The 4th and things

Well, This is a little delayed because we had a group of 26 people from Chicago working with us this week and I did not really have any time to get away.

Here are some pictures of last weeks events.



-We went to the lacrosse game for the 4th and watched some friken sweet fireworks after the game...so basically the week started pretty good and got better.


-Jordan and his buddies...at the Lacrosse Game on the 4th. We started the wave and it went all the way around about 10 times...a large accomplishment in my life.


-Fireworks


-We drove up to Mnt Evans on the highest road in the United States 14 something thousand feet. We found some sweet wheel barrows there.


-View from atop mount Evans


-Jordan, Nate and I toured the brewery's of Fort Collins....New Belgium, Fort Collins, and O'Dell....for nates 23rd b-day.


-We went hiking in Rocky Mnt again...and once again it was phenomenal.


-KP and I.


-One of my favorites.


-This is where the trail took us...dang it I cannot remember what it is called...beautiful i guess.


-We had some people over last saturday and we decided to make some art in our lounge in the basement.


-Here are the artists: KP Megan and Melissa


-This is the finished product. "THE SHATTERING" Jordan and I developed the deep philosophy behing the painting.


-I went to a Colorado Rapids soccer game with Angie and KP.


-The rapids played the New York Red Bulls and lost 0-1


-Dick's Sporting Good Stadium (home of the Colorado Rapids)

Denver Art

This weekend I decided that I would stick around Denver and see some of the things that I could not get to during the week. Soo...Kris, Melissa, Nate, and I, went to the Denver Art Museum on Saturday. My Favorite exhibit was a temporary contemporary exhibit that had a bunch of crazy wierd/sick/beautiful work. Almost every painting or sculpture left an imprint on me in that exhibit however, I was not allowed to take pictures. Sorry.
Here are some pics of yesterday.


-Some things just don't change from Iowa to Colorado.


-Kris tries his hand from the other side.


-Really though...it was a nice cow...we wouldn't tip her.


-walkin in


-Native American exhibit


-my pic from the stairway


-Eastern Exibit (many Buddahs)




-Denver Art Museum Building 1


It was a good day.

Hands in the Sky

I have been noticing many hands in the sky lately. I should explain. The first one I saw when I was watching the sun go down in front of my place and a cloud looked like a hand that was reaching down as if to grab another hand and pull someone up. It had 4 fingers and a thumb...a genuine looking cloud hand.

The next I saw was next to an enormous cloud and looked like it was going against the enormous cloud. I forget what shape it was in, but I remember thinking it was rather interesting.

The last hand-in-the-sky I saw as I was coming into the hilly part of colorado from Iowa. It was pointing. It was a huge hand in the sky right above the road and a few miles right in front of me.

I don't know why I have been seeing hands in the sky...so I thought I would write about it.

Mnt Falcon & The Twin Sisters

-Mt Falcon


-overlook of Denver at Falcon.


-Jordan overlooking Denver


-Jordans Mountain...GreenMountain...where he went to high school


-Being dumb around mt Falcon


-Out camp site (near estes park) it was her 22 birthday.


-Nate and Melissa hiking.


-Nate and I on top of one of the twin sisters...I think I called this one tia and the other tamara


-Longs Peak (a 14er) my goal for the summer is to climb it.


-My camera battery died and this is how the last 10 pics I took turned out..

Fern Lake Trailhead - Odessa Lake

-We camped in Rocky Mountain National park on Friday and hiked all day saturday. good stuff.


-The team at the trailhead


-Beginning of the Hike (12 miles total--we were pretty tired by the end of the day, actually, Im still tired.)


-Fern lake


- Odessa Lake 5 miles in...I was glad to be there.


-I loves me some lakes and mountains.


-The Hiking Team = Me KP Nate -made it to Odessa!


-Odessa Lake (5 miles to get there from the car...about 2 thousand feet climb...amazing views~


-Past odessa looking down. One of my favorite things to do is climb on Scenery.

First MLB Game - Front Row Seats!

The Rockies played the Cardinals. I saw a bunch of home runs and had a sweet time! Coors Field is only 12 years old and is really nice too. (The rockies arn't that good though)

Rocky mnt Park - Bear Lake Trailhead

A little saturday drive around rocky mnt national park (if you know the park well you might be thinking...bear lake is right at the beginning ofthe park..you could not have seen much, you are wrong...we drove 45 minutes in the wrong direction looking for the place).

The hike was real easy, but we didn't have the right gear or elevation acclamation to do anything more difficult. Great views though!

Unfortunately nate got really sick on the ride up to the hike and on the way back down (I may still have a little puke on my passenger door...I better wash that off soon). KP, the newest resident of Winsor, Colorado (from michigan), and I did the hike together...it was a lot of fun.

Hope everyone is having a great memorial day weekend!














-KP

Colorado Springs

-Garden of the Gods





-Garden pics


-Garden of the Gods beauty


-Kris and I at the reception

Apt Pics

-Home


-Nice little view of the jumbo tron at mile high - from the front porch


-New Bedroom


-Livin Room


-Kitchen


-Back Yard/ Platte River


-Front Yard


-Basement

I loves me some Denver

probably because I haven't worked at all and have been able to do whatever I wanna do.

