Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him
shall never thirst;
but the water that I give him will become in him
a well of water springing up to eternal life.
-Jesus Christ
John 4 is one of my favorite passages ever…just saying. You all should read it now – may it enliven your soul as much as it has done mine this morn.
You know what it’s like to see a crystal-clear raging torrent of a river at your feet and diving in only to discover it’s a lot colder than it appeared in the warm springtime air…or to leap off a cliff and be taken aback by the length of the fall…or to look up at the stars and reach for the diamonds glittering in the velvet black of the night and though your hands graze but air, you are stunned by the way your heart song dips and falters so…
It’s been an interesting few days, and that is all I will say! But God, my God, my Father and Lord…blesses me so. Today although I was overwhelmed by work and heaps of paper, my boss decided to send me on an errand across town…so I was able to drive Deeside in the gorgeous summer morning…listening to my Lord of the Rings symphony, looking out upon hobbit-like landscapes…and revel in the beauty that my Father has granted me. Oh how I needed that! And now back in the office at lunchtime, but wanted to put a few words down while my heart burns hot…our God is good, y’all.
And now, off with Justin to enjoy lunch this gorgeous day that our Lord has made!
..but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God,
in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships,
in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments,
in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness,
in hunger, in purity, in knowledge,
in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit,
in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God;
by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,
by glory and dishonour, by evil report and good report;
regarded as deceivers yet true;
as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold,
we live;
as punished yet not put to death,
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich,
as having nothing yet possessing all things.
-2 Corinthians 6:4-10(Oh what sweet words to my soul are these)
I drove in to work and witnessed the cloud dappled eastern sky and the sun admist it, shining e’er brighter. And as the green of the fields warmed to a more perfect hue, I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty.
And now I sit and enjoy my french vanilla infused coffee…and I sigh. Perfect peace, what a treasure this is.
A bowl of beef stew.
A good book.
Quality night ahead.
And now, the computer off.
For some strange reason, I’ve got a weird desire to watch Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith right now…so imagine the subject line as said by Obi-wan to Grievous.
And wow, what an odd opener to this entry! Maybe I haven’t gotten enough sleep yet? See my update last night for more details on that…
Anyways though, I’m sitting in Starbucks now, enjoying my deliciously crafted peppermint mocha as I sit in peace, some chill big band music playing in the background. Saw Steph when I came in this morning – she and the family finally got back from Portugal last week – someday I must visit there! Anyway, finally everyone is coming back from their holidays – John is back from the States, but I haven’t seen him yet – he’s been recovering from jet lag with his parents in Montrose. Hopefully he comes back to the flat tonight or tomorrow!
Last night was…interesting. I was hoping to see a movie or something with people, but thankfully pretty much everyone was already busy, because then I ended up having to work late. Not fun, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Cameron, you owe me one.
And this feels like a really random entry – caffeine fueled madness, perhaps? I really only am writing this because I wanted to at least write a few words about last weekend! Like I mentioned earlier, yes – I was in London. Olympics, y’all!!
I think it was a couple weeks ago at evening church when me and Joel were talking about how sweet it would be just to go down to London for the Olympics. We said it half-jokingly. Then looked at each other…”Wait, why *don’t* we?” So we bought airplane tickets without even having any Olympic tickets, figuring we’d find some! Joel eventually found some marathon(10k) swimming tickets before we headed off to London…
So last Thursday night, we made our way down to London. After dashing through Heathrow, picking up our bags, taking the tube, then getting detoured onto a bus(with a small side-trip into a pub to watch Usain Bolt’s 200m domination!)…we finally, finally got to Joel’s friend’s house. A couple frozen pizzas later, we collapsed into bed. Friday morning dawned bright(Seriously, it was amazing weather my whole time in London…sunny and warm. I have never seen it rain in London. Due to this, I have concluded it never does) and we made our way to Hyde Park for marathon swimming!
