Just call me Pheidippides (kind of)

On May 6, 2006 I ran 13.1 miles through the streets of Indianapolis, Indiana. Here are some key points.

1. 13.1 miles = exactly 1/2 of a marathon, which = 26.2 miles, or the distance between the ancient Greek city states Marathon and Athens.

2. It is important to note that I was not being chased by a dog or coerced into doing this.

3. I finished in 2 hours 47min. Slightly ahead of the old ladies brigade carrying their Oxygen tanks.

4. I"m actually considering doing it again, and maybe even the whole distance instead of just half.

5. I'm the guy in the blue shirt on the left.

English is tough stuff!

Dearest creature in creation,

study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

make your head and heart grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear,

so shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

When you correctly say croquet.

rounded, wounded, grieve and sleeve,

scenic, Arabic, pacific,

science, conscience, scientific,

tour, but our, and succour, four,

gas and alas and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, guinea, area,

psalm, Maria, but malaria;

youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,

neither does devour with clangour;

soul but foul, and gaunt but aunt,

font, front, wont; want, grand and grant;

shows, goes, does; now first say finger,

and then singer, ginger, linger;

real, zeal, mauve, gauze, and gauge,

marriage, foliage, mirage, age.

Query does not rhyme with very,

neither does fury sound like bury,

dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth,

job, Job, bosom, oath;

though the difference seems little,

we say actual but victual;

refer does not rhyme with "deafer,"

foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer;

dull bull; and George, ate, late;

mint, pint, senate and sedate,

barn but earn, and wear and tear

do not rhyme with "here" and "ere."

Seven is right, but so is even,

hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen;

monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,

ask, grasp, wasp; and cork and work;

doctrine, turpentine, marine;

dandelion with battalion;

sally with ally, yea, ye,

eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay;

pronunciation -- think of Psyche!

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won't it make you lose your wits

writing groats and saying grits!

-cut and pasted from: http://esperanto-usa.org/?q=node/84

How's your spiritual life going?

Its a common question. Well meaning church people ask it all the time. I've asked it, or some variant of it this week. All that being said, its kind of a bad question.

What exactly do I mean, by asking How's your spiritual life going? When someone asks me that I routinely respond with something like. (in a hang-dog voice) ...I'm not spending as much time with God as I should or as I want to...I need to pray more etc.

I like what John Ortberb said:

"Are you becoming more loving toward God and toward people? this...is the supreme spiritual diagnostic for Christ-followers who want to please him."


How am I changing? How are you changing? Are you changing? Without changing I'm just going through the motions, I'm just tying Bible verses to my head, and sitting on a cloth folding myself in half and facing east.

The question "How's your spiritual life going?" also compartmentalizes life more than I think God intends. Col 3:17 "Whatever you do whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus."

I like what Brother Lawrence said:

"...(W)hat makes you think that God is absent from the maintenance shop but present in the chapel?...Holiness doesn't depend on changing our jobs, but in doing for God's sake what we have been used to doing for our own."

I want to be like that.


---
This post was inspired and adapted from Fully Devoted by John Ortberg et. al.

I have Dreams - Parental Guidance Suggested on this Post

I have dreams. Often I have the kind of dreams that trick me into thinking that they are reality while I'm having them. Mostly my dreams are stupid. Sometime they are terrifying, occasionally they are profound.

Recently I had dream that I was back in my old home town of Oblong, Illinois 62449. The details have become somewhat sketchy, but the emotions and major plot points remain. I owned some sort of business in the fair city of Oblong, and during a discussion with a rival businessman tempers flaired. The day was sunny, and the scene of the arguement was within view of my Aunt Patsy's garden. Aunt Patsy's garden is a unique collection of heirloom plants, native grasses, and whatever happened to be new and on sale in the seed catalog. There are no rows to speak of, but in good years the asymetrical patterns of vegetables, flowers, herbs and weeds are to me more pleasant than any formal English garden. I feel her humble kind heart beat in the tall purple okra and vining stretching summer sqarsh [sic].

While within view of this place that is so special to my heart, I was standing in a fictitious cinderblock out building, It was pure white, with perhaps freshly paint blocks.

...As the words escalated I felt increasingly frightened and threatened. After that it was somthing of a blur. I am still aware of my arms flailing and of some heavy blunt object in my right hand. The first strike was awkward, and felt I had to strike again or risk being swallowed in the fury of my rival's retaliation. When I felt the blow land I knew what had just happened. I had ended him. He fell limp and the crimson reflection on the floor was mine. It was a mess. I was at first terrified and then intensely focused. I hid the body. I'm not sure where.

Where ever it was it was not good enough. It was found. I was caught. The authorities were on the way to arrest me. My life was over. I had committed murder. The gravest desparation shrouded me. In a moment contemplated running, fighting, lying. I couldn' though. I was guilty. Any excuse was weak, and attempt to justify what I had done was completely out of the question. I don't know if its possible to convey the feeling that gripped me.

The sirens of the Sheriff's department were approaching...they were odd sirens...

They were in fact the whine of my ridiculous alarm clock.. I had been asleep. I was awake, and it was Easter Morning 2006.

I felt the Mercy of Christ ring through my being at that moment. I could not sigh deeply enough to signal my relief. I was caught, I was guilty, I was as good as on the galloes. For some reason beyond my understanding, it was his good pleasure to erase my sin.