Awesome Tozer devotional

This rocked my world yesterday morning before work. I highly recommend. Favorite part is the first line, "The warmest hearts and the coolest heads anywhere at any time should always belong to the Christians." This is from Tozer for Today, a 366-day Devotional (click on it to see full view):

Love it when God interrupts me, part deaux

(part uno: http://urlme.cc/interrupt1)

my thoughts, "sweet mercy that was a dumb thing to say. why did I say that? dahhh I wish I hadn't said tha--"

"are you going to live in slavery?" (in God's still, small voice)

And then this verse came to mind: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" - Galatians 5:1. Another good interruption from my circular thoughts that kept me up a few nights ago. This verse offers so much freedom. I love it.

Spirit of sonship

I've hit a slight case of, what doctors call, "writer's block." I'm just gonna push thru tho. Let's see how this goes.

As you may or may not know, LOST final season premier is this Tuesday. Am I stoked? Yes. In anticipation of Tuesday, I watched some of last season with some buddies of mine today, and one scene stood out to me. Backdrop - there's this dude named Sayid who used to be in the Iraqi army, and he's done some bad stuff (killed people, tortured people, ect ect).

Ben finds him as he's building escuelas in Santo Domingo, Habitat for Humanity style, and tells him that he is a killer. He defines Sayid, gives him his purpose. You can tell Sayid is super conflicted about it, because there he is building this escuela for kids, maybe trying to redeem his shameful past.

I think about Christians, and the name we can claim for ourselves. Those around us, even with great intentions, can attempt to define who we are, to name us. However, we can rightfully claim ourselves as God's children.

"because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "'Abba,' Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" - Romans 8:14-16.

And that's it. God calls us his children. It must have been life-changing for Abram when God changes his name to Abraham, meaning "father of many nations." In this one transaction, God confirms his covenant with Abraham and gives him his purpose. So cool.

The end.

God carries on to completion

A couple nights ago I picked up a book to re-read, called Jesus: The Stranger to Self-Hatred by Brennan Manning. If you haven't read it, and you struggle w/ that kind of thing, then I can't recommend it enough. It's on point.

So I started to read it again, and realized that I didn't need to. I had a moment of, Yes, thank God that that is not as much of a struggle as it was a year or two ago. And that's zero percent anything that I did, but 100% God bringing me through that, by his grace and his grace alone.

The following verse honestly never meant much to me, because I get impatient with the whole restoration process, but it's very real to me now: "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" - Philippians 1:6.

Thank God that he cares about us to continue working on us, like a potter molds clay, even through the storms of life.

Clarity vs. Trust

Just after reading a few preview pages from Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, one thing stuck out to me. This guy he talks about goes to Calcutta to serve and figure out what he is to do w/ the rest of his life, and he asks Mother Teresa to pray for him. What for?, she asks. For clarity. She responds: No, I will not do that. That's the last thing you're holding on to that you need to let go of. I have never had clarity, what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.

This is intriguing, because I can't count the number of times I pray for clarity, and have prayed over friends for the same thing. But, what if trusting God means accepting a certain lack of clarity. I think we all want clarity, but, I wonder if part of trusting God is accepting that he wants us to give up some clarity so that we can rely on him more, so that we can trust him more.

And if you think about it, why do we want clarity? I know I want it because I want to know what the mess is going on in my life, or in the lives of those around me. I want to have the knowledge of how something is going to turn out. I kinda feel like Adam in that way, I guess.

But that leaves no room for God. I don't need God if I have full clarity; he's of no use to me then.

So, instead of praying for clarity, I'm going to pray for the ability and courage to trust God.

Paul doesn't have it together

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do" - Romans 7:15.

and...

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law" - Romans 5:16-18.

Reading Paul's letters is a breath of fresh air sometimes (now) for me. "I do not understand what I do" and "they are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."

I feel like Paul gets it.

There's this tension. These constant forces that directly oppose each other, and sometimes you end up not understanding what you're doing. I read that as, Paul doesn't have his stuff together and he's honest about it. I'm glad he's honest about it.

So, what then? What if we don't have our stuff together, and we're left with our hands out, palms facing upwards, saying, "I don't freaking get this." What then?

I guess we remember the truths about God. The promises.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

There is now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Am I "in" Christ Jesus? He is my redeemer, he is my Wonderful Counselor, my Prince of Peace, my Almighty God, my Everlasting Father, and I can call him Abba.