We had sweet seats in the grandstand, so after picking up some souvenirs(shirt for me, hat for Joel), we settled down to watch the action on the Serpentine. Our seats were definitely prime – we had the Aussie Olympic swim team in the rows right in front of us. Anyways, as the sun beat down on us, we enjoyed our packed sandwiches as we watched some beast athletes swim 10k. A guy from Tunisia won, sadly no one from USA or GB got on the medal stand. One of the swimmers was about 15 minutes behind everyone else, but Joel and I couldn’t really poke fun at him, seeing as neither of us probably could have swum even one kilometer.
And wow, I better quicken up the pace here…or this is going to be one mammoth entry!! So after the swimming, we wandered over to a large public area in Hyde Park where they’d placed giant TV screens showing all the Olympics action. There were thousands – no, TENS of thousands – of people there, just soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying the sweet sport of the Games! We watched Team GB win the bronze medal in woman’s hockey and finally decided to make our way to a more secluded area of the park…where we just lay back on the grass, watching the clouds float through the gorgeous blue sky as the oak trees stood sentinel over us. Oh what a lovely time did our Father give us!! I think relaxing with Joel in that quiet corner of Hyde Park was probably one of my favorite times of the whole weekend…
Anyways, to try and speed this along – we eventually met up with a friend of Joel’s for some curry, enjoying eating outside in the oh so lovely weather!
Now – next day, Saturday! Woke up, had toast and coffee…and since I’d brought my laptop, me and Joel checked for available tickets online, since we had none for the day. Every time we checked, there was nothing, so our hopes were low and our expectations nil. Finally, about ready to leave the house and head to the tube station, but we decided “One more time.” Checked online…and wait. Volleyball tickets? I told Joel, “DO IT.” And he bought us a pair! We had no idea who was playing, but it didn’t matter, we had tickets!
As we sat in the tube, merrily speeding to Earl’s Court to pick up our tickets, we perused one of the London dailies and found the match we’d bought tickets for – women’s hardcourt vball finals. Gold medal match! USA v. Brasil, winner take all!! PSYCHED.
And so with that happy news, we set out to enjoy the rest of the day. Went back to Hyde Park to watch some Olympics action with the masses(truly, there were so many people…people from all around the world, all excited to watch the best athletes of the world) then relaxed a bit more in the Park. He called Laura(his gf) to chat while I talked to Maryanne for a while. Oh I miss my fam sometimes.
Anyway, eventually we decided it was time to head over to Earl’s Court to catch the vball game! We made it to our seats and settled in. There were far more Brasilian fans than Americans…and they were much louder too. I don’t want to say that was a contributing factor, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. Our girls took the first set in fine style, but after that…all Brasil. They played with passion and fire and our American ladies just could not stop them. Alas. Still, viva Brasil! A great match and just to be able to watch it in person with Joel…awesomeness. After the game, it was great watching the Brasilian women clown around, enjoying their victory. The American ladies stood there disconsolately…I felt bad for them.
Anyways, me and Joel finally made it back to the house, and then on Sunday, back to Aberdeen! For some reason I decided to come to church that night, even though I was feeling exhausted. Ah well, always good to worship with my friends!
And wow, I think it’s time for this entry to come to a close, but I just wanted to chronicle this Olympics adventure before the memory began to fade…truly, such a sweet gift our God gave me, to have this chance and to be able to enjoy it so! And truly, the best part was just being able to hang with Joel and adventure through London with him…and enjoy ever so much the friendship our God has given us.
And thinking again upon the Olympics – why do I enjoy them so? Well, I do so love seeing the power of men and women plunging through the waters…the fastest men in the world speeding down the homestretch…the utter grace as gymnasts soar high above the earth…citius, altius, fortius. It is a joy. But why? I think partly just because the beauty of the human form and ability is so apparent. The human form that was made in the image of God. Tarnished, yes. But that glory can still be partly seen…and so to see what God had made, I cannot help but rejoice in Him, our Saviour, our God! Oh but would all see it so!! One day. One day.
And now, time for me to exit Starbucks into the bright sunlit day above. Think I’m gonna pick up a birthday book for a friend and then figure out what I want for dinner. Meatloaf or beef stew, y’all? I can’t decide. Or maybe just hamburgers and potatoes? We’ll see. All I know – I desire a restful remainder of my day. And I think my Lord is granting that to me.
