It’s that time of year, again. Time for the mark of another year gone, and a new one on it’s way. I have been trying to work my way through Michael Hyatt’s “Life Plan” but am still in the “reading” stage. I have most of my thoughts in place, just haven’t made them into a collective organized format yet.
I use to never make so-called “new year’s resolutions”, and for the most part, I don’t. They are so cliche, and are usually not reasonably obtainable, so I just didn’t make them. I do however set goals, and make continuous strides after them, or adjust them as plans change. That is basically what Hyatt’s Life Plan is about.
Looking back, 2011 was a tough year, but I did do, or continue towards, several things that were on my long term list. I took 67,000 images (that doesn’t include deleted images) in 2011, and trying to look back and pick a “favorite” out of 67,000 shots is impossible. I couldn’t even pick a favorite of mine, so that’s me, sitting in Entebbe Airport, waiting for our KLM flight from Uganda to Amsterdam. My two trips this year to Uganda were marks that altered my direction and focus, and in a strange turn towards the end of the year, helped solidify my reasons for continuing to pursue my seminary work.
Looking at what possibly lies ahead for 2012 is hard. There are certainly highs, and lows, on the way, but I will make the greatest attempt this year to give any worry about those things that make up life’s trials to the Lord once and for all. I hope I will complete the requirements to earn my first graduate degree in seminary, and develop in those areas I have identified for 2012. Most of all, to strive to use the time I’m giving to the very best of my ability. Not doing the things that don’t need to be done, and focusing on those that do.
When looking at the New Year, these two verses stood out to me earlier this morning, and I love how they mold together into a cohesive unit. Matthew 5.6 and 5.48 which says: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Happy New Year everyone, and War Eagle from the Georgia Dome tonight where we will most likely still be when the new year comes to our part of the world.
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This year at our church to celebrate Christmas, instead of doing fancy decorations and traditional garland we have been planning for quite a while now to do a “food drop” for the Auburn area. So if you were to walk around the church right now you will see boxes everywhere. A Christmas tree made out of boxes, presents made out of gigantic boxes, and the filled and returned boxes we started to give out this past Sunday. The way we have tried to communicate this on our own website is that we are never more like Jesus then when we serve others. And throughout the month of December, Cornerstone members and attenders (or anyone who wants to be a part giving back to our community) will be given the opportunity to serve others using a simple box. We are asking everyone to:
- Pick up a box and packing list from the Cornerstone lobby.
- Pack the box full of food for families in Lee County.
- Return the filled box to the church by January 1, 2012.
- Saturday, January 7, gather at Cornerstone and pack the SUV’s, minivans and pickup trucks with these boxes and head out to specific communities to pass out these boxes to families in our area. (We will work with the Food Bank of East Alabama to target the communities in the greatest need.)
This is an opportunity to make a tangible difference in someone’s life by offering basic necessities that many of us take for granted. We can make the New Year great for our community with our simple gift of a box of food, and we are trying to have over 1,000 boxes filled by January 1st. For more information you can also visit the Cornerstone Food Drop 2012 info page, or visit Lee’s blog post as well.
If you are reading this and saying to yourself, I don’t go to Cornerstone so that’s nice and all but who cares… well, you don’t have to, but you can still participate. If you are in the Auburn-Opelika area, just come by the church lobby and pick up a packing list and a box and return it before January 1st.
Either way, whether you participate or not, I hope you can make it a priority this Christmas to go beyond the normal gift giving and remember others who are not as fortunate. I love that about Cornerstone, and I love seeing the church be the church. We need to think, learn, study, and understand God’s word, but we also need to go… and do. How can we say we believe what the scriptures say unless we actually do what it says. I hate the commercialization that always goes along with this time of year, but I love this. Hope you will help make it a success as well.