I moved all my stuff in the apartment which is more like a big...big...trashy/homey house (I'll take pictures in order for you to get the idea) which is perfect for dudes like myself. I live pretty much right next to downtown, which is cool, because all I have to do is drive across I-25 (under it rather)and I am in the center of the city!

Josh (JLO) called me up yesterday morning (which I thought was very strange at 830am) and apparently he missed his flight to ALASKA (God Bless Alaska)so he was wondering what I was up to. I had no plans so I went and picked he and Jess up at DIA and brought them back to "The Yard" to take naps while I went and played soccer with the coons up in Thorton. Last night jlo, jess, ryan, and Sean, went downtown and ate at the Five Pints (a very chill british pub/brewery). We met up with jessica's post host dad and enjoyed some fine fresh brewed beer(in moderation of course).

Nate, my friend from Dordt/roomate is comming in tonight and we are going to head to Josh Van Essen's weddin in Colorado Springs (at the Air Force Academy) tomorrow!

I am stoked for this summer (even work-suprisingly)!

Also, when I got back to the Yard (my house) I saw a red tail fox walking around at the lot, which I don't believe I have ever seen before. Excellent.

Quoter..

I was talking with pastor Mark today and I heard a good quote about preaching in the church...from Andrew something.

Scripture alone will slow up the church
Holy Spirit alone will blow up the church
Scripture and the Holy Spirit will grow up the church

I don't know if that is the exact wording, but either way... it is very nice.

Contentment as a search.

Have you ever thought about what it means to be content?

I have always thought of being content as something that needs to be achieved; something that has to be internal and something that is closely related to my career/family/education. Like somehow I will find contentment. That I will be able to look at where I am at and say "well, this is pretty good. I am content. I have a good spiritual life, a good family, a good job, I am pretty well off."

-and yet, what happens when I am ten-twenty years down the road working a job that I don't like and I am having problems with family? (hypathetically) Will i then say "well, I had big dreams, but thats what they were...dreams. Yeah I was gonna be a teacher. Live by the ocean, help students grow with the Lord, and be a Great guy, but I am not. Im just a dude who is stuck in this shitty situation. I can't do anything about it now." ?

What if contentment is a search?

What if being content didn't mean having what I want/need (ie: same criteria as above)?

-I am open minded now, but I am young...what happens if I am open minded and old?

If I stop dreaming/looking/searching/driving toward something, can I be content?

It seems to me that contentment is searching for more...continually digging deeper. Essentially, not being content. Wow, hows that for a thought.

We might actually be more content when we are not content.

So I was sittin in church....

and Pastor Mark said something about the dangers of post-modernism. Me being the over-contemplative sort of dude I am thought about it for the next half hour and ended up sending him a an email full of questions and thoughts.

Now I don't know what to do with it...its just been sitting in my head. I am going to have coffee with him tomorrow to chit-chat about some of the stuff (or maybe we will just talk normally - which would be good too) but I figured I would throw it out there. So...here are my loaded questions.

Pastor Mark
---Near the end of the sermon you said that we need to use
> discernment, listen to scriptures, be obedient to them and constantly
> be searching for God's will -> live a life focused on Jesus Christ. You
> also said to be careful about the dangers of post-modernism, to which
> can be taken a variety of ways, yet I think we must be careful of
> making that word Taboo. My question was this:
>
-What can we learn from post-modernism?
-If we need to constantly be searching and obedient to Christ in the
> scriptures why do we act/think we have it all figured out?
> -Here is an example....we think in metaphysical terms of man. ie:
> Being...essence -> complete comprehension of each other...we are
> "whole people" in Dordt terms, but in reality.... not to each other, only to
> God.
or Normative Christians...though we might not explicitly say it,
> we act it out everyday. Think about a prisoner who became a converted
> Christian coming to our church in ragity clothes and little knowledge of
> the scriptures. Or even a person in there mid 20's who grew up around
> here who has different thoughts about Christianity...such as fitting in
> to a normative idea of how Christians look or the places go. (sorry
> these are pretty general, and you could tear them apart. But I
> think you know what I am getting at)
>
-Also, understanding that these (though I haven't named many)
> metaphysical/greek thoughts are a product of history. ie: some of the
> main church fathers were greek philosophers who became apologists and
> defended/defined Christianity in greek Philosphical terms. I would
> never have thought of that except that I wrote a major paper on it and
> found it almost souring that I could be so convinced that my
> CRC/reformed/western idea of Christianity had the "right" answers, or at
> least the ones that made sense to my experience and knowledge. I have
> grown up here...so I suppose that makes sense.
> *by no means am i saying it is relative...its not. Love God Love
> neighbor....wisdom is fear of the Lord...Jesus died for my sins...He is
> the only way to salvation, are good examples of Biblical Truths.
> -but do you know what I mean when I say its easy to discard
> post-modernism when we might actually be able to learn from some of the
> ideas?
> I also have some questions about what you think on conceptual
> idolatry and denominationalism, but I will spare you for now.


So there it was...my gibberish. What do you think?