Crazy Love

I am so excited about the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. In fact, it is the one book (other than the Bible) that I have referred with excitement to my church as recommended reading material. I love the simplicity with which Chan writes and yet the heartfelt challenges that he lays out there to help us reframe our thinking and attitude toward a magnificent and almighty God!
Jesus said that the greatest commandment for us to fulfill was "to love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul and mind." Am I even capable of that kind of love? i know that I am but only through my life with God at the helm.
Then...Jesus adds the cherry on top... "and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself." Whoa...ok. I can strive to love God with all that I have but then what's left for my neighbor, whom I may not especially get along with or even know at all?
The only thing left is actually what God grants us - an outpouring of love from a heart that is filled with love toward God. I cannot do it alone or even in my own power or desire - because when left to myself - I would rahter love myself. So the only alternative is to love God and leave it all on the field and then - God returns to me what I need to love - truly love - those that are my community, my neighbor.
God, help me to love you like I never have before and in doing so to learn to love others as I love myself.

Steamboat Springs CO for Vacation

What a vacation! We took three weeks at one time (at the direction of the Elder Board) and we able to just have a fun time relaxing and refreshing without a huge amount of pressure. We had received a gift of a timeshare package that we redeemed to go to Steamboat Springs CO (why? because we love Colorado and had not been there since college) so we spent seven nights and eight days at an amazing resort condo in the mountains. It was beautiful and so was the weather. The nice part was we planned the vacation so we had three to four days before we left to prepare for vacation and three or four days afterward to refresh instead of rushing back to work right away. That is the way to do it!

In Steamboat we:

• Rode horses in the mountains
  
• Rode Alpine Slides down a mountainside


• Watched a Ski Jump competition (with no snow!) pretty cool
  
• Watched a rodeo


• Saw the most amazing fireworks display from three different mountaintops simultaneously!


• Watched a couple of little league Triple Crown Series baseball games
• Enjoyed the Strawberry Park Hot Springs – hot hot hot…
  
• Relaxed by a pool and enjoyed a hot tub most every night
• Grilled out and ate out!
  And we stayed up late and slept in almost every day! What a blast!