Update and Silence

An interesting 24 hours. That's all I have to say.

Okay, maybe not. Actually, it wasn't that interesting, just a lot of good things.

Yesterday, on Friday, I went to do some more flying. The last 3 times I have gone, all we have done is takeoffs and landings, which is great because those two things are kind of important. Anyway, last night, we did 3 takeoffs and landings. After the third one, my instructor told me to taxi back to the hanger. I knew what was coming... and I was excited.

Well, we got back there and he opened the door.
"All right, now go and fly 3 touch and gos by yourself."

With that, I taxied back to the runway, took off and flew alone for the first time. It was great! I flew the Cessna 150 around the traffic pattern, lined up with the runway and made a perfect landing... 4 times. It truly was a blessed night!

As for today, I slept in, made a table, started another project until the belt sander broke with no parts to fix it, switched my fishing rods back for summer fishing and then went out and used them. All in all, a good day.

I've been thinking about many things, as usual. One of them has been silence. We live in a world of noise. Even as I sit by the computer, the dryer is tumbling upstairs, the fan in the computer hums softly and my fingers press the keys down, but besides that, I hear no sound. Even that, to most people, is too quiet. How often do we have music on or the tv? Honestly, when was the last time you sat in a place where no sound could be heard?

"Is there such a place?" I can hear many people say.

We are conditioned, in our culture, to hate silence. If the silent prayer goes too long before the organ plays "Lord, Listen to you children praying" people start rustling around and a choir of coughs comense. If we are home alone, the radio is always on or the tv, even though we may not be listening or watching. We are conditioned to hate silence.

Silence is a scary place. In this place, our own minds speak louder than we ever could imagine. We visit every conversation and every thought from the day. We think about our problems and are forced to interact with our emotions. In silence, we truly see or hear who we are.

I have been thinking how a lack of silence affects our Christian walk with each other and God Almighty. Some wonder why we don't feel God and why we don't hear his voice and why we don't see people do mighty things in the name of Jesus. I think, much of it comes down to silence. We don't take the time to quiet our minds and our hearts to hear God's voice. We are too scared to enter that space for fear of what my own mind might convict me of and also what God might say to me.

The story of Elijah on Mt. Sinai is the most striking example. There was wind, an earthquake and fire but the Lord was in none of them. "And after the fire came a gentle whisper...Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:12-13).

Stories of silence are everywhere in scripture, but the ones that strike me most are the ones involving Jesus. How many times do the gospels tell us that Jesus went to a place of solitude to pray, or, he got up before the sunrise to go out and pray. My favorite example of this is in Luke 6:12. Read it sometime. Jesus, the Son of God Most High, goes out by himself, and prays all night... not a 5 minutes or 1 minute... but all night! This entire night of prayer is focused on who he should choose as apostles. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, stayed up all night praying about a decision he had to make! He spent hours in silence and meditation seeking the guidance of God, his Father.

What am I missing out on by cheating myself of the time of silence? What is God waiting to say to me, if only I take the time and listen?

With warm weather, melting snow and a short drizzle of rain yesterday, the grass is gaining a green-ish tint to it. Signs of spring are in the air and it is wonderful. At work, we have been shingling or on the roof for almost 2 weeks. This has it's pros and cons. The pros are we are getting the shingling done before it is 90 degrees. The cons are, well, we are on the roof. Waking up this morning, my body definitely told me what we have been doing.

This past weekend we celebrated Easter and quite often, when reading the stories of the Bible, my eyes fly through them and I don't stop and visualize what is going on. Other books use language to describe the look on someone's face or to describe the scene around them, but the Bible is a story book that doesn't give all those details. We are given the basics. This almost creates, in me, a sense of disconnectedness. It doesn't seem real. Yet, at other times, the story becomes more real than I ever could have imagined.

I've included the lyrics of a song our choir sang recently. It is one of my favorite songs and it helped me visualize the story of Jesus this Easter.

Oh, to see the dawn of the darkest day.
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
torn and beaten then,
nailed to a cross of wood.

This the power of cross.
Christ became sin for us.
He took the blame, bore the wrath.
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain written on your face.
Bearing the awesome weight of all my sins.
Every bitter thought. Every evil deed.
Crowning your blood stained brow.

This the power of cross!
Christ became sin for us!
He took the blame and bore the wrath.
We stand forgiven at the cross!

Now the daylight flees, now the ground beneath,
quakes as it's maker bows his head.
Curtain torn in two, dead are raised to life.
Finished! The victory cry!

This the power of the cross!
Christ became sin for us!
He took the blame and bore the wrath!
We stand forgiven at the cross!

Oh to see my name written in the wounds.
For through your suffering, I am free!
Death is crushed to death!
Life is my to live!
Born through your selfless love!

This the power of the cross!
Son of God, slain for us!
What a plan, what a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross!

I'm finding that I don't have a lot to write about. Usually I am thinking about stuff all day, but when I get home, I don't think about sharing my thoughts. They stay in my head. As for events going on in my life, well, there really isn't a whole lot happening. I am doing carpentry 5 days a week and flying as much as possible.

