And the rain stopped

Today it was raining all day, and then when I went for a run, it was pretty much done. That left a great set-up for this run. The air was a perfect not hot, not too cold, the sky was sort of grey/white, which made such a pleasant back drop for the bright leaves on the trees and ground. The run takes me though the Arboretum, on a straight road canopied by tall trees now in their fall splendor. A few miles in I heard footsteps of another runner about to pass me. (note to self, be faster, so people don't pass) I made a comment about how the rain stopped for his run, to which he said that he had taken it up with God and would share his good fortune with my run too. This was such a fitting comment, as at the beginning of the run I was thanking God for the good weather and beautiful surroundings.

And so I had a running friend for a few miles, a nice change to my usual lone run. It made me run a bit faster too, which can not be a bad thing.

How cool that there is a God that is so personal and so huge at the same time. How he would do something like taking away the rain at the perfect moment.

I love fall, the colors of the leaves and the swooshing sound that they make under your feet.

"to live without risk is to risk not living" (from Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning) The book is about trusting in God and I love this line. It doesn't mean to act foolishly or without thinking all the time, but it does mean living and moving forward in life even when the path is not known or defined or when you don't know what will happen or how things with work out or come together. Or taking a chance or risk for something that you want that is not guaranteed. And see where life takes us.... trust in God and move forward in to whatever that means. There is a freedom in life when you are not so worried about the what if, or what if not, cause whatever comes tomorrow is something that you can experience tomorrow. And God is there too.

Stop the Traffik

There are prayer rooms praying for modern day slavery to end, there may even be one in Madison this month around the same them. And there is a new(er) video on the Stop the Traffik website now. http://www.stopthetraffik.org/resources/films/film_stt01.aspxf

How crazy and sad to know that there are people in the world that would sell other people. And how crazy too that this is a problem that is so big, that it often stops people from doing anything because it seems too large. Awareness is a good step forward. And then one step at a time after that.

Olympic Hopes

In Chicago there were a lot of banners and publicity around their bid to host the olympics in 2016. It looked nice. There were banners and posters. In the airport, there were walls dedicated to the cause. It was surreal and a little strange to be walking through the airport on the day that it was announced that the olympics would not be held there. There was a lot of cost and a lot of effort that the city put forth to make a case for hosting the events. It got me thinking about things in life that don't work out. I used to always be afraid of taking chances where you have to step out in things and make steps forward in saying that you want something to happen or putting things in place that would be helpful in the event that what you wished did come true. Cause how silly do those 2016 Olympic hopeful banners look now?

But I think that this is not the right way of looking at it because there are many dreams in life that are worth stepping out in to, even if they don't work out. Where you dream for it, plan for it, and take the chance. If you don't take a chance, then it is not going to happen for sure and if you do, then it could and wouldn't that be great. I think that taking chances in life, scary as they can be, are worthwhile, one of those, you'll never know if you don't try. Or those things in life that have no way of magically happening, they need you to take steps towards the dream, and either it works out, or you learn, or you have the comfort of knowing that at the very least, you gave it a try.

Now, I am not saying that taking chances in life is easy because it could be downright discouraging, but it is worth it for sure.