Life As It Comes 
Life is Full5 Comments
Well, it’s time for an update. 
I’m a blog-slacker it seems, but there’s good reason for that. Life is really full these days of things to keep me busy.
Yes, a “race-report” is coming for my first Olympic triathlon. I’ve been meaning to write it up, but I also got a little side-tracked behind the scenes by starting work on a new design for my site. I was hoping to get to work on it enough to get it live this weekend, but that didn’t happen.
What have I been up to?
I’m still training after my race. My normal schedule looks like this:
Monday: Specialty Run
Tuesday: Spin
Wednesday: Swim in the morning; Track Workout at night
Thursday: Lead Community Group
Friday: Swim in the morning
Saturday: Long Ride + Brick (+ swim sometimes)
Sunday: Setup, Church, and Tear-down for Crossroads
This past weekend, though, there were a few changes to the schedule. I didn’t swim Friday morning, because I got home late from group, and 4+ hours of sleep didn’t seem like enough to be productive at work. Saturday, my CG and I cleaned up the ranch for Crossroads’ One Year Celebration, which was on Sunday.
This week looks to be overflowing in the schedule department too, with me double-(or triple-)booked on a couple days. Tuesday morning, we’re starting DWAP; Tuesday night, I’m supposed to be part of a panel to discuss/answer question about the Executive Masters Program that I was involved in for new potential students; Saturday, the Kalmbachs are moving, Schlitter-Ben ‘08 is supposed to happen, and there’s a long-ride as usual with T3.
So…. if I’m not posting here, it’s most likely because I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to do too many things. But…. every time I go through a “clear out my schedule” phase in life, it always fills back up like this, so I must like it this way.
Here’s the alarm clock on my phone:
For those of you that know me as a night owl, I’m sure that’s pretty shocking.
Names Have Been Changed6 Comments
I had quite the experience late Sunday night and into Monday morning. As part of our Congregational Care ministry, our church has an “SOS Team”. My friend Kurt (his name has not been changed) and I were contacted to help with one such instance of this team being called into action.
A woman, I’ll call her Valerie, was in dire need of some help moving her belongings from the house she had been renting to another house about a mile and a half away. She told us of many heart-wrenching instances of difficult personal situations that she is currently wading through. Her humbleness and brokenness were striking. As we lifted and loaded her belongings onto a U-Haul and others cleaned and swept beginning at 10:45 PM, she kept telling us she could not believe how “sweet” and “kind” we were being. While I disconnected her washer and dryer, she told me she had never had them working because no one would help her with them. (They had been disconnected after it seemed like the washer was flooding the adjacent bathroom.) I promised her I would hook them up in her new house.
As her house emptied and we came back for a second load in the U-Haul, she began to scour her brain for ways she could pay us back. She told us she had not been able to find anyone willing to help her. Some had even said “We don’t know how you’re going to get all that out of there.” One of us told her, “Just tell them God took care of it for you.”
Once all her belongings were in the new house, Kurt and I stayed, as the other adults left, in order to hook up her entertainment center (which had also never been hooked up quite right). She went to the old house to retrieve some clothes, and Kurt and I set up her box springs and mattress for her. When she returned, she told us she had run out of gas in her driveway and that she needed us to take her to the gas station to fill her gas can. We did so and brought her back to add the gas to her tank. I spilled some on me; the can was leaky. Kurt figured out how to pour it, while I went in to wash my hands, and he followed me in shortly afterward.
We asked Valerie for some soap to wash our hands, and she squeezed enough into my hands to wash my body at least twice. I put some of it in Kurt’s hands as well. I was struck by this moment, this gesture of humble generosity. It reminded me of the woman with the alabaster jar.
As we were leaving, she continued to express such poignant thanks, even offering to cup her hands to give us water to drink, since she did not have any unpacked or clean cups. When we left her, she gave us each hugs, and I had been thinking in my heart the whole night, “How much must this woman need a hug from someone, after all she’s been through these last few weeks?” We told her she should not worry about trying to repay us or return the kindness, only that we would be praying for her. We left her at 3:15 AM.
Such a powerful and humbling example of God’s grace was that night! I am so grateful that in something as trivial for us as helping someone move (Kurt and I do that a lot), God was able to bless this woman. I pray that we were all good witnesses of his love, grace, and power to her. I will remember that hug for a long time.
I recount that story here, not to boast, not to pat myself or Kurt on the back, but to recapitulate an event that really resonated in my own life. As Valerie said, sometimes it seems as though there is a “dark cloud” over us. Sometimes everything you do fails or falls apart. But always, ALWAYS:
The Lord is gracious and compassionate
Slow to anger and rich in love
The Lord is gracious and compassionate
Slow to anger and rich in loveAnd the Lord is good to all
He has compassion in all that He has made
As far as the east is from the west
That’s how far He has removed our transgressions from usPraise the Lord, oh my soul
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, oh my soul
Praise the Lord
Congratulations James and Kelly Ann!1 Comment
Congratulations to James and Kelly Ann Timmins on the birth of their new baby Samuel!
I’m Back3 Comments
I made it back from Mexico City last night. God richly blessed our trip and used us to do amazing things. More as I have time…. These next few days are going to be crazy.
Tú eres todopoderoso
Eres grande y majestuoso,
Eres fuerte, invencible
y no hay nadie como tú