So I guess it's about perspective, right? When you do stuff you don't want to do, or not do stuff that you want to do, then at least there's an unstoppable Mighty Love that doesn't shift. And when we F up, to some degree it doesn't even phase God, because he doesn't love us based on how well we have our stuff together.

ect ect.

Or maybe I'm trying to find external stuff to explain things, when it's more a matter of self-control and self-discipline. That wears me out, because I begin to forget God's love and get upset about not having enough self-discipline and brute force strength to get my stuff together. And. it's. exhausting.

Hellen

I don't know why I do this, but when I'm in an airport for 3 hours I need to find ways to entertain myself, even if at the expense of others. You be the judge.

The following dialog took place when I was ordering lunch today from an airport. In order to protect the anonymity of all parties, I won't say which airport it was, nor reveal the name of the sandwich place. I will say however that it was one of the major airports in Charlotte, NC, and for story's sake, I'll make up a name of the place: Quiznos Subz.

me, "Hi. I'd like a small sub, the smallest size available please."

Hellen (I didn't catch her name but she looked like a Hellen), "We only have one size."

me, "Ok. I'll have a one-size sub then."

I wish this was the only time I pulled something like this, but it's certainly not. Far. From. It. The first time was back in 2007, on a Tuesday (not sure what day it was): Size Smoothie, Please. All in all, only 2 times I guess. And I wonder if I'm the only person I know who thinks it's funny. Her facial expression translated into words would have been, "you're an idiot." Ha.

Florida - Gorgeous! (Old School reference nbd, sort of)

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ" - Galatians 1:10.

This verse came to mind several times in the days leading to my visit to see my grandparents in FL. And just last night at dinner, I feel like God had to nudge me with, "remember that verse I brought to your mind. Yes that applies. Right. Now."

Words from family members tend to have much more of an effect on someone. Words from people who have known you from day 1 cut much deeper from those of a stranger, or even a friend.

God has been gracious. Since last night there are approx 5 comebacks with which I could have returned the cutting jab, but God keeps bringing that verse to mind, which helps me combat my flesh. The Enemy is ready to provide me with equally cutting words, but I reject them.

I like the end part of the verse, "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." I read that, "if you're worried about making men happy, then I can't use you Ian" and I think God wants to use each and every one of us to advance the Kingdom. Do I want to be used by God, do I want to be a servant of Christ? A thousand times yes, so that adds some extra motivation to turn the other cheek and to love said family member who is loose with his or her tongue.

If that motivation of wanting to be a servant of Christ is not enough, there's the "love your neighbor" verse. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" - John 13:34-35.

I remember one time I gave a certain family member a big hug when a handshake was expected, and it sort of paralyzed him (um...or her. ok it's a him :). So when we can return a jab with an act or word filled with love, then that's powerful.

That's the Kingdom.

** I hesitate to write this entry and I wanna backspace the heck out of it for fear of giving the impression that my time in FL with my grandparents is not enjoyable. Beneath it all, I am forever thankful to be with my grandparents. Another reality that hits me is that my grandparents are just people. My grandpa's just a guy, and my grandma's just a girl. A guy and a girl who decided to marry each other, and later to have kids who then had kids, ect ect. They, just like me, just like you, have a past full of successes, and some failures. Not all of it is rosy, and on this level I can relate to them. We're all broken, but we're still all created by God who relentlessly pursues us in order to make us whole again, to complete His work in us.

*** why the picture of Bush? I'll blog about it later. Let's just say that W and I are now bbf's now tho nbd.

Lean

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Prov 3:5-6

I felt like I needed to sit in silence for a minute, so I put my chillin' mix on. But even my chillin' mix doesn't allow God the space to meet with me. If you know me well it takes a miracle for me to chill w/OUT my chillin' mix on :) Maybe I need to create a Silent Mix with zero tracks on it. I digress...

"Can you turn that off, too" says God. Ok fine.

Sometimes I get to this place where I have 80,000 thoughts running thru my mind, mostly jumbled up, and they consume me. I push God out of the picture the more I dwell on them, which leads me to where I end up now.

The silence.