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Happy Thanksgiving 2011 from down over here on the farm. I love the fall in the south, it is a beautiful 70*F sunny day outside (although it is supposed to be something like 24*F in a few days), and Thanksgiving pretty much always kicks off Iron Bowl weekend. If you are perhaps one of the few unfamiliar with the Iron Bowl, check out the film by ESPN called Roll Tide War Eagle. Can’t begin to list how many things I am thankful for at this point, but for one, we have Deborah at home and feeling relatively well, that trumps most other things on my list right now.
I am extremely thankful for my family, and being able to eat dinner over at my parents house today will be awesome. I took the photo of my mom and dad above this morning, but the normal traditional work is the first shot. Every year on Thanksgiving week we (generally that means my dad) mow the entire pasture for the winter.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and War Eagle!
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This Labor Day was a glorious day. It rained almost all day today due to Tropical Storm Lee pounding up from the Gulf Coast. For those of us fortunate enough to be able to take at least part of the day off today it was wonderful. For a few shorts minutes this morning I was able to sit on my patio and watch the rain and do nothing. It was great, but a time of solitude took me back to thinking about those in Uganda, many who labor very hard every single day. Matthew says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (11:28), and we came across many who needed a little rest over there, as we all do everywhere. Margin is such an important thing in life. So important in fact that God put it 4th on his important list of things for us to do.
The photo above was so typical of the people we saw in Uganda. Super nice, hard working people, many moving goods from one place to another, by foot. I had never seen so many crazy things being moved around on a bike and moped; like a full sofa, a coffin, a refrigerator, and all kinds of agricultural goods. At some point I’ll do a post with just photos of things we saw people carrying on bikes, for now, this guy is my honorable labor day photo. Something like 50-75 pounds of trees being pushed up a hill in the mud, pretty incredible.
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Yes, I know I’m a little late with the fireworks pics but oh well. The fireworks in Auburn were good as always, the only thing that just kills me every year is they don’t go high enough in the sky to get up over the power lines, and I have tried different locations every year. You can see from the grande finale shot above that Alabama Power just had to be front and center, otherwise, I love the shot. Each year they do this outdoor festival thing, which is more akin to thousands of people sitting around in the park waiting for the fireworks, but it is a great opportunity to shoot. It’s always a good show but hours of waiting and fighting the traffic afterwards for 10 minutes of fireworks has me thinking we might try a new show next year. Boston Pops would be cool.
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Today was a much needed day to do nothing but sit at home and read and enjoy a day off, so Ebby and I sat out on the patio and read and did much of nothing. Funny, this is pretty much what she does on a daily basis, to her there was no difference today than there was yesterday except maybe more time with me and less time with Deborah. Looking forward to the fireworks in Auburn tonight. If you are in Auburn and haven’t been yet it’s always a good show (see some shots from a previous year). Don’t think I am going to have the energy to post the fireworks photos from tonight after we get home but they will be up in the next few days. Enjoy tonight and get out and see some fireworks celebration in your area if you can.
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This 4th of July holiday weekend seems to have snuck up on me. I didn’t realize it was the holiday weekend until about mid-week, days just seem to be flying by at such a fast pace, can’t believe we are already basically mid-summer. I tried out some test shots on Deb tonight, something she is always thrilled about. I picked up this used lens (10-12 years old by the serial number) for my Uganda trip. I decided last year that I was going to forgo the big expensive, heavy, pro, zoom lenses and opt for shooting with prime lenses (a fixed focal length lens). They are cheap, fast, and extremely sharp, when you shoot them well.
This is Nikon’s Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D classic prime that came out back in the late 1980′s (see photo below), which converts to about 30mm on my DX crop sensor. Not the best portrait focal length in the bag for a crop sensor but it worked pretty well. Not so sure about the focus, it seems like it might be off front or back a bit but it will do the job. I shot some black and white film with it too but of course I can’t see that yet. It hasn’t been easy getting use to using primes, but it has forced me to look at shooting more creatively. Somehow shooting those big fat pro zoom lenses years back made me lazy. Primes may take a bit more work but I love the end result.
Hope everyone is going to have a chance to relax and enjoy the 4th of July weekend. As hot as it was today we may not leave the air conditioned house until the fireworks go off on Monday. Have a great weekend.
