Less Than A Week Away...

It's been a good, relaxing week.  Reading.  Playing tennis.  Watching Little League baseball.  Checking a few items off the "honey do" list.  I got three new books to read for Father's Day, so in addition to the ministry related books, I've now got some good sports-related books to read.

In less than a week, I'll be boarding a plane for Scotland.  I'm excited and nervous.  I'm especially hoping that Andy Murray, the Scottish tennis star, makes it to the finals at Wimbledon.  I imagine that there will be a lot of interest in Scotland if he can make it that far!

The latest issue of the "Quiet Waters Compass" (the publication of Quiet Waters Ministries, located in Denver, where Karin and I will be going for two weeks) has a good article on "Midlife Transition: Embracing Your 'Second Adulthood.'"  It puts a finger on some things that are going on inside me as I move through my late forties.  The author shares the questions she has participants at "Midlife Momentum retreats" work through, and they are questions I'm looking at myself.  In light of Ephesians 2:10 -- "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." -- consider these questions:

1.  How has God been at work in my life, preparing me for this next season?

2.  What are the good works that God has in store for me?

3.  What do I need to do to fully walk in them?

Those questions will help focus my spiritual reading and prayer and journaling for the weeks ahead.

Listening to Books

Just got back from throwing batting practice to the freshman team.  The infield was soft, so I threw in the shed, and it was HOT!  But it was fun to throw.

On the trip to Indiana I got to listen to two more audio books: "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin and "Night" by Elie Wiesel.  Both were excellent books.  "Team of Rivals" details the administration of President Lincoln and how he drew together his rivals for the presidency to become his cabinet.  Lincoln's wisdom and leadership intelligence were outstanding.  It was fascinating to look behind the scenes during the Civil War to see the heart and head of one of the greatest presidents our nation has had.

"Night" was heart-wrenching.  It's the "autobiographical fictional" account of a teenage Jew (Wiesel?) experiencing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.  It is a powerful, gripping account of the horrors of evil and raises the question of God's presence (or absence) in the middle of the atrocities.  Haunting.

Together with the earlier read (listening) of "The River of Doubt" about Teddy Roosevelt's expedition in South America, these books have provided a rich experience while driving across the upper Midwest.