Actually, right now, I have been looking at and thinking about going to flight school this fall. My whole life, I had been enthralled with flying but have never pursued it until a couple months ago. Mission Aviation is something I'm looking at and so, I'm exploring my options with how to pursue that better. Moody Bible Institute in Spokane, WA is an option, but there are a few others around the country.

Who knows what will happen.

The moon

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Friday night, I went out to look at the stars. I needed some time to reflect and take in some of God's beauty and what better way to do it than to look to the heavens. The night was calm and warm, still cooling off from the days heat (it reached about 50 degrees). Orion and The Big Dog still rode high in the sky and constellations like Cassiopia and the Big Dipper continued on their northern circuit. With my binoculars, I could see the stars clearer and closer. There were nebula to see along with star clusters. Truly, the heavens are amazing to behold if we actually take the time to look.

After I was there a little while, I glanced to the east and noticed an orange line on the horizon. "What is that?" In about a minute, I figured out it was the moon. It's huge arch continued to break out of the earth's crust and rise behind the windmills, into the heavens. The moons size (or apparent size) was huge and orange. Looking through my binoculars, I could see clearly the craters and mountains of the moon. Warm are flowed between me and the moon causing its edges to move like waves on a lake. Slowly, the moon climbed higher and higher. It was a great time of praise. God truly has made an awesome creation!

Beautiful Day

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today was a day of strange weather. The day started off cool, some might say cold. The gray clouds hung low and the weather man had predicted snow. Sure enough, during church some snow did fall, but upon walking home, the temperature was very comfortable. Actually, within and hour, most the snow had melted and in a couple more hours, clear blue skies roamed overhead and the temperature soared. Seeing the weather warm rejuvinated a desire to ride motorcycle. So, I had to.

A couple weeks ago, I tore most of the busted parts off the Goldwing and am now getting more serious about fixing it up before the warm weather is here to stay. As of right now, it is "ridable," and today, I took advantage of the weather to fire up the engine and burn out the winter cold. As the engine rumbled the street called my name. I had to go for a ride. I popped the Wing in gear and took off down the street. Now, I didn't go very far because it is highly illegal at this point.

1. no license plate
2. if it did have a license plate, the tags are expired
3. no tail light
4. no blinkers
5. I had no eye protection

With all this said, I only rode a couple of blocks, but even in those blocks, I yearned to hit the highway, get up to speed and go somewhere. The Goldwing has not been ridden anywhere since that day in Colorado and I am waiting for the day to ride comes again.

Below are a few pictures of what it looks like now. I took it apart and cleaned up the chrome, so actually, it looks pretty good right now.

Changing Seasons

Lately, we have been having un-seasonably warm days. It has been above freezing and pushing 40 degrees most of this past week. Now, I love the changing of the seasons just as much as anyone else, it's just that I don't like getting my hopes up when it is still February. Remember last year? Yeah.

Seeing all the snow melt, made me remember how much I hate this part of "spring." A few days ago, it got to the point where all the snow was brown and crusty and the melting snow revealed mud along with the dead plants. Truly, it is depressing to look at such a muddy, filthy spectacle. And, as with everything else, it got me thinking.

In our lives, we tend to get caught up in the ways of life and habitual sins. We try to make things look good outside, but underneath, no life exists. White snow covers everything. We lose focus on the things that matter and things get colder and colder. This to me is kind of like winter about a month after New Years. The snow and cold is still there, but there isn't much to look forward to. It's dead and no rhythm to life.

Then, something happens and we pray to God to bring us back to a new life with him. Yet, at this point, it seems like things get worse and worse, like the nice white snow, melting and showing the true death underneath it. Now, the "badness" is out and we are confronted by the filth that has infiltrated our lives: a stinking, brown mess that looks impossible to clean up. This seems to be a breaking point of whether to press on or whether to fall back into "winter." In the movie, "The Dark Knight," there is a line that states, "The night is always darkest before the dawn." The context is that someone said things were worse at that point than ever before and they wanted to quit. Well, the leader stepped up and said the above line, pushing people to press on because the dawn is coming. To me, this "early spring" is that point.

If we press on, God continues to call and pull us though and as refreshing rains come, slowly, the filth is washed away and the dead plants underneath come to life. Out of the garbage, green plants begin to sprout, trees bud and flowers form. A new life is in the air and creatures come out of their slumber. A resurrection occurs.

I haven't thought about how fall fits in with this. I think this is where the comparisons stop. :)

wedding and flight

My flight training began a few weeks ago and the above airplane is the same model as the one I am training in. It is a Cessna 150. Flying is something I absolutely love! This past Friday morning, I was able to go and fly for about an hour. We took off and flew around doing different turns, climbs, decents and even stalls. It was a great time and really made me want to get flying even more often!

In other, and much more exciting news, my sister got married this weekend! It was a great time setting up, taking pictures and seeing the service. We, as a family, had a great time together; at time that was greatly blessed.