Knowledge

I just finished re-reading "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. You should read it. One of my favorite parts is this conversation between little-girl Corrie and her father. She asks him a tough-adult question (they are traveling on a train and he has his work-bag with him). Here's their conversation after Corrie has asked her question and dad hasn't answered yet:

" At last, he lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor. 'Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?' he said. I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. 'It's too heavy', I said. 'Yes,' he said, 'And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a heavy load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you."

And the parallel that I drew:

God is the same way with His children. He doesn't overburden us with all the details of His plans, He gives us the knowledge we need at the exact moment we need it- not before, and not after. Perfect timing. He knows when we are strong enough, prepared for the next step-whatever that might be. And we, as His children, must trust Him to keep His plans, to carry that knowledge for us, until that perfect moment arrives. Wow.

Whoosh!

That's the sound of my ego being deflated. Here's the scenario:

This past Sunday, we had people over (duh, if you read my blog, you already know that). Among them was my pastor and his family. Conversation between me and Grady (my pastor):

Grady: So, you do triathlons?
Me: Yep!
Grady: When's your next one?
Me: Next Sunday
Grady: So show me your muscles, you gotta have muscles right?
Me: Yep! ::makes arm muscle::
Grady: That's it!?
Me: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THAT'S IT!? :: tone of righteous indignation::
Grady: Well, I was expecting some serious guns if you do triathlons

Whoosh.

Thank you Grady, for keeping me humble.

Bottle Mastery

How's that for a blog title? I'm talking the type of water bottle that you put on your bike. I can now consider myself in the class of people who can remove the water bottle from its holder while riding the bike, drink from it (and actually get fluid in your mouth, no chin dribbling allowed), and put it back, all without falling over, dropping the bottle, riding into a parked car, etc.

Baby steps I'm tellin' ya....

Hospitality #3

This probably could be called Hospitality #4, since Claire had #3 while Pam was in Costa Rica and I was in Russia, but, I made a command decision (it is my blog after all ;-) ) and I am calling it #3. Honey Baked ham, green beans, macaroni salad, fabulous desserts (thanks to Claire and Mike and Molly!) and lots of laughs...good day.

The Van Wright family, the Crews (minus Jon), Mike, Molly, and Maddie, Josh (we missed you Lisa!) (MIA- Dustin and we missed you Megan!)

Goodies

It's been awhile since I have picked up one of my favorite books, The Valley of Vision, compiled by Arthur Bennett. It's a collection of Puritan prayers...I love it because 1) wow could they pray! :) 2) it voices stuff that I have trouble putting into words. I hadn't used it in a couple of months until a recent blog by Tim Challies reminded me to pull it from the shelves again. Here's one I read the other day that I hadn't before. It shouldn't amaze me, but it does, that people hundreds of years ago faced the same flesh/spirit struggles...the world vs God...we know who should win...but if you're like me, who can drag my feet, make every excuse imaginable, or stick my fingers in my ears to try to ignore the fact that it must also be acted out...its a blessing to have reminders. Thank God for His willingness to gently teach (yeah with me, I think its more like clobber over the head or drag me kicking and screaming, but hey, we'll call that semantics ;-) ) the truths we so desperately need to know. The language in this is old (we are talking Puritans here :) ))...but its sooo beautiful.

Fullness

Heavenly Father,

Thou has revealed to me myself as a mass of sin, and thyself as the fullness of goodness,
with strength enough to succor me,
wisdom enough to guide me,
mercy enough to quicken me,
love enough to satisfy me.
Though has shown me that because thou are mine I can live by thy life
be strong in thy strength,
be guided by thy wisdom;
so I can pitch my thoughts and heart in thee.
This is the exchange of the wonderful love-
for me to have thee for myself,
and for thee to have me, and to give me thyself.
There is in thee all fullness of the good I need,
and the fullness of all grace to draw me to thyself,
who else could never have come.
But having come, I must cleave to thee,
be knit to thee,
always seek thee.
There is none all good as thou are:
With thee I can live without other things,
for thou art God all-sufficient,
and the glory, peace, rest, joy of the world is a creaturely, perishing thing in comparison with thee
Help me to know that he who hopes for nothing but thee, and for all things only for thee, hopes truly,
and that I must place all my happiness in holiness, if I hope to be filled with all grace
Convince me that I can have no peace at death, nor hope that I should go to Christ,
unless I intend to do his will
and have his fullness while I live.

Hmm...not so odious bike? Maybe...

