life is hard... trusting that God is good all the time

I'm reflecting on these quotes today...

From Charles Spurgeon, a British pastor in the 1800's...
“Weeping is a wondrous help to those who would find their way to the heart of God! So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, pour out your hearts before Him—pour them out like water before the Lord and when your heart is breaking for the longing that it has, even if you shed no outward tears, you have learned the sacred art of praying and you shall receive what you have asked in so far as it is according to the will of God.”

From Matt Chandler, a pastor in Dallas that we really like...
"God sends both joy and sorrow to detach our hands from things of this world and to attach our hands to Him."

From my friend Sara whose little girl is fighting cancer...
"I know that God is bigger than all of this -- that He can protect and strengthen Adah, counter every side effect. I also know that He may choose not to. But to whom else can we go? Who else has the words of eternal life? Without Jesus, we have nothing to hope in at all. With Him, we have all we need. How I want His life and goodness and sweetness to just swallow us up."

Come, Lord Jesus!

all things new

This is our friend, Heath Jackson.  LS led worship with him at Crosspointe, and Springer played softball with him.  We love hearing him DJ on our favorite radio station - 88.5 The Truth. 

Heath had planned to lead worship this evening for a city-wide gathering.  But tonight he is worshipping in Heaven.  He will be very missed here.  Please join us in praying for his family and friends.

Revelation 21:3-5
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

And He who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

The Big 3-0

I love these pictures... I think Springer's birthday weekend was a great success!  Two big surprises... a trip to Paradise (I mean, Athens) and "dinner with the Cain's" (which was actually a surprise party with fun friends from all seasons of his life so far!)  I hope (and I'm pretty sure) he felt very loved!  Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Victory

Saturday night (actually really early Sunday morning) I finished my first 5K!  And Springer kicked his last year's time's butt.  I'm not going to lie and say it was fun, but when this photo was snapped, I did have quite a feeling of accomplishment and extreme sweaty-ness.

aarti's first show!

The Next Food Network Star revealed the winner a couple of weeks ago, and it is AARTI (my favorite)!  Hooray!

In honor of the new FN star, tonight we cooked Sloppy Bombay Joes, the first recipe Aarti made on her new show Aarti Party.  They were fantastic!

For more deliciousness, you can watch Aarti on Sunday afternoons at noon on Food Network.

Midnight Express

If:

1.  You live in the Columbus vicinity (but if you live somewhere else, you can stay with us)

2.  You can stay up until midnight (it will seriously be a struggle for me)

3.  The idea of running 3.1 miles does not seem entirely overwhelming (again a struggle - but I THINK I CAN!  I THINK I CAN!)

Then:

You should run the Midnight Express!  It will be fun!  BBQ sandwich and sweet tea at the finish line... you can't beat that!

miss you

For some reason I really miss my siblings tonight.  I'm not sure why... maybe because I've been thinking that the next time I go "home" none of us will actually full-time live there.  That's so weird.  I wish for just a little while we could all live in the same place again.  Split up between Columbus, Athens, Milledgeville, and Atlanta stinks sometimes.  I miss you guys.

Watching this made me feel better though...