I decided not to read the bible during my two weeks off work. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to…something in me told me that I should, but something else in me told me I was only doing so because I felt like I should. So I didn’t. The only exception was a couple of weeks ago at our small group. We read and discussed Psalm 139 which goes like this:

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

I’ve underlined a verse that has provided some clarity as well as confusion recently.

We’ll start with the motorcycle.

If there’s a thing that I’ve always wanted…it’s a Harley. I don’t really know why. All I can tell you is that I get the same feeling sitting on a bike like this as I do when riding a horse, or shooting a rifle, or building a fire. A sense of being in control while you’re not really in control at all.

My uncle Jack owns the above Sportster 1200 Custom, and he’s offered to let me borrow it in the past. I decided to take him up on it during my time off. So, I went and got my motorcycle license, borrowed a helmet from a friend, and I’ve ridden more than a thousand miles since I’ve had it. Decent.

This leads me to the Gold Finch.

A beautiful bird if I do say so, but I don’t see them very often…until yesterday. As I rode that motorcycle to a couple of meetings (oh yeah, I’m back to work) and around town, I saw no less than fifteen of these Gold Finches throughout my day. One by one. Not a flock of them. Do Finches travel in flocks? Anyway…by the time I saw the fourth one, I literally said out loud I guess it’s National Gold Finch Day. By the time I saw the tenth one, I literally said out loud Okay, what the hell is going on? My dearest apologies for my tremendous profanity.

As I cruised into the driveway after work, I saw one last Gold Finch sitting right on my mailbox. At the risk of sounding like a cornball, the only thing that came to mind was;

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

Which leads me to a book that I just can’t stop reading. I had full intentions of jumping into some scripture today…but for some reason God is speaking to me through something else. This:

{click it or ticket}

I just finished reading a story called The best girlfriend you never had and it’s got my brain
all tangled up in a good way. To be honest, the story was horrifically depressing and reminded me far too much of my younger life – but it was a great story.

Which leads me to food.

Over the past couple of months I have been providing food for our church coffeehouse project we call Refuge Coffeebar. Business has been picking up and the amount of food I’ve been making has been doubling, and then doubling, and then doubling again. To be honest, I have no idea how I’ll be able to keep up with it as it grows, but that’s an exciting problem to have.

* Grilled Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
* Garden Vegetable Pasta Salad
* Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
* Lemon-y Garlicky Hummus

(I knew you were going to ask)

And alls I know right now is that He’s in the food, He’s in the books, He’s in the birds, and He’s on the bike. Good or bad, I can’t run from Him…He’s already everywhere that I’m heading.

I suppose Allison and I get extra frisky around November each year. She just can’t keep her hands off me when it’s getting cold outside. At least that’s what our kid’s birthdays would reflect. Ava was born 4 years ago yesterday and Finn just turned 1 year old a couple of days ago. They’re birthdays are just 1 day apart.

We had to determine if we would have one birthday party or two of them…let’s see…should we have one event or two? One group of sugar-raging little humans falling all over each other or two? One chaotic birthday present opening ceremony filled with little parts and pieces attached to super-strength cardboard via titanium-reinforced twist ties or two? We chose the double birthday bash route.

My boy is 1 now.

He drinks good ole Vitamin D milk.

He walks around and plays with the big kids.

He breaks something made of glass every day.

He gets into places where he shouldn’t be every 5 seconds…such as the path of this powerwheel which backed over him about 3 seconds after this photo was taken.

My girl is 4 now…which makes her an official big kid.

Her interests include but are not limited to; My Little Ponies, Littlest Petshops, wearing dresses no matter how you try to convince her otherwise, and rolling down hills.

She is pretty good at it I must say.

Oh, I forgot one…she’s also way into being overly animated about everything.

I’ve been enjoying my time off with them. I sat on the floor with Finn a couple of days ago just played with him for over 2 hours. We didn’t have any rules. I gave him a pile of turkey and he fed 90% of it to the dogs…because it was fun. We rolled around and beat each other up.

It’s been a good couple of weeks.