until Sunday. Not gonna lie this week has been a hard one. There have been some things that have happened that just haven't been very good. But Psalm 46 has been a beacon of hope and light through some of the darkness. Here is a question for you, just play along with me. Did God make this week harder because we were reading Psalm 46, or did God know this week was going to be hard and He have us Psalm 46 for something to hold onto through it all? I don't know the answer. Here is Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46:1-11 NIV) Thank You Lord for Your Promises.

February 9, 2012

It has been a while since I have been able to blog since I don't have internet access at my house. This doesn't mean however that I have been slacking. I have really been looking forward to the time where I actually had time to write down some of the thoughts and things that have been happening. So I'm going to break these up into a few different posts so I don't end up with one giant one. The first thing that I want to journal about is that I got to go watch KU Basketball at Allen Fieldhouse for the first time in my life! It was an incredible experience being there with all the people, noise, and hype. Not something that I will forget anytime soon. The seating capacity in Allen Fieldhouse is 16,300 and as we were sitting there with everyone else around us, I was reminded of the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000. And if you have 5,000 men not counting women and children I think it would be fair to guess that there could have been close to 16,000. It was really eye opening to have that many people tangibally sitting in one place and then imagining that they were all listening to Jesus speak, and then even more astonishing is that they were all fed with a few fish and some bread. And in Scripture everyone was full. I'm not sure the amount of food served that night at the basketball game, but I can tell you that it was a lot, and I know that not everyone was fully satisfied. I guess the biggest thing that hit me was how incredible that story is, and it happened twice! I could just imagine all of us sitting there in Allen Fieldhouse ripping off a piece of bread, passing it onto the next person, them ripping off a piece, and it just continuing. His miracles are amazing...