And that verse pops into my head. And I feel like I can finally STOP leaning (slash dwelling) on my human, ugly, feet-running-in-place thoughts and it finally forces me to throw my hands up and say "ok I can't do anything more at this point. I'm just running in place now. I guess I have to trust you. I need to acknowledge you now, b/c I'm done with trying to figure out this stuff on my own. Because I'm tired, fresh out of energy, and I don't get it"

Not going to say it's rock bottom, but, it's certainly not a spacious place, where God ultimately wants to bring us into.

"He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." - Ps 18:19

That verse has been coming to mind today. After David has the "chords of death entangling him," God rescues him b/c He delights in him, and He brings him into a spacious place.

A spacious place, where he looks all around, and there's nothing, nothing but the Father who just took him to that place. No enemies. No worries. No jumbling thoughts. Nothing. Peace.

But I don't think we can live in that space forever. Perhaps it's an "ok child, O child whom I created with my bare hands in your mother's womb, let me draw you out of these deep waters and take you to this place so we can spend time together, just you and me. Let me show you Truth. Let me show you my everlasting, ever-faithful promises I have for you."

And we get refreshed. And then maybe God nudges us back to real life, and gives us that free will to make choices, to make decisions, but at least we can feel better about stepping forward after we've met with Him. I need to meet with Him, I need him to come and meet with me.

Paul's (my) Contradictory Life

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." - Romans 7:15.

This verse has been coming to mind a lot over the past several weeks, and I'm not sure why. Sometimes God can bring stuff to mind w/out saying why and we just need to be OK with that, I suppose.

I wonder tho if this verse applies only to the sinful nature we have, or if it can apply to simply us humans behaving in a way that's contrary to what we want. Fear can be a part of that; it can be this driving force in our lives, compelling us to do things that we don't want to do, or NOT do things that we want to do. There's the fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection.

I suppose when we let fear drive us, then that is sin, so maybe it circles back around to the sinful nature I was talking about.

I say all of this because I am afraid to sit down one day and make a chart of "What I'm currently doing" and "What I want to do." I'm afraid that they will be vastly different, and I'll wonder what I'm doing with my life.

So what, then? Do I go after the things in the right-hand column, the things I want to do, and deal with consequences if it gets ugly? I should at least do a self-eval to see if any fears or anxieties are keeping me from moving in any given direction that God is calling me too, a direction on a path that I am currently not on.

Not sure what to make of all of that, and there's still more "abrewin'" in my heart and mind about this. But it's hard to explain, hard to put in words.

Final thought - I love how Paul's real honest in how he's living this contradictory life, because my life too often feels like a giant contradiction between the things that I believe in, the things I want to do, and the things I'm actually doing.

Thankful tho for God's grace, a grace that I should receive like a child, a child who can do nothing of merit to deserve that grace.

YMCA

If you know me much at all, you know that I like to bend the rules sometimes, or not even follow them at all if I don't agree with them. Por ejemplo: making a U-turn when there's a "No U-turn" sign. Or, making a U-turn when there is a "No Left" sign, because a Left is not technically a U-turn.

When I moved to Richmond in 2005, I joined the downtown Y. They look at the previous years tax returns to determine how much I needed to pay per month, so I ended up with a super cheap monthly membership fee b/c in 2004 I was a student and I think I made a total of $100 (I substitute taught for 2 or 3 days nbd). The Y was all "Ian you are poor so we're not going to make you pay much" and I said "OK great I hope this lasts forever great thanks."

I now have a job and I make more than $100 a year. But!, the Y never asked me to re-evaluate my membership, and I never volunteered to let them know that my income has changed. Let a sleeping dog lie. I mean, don't punch a dead horse in the face. Wait, it has to be your dead horse.

But you see what I'm saying. I felt like I was workin' it w/ this membership thing, paying not much at all even tho if I were to join fresh as a new member, I'd have to pay more. Workin' it. Stickin' it to the man sort of.

But today!, I walked into the Y and the dude was all "ok Mr. Davis, looks like we'll have to re-evaluate your income situation" so my heart stopped for 3 minutes and I was all "hmm.... why should we go and do that?" - "b/c the time is up, time to re-evaluate. Please bring last year's tax statements."

So what am I going to do? Good thing I dabble in a little piece of software called MS Paint, and I've been taking MS Paint night classes from 5:30pm - 3am every day after work, so I'm going to use my 2004's tax return and just change all the 2004's to 2008's. It's a win-win...-win.

What is my goal? My goal is to pay even LESS than what I do now, to find some loophole in the system, or maybe even give them a coworker's bank account number instead of mine. Because this is what I do: I do my best to work the system.

