Finally...A Blog Entry by Nathan

Yes, I admit, I have waited all too long to add my two cents to our family blog. Let me give you a recap of a few things that I have been involved with these past few months.

July 17th: Triathalon

I decided that for Father's Day this year, I wanted to race in an upcoming triathalon in the Littleton area. Generally, triathalon's occur in one of four distances: Sprint, Olympic Length, Half-Ironman, and Full Ironman. The distance for my triathalon was between the sprint, and olympic lengths. The swim was 750 meters, the ride was 14 miles, and the run was 4 miles. Though I finished somewhere over 100th place, I still had a blast, and am looking forward to competing in another triathalon next year if time allows.

August 6th: Construction Finished...And the House is Listed

This was a glorious day, the finale to 31 days of deconstruction, and reconstruction of our kitchen and a portion of our garage. When you are away on vacation, and get a call from your neighbor that water is leaking out from your garage door, it has a way of putting a dampener on your vacation. The long story short, the water supply line to the fridge burst, and left our kitchen floor in ruin, as well as a portion of two walls and the ceiling in our garage. Because the installation and finishing of the hardwood floor required us to vacate the home for four days, we enjoyed a four-night vacation in Breckenridge on Allstate. In the days following August 6th, we spent the weekend and evenings prepping the house for sale, and within one week had it listed. Now, we wait...

August 22nd: Prison outreach Events

This past Saturday, the staff and volunteers of Prison Fellowship put on two outreach events at two different prisons in Canon City, CO. Territorial, and Four Mile. Between the comedian, musician, and speaker, it was a great time. Side note, the speaker had gone to prison because he was a follower of Charles Manson, and was incarcerated for trying to break Manson out of prison.

In addition to the above events, we also had a great time with my parents this past week. Visiting Breckenridge, helping put on a dessert reception for Chuck Colson, working on the construction of our new church facility, and eating some great food were all good memories from their time in CO. We look forward to having my dad visit again in two weeks over Labor Day weekend. Then, Libby's mom will be in town for a few days a couple of weeks later.

Till next time...

-Nathan (for Libby too)

The little things matter most

“Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” James 1.17

Two Quotes: One Me

I came across these two quotes this evening and was blown away. I thought I would share:

The first is from Kyle Lake’s final sermons. For those of you who are not familiar, Kyle Lake was the pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, TX. He died, far too young, in October of 2005 in a tragic accident.

“Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun. If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time. If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well. Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own. If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift.”

This morning, twelve hours before I read this quote I was siting on the floor watching Harrison flip through a book. My thoughts were filled with the desire to be fully present. Always. I want to remember these moments and not regret that I flew through life always worrying about the next thing on my to do list. For those of you who know me well, I have a long to do list that always gets replenished every morning. God's mercies are new every day along with my to do list. I've had enough. I want to be present. Do away with future worries and say hello to present joys.

Second quote:

A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg. (See Part IV “The Ethics of Elfland” in Orthodoxy)

I read this quote this evening as well. There have been multiple days where I have looked into my son's face and thought, wow! God is so good. This quote caused me to choke up thinking that the Lord, who I've always pictured as an old man with a long grey beard sitting on a huge gold throne in the sky (Picture Gandolf if you will), could actually be a God who contains the same ecstatic excitement of my 11 month old who is flailing about his arms and legs in eager anticipation for his next bite of peaches. A God who gets that excited every time He sees one of his children "get it". That kind of all out wild pleasure.

Harrison is teaching me a lot about my number one love, Jesus.

I just thought I would share some of the inspiration I received today.

Love,

Libby