today, i'd rather be here.....

(Park City, Utah--Skiing)

farmer's market & fresh pizza

One of my favorite parts about summer is going to the Farmer's Market (at the Agricenter) early on Saturday mornings after a nice long run and buying fresh produce. There is something great about having an abundance of fresh fruits and veggies in your house throughout the summer months. It sure makes eating healthy easier and definitely more enjoyable! Note: If you happen to go to the Agricenter Farmer's Market in search of peaches and/or nectarines, Peach World consistently has some the best peaches and they are grown locally. Each winter, I look forward to going to the Farmer's Market specifically for these peaches... mmm....

On an separate and unrelated note, I made pizza on Saturday night. In the essence of full disclosure, I did not make the crust. However, the finished product was still really tasty!

officially committed!!

I just booked a flight to Philadelphia in November and signed up to run the Philadelphia Marathon! Yep, I'm officially committed to running 26.2 miles on November 23, 2008... I'm a bit nervous but I usually am before making big commitments! Now, I'm weighing my options regarding the Memphis Marathon/Half-Marathon, which is a mere 2 weeks after the Philadelphia Marathon. I love the Memphis Marathon/Half-Marathon because it supports St. Jude and honestly it has kind of become a personal tradition to run it! I think I'll go sign up for the half...

digging for diamonds

I still remember one summer as a kid when my parents took my brother and me to Murfreesboro, Arkansas to dig for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. I remember being filled with wild anticipation of the great treasures I was supposedly going to find there. The park has a “finders keepers” policy so anything you find, regardless of its value, is yours to keep. I was so sure I was going to find a nice size diamond and in my young mind I was going to find it fairly easily. I also remember a bit of disappointment when I got to the diamond mine and discovered that digging was hard work, not to mention that it was hot (and of course humid). I left the mine frustrated because I had not found anything at all and in sum, was quite disappointed with the whole experience.

To a certain degree, I had a similar experience this weekend as I began to dig into Henry Scougal’s great work, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, which each small group at my church is reading through this summer. This little book was instrumental in George Whitefield’s conversion, and Whitefield in turn played a significant role in the Great Awakening here in Colonial America in the first half of the 18th century. And like I did when digging at the Crater of Diamond State Park, I dove in with wild anticipation of finding the great treasures that reportedly lay there; however, about halfway through Part I of Scougal’s little book on Saturday, I walked away in frustration—the digging was challenging and I wasn't finding as much treasure as I had anticipated.

Praise be to God this is where the similarities between these two experiences end! After much pleading with the Lord for grace to allow me to see Truth from this little book, He did. Sunday’s study of Scougal’s work (and I’ll admit it, I did have to read it twice through to completely grasp Scougal’s full intent) proved to unearth more diamonds that I could ever imagine possible or could ever expound upon in a single blog post!! Scougal does an amazing job of defining what true religion is, namely “a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn up on the soul, or in the apostle’s phrase, ‘it is Christ formed with us.’” and in short, the “Divine life.” Scougal goes on to set the stage for the remainder of his work by describing what this Divine life consists of and how it was so perfectly exemplified in Christ.

While the digging was a challenge initially, it got easier or maybe I finally embraced the challenge. At any rate, finding the ‘diamonds’ Scougal has in his little book has proven to be supremely valuable to my soul and indeed worth every ounce of effort. I am ultimately grateful the Lord graciously allowed a clearer vision into seeing what Scougal means by the ‘Divine Life’ and what it truly encompasses. I must say that this book is quickly climbing the list of my “Best Reads.” So, I look forward, with wild anticipation, to the great treasure that awaits as I dig into the remainder of The Life of God in the Soul of Man. And as I dig, I pray, as Scougal did for his readers, “that the holy life of the blessed Jesus may be always in my thoughts, and before mine eyes, till I receive a deep sense and impression of those excellent graces that shined so eminently in him; and let me never cease in my endeavors, till that new and divine nature prevail in my soul, and Christ be formed within me.”

have fun with this!

So, one of Justin Taylor's blogs particularly interested me today... He noted this website, which allows users to play with a program titled Wordle. Wordle is a program "for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

I made the following from the text of Jonathan Edwards sermon, "The Excellency of Christ." It is quite fun!

a VERY early prediction

It is about this time of year that I begin to go into withdrawals due to the absence of Tiger basketball. It is also at this time that I begin to look toward the coming season with great anticipation, never mind the fact that we still have to trudge through another Memphis football season before the next basketball season even begins! [Note: I very much support Tiger football and do even like to go to the games. However, it’s never fun to loose as much as we do!!! Plus, I just like college basketball better…] So, with all that said, I feel it appropriate to post the following reasons why I believe that the Tigers are setting themselves up to have yet another fabulous (and potentially very deep) run in the 2008-2009 season…