Free Samples + Peace Not Anxiety

2 things have been on my mind today, and they are related I think.

1. I. love. free. samples. Today no kidding I went to UKrops, walking in the store fully intending to ravage the free samples, and I ate (count it) SEVEN pieces of sushi from the sushi sample plate. Seven, right in front of the Japanese sushi guy. It was so good and I feel great about it. Best decision of my life.
   
   
2. Speaking of decisions, another thought hit me. I am glad that my God is a God who works with peace and not anxiety, especially when his children make life decisions. So many times do I let anxiety dictate my steps and I end up making poor decisions. And I think, F that was dumb. But, I think it's perfectly fine to expect God's peace to accompany big decisions in life, for His peace to drive those decisions.

Point #2 is the main thing for this post, so I'm breaking off of the bullet thing nbd. More about the peace thing, so we have "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" from Colossians 3:15, which I think is a command more than anything. It's a command for us to truly let the peace of Christ rule inside of our hearts, our being, our thoughts. And the peace of Christ cannot co-exist simultaneously with anxiety. They cannot co-habitat. They would suck as roommates, even if they had a foosball table (I played foosball w/ my roommates in college 24/7).

And then we have another command: do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6-7.

And I love this promise and I bank my life on it. However, it takes action from us in order to receive that peace. We are commanded to not worry about anything. That is on us.

So with all of that said, I fully expect God's peace to dictate my decisions, and to direct my steps. I hate HATE when people say "you know, maybe you just have this worry-thing going on in your life, this slight OCD where you over-analyze everything and anxiety gets the best of you sometimes, and you just have to walk with that as your crutch," because that is bullshit and God does not work like that. We're made in His image and Jesus doesn't have a worry problem. And I am happy to be called a child of God.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1.

Ps. one final thought, I love how scripture uses the word "lavish," just like God lavishes his grace on us: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding" Ephesians 1:7-8. When I think Lavish I think pouring down rain, where it completely covers us and we cannot escape it. It just keeps pouring down on us, and God's fully aware of it and it's very intentional (the "with all wisdom and understanding" part). I love that picture.

Today

In college a buddy of mine's parents told him as he dropped him off that the next four years would be the best years of his life.

And that made me feel so depressed. What about life after those four years? When I switched majors, I certainly didn't cram extra classes into the semesters in order to still make it under 4, because I saw it as an opportunity to make those "four best years of my life" into those "five best years of my life."

But

it

can't

be

so.

I cannot believe that life peaks when you go to college and after that it's like Crap, now it's just maintenance mode until I die b/c I had all the fun and excitement that I was going to have.

And I remember the first time I went back to visit campus. I stayed at my old apartment, and despair gripped me so tightly it took the breath out of me. Why am I not here anymore, I thought. Why am I not here with the close, deep community that I knew so well. Why am I now at a job that I loathe in a place that is not Blacksburg VA? It's been much better since that first visit whenever I go back, but it's still hard for some reason.

I just watched a NOOMA video where Rob Bell talks about this sort of thing, where if we're holding onto the way things were, then our arms aren't free to embrace today. He says that life is not static. Things change, friends come and go, people lose jobs, friends die, people get married, people don't get married, so on and so on. And that's the way it is.

He illustrated w/ the story of Jesus reappearing to Mary Magdalene after Jesus resurrects from the dead. This same Jesus drove out 7 demons from Mary's life, so you can imagine how excited Mary was to see him. She must have wanted for things to go back to the way they were.

But Jesus told her, "let go of me," and he tells her to tell everyone what happened. He gives her a role to play. He later gives his disciples the Holy Spirit and says Go, I will give you what you need in life with this Holy Spirit of mine, which is Myself.

So we are to receive this new Spirit, to receive whatever role Jesus is giving us, and we are to walk forward and embrace today.

Blackberries and Alligators

Sometimes I get annoyed when I'm talking to someone and they're playing with their iPhone or blackberry during the conversation. So instead of getting bummed out about it, I am going to start saying random things to see if they're paying attention.

"And then the alligator looked straight at me, and that is when I knew: today is the day I fight an alligator."

Love it when God interrupts me

God, what about A, B, C?!

"don't worry..."

OK OK thanks I won't.

...

But what about THIS?! Dahhhh!

"don't worry..."