Have a sweet day and pardon the length of this over-wrought entry. I’m out!
Peace upon the cobblestones,
clouds play the music of the sky-
A wreath bestowed to victors,
Delirious with joy I sigh!
And almost the clock does strike midnight!
And where am I right now? Hm, sadly the correct answer to that question is – still at work. Yes, it is Friday night. Yes, it’s been a long week. And a thousand times yes, it’s been a very long day!
But wait, if it’s midnight, why am I on livejournal writing an entry instead of driving home and collapsing on my bed? Well, I don’t have the answer to that extremely good question, unless if it’s that I’m in a weird mood, on my way to being sleep zombified. Yes, I should probably go home now.
Anyways! Had to stay late to get this pressure test done to satisfy a very important customer(oh Diamond Drilling, how I love thee), but that ended about an hour ago. But did I go home then? No, went down to reception to let the customer out to find that the night guard and cleaning girls were having a pizza party! And what’s better than late night pizza? So I eagerly jumped in on that. Sean came by a few minutes later, and then somehow we found an hour had passed while we five chatted about things ranging from the perils of marriage to the intricacies of the Glaswegian language. Oh Scotland.
Sean finally left to go home and then I finally decided I should stop being silly and come up here to dash off an email to the customer summarizing the night’s testing. So that’s done, and somehow I found myself opening up livejournal and now I’ve typed all this. Wow. I need sleep. Should I delete this and just go home? Well, the answer to the latter is a definite yes, but I think I’ll leave this here for posterity. All I can say is- despite my long day – God is good. Truly, my heart sings to the Lord!! Despite my weariness and the many worries and cares of life…I need fear not. Sing joyfully, y’all! At a few difficult points today, I just found my heart uplifted as these words came to mind –
Sing alleluia to our God!
Oh I love you all. Have a most lovely evening while I go home to my bed!
I turned on my computer preparing to write an Olympics re-cap entry(and by that, I mean – describe the past few days in which I was in London with Joel. Y’know, at the Olympics. Watching some epic marathon swimming and volleyball(women’s gold medal match, USA v. Brasil…in which USA lost. Tragic. Our ladies were good, just not good enough.) Epic weekend, none the less for sharing it with the aforementioned and ever awesome Joel), but for some reason I don’t really feel in a writing mood(despite the odd parenthetical thought above) – I feel in more of a contemplative state right now. So instead of trying to chronicle our Olympics adventures, I think I will just make my chicken and veg stir fry dinner and sit and read and pray…
A luxury of silence and
A plethora of tears,
A cacophony of raindrops
And litany of fears.
Age-cracked leather beckons to me,
Ancient words and a promise of
tea and
apples and
honeyed light
to bring me warmth
this hallowed night.
So I realize I haven’t posted a Friday morning entry in quite some time! I suppose work just may have something to do with that. Nevertheless, before I start work on this lovely Friday morning, thought I’d write a few words…
As I drove in this morning, the sunlight blazed victoriously until the road started descending towards the River Dee. As I crossed the bridge, fog rolling across the waters, I was sad for a moment to see the sunlight vanish from the skies. But I had already seen the sun burning merrily in the sky and I thought to myself that surely it would burn through the fog soon enough. And as I continued driving along the coast, my car escaped the tendrils of fog and broke into the sunlit summer morning once again. I smiled.
And now I must start work momentarily, but briefly – the Olympics are oh so awesome this year…I’m much enjoying the cornucopia of sports events every night this past week! Got to watch some great swimming last night(complete with Phelps domination of the 200 IM – 20th Olympic medal, what!) and as I was about to turn off the TV and go to bed, they mentioned they were going to show gymnastics highlights at 10. I had no idea who’d won the women’s all-around, so I groaned to myself and just decided to read a book and stay up to watch the gymnastics too! Enjoyed watching Gabby Douglas take the gold there! And so a delightful Olympics evening was had…only thing that could make it better was if I was watching it with my family.
And this was far longer than I was expecting to write. Still, only one other person in the office, but think it’s time I went to work.
Farewell all, enjoy a marvelous Friday!!!
Something Weird 