Feeling a bit lighter today

Ah... Sunday. I absolutely love Sundays. Its the only day of the week where I can completely ignore all the work I'll be doing in the upcoming week and focus on just relaxing and enjoying the day. That whole "keep the Sabbath Holy" was a fantastic idea. Good work God.

Anyhow, that wasn't actually what I wanted to talk about... I actually wanted to write about being corrected and heeding wise advice, but now that I'm here, I think maybe that can wait for another day. It occurs to me that my blog has gotten a bit more serious and somber than I really intended. I suppose those were just the thoughts on my heart at the time, but today is Sunday and my heart is pretty content.

I just got back from church (after doing a 5 mile boots & utilities run), where Pastor Benji (whose goatee actually IS off-centered in real life) gave a really moving message on exceptional generosity. I really enjoyed it and it made a lot of sense to me. To be honest, it was nice encouragement and a good reminder of something that started to occur to me a while ago. Before I started tithing, there was never enough money. I was living on $1 loaves of bread with cotto salami and still racking up debt. Even when I moved to grad school and started getting paid for my work (a novel idea), there was barely enough money to make ends meet. After I came back to God and started living as a Christian, I started tithing again, and finances just keep getting better. I've been able to give more as a result, and as I do, more money comes in... its really quite astounding. Apparently despite my best efforts, I cannot out-give God.

Yesterday was an eventful day as well. I woke up and put in a 10.5 mile run as training for the Marine Corps Marathon (and my upcoming Physical Fitness Test) and then went to an eye appointment. Lucky me, the Optometrist had to dilate my eyes to check my retinas. That would be where they take your contacts out and put the little drops in your eyes, so now you're just about blind. I can't see things close, and I sure can't see things far away either. It would be kind of fun if it didn't suck so much. So, they checked my retinas (apparently I have a small hole in one... not good) and then it was time for me to go. I remember thinking I probably shouldn't be driving like this, but I couldn't read my phone to figure out who I was trying to call. I wandered around for about 20 minutes until my far-sight cleared up enough for me to get home. Then I watched Band of Brothers from the opposite side of the living room and later went into lab (once my sight cleared enough that I wasn't concerned about accidentally jabbing my hand with a needle full of bromine).

My Saturday in a nutshell: I was blind, but now I see. So, lets go play with chemicals.