But have you tho--"I said don't worry"

And that is my favorite part. When I keep asking/worrying and God finally starts interrupting me in my thoughts with a gentle, "do not worry, I told you, do not worry."

I'm glad he does that.

Switzerland Visit Day 7: Lucerne, Lion + Mirrors + Final Day

Last day in Lucerne. Woke up and had another good Swiss breakfast. Had 2 nutella-filled donuts this time. In heaven they will serve those.

Just up the road from our hotel there was this lion statue that is like the logo for Lucerne. Some war happened and this lion sketched in this wall of rock symbolized it in some way that I now forget. The lion was gigantic and had a spear in the side, and tears flowing from his eyes. It was majestic because I think both lions and horses are majestic.

Next to the lion there was a glacier museum which was pretty sweet. Back in the day Lucerne was covered by glaciers, so the museum contained remnants of these glaciers. Pretty amazing. They had these glacier potholes which were gigantic. There were also these super ancient artifacts. The common tool known as the "knife" has been around for a long, long time.

Towards the end of the museum, there was this room of mirrors. It was a maze that you had to go through. You have to walk 1 mph with your arms stretched out and if you're lucky you don't walk into 10 mirrors, and then get nauseous. They should have called it a "slice of hell."

After the museum we took the train that goes a million mph back to Gland. Trip to Lucerne = Success.

Switzerland Visit Day 6: Lucerne, Mt Pilatus - God Likes to Dazzle Us

Woke up and had some breakfast in the hotel which was amazing. Bread + nutella yes please. Donut w/ some nutella inside said donut, yes please. Also had some super tart grapefruit juice which was a good kick in the face. Loved it.

We took another excursion to Mt Pilatus, and the round trip involved 5 different modes of transportation: (1) boat to base of mountain, (2) super steep death train type thing to get to the top, (3) big container that goes on a line like that one episode of MacGyver, (4) mini version of #3, and (5) bus. (2) was my favorite b/c it was at a 48% angle and you look ahead of you at this track going straight up and you think this is my last day on this earth and you look to the right and see a drop-off and you again think, today I will see heaven because I am going to DIE. We did not die though. 48% angle by the way was the steepest in the entire universe said my Dad who did research.

So we made it to the top of Mt Pilatus and it was breath-taking. I think God makes these beautiful parts of the earth just to dazzle us (I think this idea is from To Own a Dragon by Don Miller, you should read it if you haven't). Mountains all around and there were these guys chillin' in little chairs with wings on them that were flying thru the air. I want to do that one day, maybe next week I don't know. But there they were flying around us, livin' the dream. Maybe the first time I go I'll go tandem with a professional, because I'm not sure if that's something you can just "feel out" when you get up in the air. Maybe you can.

At night we walked around the city, and I started to notice the swans. They are these huge gigantic birds and you can get real close to them but be careful b/c they're a little irritable. This made me want to mess with them some, to push their limits. I went pretty close to them but they did not attack my face thankfully.

At one point we heard some Ricola instruments playing and flocked immediately to the source of this beautiful sound. This group of Ricola players, Ricolists if you will, just gathered and started playing for passer-byers. I thought, yes I am officially for sure in Switzerland because this is what you do in Switzerland: start learning how to play Ricola at a very young age (3) and then become awesome at it and get together with other Ricolists and play for people in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Excellent day in Lucerne.

Switzerland Visit Days 5: Lucerne, Tower + Brewery + Starbucks + Long Pants

Lucerne! - the sunshine state, gorgeous! (10 pts if you can guess what movie that is from)

Days 5-7 we took an excursion to Lucerne, 2 nights at a hotel in the city. It was fun to get away for kicks and pretend like we're world travelers. We took the train which went a million miles per hour, and whenever the train staff wasn't walking by, I would put my feet up. They don't like that, but I'm not always one to follow the rules.

There is a wall bordering part of the city, with lots of towers. We went up 5,000,000 stairs to get to the top of one, and the billion stairs was so worth it. The view was amazing. There was this llama hanging out in a field, with a light panel getting energy from the sun to power the surrounding electric fence. That is how wireless energy is going to work I have decided.

One interesting super-not-substantial thing the four of us noticed is that no one ever wears shorts. Long pants 24/7. I wore shorts and I definitely stood out. I wonder if that's just not their style, which is totally fine. I did see runners wearing shorts tho, so I gave them a high five when they passed by as a "way to go against the grain!" (I didn't, but wanted to).

