From the Desk 7/6/2008

This morning I woke up earlier than the past two days, but it was ok as I was excited about going to His Hands for worship. I got ready and ate some yogurt before leaving to go pick up Christina. We arrived around 9:45 and grabbed our seats when they opened the doors to the worship center. We were soon joined by one of her roommates, Laura. The music was amazing as it was last week. Something kind of funny hit me as we were singing one of the songs. It was talking about how this world has qualities that His world does not. I kind of realized (I know I'm slow, but this is something that a different environment has taught me) that when singing theses songs, similar to when we sing "hymns", that they are more than just songs we sing and simple praises. They are a musical prayer that when we really focus on the words of what we are singing to God, it can be just as powerful as a prayer. I should have seen that over my many years singing at Central Bearden, but for some reason when singing hymns it seemed to have become just singing not praying. I attribute this to my comfort level at CBCB, not due to the passion of any of the ministers to prepare and lead the congregation. We observed the Lord's Supper and then sang the song "All I Need Is You" which was beautiful and helped me focus on what we were doing while taking the bread and the cup. The message was the first week focusing on what heaven is like and how we can be examples of Christ to "be heaven on Earth". It was a stern, but useful reminder that people are always watching to see where they might find God and who they might go to if they want to seek Him.

After worship concluded we talked briefly with a couple of friends then made our way to the car. We decided on Zaxby's for lunch, and though I had not eaten there more than once I remembered it as being tasty. I had the Cajun Club sandwich with fries and it was delicious. After that we went back to Christina's to print out the tickets for the Braves game we were going to that afternoon. Her printer was not cooperating so we dropped off by my apartment to print out the tickets. As I drove us down to Turner Filed we noticed the sky getting darker and the wind moving the trees more than before. It began to rain about half way down and continued to rain harder the closer we got to our destination. We waited in the car until the rain let up and then walked quickly to the entrance gates. We were close and then the rain picked back up, ensuring that we were soaked by the time we got under shelter. We hovered under cover near some lockers in an attempt to dry-out. We waited there for around an hour and then decided that we could probably make it to our seats without getting much more drenched. We climbed the winding ramps up to the upper deck to find our seats. By the time we arrived, the rain had stopped and soon after that the field crew came back out to begin prepping the field for play. The game was scheduled to begin at 1:35, but the rain delay pushed the first pitch back to 3:25. It was interesting to watch the crew work on the rain soaked field, and from our seats (just to the right if home plate in the upper deck) we had a great view of everything that was going on.

The game began and in the first inning at Chipper Jones first at bat, he drove a home run over the left field wall to give the Braves an early lead. The rest of the game was less exciting (for Braves fans) as a grand slam was hit by the Houston Astros in the 3rd inning. The Braves fought back and tied the game up when the 9th inning ended. We were now headed into extra innings. Christina and I hung around until the end of the 12th inning and decided that we were hungry and would just read about the outcome later online. Before we left we did have a photographer take out picture and tell us that it would be available online the next day. I'll have to see if I can capture a thumbnail of the photo to show you (cause I don't want to buy one). We made our way home in what turned out to be beautiful weather. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there was a gentle breeze that kept the temperature quite tolerable. We went to my apartment and ordered some pizza. Once it finally arrived we ate while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on ABC Family. I took Christina home before the movie ended as we had both seen it and knew that I would have to get up early for work the following morning. I drove her home, through another severe storm filled with minimal rain and lots of lightning. I walked her to her door and then headed back to my apartment. I did a few things online before giving in to the fatigue from the days excursion.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 18:30 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.”