crunch time

With our OneThing conference approaching like a runaway freight train, it's crunch time at IHOP. Kelsey and I are working like gerbils on a steel wheel, preparing for this weekend's filming the first four of eight sessions that will serve as the backbone of a DVD cirriculum that we will have fully produced by the time OneThing opens on Dec 28. It's a beginner's guide to studying the end times - I'll post the killer artwork in a few days. Dont worry: No flying dragons, no funky velvet paintings that look as if they should be airbrushed on the side of a custom van.

Two nights ago, after we had the kids to bed under Grandma's watchful eye, we slipped down to the Y to get some exercise. I decided to try and swim laps - something I'd never done before. I did the butterfly, the backstroke, the sidestroke, and a few freestyle strokes. I swam and swam and swam. After what seemed like a rediculously long time, I reached the other end of the pool. It was then that Kesley explained that I had swam a half lap and had to swim back where I'd came from, which seemed pretty legalistic to me, but I did it. Eventually I did four laps and beached myself on the concrete like Free Willy, gasping through my blow hole.

My theory is this: My swimming form is so horrible that I actually do much more work than most people. I swim dog laps, which, like dog years, are worth 7x what a human lap is. So I'm telling people I swam 28 dog laps.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in to check on my may have appeared as my fragile mental state a few days ago. I am doing fine. There's something about catching things early that makes it easy to correct. I'm keeping a vigilant eye on my attitudes and perspectives and am doing much better. Even this morning in the prayer room, the Lord is showing me more accurately who I am and why it matters to HIm. I hold much to tightly to comparitive economics - judging my value in relation to the perceived value of others. He's showing me that His value system looks entirely different than ours. I find value in being 'better than' and He's looking for 'wholly other'. In that system - for reasons beyond all comprehension - I have value before Him.