On night 1 we went to a brewery, and Lucerne is in a German-speaking part of Switzerland, ipso facto the beer was really good. I had 1 light beer and 1 dark beer, thank you very much. Not at the same time b/c that would be just crazy. It was good beer and it complimented the mac & cheese that I had as an entree. Win-win.

There is this absolutely beautiful river that runs through the city, and a part of it was under construction with a make-shift dam (dam!). So this water was getting backed up, then it just released in the corner at the end of said dam. It was just beautiful and I took lots of pictures. I'm not sure why I was taken aback by the dam so much, but just the water gushing thru was really cool, and you can go right up to it. I wanted to jump in and have an adventure but then I thought if I drowned then I couldn't enjoy more of Lucerne, b/c there were more things to see than just the towers + brewery + people wearing long pants + dam.

There were a couple of bridges that crossed the river, and one of them was super historic and wooden, and a good chunk of it caught fire in '93. A boat went underneath and got caught and there was fire. Sucks to be that guy. Lots of original paintings in the bridge were wiped out.

That night we walked around some and I hit up Starbucks. There was an upper level which overlooked the river, with Iron & Wine playing in the background and it was ah so nice.

Switzerland Visit Day 4: Nyon + France

A-ma-zing day. We went to Nyon, the town right next to Gland where my parents live, and took a boat across Lake Geneva to see France for a couple hours. That is the day summed up. The end.

Just kidding I'll talk about Nyon first. I talked about the city some in my last post. On day 4 we walked around a good bit, and it's very hilly but has fun houses that are high and right next to each other. Semi-related note: people in Switzerland are not afraid to eat right next to strangers. Por ejemplo: in Lucerne I saw a couple of friends sitting at the same medium-sized table as a group of four friends. It's fun because they don't know each other, but whatever why not sit next to each other. I want to sit next to someone in a coffee shop when the rest of the place is empty. Just a heads up if you find yourself in an empty coffee shop.

Back to Nyon. We walked around some then got on the boat across Lake Geneva to see France. I re-enacted the scene from Titanic where Leonardo stands in front of the ship and Celine Dion is singing her song. See above. The boat ride was fun.

France was similar to Switzerland, but had a slightly different feel to it that I can't really explain. We stopped at a restaurant that had CREPES (ya know, the little pancakes). I had an egg + ham + cheese crepe, then shared a Nutella crepe with my Mom. I could eat one Nutella crepe a day they're so good.

We got back on the boat back to Nyon, and then hopped on the mini-train tour. I felt like I was on those trains you see in amusement parks that kids are on (where you secretly want to be on them too, or at least I did). It was awesome. Trying to think of interesting tidbits I learned from the tour... zero, I don't remember any sorry. I should have just typed "it was cool" :-P Wait we did pass a school that had been there forever. Yep.

I think we played Euchre that night. My Mom and I teamed up against Tamara and Shelly. Love that game.

And........... that sums it up. Next up: visit to Lucerne, days 5-7.

Switzerland Visit Day 3: Hike + Cows, Church

Day 3: slept in and eased into the day. We went to some mountain (forgot the name) and hiked on it. On the way we saw some cows that had cow bells on them. As we were hiking, we could hear the bells off in the distance. Then we came across some a few feet from the path, and I could have watched them all day. Love cows. Perhaps I was meant to grow up on a farm! Picture above is one that I took.

We booked it towards the end of the hike so that my Mom and I could check out West Lake Church in Nyon, Switzerland. It's an English-speaking church, so all the sudden I feel like I'm back in the US. It was nice, comfortable. The guest pastor spoke about his mission work in India, where he has been for 30 some years. Incredible - he set up businesses to employee girls otherwise selling themselves in the sex trade. He would enter an Indian village, live there, and create businesses there where these women would work. He spoke with so much passion it was convicting. Here this guy is talking about his gritty, in-the-trenches work in India. So cool.

After the service ended we walked to the train in Nyon. It's a cool city. And the trains are ALWAYS on time. You can bet your life on it (I wouldn't tho because it's not worth betting your life on a train. doesn't make sense). I appreciate that about Switzerland: their public transportation system rocks and they're super on top of it.

We capped off the evening watching Boston Redsox vs. Yankees. Brother lives in Boston which makes us all insta-Redsox fans.

Day 3: success.