fit-estestest part deux continued

two weeks after my first lesson, i had a second. and final lesson.

and i was much better with the cross-country skiing today. far more comfortable on the snow.

and i only fell once!

was doing good until the end of the time when i was tired and just lost my balance.

i have a feeling that my back will be a bit sore since i twisted as i went down.

and the highlight:

a certificate saying i completed ski school (and they spelled my name right)!

for those of you who don't know, classic is the cross country skiing in the tracks. skating (yes, there is such a thing as skating with skis) is a little different. 

weekend update

well, i loved my friday!

slept in late (yay for 10 am). read for 2 hours. went on el computer for a couple hours. finally changed out of my pjs sometime around 2. did some laundry (which reminds me that it's still in the dryer...).

went shopping. which was a major success, if i do say so myself with finding some nice new slacks (since i was recently told that i need to dress more professional, whatever that means since the only times i wear less than professional, aka jeans, is during my time off). found an irish blessing on a plaque. perks of st patty's day coming up.

went over to visit with a local pastor friend who is fresh from seminary, ate some vegetarian chili that was excellent, then off to a concert of the Ahn Trio.

the Ahns are three sisters born in korea but moved to the us when they were little. fantastic musicians.

i even purchased a cd tonight.

which is not typical of my since i only buy cds of people/bands/performers i like. i do not feel a need to buy stuff at concerts unless i was extremely impressed. and i was tonight.

came back home a little after 10 and spent a few minutes on the wii fit balance board. and i must say that my balancing skills are better than they were a couple weeks ago when i bought the wii.

watched a bit o tv. some 'fringe' on hulu. played some solitaire.

eventful evening.

and now i will have to rise early so that i can make pancakes and sausage for the council retreat tomorrow at church.

stress and crumble

this past weekend i learned just how valuable time off is.

because i didn't really get my day off.

and i suffered because of it.

don't get me wrong, i was doing stuff that would typically be more than enjoyable. watching movies, going to a dinner show, eating an elaborate russian meal.

but i was still on duty because i was with people from the church the entire time.

i love the people from bethel. but i hate how i have to be careful what i say and how i dress on my day off. not bad per se, but just annoying that on my day(s) off i need to be conscious of what i do/say.

which is why i have a nagging suspicion that in the future on my days off i will tend to either hole myself up in my house with no human contact or else get out of dodge.

yeah, i just totally used a cowboy-ish expression. by the way, i've been to dodge before.

back to my story.

yesterday, aka monday, i crashed.

it was icy on the roads, but i didn't have that type of crash.

i took a two hour nap in the afternoon. then slept for nine hours that night. and my ideal amount for sleeping is seven hours.

i even managed to sleep through my alarm this morning.

yesterday i went in so that i could work for the day. but i just couldn't do it. i survived for about 4 hours before going home. i mean, i put in plenty of time the day before between church services and the three-hour-long annual meeting. so i didn't feel so bad taking the time to recuperate.

recuperation for me meant that i read books that were not for church or work. that i watched tv and movies. that i avoided conversations with people.

i became the ultimate introvert for a few hours in order to preserve my sanity.

Captivity

I decided to post my sermon for the 24th of Jan (which is something I have never ever ever done before):

A long time ago, in a land far away, lived a people who were chosen by the Creator to be blessed and to be a blessing. But time and again they strayed from the Torah, from the law and the way of life that their God had given them.


They would break commandments. They would not love their neighbor. They would not love their God.

And so they would suffer.

But they would eventually remember and turn back to the right path.

And this happened many times.

But then one day that changed.

One day the people were taken from their homes. They were sent to far-off lands while their captors destroyed the sacred places of worship. Their lives changed.

But God was still their God and they were still God’s people. All of them: the thieves, cheats, liars, adulterers, idolaters. All of them still belonged to God.

Because God had created them and chosen them to be blessed and to be a blessing. Because God remembered that these fallen people have a history of straying but are capable of returning.

The people of God may have been exiled and taken into captivity, but God did not forget them. God freed them and brought them back to where they belonged. Because God loved the chosen people of God.

The story of Israel is our story.

We may read the Bible and think that we are not like those people of old, but the story of captivity is our story.

We may think that we are not captive. That we are not living in a state of exile.

But we are.

Captivity and exile are far from ideal situations. Today we hear the word “captivity” and think of chains. We think of prisons. We think of being held against your will.

But captivity is more than that.

Captivity suggests that we are not where we should be. That we are separated from someone or something. That we are not on the right path.

