Merry Christmas from the Darkroom

"...In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made....And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth..."  John 1

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting  Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

From his 1987 Sabbath poems.

Remembering that it happened once,

We cannot turn away the thought,

As we go out, cold, to our barns

Toward the long night’s end, that we

Ourselves are living in the world

It happened in when it first happened,

That we ourselves, opening a stall

(A latch thrown open countless times

Before), might find them breathing there,

Foreknown: the Child bedded in straw,

The mother kneeling over Him,

The husband standing in belief

He scarcely can believe, in light

That lights them from no source we see,

An April morning’s light, the air

Around them joyful as a choir.

We stand with one hand on the door,

Looking into another world

That is this world, the pale daylight

Coming just as before, our chores

To do, the cattle all awake,

Our own frozen breath hanging

In front of us; and we are here

As we have never been before,

Sighted as not before, our place

Holy, although we knew it not.

   "...The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation (the Grand Miracle). They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature's total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation. There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about. It replaces not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion--an invasion which intends complete conquest and occupation....In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature He created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him..." C.S Lewis--Miracles 

     We cannot, nor will we, or so I believe, truly grasp much about the Incarnation as with many of the other foundational parts of what we believe. You may, but I feel very safe to say that I will not. I do know that my dear son is about 20 months old and that when I begin thinking about God the Father sending his only son down to earth, I cannot keep from tearing up and becoming quickly overwhelmed. I could not nor would I be willing to do so if the tables were turned. I also know that God the Father watched his only son be born through pain, tears, and blood and come into the world in a stable in the arms of very brave young girl and very brave young man. A scene that makes me tremble at the thought of Ford being born in the same conditions far from the safety net of doctors, nurses, etc.

    And we cannot remove ourselves very far this year of the continuous showing up within Christmas story of the phrase, "Do not be afraid...". This has been a year were fear has played into our lives and we have forgotten to hide ourselves within the cleft of the Rock and be held in that Righteous Right Hand. We have spent many a dark night trembling and quaking like those lowly shepherds and we are rushing to that manger not so much because we have seen the heavenly multitude, but because we, like those shepherds need there to be a Savior in that manger so badly. We know He is there or none of this means much of anything. 

   We wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope you spend some of today far from shouting of all that Christmas isn't suppose to be, but rather quiet yourself and think for a moment of that manger scene and that Grand Miracle taking place because is it happening each day and within each moment again and do not be afraid to let it make you tremble at the thought of the great God Man taking on flesh and blood to save you. If you ever question if God loves you. This should be enough. 

Merry Christmas and happy reading,

   DAVID

Nike Air Pegasus +29 Trail--A Shoe Review

*As with every post that has been published over the last year and a half....this was supposed to be published many months ago...but life is life. Here it is for better or worse. 

Stretching the old legs with a few good friends at the Georgia Industrial Children's Home

        This past Christmas I opened a box that I wasn't expecting (I know, I know, its almost this Christmas!). I had the item on my Wish List, but I never expected to get it. And that item was a very flashy pair of Nike's Air Pegasus +29 Trail shoes. Many of you may remember that I once did a full a complete review of the regular version of Nike's Air Pegasus +29. You can reread the post here. And I will attempt to do the same for the trail version as well. However, I do not have the same amount of experience with the trail version of the shoe as I do with the road version.

The fancy shoes ready for action. 

      I asked for the trail version of the Pegasus shoe because most of the training we do for cross country is done on trails and the races the team participates in are run on mostly trail-like terrain. No, we aren't running races in the Rockies or even the Appalachians, but we are running on wooded trails with odd grades, exposed roots, loose rocks, mud, heavy vegetation, and mountain bike ruts. And the races the team runs are held on everything from single track mountain bike trails to livestock fields where the perimeters have been mowed down for a little bit easier trans-versing. So...I wanted to try out a pair of trail shoes instead of the normal running shoes I usually sport as a coach and as a runner. I have previously owned a pair of Montrail trail shoes and though they looked neat and I had great ambition of all I would accomplish in them, they never quite measured up to their reviews. I know there are many people who put their complete trust in the Montrail brand and I know that you can't judge a brand by a single pair of shoes, but I don't think they're for me. We had to break up. It was me, not them.

The Pegasus +29 Trail shoes in motion. 

