Boulder Mountain Hike

Nancy and I hiked up Towhee Trail and then Shadow Canyon yesterday and climbed Boulder Mountain, enshrouded in clouds. A few miles up the road there were 50,000 people running in the Bolder Boulder race. As a result, we had the trail pretty much to ourselves going up.

Eldorado Creek is starting swell up so I took this photo from the foot bridge that goes over it. The water was really cold from all the snow melt.

As we approached our destination we could see the flatirons a few times, but after a while they were totally obscured by clouds and we could barely see 100 feet ahead of us.

At the top (three hours later) I took this photo of the blue sky above. We sat on the summit, warmed up under the sun, and at our apples and snacks. We got back to the car at 2:00p and drove to Cantina Laredo for Mexican food. Our favorite place in Boulder.

TSA and me

Due to my frequent flying, I am in constant contact with the TSA. On one occasion, I went through an X-ray device and they wanted to "pat me down." There was a male "officer" who was patting me down and a lady "officer" who was watching. While patting me down, he stopped and talked on his phone to someone in another place and said to me; "I have to run my fingers through your hair." While he did this, the lady officer nearby was giggling and laughing. When I walked away, it was clear they were very entertained. I wasn't. I just read this article which talks about Texas, and now Utah, attempting to make it a felony for illegal "gropes by the TSA." While mine wasn't illegal, it was certainly humiliating and left me feeling these two people didn't take their jobs seriously. Now, Texas and Utah want the Feds to follow the same 4th Amendment law as local police officers are required to follow.

What's the world coming to?

Grandson Eli has this look on his face. What's the world coming to? Why are there so many tornadoes? What's happening in Japan? Will I inherit the national debt? Oh no, oh my!! Nah, it's just gas.

Baseball

We went to the Rockies game last night and watched them lose to Arizona. Earlier in the day they beat the D'Backs 12 to 4 in a make up game. Last night we lost 5 to 2 no thanks to Kelly Johnson, and this guy is just a .198 hitter! This guy Johnson had such a good game, afterwards they sent him out for a drug analysis. Anyway, we lost fair and square except for that bad call at home plate! The ump doesn't like night games, it interrupts his sleeping patterns!

I did mange to take this photo of Johnson hitting a home run in the first inning. After this, I put my camera away. Here Craig, this one is for you.

Lost Creek

Nancy and I went hiking with our little group yesterday. The weather finally improved so we drive up to Lost Creek Wilderness and hiked the Goose Creek Trail.

We enjoyed lunch on the rock outcropping near the old shaft house. I think the sign said it was built in 1891. We had a great time and ran into Bruce and Sharon up there who were hiking with the Colorado Mountain Club. They were surprised.

Three knocks and the Phils go down

Jason Giambi hit three home runs in last night's game to help the Rocks overcome the Phils 7 to1. He now has 418 career home runs but has never hit three in one game. I really enjoyed this one.

Evidently, Giambi got some special hitting instructions and was told to "stand up straight!" Really! This came from his batting coach. You would think it came from his mother. Nevertheless, it worked.

I could have played, but sinus trouble kept us from playing pro ball. No one wanted to sign us!

Do you dare imagine

In 1654 Pascal wrote the following when he encountered Jesus.

"certitude, heartfelt joy, peace"
"joy, joy, joy, tears of joy"
"complete and sweet renunciation"
"total surrender to Jesus Christ my director"

The problem is, it seems we go through life in storms of doubt, facing problems, health issues, and unbearable pressure. One of my friends emailed me yesterday and said his grandson died in his sleep. How deeply empty and hurting my friend must feel. My friend is extremely wealthy and has everything he could possibly want. Now this! How could God permit this? But there is another way to live. The thought of knowing God, and having this huge hope of life through Jesus which overcomes so much. In fact, He (Jesus) overcomes the world.

How quickly we forget what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?" What we really want is for God to make everything the way we want it. We want things to work out, to be successful, to make it, and be healthy and strong, to have a nice car and travel, perhaps retire. We want the world our way.

I like what Crabb says in his book The Pressure's Off. He writes, "The Spirit always points to the Christ of the Bible, the One who offers no guarantees that my marriage will survive, that the biopsy will yield good news, or that I won't lose my job. The Spirit exposes a problem in my soul worse than my suffering, then reveals the God of grace. He tells me I can know this God; I can know His heart, rest in His power, and hope in His purposes. And I can see it all in Christ. He keeps stirring my heart to say, "Just give me Jesus!"

