Lake Days

In light of the awesome Midtown lake party today, I decided to post some of my favorite lake pics from over the years. Enjoy! (click the picture to go to the album)

Shattered

This is not what you want to see after dropping your iPhone.

This afternoon I was working on the boat in my driveway, when the phone rang in my pocket. As I was taking it out to answer the call, the corner of the phone just caught the lip of my pocket on the way up, flipping it out of my hand and into a beautiful arc up and over the edge of the boat down 6 feet to the concrete driveway. Face down. Not good. Hoping for a miracle, I climbed down and picked the phone up to find the glass face completely shattered.

The amazing thing is, the crazy thing still works perfectly! It takes a little effort to see through some of the spiderweb cracks in the glass, but the screen itself seems to be fine and the touch interface is as responsive as always. Kudos to Apple for building a virtually bombproof phone. No kudos to Apple that apparently it costs $200 to get the screen fixed. So after a little searching online I found a replacement glass for $30 that should be at my house in a few days. Should be a fun little repair job….

Starbucks Meets Cap’n Crunch??

Ok… so you know you are in Starbucks too often when the employees like to try out new drink combinations on you. Well, today one of the girls who works there handed me a small cup of a pink slushy drink and told me to tell her what I thought it tasted like. Since I know Starbucks sells a strawberries and creme frappuccino, I was expecting something along those lines. What I tasted instead was entirely unexpected, but unmistakably and EXACTLY like Crunchberries cereal! Definitely good, yet strange in slushy form. The recipe is creative, but simple; a regular strawberries and creme frappuccino with a shot of toffee-nut syrup. (Sounds gross, I know) But if you are adventurous and like Crunchberries cereal, you should try it sometime!

Love/Hate Relationship

Friday night I went to see Prince Caspian with some friends, and I loved it. But heres the thing; I have realized that I have a definite love/hate relationship with movies. I love them for all the action, adventure, romance, and humor that they capture. When I watch them I am not only entertained, but also inspired by many of the themes that they portray; love, courage, honor, self-sacrifice, and belonging to something greater than oneself.

But at the same time, I hate them. Because they stir up longings in my heart and mind that simply cannot be fulfilled. I want to be High King Peter of Narnia, but instead I am Lee Cunningham of 1420 Victoria Street. Now before you go telling me I should read Wild at Heart or reminding me of the eternal significance of all that is going on at Midtown, know that I understand all of that. I am simply saying that no matter how you package it, my everyday life in Columbia SC is not nearly as exciting as the movies. And I often wish that it was.

Theme Of The Week

Apparently God’s theme for the week in my life is humility. Just as I am trying to get my heart around the things from my previous post, I hear this story about a guy who goes to our church named Luis. (trust me, you want to read it)

Brandon tells the story well, but more than anything I identify completely with his last paragraph. When is my heart ever that selfless? So for the second time in just a few days, I am humbled again. I am thankful for the grace that God gives me each day when my heart is not in line with His will. And I am thankful for His incredible patience in helping me become the man He wants me to be.

Processing

As you may have noticed, I haven’t done much blogging this week. Honestly, the contrast of the events in my previous 3 posts is something that I have had a difficult time processing. I am not angry at God or even wondering why things happen the way they do, I am more trying to figure out what seeing these 3 events unfold so closely together tells me about life and how I should be living it. Here are 3 things that I have landed on….

First, the only things that really matter in life are those things that go beyond death. I know that this sounds elementary, but it is worth repeating because I do not live each day of my life with this continually in mind. I so often am distracted by and pursuing things that ultimately have no value.

Second, even in light of the above statements the temporal nature of good things in our lives does not make them worthless. The goodness of a sunset, a smile, a child’s laugh, love, music; they all are gifts from God that are meant to be enjoyed. They do not only have the earthly value that we attribute to them, but also the infinite value of reflecting the very nature of God.

Finally, for whatever reason, God has chosen to give me 5 years (and counting) more time on this earth than my friend Michael. And 7 years (and counting) more than another friend of mine from Clemson, Betsy York who also passed away from having cancer. And those facts humble me more than I can express. I have done nothing to deserve this gift, and yet here I am.

Several posts back I shared the personal mission statement that I recently wrote for myself. In addition to that statement, I wrote several action statements as to how I want to accomplish that mission, of which this is the first; “I will follow God passionately, not wasting a second of the life, abilities, and resources he has blessed me with.” This past week’s events have reminded me of how truly important that statement is.

Baptism Video

If you read Dustin’s blog then you have seen this already, but if not here is the video that we showed Sunday night of the previous week’s baptism service. I am not sure which of the guys shot and edited this one, but they did a great job. I get choked up each time I watch it having heard each person’s story about what God has done and is doing in their life. I hope and pray that this is just the beginning of what He is up to, both for these individuals and for us as a church.

My Heart is Heavy

My good friend Michael Colwell passed away last night after several years of battling cancer. I knew Michael from our involvement in FCA at Clemson where God used his fun-loving spirit to impact many lives. This trend continued with his life, with him most recently serving on the staff of North Point Church in Atlanta. Michael will be missed by many, but especially his wife Jen and their two boys. I don’t have the words other than to say that Michael loved Jesus and served Him with his entire life.

Congratulations!

To my good friend Rebecca Thomas for aquiring a new name Saturday evening! She is now Mrs. Mike Dorrity! Rebecca is a long time friend of mine that I have become even closer with since moving to Columbia a couple of years ago. Her house is about 3 blocks from mine and we have eaten a lot of meals, (she introduced me to one of my favorites, Pasta Fresca) watched a lot of movies, and had a lot of great conversations together. I am sad that she is moving to Michigan, but am very excited for her and Mike as they begin their life together!

Disc Golf

With all this great weather, I have been craving a late-night round of disc golf at Clemson. For those of you who know what I am talking about, check THIS out. Anybody up for a road trip with some Mac’s cheeseburgers and tea on the agenda as well?