A link to the tributes to Frank and Ryan, the AIMAIR pilot and mechanic who died in the plane crash at the beginning of August.
What amazing legacies they left.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us....
I think a person can spend forever waiting for life to get back to normal, to settle down, or at least to slow down.
It's a wonderful wait to hide behind instead of taking life as it is by the horns, wrestling it to the ground and forcing it to bend to the right priorities.
I think--hope?--I've finally got the gumption to do just that. For too long I've simply been surviving, the important things--time in the Word, considering God in all things, living a godly life--falling by the wayside.
It's been a while since I've wanted to do things of above. As in, really wanted them like I should--enough to run hard after them, like Hebrews 12:1.
It's true, much of my life in the last... years... has been a series of surges and failures. But it's more recently--in the last year--that I've absorbed the failures and neglected the surges.
I've been lazy. Lukewarm. Defeated. Blah.
My friend recently reminded me this isn't who I used to be. She couldn't believe that I was so paralyzed in building relationships, that I succumbed to panic attacks at the supermarket, that I had accepted this survivor's shuffle pace and outlook. She dragged out memories of the Andi everyone was used to, and she stripped me of every excuse not to be that way again.
How'd I get so far from... me?
It all sounds rather heroic, I know--this getting back in the race, this getting back to focus and joy, and this getting back to really living. And I'm sure I'll fall flat on my face pretty quickly. That simply means I'll need your prayer, that I'll actually press on, strive hard and keep running the race set before me.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2
It's a wonderful wait to hide behind instead of taking life as it is by the horns, wrestling it to the ground and forcing it to bend to the right priorities.
I think--hope?--I've finally got the gumption to do just that. For too long I've simply been surviving, the important things--time in the Word, considering God in all things, living a godly life--falling by the wayside.
It's been a while since I've wanted to do things of above. As in, really wanted them like I should--enough to run hard after them, like Hebrews 12:1.
It's true, much of my life in the last... years... has been a series of surges and failures. But it's more recently--in the last year--that I've absorbed the failures and neglected the surges.
I've been lazy. Lukewarm. Defeated. Blah.
My friend recently reminded me this isn't who I used to be. She couldn't believe that I was so paralyzed in building relationships, that I succumbed to panic attacks at the supermarket, that I had accepted this survivor's shuffle pace and outlook. She dragged out memories of the Andi everyone was used to, and she stripped me of every excuse not to be that way again.
How'd I get so far from... me?
It all sounds rather heroic, I know--this getting back in the race, this getting back to focus and joy, and this getting back to really living. And I'm sure I'll fall flat on my face pretty quickly. That simply means I'll need your prayer, that I'll actually press on, strive hard and keep running the race set before me.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Plane crash...
Sometimes I wonder how God will use things.
The AIM family lost two AIM AIR missionaries in a crash this week.
Kenyan news footage.
The AIM family lost two AIM AIR missionaries in a crash this week.
Kenyan news footage.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Mathdog
So, the other day, for whatever reason, Eric and I got to talking about Greg Maddux.
I, as is usual in any conversation about Maddux, commented on how he doesn't look like he should be playing baseball at all--he looks more like he should be a high school math teacher.
Then I realized Eric is a high school math teacher.
And I decided I'd better rethink my future Maddux commentary.
(The thing is, though, it just worked so well. He does look like what a high school math teacher is supposed to look like. Maybe I'll just change it to a science teacher...)
I, as is usual in any conversation about Maddux, commented on how he doesn't look like he should be playing baseball at all--he looks more like he should be a high school math teacher.
Then I realized Eric is a high school math teacher.
And I decided I'd better rethink my future Maddux commentary.
(The thing is, though, it just worked so well. He does look like what a high school math teacher is supposed to look like. Maybe I'll just change it to a science teacher...)
Monday, August 03, 2009
fly me to the 'moon...
Eric and I are fresh off our honeymoon in Mexico.
It was... wonderful. Perfect. Everything and more.
And--best of all--nothing. At all.
For the first time--ever--in our relationship, we had nothing to do. This past year (since I've been home, and especially in the last nine months, since we met) has been nothing short of insane.
And, left without this much-needed week of relaxation, we certainly would've been batty soon, too. The changes have been many; the pace, break-necking.
And just at our breaking point--on the tails of another move/remodel and summer soccer madness--we got our break.
Bliss.
It was... wonderful. Perfect. Everything and more.
And--best of all--nothing. At all.
For the first time--ever--in our relationship, we had nothing to do. This past year (since I've been home, and especially in the last nine months, since we met) has been nothing short of insane.
And, left without this much-needed week of relaxation, we certainly would've been batty soon, too. The changes have been many; the pace, break-necking.