           Before cross country season, I only took the shoes out of the box and wore them one time because I was saving them for the season. And so, I was very eager to see how they would perform. This year, we held our pre-season XC camp at Fort Yargo State Park and it ended up being a great place to use the shoes and during the season, we practiced five days a week on rocky and wooded trails. I was not sure how the shoes would perform and hadn't ever gone through a XC season wearing official "trail" shoes. For the past seven years as a coach, I have only worn regular running shoes and in my brief few moments as a collegiate runner, I only wore regular running or racing shoes. I feel most people do this because the whole mindset of wearing trail shoes for cross country is not a common one. I think in the eight years I been coaching XC, I had a single runner who wore trail shoes for our training runs. I guess most people assume all running is on a track or on the roads because that is the type of running that occasionally makes it on tv. This would make sense because XC is not track, but most people I know always refer to XC as track; even those who know differently. No, not "real" runners (who ever that really is), but everyday people. I never mind, but know there is already some person on Letsrun.com calling me "hobby jogger" with all the rage of someone whose life revolves around an online message board.

 

       Trail shoes have come along way in the past several years. I know I ran a 15k trail race several years ago and when I contemplated purchasing a pair of trail shoes, there just weren't that many choices for the "hobby" runner who wasn't putting on his shoes to go run the Leadville 100 or some other equivalent race. I instead ran the race in an old pair of New Balance 993's because the race had several stream/chest-high river crossings. However, trail running is becoming more and more prevalent as American runners consume road races like they do everything else and as people move away from the roads and to the trails to avoid the crowds of strollers and the lack of "serious" runners. Now, most every larger shoe company is putting out several trail models for each of the major types of runners. And the shoe companies who are producing these "trail" models are making them more like road racing shoes than the older models which had more in common with hiking shoes or boots than with running shoes. And that has been a welcome move for runners who divide their time between trails and the roads like I do. 

"...getting to the bottom of it all..."

        Nike has been making shoes that can be worn on a trail since the early 1980's. They began with shoes that resembled hiking boots, then began their infamous, "All Conditions Gear" line, that lasted till the mid 90's, but has been resurrected recently, then came the Air Terra verisons of shoes, and now we are seeing a new line of ,"Zoom Wildhorse/Terra Kiger" shoes. This is a very shortened history, but if you need more, you can see some pretty neat pictures and read some interesting factoids here. The Air Pegasus line issued a trail model in the mid 90's and has had one since then. The Pegasus line originally teamed up with Nike's ACG line, but soon just began putting out their own trail versions of their popular shoe. I hadn't really noticed the trail version of the Pegasus line till a few years ago. 

     The Nike Air Pegasus +29 Trail shoe is a good all around shoe for light to medium trail runs and races. One of the reviews I read mentioned you could use it for road running, but on the days we would run on concrete, I'd bring different shoes or spend several minutes during the run wishing I did so. They feel ok on concrete, but the lugs that are on sole do make it add friction to the run; not by a lot, but enough to feel it. They do offer a shoe were the outer is made with GoreTex and that is great for those of us that hate running with wet feet and socks. I do not have that version, so on the days the courses were wet and muddy, my feet would be the same on runs that lasted longer than forty-five minutes. However, I would say the outers of this version did better to keep liquids out than the road model which seems to feel wet the moment I run near liquid.

       

    Overall, I was impressed with the range of the shoe. It reacted well to each of our workouts and was a consistent shoe in its behavior. Whether we were running a speedwork session on trails, strides, hill work, long runs, or even in race conditions, the shoe seemed to be the right shoe for me. The only two cons I can think of about the shoe were the already mentioned fact of they weren't the crossover shoe that the reviews talked about and for the way the shoe began feeling when I had run for longer than an hour and a half. After that time, the shoe did not cushion my tired feet the way I really needed, but for runs that are up to 10 miles, they felt great. 

    To make it easier for you to think about the shoe and to make this post more like a review than a ramble, I am going to break this review down into some short sections based on the different facets of the shoe:

1. Aesthetics--The Nike Air Pegasus +29 trail shoe is a sharp looking shoe and one that will get noticed. I have received many compliments about the look of the shoe from much younger and much more hip people than I. Although, I originally felt they were a little too flashy for my taste, they grew on me and I really like the way they look. And I'm not too sure you can buy even a mid-range shoe these days that aren't flashy in some way. 

2. The Outer Layer--The outer layer of this version is more solid and tighter than the road model. I feel that I could run through some pretty muddy and wet conditions and still have somewhat dry-ish socks. Yes, I would have very wet feet if the trails ended up being one deep puddle after the next, but overall, the outers allowed my feet to stay somewhat dry. No, if I ran through a puddle or creek that ended up being several inches deep, my feet would not stay dry.  