(1) Memphis added junior college guard Roburt Sallie this past Monday (sweet!),
(2) Shooting guard Tyreke Evans is also coming to Memphis! Some have compared him to Allen Iverson (but a 6-5 version) who will be quick and very difficult to guard,
(3) Other new additions who are projected to make a great impact next season include Angel Garcia and Wesley Witherspoon,
(4) Robert Dozier pulled out of the NBA Draft and is returning for his senior season (thank goodness!!!),
(5) Antonio Anderson also withdrew his name from the NBA Draft and is returning for his senior season (how can one NOT love Antonio?!?!), and
(6) Lastly, we will still have Shawn Taggart and I’m predicting that, if he builds on last season’s success, this season will hold many opportunities for the entire team (another championship game?).

So, there you have my [very uneducated] opinion. I could be a little bias- I just LOVE Tiger basketball. We'll see what happens come November and on into March, but one thing is for sure... I will await the season opener with eager anticipation!

patio before and after

Finally, something at my house is almost completely finished! Here are before and after pics of my patio. I feel like I've put my patio on some random TLC home makeover show.... enjoy!

a weird reminder regarding the Lord’s kind providence

Yes, I am still having plumbing issues with the shower in my upstairs bathroom (fun.). Subsequently, water is somehow (yes, it is still a mystery how) leaking through my ceiling and into my kitchen floor. I was originally told by the plumber that the water was somehow getting out of the tub and soaking through the grout and a tiny hole in the tile floor, through the ceiling, and finally ending up in a puddle on the kitchen floor. Thankfully, this past weekend my dad was around to help me seal the grout and fix the hole; this was supposed to solve my problem according to the plumber. The repair man was scheduled to come yesterday afternoon and repair the nice hole in my ceiling. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the repair man called to reschedule, stating that he was sick and therefore canceling all of his remaining appointments for the day. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed as I am somewhat eager to have the unsightly hole in my ceiling repaired. My attitude quickly shifted this morning as I went downstairs after my shower to grab some breakfast and found another puddle in the kitchen floor! I thought the problem had been solved! Suddenly, I was thankful the repair man turned up sick (is that sad?) and couldn’t repair my ceiling yesterday; otherwise I would’ve never known that my leak issue wasn’t really resolved!

In the midst of this seemingly small event, my heart began to be thankful for the providence of the Lord. I am thankful that something which seemed so frustrating in the beginning (my ceiling not being repaired when I wanted it) turned out to be such a blessing (I now know I still have a leak!). Therefore, through a somewhat odd and random event, my heart was filled with gratitude for the kind providence of the Lord in all of my life. This little situation has served as a big reminder that in all things— from my plumbing, to my job, to whatever path the Lord leads me down next— everything is governed and ordained by His righteous right hand. There is not one path I walk down that He has not providentially laid out before me. And when the road seems rough, unstable, or unclear and we haven’t the strength to cling to Him for the duration of the journey, thankfully, He clings to us the entire way. Though we may never fully comprehend the providence of our Lord in this life, we can trust that it is indeed good and kind because it is the overflow of a God that truly loves his children and longs to give them that which is best for them namely, Himself.

more on "my next vacation!"

The following link contains recent pictures from an individual who just returned from this hike (see previous post). I would so LOVE to go to the Grand Canyon and do this hike! Enjoy!

http://www.hikearizona.com/photocodeZOOM.php?ID=5132

my next vacation

While running hills this morning at 5:30, I got started talking to a running buddy about her recent "girl" vacation, which was a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon. And although I just returned from my 2008 vacation about a month ago, I couldn't resist the urge to look around and start thinking about possibilities for my 2009 vacation.

Ever since my family visited the Grand Canyon several (maybe 6-7) years ago, I have dreamed of going back and hiking down in this great canyon all the way to the Colorado River. This trip definitely seems like the way to do it!!!

You start by flying into either Phoenix, Flagstaff or Las Vegas and driving about 3-5 hours (depending on where you flew into) to the trailhead at Hualapai Hilltop, located on the Havasupai Indian Reservation. Next is an 8 mile hike to the Havasupai Village, which contains no automobile access. From this village to the Colorado River is approximately a 10 mile hike and the view along the way is amazing... nestled along the way is some of the canyon's most spectacular waterfalls as you make your way to the Colorado River. However, the vast majority of the visitors to the canyon never see these beautiful falls due to the hike involved to access them. Additionally, the Havasupai Indian Reservation only allows so many visitors per year therefore, further restricing access to these majestic falls. This definitely doesn't sound like your "typical" vacation but then again, typical can get boring. So why not go find an adventure?!?! Any takers?