And just at our breaking point--on the tails of another move/remodel and summer soccer madness--we got our break.
Bliss.
fly me to the food...
out to dinner at the mexican restaurant...
mariachi band. my absolute favorite. they were SO good.
i look like a dork.
carlos, our favorite waiter.
family portrait!
fly me to the pool...
which was at our doorstep. :)
"my head looks huge." -eric
my husband is very good at relaxing...
pool, at doorstep--as promised.
my husband loves me three hours at the spa's worth. my lovely bright red pedicure. :)
"my head looks huge." -eric
my husband is very good at relaxing...
pool, at doorstep--as promised.
my husband loves me three hours at the spa's worth. my lovely bright red pedicure. :)
fly me to chichen itza...
i'm not a big educational tour person. really, at all.
come to think of it, they usually bore me senseless. and i begin looking for some dull object to gouge my eyes out with. or a wall to pound my head against. or window to jump out.
eric and i went off the resort only once during our week of bliss, for such an excursion.
it involved seven hours on a bus. and bad, oft-told jokes from the tour guide. and lots of opportunities to buy tacky, cheesy or otherwise offensive (think beer-toting tourist t-shirts) souvenirs. and a meal with "authentic" mexican dancers.
AND, hearing all about the mayans responsible for the structures at the ancient city of chichen itza and their culture. and, really, the fact that they were just a remarkable lot of folks.
and, so, in conclusion... i really liked it. our tour guide knew what he was talking about, and laid out for us the very complicated story behind the ruins in a very simple, palatable way. it was a neat lesson in the coming together of math, science, agriculture and astrology in a people that, really, shouldn't have been able to do all that. i won't bore you with it all, but it is quite interesting, if you're so inclined to google it.
that's the pyramid at the city-center. it's actually a giant, super-accurate calendar, a tribute to the "gods" and a miracle of engineering. it's tilted 17 degrees off the equator, so on the equinox, when the sun hits it around 5 o'clock, bit by bit, triangles appear that make up the back of a snake (whose head, which you can't see in this picture, is on the ground at the base of the north stairs). again, you're really just going to have to look it up.
snaaaaake. not THE snake. but just a snake.
this is the ball court. which had lots of significance in the mayan culture and other cultures around the world. and held even more significance for eric, who remembered something like it from the movie "the road to el dorado," which he insisted--since then--that we watch. and which we bought after an exhausting search at walmart. for $5. go us.
ruins vs. rebuilt.
come to think of it, they usually bore me senseless. and i begin looking for some dull object to gouge my eyes out with. or a wall to pound my head against. or window to jump out.
eric and i went off the resort only once during our week of bliss, for such an excursion.
it involved seven hours on a bus. and bad, oft-told jokes from the tour guide. and lots of opportunities to buy tacky, cheesy or otherwise offensive (think beer-toting tourist t-shirts) souvenirs. and a meal with "authentic" mexican dancers.
AND, hearing all about the mayans responsible for the structures at the ancient city of chichen itza and their culture. and, really, the fact that they were just a remarkable lot of folks.
and, so, in conclusion... i really liked it. our tour guide knew what he was talking about, and laid out for us the very complicated story behind the ruins in a very simple, palatable way. it was a neat lesson in the coming together of math, science, agriculture and astrology in a people that, really, shouldn't have been able to do all that. i won't bore you with it all, but it is quite interesting, if you're so inclined to google it.
that's the pyramid at the city-center. it's actually a giant, super-accurate calendar, a tribute to the "gods" and a miracle of engineering. it's tilted 17 degrees off the equator, so on the equinox, when the sun hits it around 5 o'clock, bit by bit, triangles appear that make up the back of a snake (whose head, which you can't see in this picture, is on the ground at the base of the north stairs). again, you're really just going to have to look it up.
snaaaaake. not THE snake. but just a snake.
this is the ball court. which had lots of significance in the mayan culture and other cultures around the world. and held even more significance for eric, who remembered something like it from the movie "the road to el dorado," which he insisted--since then--that we watch. and which we bought after an exhausting search at walmart. for $5. go us.
ruins vs. rebuilt.
fly me to our room...
why, yes. yes, i am going to be that girl who posts the most random honeymoon pictures. including pictures of our room, which was big and fancy and pretty.
see that sliding door? it goes right out onto the patio of a swimming pool, and overlooks the (also ridiculously nearby) beach.
my favorite part--jucuzzi tub! woohooo! :)
see that sliding door? it goes right out onto the patio of a swimming pool, and overlooks the (also ridiculously nearby) beach.
my favorite part--jucuzzi tub! woohooo! :)
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