3. The Insole--The insole of the trail model is exactly the same as the road model. It needs to be replaced as soon as possible. This is one of the few not so great things about this shoe, but I'm not sure this category would get high ratings no matter the shoe or brand. To be honest, before I started running, I never took much notice of this part, but since I've been running, this is a facet of shoe design that I always end of replacing with something that is much more substantial. This shoe was no different. I put about 20 miles on this shoe before I phoned my dad and had him order me the running specific orthotics from Foot Levelers that really are amazing. They really do change the whole running experience for me; especially when I've been running without them. 

4. The Midsole--I often get many eyes rolled at me from my high school students for generalizing, but I will take that risk here. For me, in the few trail shoe models, I have worn, the midsole feels very rigid and after awhile seems to hurt my feet because it its seemingly lack of flexibility. This shoe was much different. The midsole felt much more akin to a road shoe. It was very flexible, not Nike Free flexible, but about 100x more flexible than the Montrails I once owned. Many "serious" trail runners and racers desire this rigid midsole, but this guy does not. 

5. The Outsole--This is the facet of the shoe that I feel is the most different than the road model. Both the road and the trail models use Nike's "Cushlon" technology and from the left sides of the shoe, they same to look very similar, but...but...but for me, the feel could be anymore different. Although, I love the Pegasus road model, there are times that I wish that the shoe was a little more responsive. No, not all the time, but occasionally, like during 200 repeats or at the end of a 5k, I wish I could feel the surface a little better, so that I could respond a little more quickly. I know that seems strange, but for me it is true. The Trail model however, feels much, much different and not in a bad way. I felt the shoe was very responsive to the terrain in way that was advantageous for the runner. I am not saying that I could "feel" the rocks, roots, etc. and that inhibited my runs, but could feel them in a way that allowed me to decide how to run over them in better way. I know this sounds a little hoaxy, but if you run, you know what I mean. 

6. The Lugs--Last, but least are the lugs, or what what non-weirdos who know too much about shoes refer to as the bottom sole of the shoe. In many of the trail shoes I have seen or looked at, the soles look like they are far too aggressive for the terrain that I spend time running on, but the Pegasus Trail seems to have found a happy medium for people who run like I do and where I do. As mentioned before, I am not running in mountainous terrain with rock faces, steep ascents, or treacherous descents, but I do run 100's of miles each year on trails with exposed rocks, rock debris, exposed roots, mountain bike ruts, fallen branches, little streams, etc. and at times I will gain and lose a lot of elevation over a long run due to a lot of ups and downs on the trails. This XC season, I felt a lot more secure will running due to the fact that I felt the soles of my shoes were handling what I was running over. I am not a graceful guy and usually do some falling and tripping during my runs, but this year, this was kept to a minimum and I give credit to the lugs on this shoe. They were sturdy and strong, but also flexible, which worked great for what I used the shoes for.  

     I have now put about 200+ miles on the shoes and I'm about to bring this post to a close, I will say that I would easily feel pretty good about buying another pair of these great shoes and plan on doing so. I always think that this is the largest compliment someone can give to a product of any sort. If I get the priviledge of coaching XC next season, then I will probably order another pair of these shoes and give them a drive over the many places we run here in Georgia. If fact, just thinking about it, makes me pretty excited. Few things beat a good run in the woods with my runners during XC season. 

Happy reading and happy running (trail),

DAVID 

A New Way to Ride (Happy Finals Week)

   It is finals week here. The picture would be be more accurate if it had a teacher rather than a student keeled over somewhere. I miss the days when all I had to do was prepare, sit down, unload my brain, and then walk away. I always thought taking exams was rough, but preparing students for over 5 months of information they have forgotten, typing and preparing a fair and accurate exam that will take current high school students at least an hour to complete, grading 1000's of questions in a small period of time, and then answering parent emails about why their progeny scored a 20 on an exam that they studied 25 minutes for while watching tv, updating their Facebook account, streaming music, and texting their friends, or the other type of parents who email when their student scores a 98 and they want to know just where those other two points are and just what kind of nerve do I have. The answer to that is that I have the kind of nerve that is acquired after spending almost a decade making 12.5 cents an hour for a job few people respect and where people are continually telling me or other teachers that they just make too much for what they do. I want to be around, even if its just briefly, when the tables are turned.

