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Day’s Verse:
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps Himself in light as with a garment;
He stretches out the heavens like a tent
And lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
Psalm 104:1
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You can, with this seriously bright idea.
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Day’s Verse:
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generatins come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-4
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For you physics buffs, I’m sure the realization that struck me as I rode up a hill today will have less impact. But as I pedaled along, thinking about the weights I lifted the night before, I realized that most of my physical life is me vs. gravity. Pretty much everything I do results from the need to thwart gravity’s pull. I eat to keep my body up and moving around, to maintain strength enough to hold my own mass up. I sleep for the same reason, to keep body strong enough to stay up. I work to earn money to eat and have a place to sleep. You could extrapolate a little more and say that really life is fighting entropy, of which gravity is one manifestation. This argument would be even easier to make, and my commenting on it here hardly represents a brilliant breakthrough, but still, think of it: On everything from a cellular–even atomic–level and up, you battle against chaos.
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Day’s Verse:
But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.
…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; and take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.
1 Timothy 6:6, 11-12
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Today has proved rather frustrating, as Mondays go. Do you ever have a day when you have to make choices that later turn out to be the exact opposite of what you should have done? This has happened to me twice, and it leaves me gun-shy and miffed. Those times are:
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Day’s Verse:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
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Day’s Verse:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
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Why do I commute six miles each way on my bike? I have so far ridden through 95° weather, moderate temperatures, high-wind situations, and driving rainstorms. I eat a small, inconvienent breakfast at work after taking a quick and completely non-luxurious shower in the womens’ locker room. Plus all day I have a six-mile ride home looming ahead of me. It doesn’t sound very fun, does it? So why do I ride?
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Day’s Verse:
The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after.
1 Timothy 5:24
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What an audacious bird, to poop on our car!
[In time with gasping breaths] Praise-God-from-whom-all-bless-ings-flow… Even this hill…
I wonder if anybody has emailed me lately?
This fried chicken sure is interesting, and the gravy is amazingly creamy. I wonder if the skinnier servers eat here, or if they have to avoid this heavy Southern-type food to stay svelte? I can hardly imagine wanting this more than once a year! And their cornbread lacks real corn.
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Day’s Verse:
Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
1 Timothy 4:12
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The short story is that Ian and I went backpacking at Bear Mountain in Connecticut. There, now for those of you with short attention spans, you know what we were up to without having to suffer through all the details.
Now, for those of you who want to hear all the nitty-gritty of our backpacking trip, here’s the lowdown. Friday I only worked a half day, driving myself in at 7:30 to get off at just before noon (people work too many hours at CRL, and even I do it occasionally). Tucked into my backpack, I found a list I had made of everything Dad and I take on our backpacking trips, and after that pretty much the rest of the day Ian and I spent preparing for our first solo backpacking trip as a couple. We bought lots of small things at REI as well as renting Ian a backpack — incidentally, possibly the best deal ever, with the first and last days free and only $15 for the middle day for REI members. We also bought ingredients for the world’s best trail mix as well as food for the four meals we ate on the trip. When I had assembled and sorted everything, we packed everything into our bags, a feat easily said but less easily accomplished, as it requires serious geometry skills in addition to some serious stubborn shoving.