A Weekend Away

My life has changed a lot since I graduated from the doctoral program last June. I have much more margin in life, and I am so thankful for that! This weekend is just one example. Julie and I are spending a long weekend away together at Lake Chautauqua in New York at a lake house that some good friends of ours let us use. We dropped the kids off with the grandparents in Ohio and we headed to New York to enjoy some much needed rest and relaxation. We had the opportunity to travel to many different places while I was in the BGU program, but those trips were always centered around my learning experiences and urban immersion. This trip has a sole purpose of simply resting and enjoying spending time together. We're taking a lot of walks, having many discussions about the ministry that God has called us to in Pittsburgh, and we're reading a lot. I've read The Powers That Be, an interesting perspective from Walter Wink about how Christians can utilize nonviolent resistance to bring about personal and community transformation. We're also chipping away at reading Dr. Martin Luther King's autobiography, Love in a Fearful Land by Henri Nouwen, The Sacred Journey by Frederick Buechner, re-reading Geography of Grace by Kris Rocke and Joel Van Dyke, and I'm also working my way through The Journal of Jim Elliot. Good times! I love to just relax and read about things that inform my theology and worldview. It's been a wonderful time away so far.