i know where i'm at now...

i know that its right...

finally a peace found my heart and the assurance has rested inside it...

ahhhhh....

adventure racing. fun. exhausting. adventurous.

pushing your body to its complete limit.

overcoming the elements. overcoming personalities. overcoming.

i did an adventure race tuesday.

17 hours. 8 minutes. 37 seconds.

start at 5:30 am.

push two bikes up a hile for a few miles.

bike 10 miles.

kayak 5 miles.

hike 12 miles.

back on the bike/hike 12 miles.

the end of the day when your completely tired and cant go on, but its not over.

20 mile bike ride - just for the fun of it!

we got 3rd. not the best, but not bad.

im still exhausted. my butt hurts pretty bad. so does my left foot. i'll get better tho.

summer. i love you.

I was brought back to my childhood today; to the very nature that flows within me; to the innate spirit of boyness that unconsciously drives my every action.  It made me think--this is the spirit of man created by God and put specifically in this one creation for one thing, simply to be. 

me and one of my homeboys from my youth group went out on the lake today. he's 13 and one of the craziest kids i know. we kayaked for a while and then found a place to get out. immediately we started throwing rocks in the water. i didnt think about it then, but looking back on it, its as if we didnt even think about the fact that those rocks needed to be in the middle of the lake; we just naturally picked up the rocks and threw them in. throwing progressed into skipping, and that progressed into an extensive rock-skipping lesson for him. after he mastered the multi-skip, the two-hopper and the longest-second-skip we started climbing up this boulder. it wasnt too big, 20 ft or so, and i said we should jump off. i pretty much had to hold him back because he just wanted to jump off right then and there. we climbed down to a lower ledge to jump in to make sure it was deep enough and that there were no trees and stuff. after that we made several jumps from the top and each time was exciting, adrenaline-pumping, competitive, and... natural.

it made me think on the paddle back to the X that God created us with the same nature to be spontaneous, rambunctious and extreme. sure, at first i was mainly scared that he was gonna fall or break somethin or die and his mom would have killed me. and even at the top of the boulder it was a little scared of jumpin off into the unknown. but it was in my very nature to do the same thing. 13 year old boys are no different than 21 year old boys except for 8 more years of experiencing boyness.

God created us to be extremists, to be the first over the edge, to face that fear and jump off  knowing that it could be a little unsafe and posibly dangerous. why the heck do we back away from that very nature so many times when put in a situation that seems risky? that seems like our necks my risk endangerment, or our pride might get stepped on. Why do we draw back in fear to the safe place instead of letting our drive--our very nature--take us to the jump off spot and, knuckles cracked and tongue-in-cheek, boldly taking the plunge into something better, bigger and bolder than anything we've ever done. that is what i desire. that's what im doing.

today was good.

ONE THING

this weekend was absolutely incredible! jade and i went to a onething conference in dallas. within 28 hours time, we prayed, worshiped, sang songs, prayed more, took a break, heard messages from the bible, sang more, danced a little, prayed went to sleep, got up early, sang, prayed, listened to a kick-butt sermon on john the baptist and violent praying, sang, prayed, ate, prayed, sang, danced, got crazy, rebuked the devil, called down fire from heaven, sang individual songs, layed hands on people, prayed for healing, sang, heared challenges from Jesus, sat still, sang loudly, danced crazily, prayed violently, breathed, prayed again, then left with a feeling of empowerment and encouragement.

it was a good weekend to say the least.

"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple."

Psalm 27:4

here is some books im reading or starting, both because of coersion and for recreational purposes.

Megiddo      by Graham I. Davies Among the Mystics   by William Fairweather     Mysticsim  by Evelyn Underhill   End-Times Simplified  by Dave Sliker The Rewards of Fasting   by Mike Bickle   One Thing   by Dwayne Roberts   violent prayer.... ....a prophetic prayer was prayed over me.... O, that i could lead a new generation to a new place of worship and into the next realm of expression and... O, that God would look down on His worshippers and smile.

 

note:

international house of prayer.... one thing prayer/fasting conference in dallas this weekend.

real update next week sometime.