In our society, we may not have the same forms of captivity. We may not be under the control of Egypt, of Assyria, of Babylon, of Rome, of any number of other dominating rulers. We may say that we are free since we live in the USA, but we are captive to other things or people.

We may be captive to our emotions. Despair, uncertainty, anxiety, fear, hatred, guilt.

We may be captive to our actions, captive to sin.

We can be held captive by the past or by the unknown future.

And we are unable to free ourselves from whatever it is that holds us captive.

Let’s explore some of these variations of captivity.

For example, sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are not perfect. We all slip up and make mistakes from time to time. We make bad decisions. We have hurtful thoughts. We act inappropriately.

It is not easy to walk that straight and narrow path that God set before us in the law. This is a fallen world and we are a sinful people.

What about guilt as a form of captivity? I’m sure we are familiar with the saying that guilt can consume us. Guilt holds us captive to the past. Guilt prevents us from moving forward. Guilt keeps us from living freely in God’s promise when we are stuck.

What about fear? We may have fear of animals, of public speaking, of being embarrassed, of being hurt, of being alone, of being forgotten, of getting lost, of not having enough, of being rejected, of dying. Each of those fears prevents us from living freely. We are captive to the fears that drive our daily actions.

But today we hear some good news.

Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.”

I have no idea exactly how this good news will affect each of you. I am not all-knowing. But I do hope and pray that each one of you hears the good news.

Jesus came to this world to free us. Jesus didn’t come to chain us up. To put us into a new captivity.

Jesus came to release us from that which is holding us captive. To free us from our sin, our guilt, our anxiety, our fear, our reliance upon false idols.

We receive God’s grace and mercy. We are pardoned and forgiven. We are freed from our past, but we still have a future to live. We are given hope.

Our captivity is over. Now is the time for us to turn back to the way of the LORD. We return to praise God. To obey God’s commands. To recognize that God has truly blessed us with this freedom. To see that we are to live out our faith. To go back into our daily lives and follow God to the best of our abilities. To love God and our neighbor.

So let us go today knowing that we are forgiven, that we are new creations in Christ, that we are both blessed and a blessing.

Thanks and praise to the one who set us free to be the chosen people of God. Amen.

fit-estestest part deux

So today I began to learn how to cross country ski.

Yup. You read that right.

Here's the very elaborate story:

I was at church this morning thinking how I was going to take a nap this afternoon. Or perhaps join in the Martin Luther King walk in the afternoon.

But then during the sharing of the peace, someone (Annette) asks me if I ski. I say no, and she says that she will talk to me after the church service.

Which is when she informed me that the Bemidji ski club is going to be having lessons on Sunday afternoons for the next four weeks. A total of $25 for membership and lessons complete with the gear (boots and skis). Not a bad deal.

So this afternoon I reported to ski club and lessons. Which was definitely not naptime.

And realized quickly that I had no idea what I was doing.

At least I had some company in a few members from Bethel who also had little/no expertise with cross country skiing. Oh, how I love to socialize with people from church outside of church.

I didn't know how to put on skis. And had to be helped like a little child.

Nor glide on the snow/ice.

Nor be able to keep my balance properly.

But it's fun to fall on snow. I guess.

At least I did improve with time and practice.

I was not the slowest, but I think I won for times falling down.

Score!

Maybe my story was not all that elaborate.

fit-estestest

I succumbed to temptation.

I broke down and spent the money for a great new toy.

I bought a Wii and the Wii Fit Plus.

And I'm loving it.

Some days I have been far more active than others.

But today I decided to skip the extra activities like yoga or skiing or hula hoops or running or marching or boxing...and instead just did the short little bit so that I can keep up my progress of at least checking in once a day.

Everyone needs a Sabbath, after all.

But I have been dedicated thus far and have at least done the Body Test where the wee little Wii tells me that I have a Fit age based upon my balance (mind and body) and my actual age of 25. So far I have done quite well with home scores under my age. Youngest: 20. Oldest: 26.

I'm impressive. 

Prayers for the victims and survivors of the quake in Haiti

Yesterday morning, when I was traveling around to and from chapel services at nursing homes here in Bemidji, I had my radio tuned to a local Christian station that kept talking about the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12.

I felt bad for the people of Haiti, but my emotions stopped there.

I kept getting frustrated because they kept talking about it when I wanted to hear some music.

Looking back, I should have known better.

And I feel like shit that I didn't care.

I then received an email from the president of my seminary informing the seminary community that the four Luther Sem students who were/are in Haiti are safe and trying to get back home.

One name on the list sounded familiar. Completely misspelled from how she spells it, but I just so happened to guess that the Catherine Emory was actually my friend Katie Emery.

