Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
What is the point of this website?
One of my readers is wondering how this variety of posts is related to the idea of “Let the nations be glad.” It’s a good question. So here’s some history that might help.
I ventured into the blog world with a mission trip in February 2008. Over the next year, I blogged mainly when I was part of a short-term mission or ministry so that family, friends, and supporters could know some of what God was doing in that place with those people. Therefore the name of the original blog–Let the Nations Be Glad.
Eventually, I began posting more frequently and with a wider range of topics. In December 2009, I welcomed you to this new website. (And I hope you do notice that it is more than just a blog. Click on the links above to explore the site).
So, back to the original question. I hope that everything you read here has something to do with our prayer that the nations be glad in the Lord. I pray that whatever I do, whether I eat or drink or whatever I do, that it be to the glory of God, for the sake of the nations, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Whatever includes intensity, somberness, suffering, contemplation, prayer, and biblical insight. It also includes moments of lightheartedness, relaxation, and even sometimes silliness. It includes travel to the ends of the earth and taking note of my own neighborhood. It includes people of other cultures and my own family. It includes my struggles (and yours?) against the sins (like living in chaos and overeating) that hinder me from seeing God clearly and following him wholeheartedly.
So, as I promised in my post welcoming you to this new website: “You never can tell what I’ll be thinking about when you come back.”
I pray that you will find authenticity and real life seen through what’s mundane and what’s eternal. And though the website no longer bears the name “Let the Nations Be Glad,” I hope you will still be able to see here God working in the nations.
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Who can argue with free?
I just discovered an MP3 album download of “Classical Gems.” Free. No cost. So if you don’t like any or all of the pieces, you can just delete them with no guilt.
Monday, March 8th, 2010
100 and counting
Today was my 100th workout at Curves. Just don’t ask me when I got started. But at least I got this far.
Next workout will be #1 towards 200.
I’m curious how many of you work out regularly. How many at Curves?
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
A champion in the family
Outside, germinating seeds are competing with icy geodes. That means spring is near in Minnesota. And spring means the season of playoffs. And speaking of playoffs, our granddaughter Millie is advancing to the Minnesota State Spelling Bee.
Never one to deserve the taj of a dunce, Millie prepared pragmatically for the competition, poring over the libretto of words, words, words. Not even the beauty of the carmine setting sun could lure her from her spelling recitations.
Squashing the suspicion that such obscure words could have been assigned only through misanthropy, she pursued mastery of each word like a vigilante.
Through all this hard work, she wedged her way into the Regional Bee, adjacent to only one other 5th grader–both girls facing down the machismo of 7th and 8th graders. Millie held on obstinately to the end, through 11 rounds and a spell-off for 4th place.
By the end of the Bee, her father was in need of a tranquilizer.
If there had been a sashimi restaurant in town, that would have been a worthy place to celebrate.
Way to go, Millie!
