love

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth

It's a boy

Today we found out that our unborn baby is a boy. I would still have been stoked if it was a girl, but deep down I am excited for a boy. The Millheim house will be brought into gender balance...hopefully less pink.

Mount Shasta

I thought it would be a good idea to climb Mt. Shasta on Monday with two of my old college buddies. When my buddy Paul met a triathlete who said that the hike was by far the most intense physical thing he had ever done, I should have realized what was about to happen. For some reason I didn't really understand the gravity of the situation until I was about halfway up and realized that climbing Mt. Shasta is a big deal. Today I read online that beginner climber/hikers should always do the hike in two days instead of trying to do it in one day. After leaving at midnight and returning at 4 PM the next day (16 hours later), I can vouch that one should not try to hike the mountain in one day under any circumstances unless you have some strange desire for long periods of intense physical anguish. Also, if you ever go don't forget to put suntan lotion on the bottom of your nose. I currently have blisters on the bottom of my nose and on my lip just below my nose from the sun shining off the snow.
Oh and one more thing...pooping into a bag on the side of a snowy mountain as people hike by you is difficult, very difficult.

Connections

Yesterday in the midst struggling to get a million things done and feeling like I was making little progress on any front, something beautiful happened. I've been trying to develop friendships with the homeless crew that hangs out at the park close to my house in Concord. I bring small groups from the church I used to work at to share a picnic with them in the hopes of broadening horizons and building friendships across normal boundaries, but I love to just cruise by and see what is happening.
I was trying to get some work done on my computer while I spent time with Kayla while my wife was working while I tried to clean out my garage and get my house ready to rent while I checked craigslist every few minutes for a place to rent in the City while I tried to figure out how to get people to this "Walking in the Ways of the Kingdom" experience we are doing July 8 while I stressed about not training to hike Mt. Shasta this weekend. Meanwhile Kayla felt neglected and I was getting little accomplished. I decided to take Kayla with me to the park and jog there with her in the stroller and see if we could connect with some folks in the park. I saw Patrick, who is always full of energy. After he spent some time making Kayla smile he told me how bummed he was about his bike that was just stolen. Just then I remembered that I was going to see if anyone needed a bike in the park. One thing I need to get out of my garage is a bicycle that is in a couple pieces and I have no idea how to work on, but I had a hunch it could be useful for someone. I told Patrick about it and he got just a bit excited. Kayla and I jogged home and as soon as my brother got home he watched Kayla while I put the bike in my car and drove it back to Patrick. My brother had an extra tube he pitched in to help out, and Patrick was ecstatic. I was also ecstatic to have the bike out of my garage. Simple but beautiful.
So often it seems the beautiful things are in no way from my own planning but just happen when I give up and let myself be available to whatever. Little things add up to remind me that the Kingdom is happening, the Kingdom is advancing, God is at work in this messy world behind all the scenes...