Currently Reading This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God By Rick Mckinley see related

Sometimes, life makes little sense to me. Take for instance, a situation that has happened very closeby my house. Lancaster, Pa has been home to a lot of violence within the last couple of years. Not much of it makes sense. It's really a quiet, pious town. Many people, like myself unfortunately, keep to themselves. So when an act of violence occurs, the community is at a loss to explain it. You may have read about a family of 3 slain here about a month ago. I live less than a mile from that house. I, like everyone in the neighborhood, have reverted to leaving lights on and double, triple locking of our doors. Well, the killer was recently caught. He was a 16-year-old boy who lived around the corner from me. The area is above average according to living standards. So as I was running by his house this afternoon, I was left wondering what would cause a 16-year-old boy to commit such horrific violence. It wasn't the water, because I drink it also. It wasn't the air, I breath it also. So what was it? Well, we don't know for sure because the cops didn't say so. But I can't imagine as I was left watching a beautiful sun blazing down on a soon-to-be field full of corn, what he was thinking. What would cause someone to get that mad that you slit their throats? I look at how blessed I am and can't think of throwing it all away. He went form this beautiful, plentiful area to a jail cell for the rest of his life. As I leave tomorrow for the Outer Banks, I'm left wondering what causes people to dismiss God so much everyday. I will run, relax, and drink a few beers and ponder these questions. I wish I could understand it all.

Cheers,

Scott

Some ramblings:

-Leaving for the Outer Banks, NC on Saturday. I am especially excited this year because of the group of friends going along. None have been to the Outer Banks, and one couple is from our Church. I really hope to spend some time with God this week, reading and praying and enjoying God's Creation. I hope it is almost a spiritual renewal of sorts for me.

-The weather has been brutal here in the Northeast. I ran 7 miles yesterday in 90+ heat and got a little dizzy. I walked for about 10 steps and then got mad and continued on. I know many runners believe in walk breaks, but I am not one of them. I don't ever want to walk.

- Hope to update more this week as I have more time.

Had a good week this week running being spured on by two running partners. Ran Tues, Wed, and Thurs and will run sometime this morning. My goal is to hit 30 miles a week, but I have been falling short lately.

I'm 2 weeks away from my yearly trip to the Outer Banks, NC. I am going with two couples this year. One is friends of my wife's from high school and the other is friends from Church and probably our best friends. Well, our friends from Church called the other day and gave us the bad news that their water heater died and they need to replace it. They will have to use their vacation spending money on it. As I was thinking the other day about Acts 2:42-47 from another site, I realized that I should help them so I offered. They are hoping to sell some things and work some OT so as not to need to borrow, but were very happy that we offered. It's what the Church is all about, living together and sharing resourses. It has made me think more about things like this. Things will work out! Thanks Peacefulveganmom for this reminder.