They both spent about 6 hours in my trunk this afternoon!
I'm not sure why all my great stories revolve around fishing; perhaps it is because I relax my mind when I'm fishing to the point of losing it! I am up in Brainerd for my MBA residency weekend (every 6-7 weeks). We had an extended lunch break so I thought I would quick run and wet a line (since today is the fishing opener). I had found out this week that there is a dam on the Gull river where I could fish from shore so I ran up there to do just that, even though it was raining pretty good. I had about 30 minutes to spend and about 10 minutes into it I nailed a nice northern (about 28 inches). When time was up I headed back to the car with my rod, tackle box, & fish. I pulled the keys out of my pocket and opened the trunk and then set the stuff in and shut the trunk.
The plan was to go buy a cheap styrofoam cooler & ice for the northern (which was still alive and flopping around the back of the trunk), then grab some lunch to go, and head back to class. Well, that turned out to be more difficult as I couldn't find the keys - the only explanation could be that I locked them in the trunk. Ugh! Since one of our windows doesn't stay up (it is held there by duct tape) this made it easy to break into the car, but there is no trunk release inside the car either. OK, so at this point let me recap: 1) raining so I'm soaking wet in my jeans & t-shirt, 2) live flopping northern in the trunk, 3) soon-to-be dead northern rotting in my trunk, 4) keys locked in the trunk with the northern, 5) need to get back to where class is, 6) no way to get into trunk.
Longer story less long: I hitched a ride back to where class was, got the name of a locksmith (who went above and beyond to help me out), after class got a ride back to my car, and then fished another 2 hours in 40 degree pouring rain. It's good to be warm and dry.
When I called Tracy about the whole ordeal, she said... "That'll preach" -- we'll see.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Loving our enemies
What a wonderful message Pastor Bill delivered this morning; and what a challenge to love our enemies... we are able to love those who love us; but can we love those who don't love us? We are supposed to.
Later in the morning, we had our Biblical Growth Class where we were discussing the epistles (letters) of Paul to the churches that we starting throughout the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. There was a lot of info to cover, but some of that involved Paul's charge to the churches in the region of Galatia (NE corner of Mediterranean) to be "crucified with Christ" - that our sinful ways / our sinful being was nailed to the cross and was crucified with Christ. The life that we live is no longer the sinful, law-code guilt life that we were subject to before Christ - but freedom! Because we shared in the crucifixion / death of Christ, we also share in His resurrection - in new life!!!! Paul summarized this by stating that we are new creatures; the old has gone the new is come!
If we are to live lives of loving our enemies, we must be crucified with Christ and live life by the spirit (which Paul also talked about). It all comes back to the cross. Loving our enemies is not about trying harder, or reading books, or holding each other accountable - those might help as we try self-improvement -- but the answer to loving our enemies lies not in self-improvement, but in Christ-improvement -- the answer to loving our enemies is death; death of ourself; sharing in the death of Christ so that we might also share in His life. "For I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live!"
God bless you richly, abundantly, and extravagantly with the fruit of the Spirit that is living inside of those who are adopted as his children.
Later in the morning, we had our Biblical Growth Class where we were discussing the epistles (letters) of Paul to the churches that we starting throughout the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. There was a lot of info to cover, but some of that involved Paul's charge to the churches in the region of Galatia (NE corner of Mediterranean) to be "crucified with Christ" - that our sinful ways / our sinful being was nailed to the cross and was crucified with Christ. The life that we live is no longer the sinful, law-code guilt life that we were subject to before Christ - but freedom! Because we shared in the crucifixion / death of Christ, we also share in His resurrection - in new life!!!! Paul summarized this by stating that we are new creatures; the old has gone the new is come!
If we are to live lives of loving our enemies, we must be crucified with Christ and live life by the spirit (which Paul also talked about). It all comes back to the cross. Loving our enemies is not about trying harder, or reading books, or holding each other accountable - those might help as we try self-improvement -- but the answer to loving our enemies lies not in self-improvement, but in Christ-improvement -- the answer to loving our enemies is death; death of ourself; sharing in the death of Christ so that we might also share in His life. "For I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live!"
God bless you richly, abundantly, and extravagantly with the fruit of the Spirit that is living inside of those who are adopted as his children.
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