Sunday, April 24, 2011

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

The Road to Emmaus


In Luke's 24th Chapter we get everything we need to be the church: Gathering, Word, Practice, and Sending Forth.

Today at the Tobacco Trail Church we will scorn death as People of the Resurrection and try to make sense of this story. We are also eating cake because our family has had the practice of eating a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas and why not have another one on the weekend that he was raised to new life.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Thirsty Thursday

I ran my fastest Thirsty Thursday this morning. That's strange because it is Friday. Does that mean it is yesterday?

For one thing, I am rarely able to make it out to Carolina North on a Thursday so waiting for a chance to run with the normal Thursday crowd could have been far down the road on the calendar.

I was of the mind to try and run a fast fitness test. Probably not a good idea with the achy and snotty symptoms of a sinus infection, but I had an axe to grind since I am not running the Duke Invite 5K this evening. I will be pulling for my teammates, though, Alex Varner, Patrick Reaves, and Sarah Lee. I think they will all have great showings.

As for me, I scratched on Tuesday knowing I was not race ready with the coughing and spurting that was worsening with each day.

Still, this morning I decided, probably against my better judgment, to try for a quick time. I didn't have a date listed for my previous best Thirsty Thursday of 37:50, but based on my other notes I think it was 2008 or 2009. A while back and it was time to try for this one again.

I didn't feel good. Not at the start, not in the middle, not coming home. Yet, I ran 36:53. Not bad considering. I'm definitely a lot faster than I was a few years ago.

In a few weeks, I will try for a 36:30. Today and one more attempt are good yardsticks for how I might fair at Philosopher's Way on May 7.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Love Wins



Everybody and their brother, folks two on a mule are criticizing Rob Bell these days. The safe play from the orthodox world is to condemn Bell. I heard him in the Fall in a live speech. He wasn't very good.

He was great. He spoke of the Gospel as being both simultaneously "light" and "heavy." I get that.

I press those who watch these videos and possibly even read the book to consider how much this merging of Heaven and Earth is the message being offered to us by N.T. Wright in his work of the last few years.

ABC Video

All worthy of consideration.