    And true to form, finals week calls for distraction from the monotony and so we here at the Darkroom want to provide the best of what's around, but not in that Dave Matthews kind of way. A friend of mine works for a local manufacturing firm where they build components for private jets, but have begun manufacturing excellent bicycle components. He has one of the neatest jobs of all the people I know. He designs and builds bike components, tests them, and then tries to convince the owner of the firm to mass produce them. And when they go to market, his job is to travel to all the bike shows in Europe and here in the States and attempt to show them off. Not a bad gig, right? I didn't think so. Every now and again, he posts some pretty neat items when it comes to bicycles and bike components on Facebook or other places and I like to check them out and I'm usually pretty glad I did.

  Most people have a certain perception of road bikes and the people that ride them and the stereotype comes because so many people feel they must be it in order to get on a road bike and be that way or they won't be taken seriously. You know...these guys:

...lean, mean, spandexed, no smile, and weighing in at 98 lbs... 

                                                             Or the other stereotype:

...tattoos, skinny jeans, Vans, no helmet, backpack, some more tattoos, gauges, excessive, but held onto into their 20's teenage against....

     There are many people trying to change these images and stereotypes and I am thankful for that. There are a lot of people who just like the freedom and joy that comes from riding a bike around the block. I know Mel, FH, and I do. I saw these videos and thought they were incredible and the guys doing the riding are doing some things that most everyone would think was impossible to do on a road bike. They show a road bike to be much, much more user friendly and versatile than most people think. I think this is true of most bikes. Hope you enjoy both videos and show them to your people. I showed them to mine and they loved them. And mom, dad, and Mel, don't worry, FH and I haven't begun riding like this just yet. And if we start, we'll get you to film us.

Out with the Old in the (Sort of) New

      

        So...I've been using this beaut for the last of many months. I had a better phone, the Samsung Brightside, but it went into the drink, as golfers say, and never quite recovered. I called Verizon and you know how that went. They were ranked number 1 in customer service, but I believe this ranking was based on rudest people, most complicated website, longest hold timing, and most complex automated call system that one must pass through, as the Hobbits had to pass through Mordor, in order to talk to Rakeesh speaking to you clearly from New Delhi. I am not being racist or ethnocentric, I'm only saying how I was treated and what I went through. Their previous #1 status as best customer service made me know it just had to be based on these criteria. If it were other items, then I don't think they would have made the Top 1000. Why do we put up with all of this as capitalists? I don't understand this and maybe never will. You could have a billion dollars tomorrow if you ran a wireless company where you hired real people who answered the phone and made asking questions easy and treated each person like they weren't an ace idiot.

       I found out the wonders that are Verizon Wireless after I drove my bike through what I thought was a small puddle on a nearby bike trail with my phone in my pants pocket, but what turned out to be a 7 foot deep area of swollen winter river and that although I had insurance on my phone it did not help me at all. If you are a Verizon customer, you know that insurance is a scam. My phone was purchased for $169 and it died. With my insurance plan, I could just pay them a small deductible of $150 and then get a phone of equivalent value...WHAT? This is the part of the phone conversation where I went silent and my friend asked me once again how the weather in Macon, Georgia was this time of year. I asked him to repeat what he said just so I could make sure what I heard was real. And it was because this time I was biting the insides of my cheek so I could make sure both types of pain where real. They were. I thanked the kind man from New Delhi for his time and hung up. I am sure they charged me for the call on my next bill. They should make a movie ala, "National Treasure", but make it entirely based on a Verizon billing statement. Wes Anderson could direct it and we could all watch Bill Murray make his way through the perils of a monthly statement while enjoying a $25 large Coke and a $29 bucket of popcorn. It would be more entertaining and far less expensive.

       I did attempt to plead my case several times before the military tribunal that is the Verizon Wireless store. You know the place you go, someone meets at the door with a tablet, adds your name to a list that never changes, you go sit in front of someone who types your entire history as a human on the planet into a keyboard while looking annoyed and snarky and by doing so, they still have to go ask a manager, you wait for another 8 hours, they come back, type Psalm 119 into the computer system, you wait, they ask you to explain your problem again, they leave again, you wait, they return, they pass you onto the next person where you complete this cycle several times and then they release you without helping you, or you come out carrying a phone you didn't want, or now are on a plan you asked for the opposite of. You know the routine. You've been there. You may be reading this at a Verizon store. Read slowly, it is going to be awhile. What you should actually do is find the kiosk where you can pay your bill, go pay your balance, and smash the phone onto the floor and walk out. If people want to reach you, they can call you at home where you may call them back. If it is an emergency, they will get you. And you will have to react in the same time as the generations who came before us, invented life changing movements and devices. It will be ok. Twitter will move on without us. We can start paying attention to the real, not the virtual. We can demand to be sent a paper bill and let the people know, that we WILL NOT check the website.

