Scott Fillmer

I thought I would post something a little more lighthearted than my last few posts, and I have wanted to get back into doing my weekly series called Friday Feet, so here it is. My last Friday Feet post was one year ago, almost to the weekend, so I think it is about time to pick it back up again. Seeing that this is the last weekend before football season starts, the push is on over at our place to get as much grass cut as we possibly can so we can skip the process over the football weekend when Auburn plays Arkansas State.

Too bad it doesn’t feel like football season outside… it still seems to be hovering around 100*F every day but I know colder weather is on the way. We do have quite a bit of grass to cut out here so I thought I would get a head start and go out and start cutting today. Some people hate cutting grass but I really don’t mind at all, it gives me time to transfer my studies from in front of the computer to my headphones. Of course I am sitting on various sizes of John Deere tractors that propel me ahead, otherwise I probably wouldn’t like it.

I really find that changing your routine and environment are as important to study, contemplation, and worship, as going to church on Sunday morning. Jonathan Edwards often got on his horse (literally) and went out into greener pastures for several hours at a time to refresh his mind. I know the connection between cutting grass and Edwards’ contemplation is a stretch, but it clears the mind as much as running or cycling does for some.

Jonathan Edwards Resolved #1

Edwards wrote two types of pieces that are now referred to as Miscellanies and Resolutions. His resolutions are one of the most fascinating short pieces he ever wrote. These are not your ordinary resolutions, and today, I am reminded of Edwards’ first “resolved”.

#1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

I think I will chew on that over a few hours and a few acres of grass. Have a great weekend.

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I haven’t posted a Friday Feet shot in a while so I thought I would get a few shots of Ebby before we left tomorrow.  After a long semester we are finally leaving tomorrow for Anderson SC (to worship at NewSpring on Sunday), then to Virginia to visit LU, and then over to the Outer Banks.  One of our favorite spots on the east coast, the Outer Banks, is also one of those gems we have in the U.S. that is very empty once school starts and has some of the greatest locals around.

I am looking forward to spending at least one full day on the quiet beach reading a book.  Till then, meet Ebby.  I did just cut the grass but she is still a little shorter than the grass is tall.

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I missed my Friday Feet post last week but today I am in the glorious city of Atlanta to do the photo shoot for the Maximum Impact Simulcast.  It has been a fast few weeks and in another two weeks Deb and I will make a trek out to Dallas for an annual Czech heritage festival.  I spent most of the day doing a walk through for the shoot at the Georgia World Congress Center and then made it over to the CNN Center to catch up on some reading.  I feel like I was just here (see posts from the Georgia Aquarium photos here and video here) but for totally different reasons.

I thought about doing a nice serious group of photos down at Centennial Park but opted for the shots below from the top of my hotel in downtown Atlanta.  Some day I will get back over here and take my camera to the park and get some of the fountains and all the many different people that are always walking around down here.  Have a nice weekend everyone.

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This is hardly where I spent most of the day on Friday, but then after Catalyst West Coast was over I was so exhausted I decided to drive over to the coast to watch the sunset.  I ended up down near the Balboa Peninsula on the PCH and walked out to the beach just in time.  I have been in Southern Cal for 4 days, it has been cold and cloudy the whole time (after it was 100* the day before I got here) and late on Friday the skies just opened up.  It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I had witnessed in a long time and I will make it my Friday Feet post for this week.

For those looking for Catalyst West Coast images… I will start to post some of those when I get back. I am on my way to the airport right now, thanks to everyone at Catalyst and Mariner’s Church that made this week such a inspirational time.

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This Friday for Friday Feet the plan was to focus on the day at hand, Good Friday.  We had a nice relaxing day at home on Friday in preparation for the Good Friday service and it ended up being one of the more memorable services that either Deborah or I have been to in years.  Just about half way into the service the tornado sirens started sounded.  The service was interrupted for about 30 minutes while we all hunkered down to one side of the worship area.

What made the service so memorable was how unscripted the whole evening was.  As we came back together and stared to focus on what makes this day special, the hail, thunder, and lightning started to come down in full force.  This was not a “traditional” service but the way it came together was so special.  I am thrilled to be a part of a church that is willing to interpret worship in many different ways.

On the way home it became apparent that the storm system that went through the area had made its way out to our property.  Tree after tree had been uprooted, snapped in half, and literally thrown all over the place.  The photo below at night was what we found as we drove in from the service.  A cedar tree topped and covering the road.  Once morning arrived we found about a 75 foot pine tree that was just blown over, making my Friday Feet image.

