Tuesday:
Tim dropped 3Hs here early on his way to work
loaded car; not too crammed
did Bible reading in the car
visited with Debbie Price (plus Liam and Anna Kate) at Starbucks in Brenham
toured Capitol in Austin (including extension), saw some grounds and monuments
drove by old Cade Circle house
stopped at Underwood's in Brownwood
arrived at Neal & Cynthia's in Abilene (plus Rebekah, Jesse, Martha, Timothy, Joseph Austin, Grandmom, Marilyn)
went over to Gmom's for songs, visit
Wednesday:
did Bible reading outside in the back yard
studied, did school work
ate pizza for lunch
Joy, 3 girls came to N&C's
played volleyball in back yard
spent time at Jacob's Dream for pictures and fun
walked some of ACU trail, including labyrinth
sang at Williams Performing Arts Center
Thursday:
camped out at ACU library (skype worldview, photog classes didn't work)
did interviews (Nancy)
drove to Buffalo Gap, did Bible reading on the way
visited the graves of Granddad, Samuel, Nathan at the BG cemetary
took lots of pictures at open air chapel, railroad tracks, gift shop
toured pottery shop
took more pictures in tree, around bronze deer statues
ate dinner at Belle's (thanks, Uncle Nick!)
visited and had birthday cake at N&M's house, played pool
greeted Daniel and Melissa ("danilissa"), plus Weston & Tirzah
walked more of ACU trail and around campus
guys got McD shakes
watched movie @ Gmom's
Friday:
played Joshua's new song for Gmom
Joy & family came over to Gmom's
sang, visited
hunted tigers (Weston, Jason)
did laundry, cleaned up, packed, said goodbye
went to N&C's to pack, eat watermelon, and say goodbye
ate lunch at Rosa's
went back to N&C's, Gmom's for leftover items
did Bible reading driving down I-10
toured the Dr Pepper bottling plant in Dublin
visited the chocolate shop in Hico
took pictures in Meridian on Bosque County courthouse square
ate Subway in Temple
met Tim @ Kroger in Rosenberg
drove home
What am I missing? Seems like there's more ... Remind me and I'll edit the list.
Wasn't it fun? :-)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A morning adventure and the goodness of God
Not ALL my mornings are this crazy, but here's a peek at what has happened so far today:
While I was getting ready to leave home at 8:35 am, my friend P called from BUSH Airport preparing to board a 10:25 flight out of the country. She said she didn't have her passport, it was still somewhere in her house back in the Sugar Land area, and could I help her? Sure! I zipped out the door and headed to her house, making phone calls along the way (canceling a lunch appointment, finding a sub for my morning preschool group, arranging a supplemental activity for the sub, notifying the church office of my whereabouts). I used P's back door code to get into her house, then began the needle-in-a-haystack search for the passport, with P directing me. Found it! (Stopped by her frig to get a quick snack.)
Locked the house back up, headed to the airport. No time to buy gas -- would I make it? By now, 9:00. P called to say the passport had to be in hand by 9:25 or no go. Pppffffttt, I say. I will be there at 9:45. Keep asking for someone to say "yes," and I will keep driving. 9:30, P officially past last possible check in. Gas light on. Driving, driving. Pull up to the terminal door at - yep - exactly 9:45. Fling passport to P, keep driving. Notice gas light glowing bright. Find Valero a short distance away. Car inhales $75 of gas with one gulp. Where is debit card? Whew!
OK, breathe .... at this point, there is nothing more to do for P, except pray for those who will be listening to her plea. What I CAN do is be thankful for my many other trips to the international terminals at Bush, so I know exactly how to help in a situation like this. I am also thankful for others who can be flexible and help cover for me -- we are all together in helping our friend! I am thankful for money to buy gasoline. I am thankful for a cell phone, which P could use to ask for help, and which I could use to assist her. I am thankful for each person that I talked to on that phone this morning, and for the information and encouragement they offered on the drive up and back. And I am thankful for the text that came in at 10:12, saying P was on the plane, and all is well, and that God is so good.