    Needless to say, I did not pay the deductible, but rather I dug through the confines of my past that make up the bottom of my sock drawer and found my old trusty Samsung flip phone that came free with my 2005 Verizon plan. I haven't gotten rid of it because I always find myself coming back to it. As phones become more advanced, they last less time and they trade in durability for more features. I have had a couple phones since my time with the old "Flip", but they usually die and I am thrown back into the arms of old faithful. So, par for the course, I left the Verizon store with my head down feeling downtrodden, headed home, and mined the old "Flip" out of the sock drawer, called Verizon, spent a year or two weaving my way through the maze that is the Verizon automated phone system, and finally had a phone that worked.

    Eight months went by with very few mishaps with old Trusty, but then it began to fade like a dying star. Function by function, bar of service by bar of service, key by key, things began to go south for the Flip. The last straw came three weeks ago when I was talking to Sweet Melissa while holding FH. He grew tired of the conversation and tossed the phone from my hand onto the hardwood floor. The screen went black, several keys went flying, and it never really recovered. I sent out a message to anyone that had an old phone that they wanted to be rid of and pretty soon the top of my dresser looked like the dresser of Jack Bauer. I had something like eight phones sitting in a line. It looked like I was running from the government and needed a pile of burner phones.

    I took my little pile of phones back to the Verizon Gulag and after one trip back home to retrieve a charger, I walked out with this little slice of LG perfection. I am still learning how to use it. An old fraternity brother gave it to me. I guess all those networking opportunities the guys from the national office of the fraternity were always trying to get us to think about really are real; or at least in a handing down an old used cell phone kind of way. So, I am now walking around with this new shiny piece of technology and doing crazy things like receiving texts and talking on the phone indoors. I know. Weird. So be jealous for a little while. I know you are walking around using some app that tells you when to breathe on your iPhone 17, but I'm texting my boo and talking on the phone like a used car dealer (at stop lights and not while driving of course).

Happy Reading,

   DAVID

The Ending of a Moment--A Confessional

*This post was written over a month ago, but the sentiments expressed throughout it are still as fresh today as they were then. I have been wondering if I should even post it, but felt I should. Events and moments like this are as much a part of our lives as the others that I write about here. This just isn't as pretty. If fact, it is ugly almost all the way around. We are slowly recovering. God is good and faithful. He has to be and that why is we are able to move millimeter by millimeter ahead. If He were not so, we would have given up long ago. 

   "…even though I walk the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff they comfort me…" Psalm 23:4

        A lot has been going on here and most of it has been tough. It has been like walking down a long, dark, cold corridor where there is no light at the end and the only sounds are those of our hearts and us stumbling over all the obstacles that no one warned us about and we are walking alone. We have had to say good bye to many things and each good bye has been painful in more ways than we can really speak about. So, there has been silence and there has been a plethora of sadness that fills those moments and places of silence. And this sadness has covered us like heavy sheet mail and will be something that we will carry with us for a very long time. It has all reminded me of the opening line of Charles Frazier's second book, Thirteen Moons, about there being no scathless journey. It is odd how a line like that can stick with you and your mind can rotate back to it over and over. It is odd how something can move from an item in the news to a nightmare that becomes part of everything that you think about, talk about, experience, etc. We are scathed and the wounds are fresh and won't be healed over for a very long time, but we will have to pretend they don't hurt and only expose them each other.

      The short of it is that we have lost our sweet home. Part of it is my own fault and I am filled with more regret than I will be able to get over for a very long time. I have failed in my obligations as being both provider and protector for my sweet wife and son. The other part is that there is a system out there that is stacked against you no matter what you think or what people will say. I have experienced firsthand a part of our system that is broken and only hurts those who are at or near the bottom.

