For the Beauty of the Earth

(Click the title to go to the Midi file of the hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth. I haven't figured out how to embed the file so it shows and plays directly from here.)

I had planned for today to be a day off of running. I had run 5 days straight and a 9.7 mile run on Saturday. But, driving to church this morning, the leaves were so beautiful that I wanted to run. That's the great thing about this time of year. I'm so hot natured that in July, if I don't run in the early morning, I just can't run later in the day. But in November, when the high is predicted to be 52°, I can run in the afternoon.

After church, our daughter and I went to lunch to kill our fajita craving (Casa Grande in Short Pump ain't bad). I had to leave at 5:30 to help with the African worship service at our orientation center. So, I knew I had to start my run between 3:00 and 3:30 -- 1 hour+ run, 15 minutes stretch, shower, supper, and leave.

My fajitas complained a little bit in the beginning, but I just took it slowly and was fine. It actually wasn't as slow as I thought but that was OK. Oh, the leaves are great! They're just a little beyond their peak -- maybe a week -- but the sun was shining, the air was crisp, there was a slight breeze, and there was lots of colour. I tell you, this just cannot have happened by accident. God created this -- Genesis 1:11-13.



Another comment on Unity versus Conformity: our pastor is preaching a sermon on our church's motto: Gayton Baptist Church...A Place to Belong...Believe...Become! Today was the second sermon on Believe and he touched on the concept of unity versus uniformity. In the sermon, he reminded me of a quote that applies to my thinking

We would be in the best shape if we kept in essentials, Unity; in non-essentials, Liberty; and in both Charity (Charity meaning, in modern usage, Love or Mutual Respect). This is often attributed to Augustine but is more likely attributable to Peter Meiderlin from a book he wrote in Latin in the mid-1620's, A Prayerful Admonition for Peace to the Theologians of the Augsburg Confession. While he was talking about doctrine, the philosophy applies in a lot of areas of life. (See the online article, "IN ESSENTIALS UNITY": THE PRE-HISTORY AND HISTORY OF A RESTORATION MOVEMENT SLOGAN

Run well, y'all,
Bob