So, I have a sprint triathlon coming up in two weeks and with my trip to Russia and then vacation, my training hasn't been all that great...getting some runs in is easy (yes, I did run on vacation)...but I haven't been on a bike since my last triathlon back in August...and you all remember how those practices went :)

So I re-borrowed my friend Jeff's bike (there's this whole saga to me actually buying a bike which I won't bore you with) and I took it out early this morning to see if I could still get on and off the bike without accidentally amputating my leg or arm or ear (with me, you never know what could happen). Success! I didn't fall off the bike! Or over or under the bike (I did however, somehow manage to gouge my inner ankle wheeling the bike OUT of the garage...go figure).

So after church today I took it on a 6 mile ride. Not bad...I forgot how much wind resistance changes things, but I definitely feel more comfortable on it now than I did in August. After my ride, I added a short run. Doing two events from a tri back-to-back is called a brick workout. My run ended up being only 0.5 miles, because well, let's just say I had some wicked jelly legs...I know I will be able to complete the tri, but it won't be a great performance due to the lack of training...just more impetus to do another in June ;-)...however, I am SOOOO thankful that my leg has healed. God definitely taught me patience throughout that experience...and to lean on Him harder to sustain me throughout the day and not just rely on the endorphin/stress release high that exercise provides. I'm so glad God wants His children to know him better and better and that He patiently and diligently teaches us these lessons that sound so easy but are oh so difficult to act out.

Phase 3 vacation summary- Hawaii

So I am just going to post some pictures here. I will eventually get around to getting a whole album up...

First off, yay for landing in Houston before this huge thunderstorm hit. Boo for our flight from Honolulu being delayed until 2am...yay for good sushi restaurants within walking distance of the airport, boo for super cold airplanes, yay for bringing jeans to change into and sticking my feet into my purse to keep them warm :) (yes I really stuck my feet into my purse and it really did help...I slept the whole rest of the flight!)

After delaying my flight to Oahu by a day, the girls (Lydia and Emily (they are sisters and I went to school with Lydia...we've known each other for 17 years!!!) picked me up and we headed out to the Likelike (pronounced 'leaky leaky") Highway, a really pretty drive on Oahu). We stopped at Chinaman's Hat for some pictures, drove around to see some of the pretty beaches and overlooks (and saw some humpback whales spouting off the shore!!!), saw Haunama Bay, and the sunset.

Me, Emily, and Lydia in front of Chinaman's Hat

Sunset near Haunama Bay

The next day we woke up very early (4am!) and went to hike Diamondhead Crater.

Lydia, Emily, and me on Diamondhead Craater, Honolulu in the background

We met up with another group of my friends (Tima, Katrina, and Mark, and their friend Patty) for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants on Oahu, Eggs and Things.

The gang at Eggs and Things

Then we all flew to Maui. Our condo was awesome! Within barefoot walking distance of the beach (Kamaole II) in the town of Kihei (south Maui). We hit the beach first thing of course :).

Our beach

Since Tima and all only had a few days on Maui, they were going to cram as much as possible into those days. We joined them at 3:50am to drive up Haleakala, the dormant volcano, to watch the sunrise. The elevation is just over 10,000 feet and it was freezing! (literally).

Sun rising on Haleakala (yeah, we were above the clouds...so cool!)

Me and Tima on Haleakala

The girls...thawed out finally

Then we drove the Road to Hana and hiked to Waimoku Falls (407 foot waterfall).

Me and my old roomies, Tima and Katrina


Lydia and Tima

Big waterfall

I talked Emily and Mark into joining me in the waterfall!!!


Wahoo!

We then visited Wai'anapanapa State Park and the black sand beach. Alas, we couldn't swim in it though...you can see why...

Ooh pretty black sand (it wasn't soft though...)


Umm, yikes.

We went to Lahaina, really quaint old town, good shops, and we went to the Old Lahaina Luau, which was a lot of fun. We sat with a great group of folks and had a really fun time with them.

Taking out the kahlua pig


Enjoying my mai tai



Sunset from Lahaina

At the Old Lahaina Luau (all the girls at our table and some friendly visitors :) )


After our botched kayaking/snorkeling, seasickness/freezing adventure (of which we have NO pictures from!). We spent our last beach day on this beach, Makena Beach. Wow.


Sunset from the condo balcony (our last night on Maui)



Last picture on our beach (it was sooo windy so we weren't too sad about not being able to have one last beach day)

Our last day on Maui we went back to Lahaina and drove around the coffee plantation. And then got one last iced coffee at the Maui Planatation Coffee House. Yum!


I really like coffee

Great trip. Great great great.