#1 Tonight I ran a little over a mile in 8 minutes without realizing it.... which isn't anything incredible....but I have not done that since 4th grade..... I was pretty excited.

#2 This is my third day at school going to meetings and training for my summer with the other teams that will be traveling for Johnson. Julie (the girl I am traveling with) and I have a little different situation because we are going to CIY conferences only....the other teams go to camps and churches and have to prepare sermons, skits, lessons, etc...so this week Julie and I have been doing a lot of random things to get ready for our summer but a lot of time has been spent critiquing sermons and presentations for the other groups.

#3 Another major job Julie and I have (and will do next week as well) is help with good 'ol "Senior Saints in the Smokies." The best week of the year for about 700 people over the age of....most people. We help serve them meals, eat with them, talk with them, help them find their rooms in the dorms, and remind them which of 3 halls is theirs after they have been walking around those 3 halls for 30 minutes (true story). Anyway, we are really having a good time with it and love talking to them.

#4 Julie and I are at school this week with the rest of the teams and next week by ourselves (the other teams start camps). Then we are off to our first conference and can't wait!

Today I decided that I really just like watching baseball....which is bizarre because baseball is really....pretty boring....but i like it a lot. The End.

Big Girls Don't Cry...But Lions Do

I've begun reading the the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and came across this incredible passage that reminded me of something else I read in John Eldredge's "Journey of Desire". I don't think it takes anything away from the bigness of God, especially since in the Chronicles of Narnia, God is portrayed through Aslan, a lion, one of the most powerful and intriguing creatures. And without a doubt the coolest thing I saw in Kenya.

“Son of Adam,” said Aslan. “Are you ready to undo the wrong you have done to my sweet country of Narnia on the very day of its birth?”
“Well, I don’t see what I can do,” said Digory. “You see, the Queen ran away and---“
“I asked, are you ready,” said the Lion.
“Yes,” said Digory. He had for a second some wild idea of saying “I’ll try to help you if you’ll promise to help about my Mother,” but he realized in time that the Lion as not at all the sort of person one could try to make bargains with. But when he had said “Yes,” he thought of his Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they were all dying away and a lump came in his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out:
“But please, please—won’t you—can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great front feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent don near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. There were such big bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he belt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.

“My son, my son,” said Aslan. “I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another. But I have to think of hundreds of years in the life of Narnia…”

-The Magician's Nephew

John Eldredge wrote:

"Jesus weeps for Martha and Mary, and for all of us who suffer loss. I think he weeps not only for our loss, but also for our inability to see beyond it. Dare I say our refusal to see beyond it?"

"As You Wish"

I am going to give this blog thing a try. If anything I guess it will be a place for me to organize some thoughts...

(This really has nothing to do with anything...I was just thinking about how much I love The Princess Bride... a lot....)

Being at home is great because I get to be with family and see my friends and sleep...a lot... I am home for about two weeks then at school for another two weeks, then I am off. I have absolutely no idea what to expect this summer. God is continually changing the way He wants me too look at things. After the people I meet and stories I hear this summer, there is no doubt in my mind I will look at things so different than I do at this moment.

But one thing that has not changed is that I love life.
God has been so good to me.
Sometimes I don't think I deserve to love life as much as I do.
But I love it.
I don't really know where my life is going or where I am going to be once I graduate, but it's okay.
I guess my uncertainty gives God a little more room to work.
I'm just doing what I can for now. With eternity in mind.

He has mad everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
yet they cannot fathom what God has done
from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11

We've gotta have eternity in mind....because creation is waiting...