I'm on the cover of the Patriot News...

Yesterday was the McCain/Palin Rally in Hershey and i was asked to help out.  I just figured I'd have some nothing task outside, but it would be a fun experience.  How wrong I was!  lol...

I got to help out as a press volunteer, and my assignment put me on the floor of the Rink.  So, there I was with Jamie Creason, all dressed up in my bowtie, green Roo's on my feet, volunteer badge around my neck, ready to keep people out of the areas they weren't supposed to be, and to fill up the areas that needed it most.  A simply frustrating task... no matter how polite and persuasive you can be, there are just some who choose not to lis

ten.  Even if you honestly tel them they have the worst seats, that their seats would soon be completely obstructed, or that if they would go beneath the gigantic flag they could have the oppurtunity to shake either McCain's or Palin's hands... they still won't budge.  Or worse, they just pretend you're not there.  

But, we had a blast... so much so, that today my body aches, my feet are killing me and voice is rough... Understandable, right?  I was at a rally...

Well, I went the extra-mile, as perhaps only I could.  lol... Since we were on the floor, and had a lot of running room, we were able to do all kinds of things.  Getting our side to chant various pro-McCain things, and "USA", and the wave.  I had a blast!  I got so into it, my first sign was ripped in two.  Someone from the crowd came down and gave me another one so i could continue.  And it would be noticeable if any of the American news agencies were there!  lol... I will be on the Irish National News on Friday night, and the Spanish National News at some point this week, and I was interviewed for the Czech Republic National Radio.  What you would see, if we got any of those things, is me, generally acting like a total fool, throwing my body into all kinds of things, while wearing a bowtie.  Basically, what you see on wednesday nights at Devonshire when I'm Gordo, or on Sunday mornings when I'm teaching.

I did happen to make the front page of the Patriot News... ok, so did a thousand other people.  I'll post it below.  You can see me standing in the lower left corner of the pic, next to Jamie, I think.  I'm the taller one.  Yeah, that's me... you can kinda make out the outline of my bowtie, and my camera.

What happens when you teach kids about Determination.

I work with the kids at my church through a wonderful program called Kidstuf... and it is awesome.  I play Gordo, a loveable nerd, who has his share of misadventures, usually ending in him getting pretty excited about something.  And he hates to quit.  Hates it.  

Well, I am Gordo.  

This month we are learning about determination, and this is one of those months where I am learning along with the kids...  I'm learning more about humility, and what it means to be determined, and to "run the race marked out for us." 

Well, what happens when we the route takes a sudden shift?  How will I respond? 

This sunday is the Marine Corps Marathon in DC, and I had planned on running.  I had planned and had been training, but I have had to give up this year's race.  My heart problems have returned, and this time it has been joined with other problems.  I'm having tests done, and other awesome things are being hooked up to my body... I envision myself Darth Vader, but with both my real hands.  

But my determination has turned into stubborn-ness.  I loved that feeling last year after finishing the race, and I was very much looking forward to improving my time.  And well, its pretty hard for me to think that I will not be able to run this year.  

It's pretty hard for me to think that maybe my goals and purposes are not the best in why I want to run. 

I'll be in DC this weekend to watch my wife, Heather, and a good friend of ours, Scott, run the 10k. If any of you are in the area, let me know.

My view is changing me

Well, Autumn is fast upon us here in Harrisburg.  After a brief respite of summer like weather, the cold has latched on fast, and the leaves are down or downing.  I'm thinking about the greatest of all American past times, the election, and am amazed at how often I change my mind about what I'm going to do.  Whether I'm going to or not, who I'm going for or not... it's a long lengthy process and never fully decided 'til I get in that locally curtained booth.  

It's not my indecisiveness that drives this line of thought, it's my view.  And this is a small window into my soul... do you know how often I think and rethink my actions?  Often.  

I was looking over my journals this morning and am amazed about how much I have changed from those days.  And, really, it all comes down to my view on life, and from what vantage I take.  What a low view of life I held back then.  As if I was the only thing that ever mattered, as if it was more important that I get something, of I feel something, or that I am someone.  Hindsight being what it is, it would be so easy for others to look at this as the maturing process.  But I know better.  

I am being renewed in my mind, my heart is being reshaped.  And I'm more aware of life, I am fully awake, like it's the first morning every morning.  His blessings are new each morning, and I have been given the grace to know this, to run after it, and to take what small part it is that I have to play in this.  This view, of the fully and resplendent cross ever before me, is changing me daily, hourly, minute by God given, God rescued, minute.  

How did I ever get on without You?

Some funny stuff

I thought this was funny...

An old favourite

I turned this morning to an old favorite of mine, Scougal's The Life of God in the Soul of Man.  A truly great book, and one that I would encourage anyone to read.  I've turned to it many times, and no matter how horrible I feel, after reading but some pages I regain that correct sense of standing before God: He is great, and I am truly unworthy of His love towards me.  I was also encouraged to know that a man I greatly admire, John Piper, is also a fan of this little book (I was not humble in the thought that I had read it many times before his prompting).  Here is the line I focused on today:

"But he who is utterly destitute of this inward principle, and doth not aspire unto it (freedom in religion), but contents himself with those performances whereunto he is prompted by education or custom, by the fear of hell, or carnal notions of heaven, can no more be accounted a religious person, than a puppet can be called a man...

"...he who hath given himself entirely unto God, will never think he doth too much for him. (38,39)"

My old lady

Heather has turned 29 today, but in her heart she's 55 or better!  A couple of weeks ago she received an AARP card in the mail.  I looked at the envelope questioningly as she opened it.  It is obviously a mistake, I think.  But tell that to all of the ads and flyers we get for her to attend all these seminars on retiring well, or assisted living.  

I am really trying to encourage Heather to attend these.  She would go to try to set the record straight; I want to go because some of these places are offering steak - free steak!  

So, Happy Birthday, Heather... may you enjoy your twilight years, even as far away as they are now.

A shot out for all my...

I need to thank Crystal McClintock for the wonder that she introduced me to: London Fog.  

I know what you're thinking, trench coats.  Nope, I'm talking about the wonder that I invite into my mouth every morning now.  It has become my morning drink, surpassing the usual Caramel Macchiato, which I never thought would happen.  Ah, the Fog.

Now, before you google it, you should be warned that I am not an alcoholic; there is a cocktail drink by the same name.  It is not that one.

It is a hot drink, Earl Grey tea, with a shot of vanilla syrup and warm frothy milk...mmmm... it is beautiful.  

felt so alien

I never feel so alien to this world as when I read the newspaper.  Its just appalling and amazing how terrible, how full of terror, this world is.  And how foreign it is to me.  How could it be that it seems so few recognize the effects of sin?  How can the world , those outside of Christ, not feel this immeasurable weight and not see that they cannot be the solution?  Our dirty hands can not in anyway help wash one another's.  

The great problem of Christianity is that sin is inescapable, and that we can recognize it so readily.  Its the elephant in the room.  Its the sunspot in our eye.  I didn't have this problem before I was a Christian.  And as a sign of maturing faith, I can recognize my alien-ish feelings as my longing to go home.  But I am here, sometimes with a broken heart, wondering and longing for others to see what I see.