Rocks beat the Giants

Last night, the Rocks won. We beat Lincecum and the Giants who gave up 6 runs and then we added another run in the 6th inning. The final score was 7 to 4 and Mortensen was the winning pitcher. I have to say we've lost so many games lately that, when it rains we have a victory party. So this win is especially nice, and it's a good thing too because we were in real trouble. I heard that last week the pitching machine threw a no-hitter! So if we win today, we can take the division lead from them!

Let's have a "discussion"

That's the right field line and the ball was foul. "No it was fair." "Foul." "Fair." No matter how you look at it, it just isn't fair. Our team just doesn't have the game down. One of the players slid into home plate last week, and he was just coming to bat!

Now we're facing San Francisco again and Tim Lincecum is pitching. How foul is that? I think some of our hitters are so bad they can strike out in two pitches!

A very interesting hike

I never ceased to be amazed at the things you can discover by wandering around Colorado a little. Nancy and I went for a hike today with some friends in Roxborough State Park. However, instead of taking the popular trails around the center of the park, we took off on the Elk Meadow trail and found all kinds of interesting things. Normally you don't see wood carved eagles out in the forest. This one was at the entrance to some private property.

These nice, but very old stables were interesting since they used the rock as the back wall. Why not? It saves lumber I suppose.

Then, as we were hiking along the road (at least a mile from the visitor center) we noticed a couple of rock patio's perched high up in the red rock formation. Being the curious hikers we are, we decided to try them on for size. They fit really well and the scenery from up there was magnificent.

Not too far from the patio was this marble chair sitting in the middle of the forest. She was so fancy sitting in her chair that the water in her bottle turned into Perrier!

A little further away we found this! I have to say this was a very strange place. These lions were carved out of wood and placed on the edge of the rock sneaking up and looking at their prey standing below.

On the trail we found this track. We then debated on whether it was a bear track or a mountain lion track. It seemed too big to be a mountain lion, however bears can't retract their claws like cats. There are no claws marks in front of this one. Hmmmm... One big lion?

This fox let us get pretty close up. At first, I thought he was asleep. Then we realized he was just trying to fool a mouse. We watched him catch the mouse and enjoy him for lunch. No really, that's true!

Before we left, Nancy had to enjoy the patio one more time. It's not surprising that women live longer than men. Look at how long they're girls. Now that I've learned to live life, most of it is gone!

Running through the sprinkler

Even after just a weekend in Tucson, you realize that running through a sprinkler is a not a bad idea. But you can only do it for so long before you start to shake uncontrollably! Then, you're sitting on a hot driveway, wrapped in a thick towel, in 90+ degree weather, freezing! Oh, what fun!

Doubting God's goodness

What happens when we doubt God's goodness, when the trials of life strengthen our doubts to the point where trusting him seems like madness? It is then that self-trust appears entirely reasonable; it seems right but, in fact, leads to death (Prov. 14:12). We become convinced that we must make up for God's deficient involvement in our lives by taking care of a few things on our own.

Until we see Christ fully, we will in some measure try to preserve, protect, and develop that fragile thing we call the self, that sense of who we are that longs to enjoy love, respect, and meaning. Until our tendency to evaluate God by what we see exposed and weakened, we will continue looking for ourselves with all our heart and soul. The result is that we will never find God.

Instead of trying to solve the problems that plague our lives, we must undermine the fallen structure that supports our problems, a structure built on the arrogant assumption that it is reasonable and right to seek justice for ourselves because God is not good enough to be fully trusted.

I like what Larry Crabb says about this. He reminds us that sin is: "simply our effort to supplement what we think are deficiencies in God's goodness. It is trusting our self instead of God."

Prayer

SK reminds me that: "The Church Fathers were right in observing that to pray is to breath. Here we see the stupidity of talking about why. For why do I breath? Because otherwise I would die, and so it is with praying. Nor do I intend to change the world through my breathing, I simply intend to replenish my vitality and be renewed, it is the same with prayer in relation to God."

A Prayer of SK

Soren Kierkegaard prays, "Lord Jesus Christ! You endured suffering your whole life in order to save me also, and, alas, your time of suffering is still not over; but is it not true that you atoningly and redeemingly will endure this suffering, too, the patient suffering of having to do with me, I who so often go astray from the right path, or even if I stay on the right path so often stumble on the right path. Infinite patience, infinitely patient suffering! How many times have I not become impatient, wanted to reject, wanted to abandon everything, wanted to take the frightful, easy shortcut, the shortcut of despair, but you did not lose patience. Alas, what your chosen servant said does not fit me: that he completed your sufferings; no, all that fits me is that I increased your sufferings, added new sufferings to those you already suffered in order to save me also."

Another nice prayer of his is: "Teach me, O God, so that I do not suffocate and torture myself in suffocating reflection, but that I may breath healthfully in faith."