And when I checked her Facebook profile and saw that her status was 'in Haiti til the 19th', my hunch was confirmed.

So then this whole earthquake ordeal took on a whole new level now that I knew one person directly affected by the quake. And someone I count as a good friend.

Then I was continuing to peruse Facebook statuses when I noticed one posted by another friend, Sarah Thomson, about how she was alive and in Haiti.

And it became even more painful.

Then tonight I was perusing the ever-prominent Facebook yet again.

And I read about a death of a Wartburg Seminary student, whose death was actually the first American named. One whose name was familiar to me because I went to college with his cousin, who also happened to be in Haiti. So my prayer list has now expanded to include my old colleague, Jon Larson, and his cousin who died in the earthquake, Ben Larson.

And through a roundabout method, I discovered that another acquaintance, Laura D'Angelo, was also there in the same group with Sarah and Katie.

warmth!!!!!!!!

or not.

it's feeling much much warmer these days. after the awesome cold freezes of so long where i have not experience temps much more than 20 degrees above and instead more along the lines of 20 below, there is a possibility that it will almost hit above freezing.

almost above freezing.

and i'm expecting it to feel like a sauna if it does actually get to the melting point.

which would be pretty much amazing since i'm not used to be sub-freezing point for months at a time.

well, let's see what mother nature sends my way over the next couple days as i work on putting away xmas decorations. like the ucky tree outside

blogster extreme

i'm a social person for the most part. just kinda who i like to be. but for some reason, right now i prefer to be somewhat antisocial.

by this i mean that i am preferring the connections via internet or telephone over and against face-to-face communication.

people have been irritating me lately.

which makes no sense.

cause i love people.

i really do.

most of the time. just not now.

but i'm fed up, frustrated, aggravated, annoyed, etc whenever i'm around people.

which is so not me.

something in my life is off and i just can't figure it out.

so i guess that some great prayer time is on the way.

and let the new year begin

well, folks, it's been a while since i posted anything on this here blog.

updates since the last posting some time ago:

spent christmas with a local family. and had a good time but still missed my fam. i got some nice crocheted kitchentowels. and some fishhooks. and i told people that i would let them use the hooks if they took me with when fishing.

plus i realized as i watched the snow fall that it has been ingrained to the very core of my being that when heavy snow is falling, i need to get on the road.

i made it home for part of the holidays. not christmas, since there was no way through the blizzard conditions and road closures. but for new year's.

hung out with three of four sisters (kayla, kiana, krissa, no kendra). casey, kayla's boyfriend who was our bartender for the night and made some excellent concoctions. and a good friend from college, jess. all in omaha.

cause of course, who doesn't like to go south in the middle of winter?

stopped by the hospital (where my grandpa was) three times over my four-day trip home. saw some cousins (steven and eugene) i hadn't seen in some time.

then the day after new year's my sis krissa and i started the trek up north to bemidji so she could stay a few days with me.
and it got colder.
and colder.
and colder the farther we drove.

survived the cold. as in, low overnight temps of around -30. which was cold.

preached on sunday the 3rd. i don't know what it is, but i have just not enjoyed preaching lately. perhaps constantly getting mixed reviews doesn't help. it seems like every time i have a sermon i like, there is someone who has nothing but negative to say while others love it. or the ones i'm personally disappointed with are the ones a lot of people appreciate. i know you can't win em all, but still...

saw avatar in 3-d on sunday afternoon. which was pretty awesome. i loved the movie and think i'll have to buy it when it comes out on dvd. cause i loved it that much. loved the special effects. and the planet. and the na'vi people.and the storyline.

and managed to not freeze to death when leaving the theater.

cause it was cold last weekend.

then made some goodies like caramel corn and banana bread. which i'm working on giving away to people.

then said farewell to krissa on tuesday morning as she trekked southeast to the twin cities to see a friend.

and got to work a couple days.

tuesday afternoon drove a few miles on lake bemidji with mom's little suburu forrester as it has all-wheel drive. kinda freaky to be driving out on water, plowing through about a foot of snow. but i lived to tell the tale. and that is the most important thing.

then today got a call from krissa as she was trying to decide what to do since there is yet another winter storm/blizzard in south dakota. and frigid temps and wind chills in north dakota.

so she decided to come back for yet another visit with me. and then attempt to cut north of the major portion of the storm which is located primarily in south dakota by going through north dakota.

so while here we went and bought nail polish and rented a movie. nothing like a girl night in.

and just so everyone knows, i cried during the movie we watched "my sister's keeper"

oh, and i ordered a wii. cause i wanted one for a few years now. so i bought one.