4 Hours in a Saddle...

steve (seminary/outdoor rec. friend) leads a youth group and is starting to teach about dating/relationships/personal value and needs a female teacher so he's bringing me on to play that role. their VBS started today and i'm going to join them for the rest of the week to build casual relationships with the girls and some of the boys too, but focusing on the females.... excited about that! my sunday night teaching time will start here in a few weeks, so i'm brushing up on things.

last saturday i rode 42 miles with my legs to the wind and head in a helmet. crazy. i have never been more 'pro-life' than after that point. i was thinking, "this father's day is going to suck if i die on a bike! you can do it abby!" i slept for 4 hours after i got home from biking then drove 5 hours to pick up joey from the airport in N.C. and back. then went to SLEEP again. then slept in sunday morning. i was wasted tired. but not sore really. kinda weird. i drained my body of everything it had in it, but one thing didn' t hurt more than another.

going to bike to work tomorrow as i have done many times before. my quads are getting much stronger, so running shouldn't be that bad on my knees, but they still get stiff and cracky after junk like that so i got a brace and try to take it easy. thinking about muscles and foot placement as i 'glide' along the blacktop helps i think. running is going to be the most difficult part of my race, swimming is my strongest as of now. i need to be doing something everyday, but wind up only training about 4-5 times a week. not too bad, i know...but i weight lift on the off days anyhow.

For my favorite soldier...

Dear God:

You are all. Big and small. Beautiful. And wonderful to trust in grace through faith. But I am asking to taste—Lord I need to hear from you. Be near, oh God, for your nearness is to me my good. Your fullness is mine. Let me be full with your embrace. Whom have I but you?

God I pray in the power of the blood of your holy Son, Jesus Christ, the perfect servant to all. God give me a garment of praise for my heaviness. You are worthy of all the glory and all the honor and all the praise. You saved me, raised me, filled me with the Holy Ghost, and healed me. Father your blood will always be enough: make me evermore satisfied in your love. Let me glory in the presence of you, my King. Take this heart of stone and make it yours. God I trade all that I have for all that is better. You are the great taste, The Richest of Fare.

God it’s hard to think of what might be better than what you have already blessed me with: my precious family and most especially my brother, Daniel. God, by the matchless blood of the Lamb that covers me, I present Daniel before you now, blameless, without blemish. God, you call him your own—your child, your servant. Through Daniel I have seen a picture of your face, a measure of your grace, love of you relived. God release me of all selfishness.

Give us the hearts of servants. By your hand we move. You are God: our only source of true hope. God I’ve tried to use more of me and always come up dry. I’ve traded you for things that go away. God my happiness is found in less of me and more of you. The answer to all things is to love you and be loved by you. Let us not be satisfied with knowing you in part, and not to be with you where you are. You give me mercy, You give me grace. You beckon me to be holy as you are.

Glorious and mighty are your ways in all the earth. And may your worth arrayed in glory render hearts that only worship you. My thoughts of Daniel fill me with joy, oh the love of a sister. Never would I conceive that my love would result in such ache or such gladness. God, you ache for me in my sin—when I am far from you. I cannot compare my feelings of love for my brother to Your love for me, but Lord that leads you to understand my situation.

Smile on us, Dear God. Made in your perfect image. Made to intimately commune with you alone. Draw us to that place of pure fellowship. Revel your beauty in every creation.

Fun in the Sun...

Ok, since one of my closest friends made a smart comment on a current post about me not putting pictures up b/c my camera is and SLR 35mm and I have to scan pictures in after they are developed and processed, I am going to do things a little differently.

When we do stuff together and pictures are taken with his digital camera, and he posts them to his site, I am going to say “TO SEE PICS OF MY WEEKEND, VISIT www.jrgibbs.blogspot.com.” When I have the chance to pursue a sitting activity that sooths my unrested soul, then I will scan 20 or 30 of my best ones in and post them. That should be fun! There are some good ones.

My most recent adventure has been repelling a 150 foot rock face off the Blue Ridge Parkway last Saturday with 4 friends and yesterday I went on a 15-ish mile bike ride with Joey (see above address for pics!). Down a wooded bike/walk/run/skip trail along a river then all thru our rusted yet curious downtown. It should be called uptown b/c there are some hills that Lance himself wouldn’t brave. They are doozies. I did bike up a few of them without having to walk my wheels up. And that was only done using the 5 gears I know how to work. (And to think I am going to soon call myself a triathlete. I just added that word to my computer’s dictionary!)

I am going to start riding with a group of triathletes Saturday mornings and with a group of women Thursday nights. Weigh isn’t coming off like I thought it would be by now. My endurance level is much higher now than 2 weeks ago when I started training, but my body looks no different. 4 pounds and 3 inches are gone, but that scale... wicked beast of a thing. Caloric intake has lessened; intense training has filled an hour or so every day for two weeks and still no budge, only bulge. Maid of honor dresses scare me at this point.