2008 Runner's Results

I forgot what it felt like to cross the finish line of the half-marathon. My body was pretty much in intense pain by about mile 11 and remained in pain until I finished, but I was incredibly happy. It's the paradox of long-distance running. But it was worth the personal victory: I shaved off almost 8 minutes from last year's time. Cool!

The weather was spectacular, despite the frequent rain puddles along the way. It may have been a little too great, however, because soon after I stopped running my body temperature seemed to drop dramatically and my lips turned blue. Ben and Katie pulled off their top layers to give me and other friends were searching around for towels that hadn't been drenched in sweat. It was a special moment.

Yay for 2008!

Sometimes it's difficult to discern the best place to put your hard-earned dollar. I know this all too well, living in Nashville, where the music and the coffee are always competing for your attention.

Well, my attention is usually asking for it.

So is this seemingly unavoidable competition actually an illusion? I could just as easily make my own entertainment. But then the economy would collapse (like poor old Starbucks) and George W would have to give me $600. Although I guess I am okay with that idea, especially since I missed out on that perk this year (I was a dependent for 2 months during 2007).

The Reason for God

Okay, I know I'm harping on this book. And the theme of this blog seems to be revolving around it. Yeah. Sorry.

Tim Keller (or "Timikins" as my roommate affectionately calls him in her blog) is becoming one of my favorite preachers from afar. He's a disciplined theologian and articulates the gospel really well. In the video below, he discusses the premise of his new book called The Reason for God at a Google event. His language is down-to-earth, he's compassionate in his dealing with skepticism, and he stays away from the religious jargon that usually discourages non-Christians (and Christians) from reading Christian-y titles. Maybe that's why this one has landed on the New York Times Best Seller list.

It's seriously good and so should you..... um, read it, I mean.

"I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened." -Dostoevsky

"They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory." - C.S. Lewis

Someone Made It

I'm moving into a new place in a couple of weeks (where that new place is, God only knows -- hopefully He'll share this piece of information with me soon). This means I have two weeks to find an apartment, pack up my stuff, run a 1/2 marathon, move into a new place, and celebrate my 23rd birthday. Am I stressed? Well....yes, a little bit. But these are all good things, and I can count more blessings than I can problems. "That's the attitude, Jules!" Maybe, but I guarantee that plenty of complaining is on the horizon.

Whenever I pack up to move from one house to another, I always come across evidence of both some of the darkest and the sweetest things in my life. Even though it slows the process significantly, I enjoy rummaging through old pictures and journals. Journal entries are great places to remember how much you've grown. I can recover some of the things I learned even a year ago and have since forgotten.

Yesterday, I came across a journal entry that, for some reason, haunted me. Not because it was scary or extraordinary (or even well-written or thought-out), but because I can't remember having written it. And it was only last year. The first line caught my attention, like I had picked up a random novel in a bookstore. From then on I felt like I was reading someone else's words. It was moving and strange. Last year's me (a ghost) had some things to share with this year's me...things that this year's me had forgotten:

"What if we all thought like Amelia, with her constant insistence that 'someone made it'? Two and a half year old Amelia Twit has taught me a lesson with her simple yet very profound words. She showed me all the little toys in the room, pointed to the different colors, looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said, 'Someone made it.' It became the mantra for the evening I was with her. I wish it could become my mantra for life. I wish that every time I looked into the eyes of someone I have known for the longest time, or someone I have only just met, I could hear Amelia's voice saying, 'Someone made him.' It's something so crucial to understanding the significance behind all we come into contact with in our lives -- that Someone was the mastermind behind that face. Someone made the eyes that cry out for hope and acceptance. It's so easy to forget, too, especially when we are insistent upon the idea that everything good in our lives comes from ourselves. With this type of selfish mindset, we miss out on so much -- we miss out on recognizing the different evidences surrounding us, all of which are pointing to the God who made everything."