After surveying the damage out this way we found out that there were one and possibly two tornadoes that came through the property.  They were small, but had two visual sightings and see to skip around the houses for the most part.

Happy Easter to everyone.

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Last weekend Deb and I went back down to Gulf Shores for a quick camping trip.  Of course, being that we were camping we had no Internet access (at least non-cellular) which was weird, so I have some catching up to do on my blog.  I haven’t missed a Friday Feet post since I started it last year so this post-dated version was from last Friday.

Always an interesting weather time weather wise down here where thunderstorms usually start to roll in and winter still tries to hang on.  One day it is freezing and the next is it hot.  Thursday we arrived to a blustering tornaic frontal system and Friday it was sunny and hot.  It was still a great time to relax away from the computer and start thinking about Holy Week coming up.

I have several posts coming up on photos from that weekend, a few book reviews, and many more, stay tuned.  Have a great Holy Week this week.

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Today we were supposed to be camping down in Mississippi with beautiful sunshine and warm breezes but the photos I took today show just why we decided to go another weekend.  Some huge frontal system moved in yesterday and seems to be continuing to move east from Texas making for a very wet and cold few days.  I decided to go out in the rain anyway and take a few photos.

Deb was very nice to put up with standing in the rain for about an hour while I ran around and tried to take some photos without getting a drop of water on my camera equipment.  I was a little disappointed that the rain lightened up once we decided to go out, I was looking for the drenching look but I am sure Deborah was more than happy with a light rain.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

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Tonight Auburn beat Tulsa in round two of the NIT advancing to the quarter final on Tuesday night against Virginia Tech or Baylor.  This is the first time Auburn has ever made it to the quarter final round in the NIT and on Tuesday they will play for their chance to go to New York to play in the NIT semi-final and final game.  The Tigers right now seem to be playing with great confidence which hopefully will carry them through to the next game.

Below are some photos of the game (and also my post for Friday Feet).  One set is a sequence of shots when DeWayne Reed broke free and slammed the ball bringing the crowd alive.  It was a great win for Auburn, best of luck on Tuesday.

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It is starting to be that time of year again.  Today was the first day of the new year I actually had to get out the grass cutting paraphernalia and chop away the spring growth.  Since I just got back from the Unleash Conference late last night, our Friday Feet today was just some work at home and some dinner in town.  The conferences are always a huge amount of information and even though this one was only a one day event, it was very draining mentally and physically, so we didn’t plan a whole lot for today.

I have been trying to run back through the events of yesterday in my head.  All the various one liners I posted on twitter, (sorry for the twitter dump yesterday to all my followers, next time I will probably use Scribble Live) the volumes and volumes of information given out in just a few hours on how to lead and grow today’s church body, and the face to face contacts I made were great but almost overwhelming.  The photo below is me in the hotel room the night before contemplating about the day ahead.

To clear the head, I love to get out on the John Deere tractor today and take care of business on the farm.  For those who don’t have a tractor or any large plots of grass to mow, it is one of the more relaxing things I know to do that of outside just sitting on the beach (which we should be doing soon I hope).  It was an enjoyable day and I am looking forward to a nice evening with Deborah.

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This turned out to be one of the nicest days in months with a beautiful 75° sunshine with nice puffy white cumulus clouds and a soft breeze.  I must read hundreds of blogs each week and hardly ever read them talking about the weather.  Makes me wonder if I should just skip that as not relevant material to my blog or wonder if no one can take the time any more to appreciate a beautiful day… either way, it was gorgeous outside today.  Being that today was Friday and was a great day to be outside, I ended up doing one of my more bazaar photos shoot requests I have had lately.  More of a stock photo / image request, but the request was for “road” shots.  It did end up being a good exercise in depth of field, and it’s always a good day when I can get out and do some photography.

Double yellow line photos and pics with some shots that could be turned into a brush or two in Photoshop.  Not a bad idea.  I looked at many of the Google images available on double yellow line photos and none were from around here and if you are looking to be middle of the road in the south, there were not many options.  Now there are a few more.

It is really hard to get creative with a double yellow line and make it look good but I gave it a go and today I choose a few different middle of the road pics for Friday Feet.  I am sure there is some to the “middle of the road” on this but I’ll use it down the road.  Which feet shot do you like the best?  Yes, they were both taken by me, unassisted.

On a side note, we will be at the Ole Auburn Ale House (who is in serious need of a new website, sorry) in Auburn tonight to listen to Rob and Jen with Martha’s Trouble, if you are in the area stop in and say hi.

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