        The long (very) of it is that my salary has decreased or remained stagnant each year we have lived in Macon and everything else has heavily increased. Our home loan was based on my 2008 salary and my current salary is far less than that. We have cut what we could, but when you make what we do, there is not much to cut. I fell behind in our payments by two payments and called the folks at Bank of America and ask what my options where and they told me to file for loan modification and I did so which entailed hours of paperwork and getting forms signed and we mailed it all in. The "wonderful" folks at Bank of America also told me to not send in payments during the modification process because once approved my late payments would be placed onto the back of my loan and our mortgage payment would be lowered. I was also told that we were pre-approved. A month and a half went by. I got worried. I had received a statement that showed us being even further behind. I mailed in a payment. It was mailed back. I called the "honest" folks at BOA and they said all was well and that they were still processing our paperwork. The second month went by and then we received a letter letting us know that we had been denied. A week later our loan was transferred to NationStar Mortgage LLC.

    I quickly signed up for an online account. I spent hours talking to this person and then another at NationStar. I was told the same story about loan modification. I jumped through more hoops. I mailed in payments and they were mailed back. We were again pre-approved, then denied. We began receiving foreclosure notices from a law firm based out of Texas. I called. They said it was just protocol. No worries. I mailed in more payments. They were mailed back. Then they foreclosed on our house. I panicked. I called and spent many hours on many, many days trying to get to the bottom of it. They spoke of different options. I tried to make them work. They spoke of me getting most of what we owed together and then they would reinstate our loan and bring it back into good standing. They said they would email me the paperwork. I believed them. I called several banks. The next day they sold our house to themselves and began an aggressive eviction process. I called them back and no one seemed to know about any reinstatement program. We received a summons. I stood before a judge who said he was sorry, but that he couldn't really do anything. I contested the decision. They told me it was meaningless. I called with money from my kind and gracious father in law and was told they didn't want the money, but only the home. We lost our home. We moved out in a single day. It was like removing an organ with no anesthesia. And now our sweet home sits empty. Our keys still work. They haven't changed the locks, but they threatened us and told us that they would sit our stuff on the street if we didn't leave.

    I left out a lot, but it was more of the same. It was them versus us and we were the powerless. YES, there were things I could have done and in retrospect (a retrospect that I will be thinking about many years from now with a painful amount of regret), I should have borrowed the two months we were behind. I should have asked my brother in law or sister or both to help me legally. I should have reached out. I could have saved our house. BUT BUT BUT I did not. I was naive and a sheep. I believed the people who had their best interest in mind. None of this will happen again.

    We live in a new place now. It is nice. It is bigger than our home. It is comfortable and the kind folks whom we are renting from did us a huge favor and gave us a refuge for a cheap price. We didn't and don't deserve their kindness and generosity. My in-laws saved us. They moved our entire lives in a day with the sweat of their brow and the strength of their backs and they never made us (me) feel bad about my multitude of mistakes. They did it all with no complaints. Friends of ours prayed for us and a few brought us meals. Another friend has come over a few times to help hang some shelves and helped me move some heavy items from our old house. My father in law loaned us enough money to move and pay our first month's rent. It will be paid back. And God has been at each turn. It is hard to see Him in several places, but He has provided so much and we are trying with all of our might to see a plan. We know that there has to be one. God was not surprised by any of this. Even the house we are now living in was full just a few weeks ago. The family that lived there just moved to Athens. God is in control and that is some of the only hope we are holding onto. And as my very wise wife said, all of these things make up part of our redemption story.

    I have returned to our old house several times to mine from it anything we could use in our new place. Each time, the place brings me to tears and I will forever be haunted by my mistakes. We are attempting to move on, but that is much easier said than done. Each night we fall asleep in someone else's room and eat meals at our table that is sitting in some else's dining room. It is a nice house, but it is not our home. Our home sits empty and cold and silently reminding me of all the life that happened there and it hurts me from there.

     But as I have said to my sweet, sweet wife who has been so strong throughout all of this and has been so gracious to me in the deepest and worst of all of this. We will get it all back. No ,we will never live in that house again, but we will have a home that is ours. We will once again begin building a life around a place we both call home. We will have a place that we will develop a deep affection for. We will get it back. God will see us through this. He has to. One of his characteristics is that He is faithful and He must continue to be.


     And so, this blog can no longer be named the Hines Terrace Herald. We no longer live on Hines Terrace. A new name will appear soon after things settle down a bit. I haven't decided on one yet. My heart is still on Hines Terrace. It will be there for awhile.  It is Fall and the beloved ginkgoes are changing on Hines Terrace. We are not there to see them. There are no ginkgoes at the new place.

 

Thanks for reading and please do pray for us.

DAVID