…it won’t stop raining.
This is a little sad. I really wish it would stop. I broke my own rule of unplugging today to turn on the twelve-o-clock news to check the weather. Great news, it’s going to stop raining by the time I leave Wednesday morning. God has a twisted sense of humor.
It’s 2:00pm, Sunday afternoon
I figure if I have to stay inside, I might as well do so comfortably, which is why I’m writing in bed right now. It’s pretty chilly out too, so there aren’t a whole lot of places I can go that’s more cozy than the bedroom, seeing as how I failed to bring any form of warm clothing with me. Who knew you’d need a sweatshirt in August?
I finished Mere Christianity this morning. Do I really need to type what I thought about it? I’ve been gushing over it for the last six days. I honestly believe this book should be on the shelf of every Christian everywhere… Moreover, it needs to look worn out, as if it’s been read a hundred times over, sitting on the shelf of every Christian everywhere.
I have moved on to This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley, and in comparison to C.S. Lewis’ writing style, this is a very easy read. It’s challenging thus far in it’s own respect, and even though I’m only about seventy pages in I am starting to understand why Ben feels so strongly about this book. I’m contemplating going through it (once I’m done) with a ministry team, perhaps the Toledo Campus team? It really makes you think about the idea of the “kingdom of God” being here, right now, all around us.
I woke up this morning at about 8:00am. Saw that it was raining, and went back to bed till about 9:30am. I can’t believe my phone hasn’t rang. It’s refreshing to know that the weekend service can be pulled off without me. I don’t mean that in an egotistical way at all, it just seems like I can never go on vacation without someone from work needing something from me.
Bruno finally appears used to this place. He has made the couch in the living room his own personal bed.
Earlier he spent some time with me on the bed spying on the neighbors across the path. We both observed a man pull up in a car, appearing to stop by to pick something up he had left behind. Sixty seconds later another man popped out of the camper holding up a Playboy as if to say “All done with it… you can have it back now.” The man in search of his magazine took it proudly, hopped back in the car and drove off. I am trying to keep my mind out of the gutter with this one, but nevertheless I hope the man in search of his magazine has a bottle of lysol or something to disinfect the Playboy before he does his deed. Sloppy magazine-seconds anyone? This place really is a lot different than I remember it.
I’m taking a break from reading to listen to a message given at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids by the author of Serve God, Save Our Planet. His name is Matthew Sleeth, and so far the message is quite good. I’ll more than likely share some notes on it in another entry.
It’s now 4:30pm, Sunday afternoon.
I’m back in the bedroom after reading out on the porch for a while with a blanket. Ben wasn’t kidding, This Beautiful Mess is a pretty quick read. I finished it in a little under five hours. I’m a pretty quick reader though, and since Ben gave me this book, I felt comfortable marking in it and underlining things, rather than copying down all the quotes I wanted in my journal. Nevertheless, I have marked certain areas my first time through that I want to go through a re-read. I will devote another post entirely to how this book has affected me.
I’m not one to over spiritualize things, but I think God is talking to me here. It has stopped raining only a couple times here today. I’ll notice that it has stopped raining, but will continue reading, giving the outside some time to dry out. Then after a sufficient amount of time has passed, and when I feel I have arrived at a good point to stop reading, I’ll trot outside to start a fire. I think God knows that if I start a fire, I’ll just play with it and it’ll become my focus for the rest of the evening, just as it did last night (even though God and I had a pretty good conversation by the fire last night). Twice now, as soon as I got outside and started assessing the situation, the rain started again. Hilarious.
I’m now trying to decide if I want to read Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton next, or Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. I’m leaning towards the latter at the moment though. C.S. Lewis started to wear on me a little by the end of the book… not so much challenging in a spiritual sense, but an intellectual one. I mean, this guy was MUCH smarter than me. From what people have told me, Chesterton was smarter than Lewis… I don’t know if I’m ready for that right now.
It’s now 9:00pm, Sunday evening
Made BBQ chicken breast and frozen corn for dinner tonight. It was nice to have “real” BBQ chicken for once, and not George Foreman BBQ chicken. It was tasty. Although, I just realized that I have now had corn two days in a row for dinner, tomorrows toilet breaks should be enjoyable…
Still hasn’t let up raining for longer than ten minutes. I’ve stopped going outside in hopes that any lull in the rain actually meant it was going to stop. To be honest, I really did not plan for this. I expected to spend a decent amount of time out by the fire, walking around and checking stuff out, driving the golf cart… whatever else caught my fancy. Now I’ve only got two books left to read, granted one of them looks like a really tough read (Orthodoxy), but if I can do nothing but read, I’ll finish both of these books at the latest by Tuesday morning. Although tomorrow late afternoon, early evening is much more likely.
To curb this a little, I watched a movie on my laptop over dinner. Ok, so I’m not completely unplugged, but at least I watched my favorite movie, one that makes me think, not something that is completely mind-numbing. If you don’t know me well, then you probably do not know of which movie I speak. Before I start reading some more (I decided to go with Traveling Mercies next), I’ll end this mind-dump with a picture…