God IS good. That's not because things go our way, of course. He would have been good even if P had missed the plane. He is good because, well, just because he is good! Saying "God is good" is redundant. It doesn't mean that we have held God against some objective external standard, and in our opinion he measures up. Instead, it means that God is the very definition of goodness. If he does something that is uncomfortable, painful, inconvenient, costly, or embarrassing for us, that does not mean he is not good! It may, however, mean that we need to adjust our understanding of "goodness" to more completely see life from his point of view. As we are "transformed by the renewing of our minds," we will increasingly know true goodness as characterized by every single thing that comes to us from the hand of our gracious, personal God.
While I was getting ready to leave home at 8:35 am, my friend P called from BUSH Airport preparing to board a 10:25 flight out of the country. She said she didn't have her passport, it was still somewhere in her house back in the Sugar Land area, and could I help her? Sure! I zipped out the door and headed to her house, making phone calls along the way (canceling a lunch appointment, finding a sub for my morning preschool group, arranging a supplemental activity for the sub, notifying the church office of my whereabouts). I used P's back door code to get into her house, then began the needle-in-a-haystack search for the passport, with P directing me. Found it! (Stopped by her frig to get a quick snack.)
Locked the house back up, headed to the airport. No time to buy gas -- would I make it? By now, 9:00. P called to say the passport had to be in hand by 9:25 or no go. Pppffffttt, I say. I will be there at 9:45. Keep asking for someone to say "yes," and I will keep driving. 9:30, P officially past last possible check in. Gas light on. Driving, driving. Pull up to the terminal door at - yep - exactly 9:45. Fling passport to P, keep driving. Notice gas light glowing bright. Find Valero a short distance away. Car inhales $75 of gas with one gulp. Where is debit card? Whew!
OK, breathe .... at this point, there is nothing more to do for P, except pray for those who will be listening to her plea. What I CAN do is be thankful for my many other trips to the international terminals at Bush, so I know exactly how to help in a situation like this. I am also thankful for others who can be flexible and help cover for me -- we are all together in helping our friend! I am thankful for money to buy gasoline. I am thankful for a cell phone, which P could use to ask for help, and which I could use to assist her. I am thankful for each person that I talked to on that phone this morning, and for the information and encouragement they offered on the drive up and back. And I am thankful for the text that came in at 10:12, saying P was on the plane, and all is well, and that God is so good.
God IS good. That's not because things go our way, of course. He would have been good even if P had missed the plane. He is good because, well, just because he is good! Saying "God is good" is redundant. It doesn't mean that we have held God against some objective external standard, and in our opinion he measures up. Instead, it means that God is the very definition of goodness. If he does something that is uncomfortable, painful, inconvenient, costly, or embarrassing for us, that does not mean he is not good! It may, however, mean that we need to adjust our understanding of "goodness" to more completely see life from his point of view. As we are "transformed by the renewing of our minds," we will increasingly know true goodness as characterized by every single thing that comes to us from the hand of our gracious, personal God.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Words
I am fascinated with words.
How is it that we can communicate ideas from one human mind to another using little squiggles on a page or by forming breathy sounds? How do babies learn to coalesce nascent thought into the language of their environment? How does a group of people agree on vocabulary and grammar to express its knowledge and culture? What power exists with simple words!
But despite their power, words are risky. What if I don't choose the word that exactly expresses what I am thinking? What if I don't speak or write it clearly? What if you misread or mishear my words? What if the word you understand means something different to you than it does to me? What if the word you think you remember isn't the word you actually heard? As in the children's "telephone" game, even the best-intentioned use of words is far from foolproof.
So why should an omnipotent, omniscient God who could have imprinted our brains with absolute inerrant truth instead choose to use mere words to communicate with us? Mightn't we misunderstand those words? Couldn't we misread them, mistranslate them, or even forget what they were? Why use such a frail vehicle as words? But then I think of Christ, "the Word," who expressed his purposes using human language, which is every bit as frail as human flesh. He accepted the risk of his message being misheard, misunderstood, misinterpreted, misremembered. Why?
I do not know.
But there is good news. If God can powerfully use the weak vessel of human language to communicate his will to the world throughout the millenniums, then perhaps he can use a lumpy ball of clay like me to do some of his work for a few decades. Even if I, like Christ, am misheard, misunderstood, misinterpreted, or misremembered, if I can simply say his words, if I can just speak the truth of the Word, then there is hope.
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