epiphany

Mystery of Deity

Mark, Mars Hill's main speaking pastor, is on vacation, so Leif Moi preached instead. He's doing a two-part series on the hypostatic union. The whole service was terrific for me, an excellent reminder and a moving time. Team Strike Force normally plays in the evening, but there were the morning's band. One of their pieces was particularly applicable to the message.

“The Mystery of Manhood”
words and music by Team Strike Force

Whoever lives in love, lives in God
And God in him

You call my name, and I call you
You dwell in me and I in you

I can hear you every time I say
I love you, Father
I can hear you every time I say
I love you, brother

Substantiate through the Spirit, the water, and the blood
Love incarnate, holy
Eternal life comes from the Son
Water and blood: wholly God, wholly man
Water and blood, holy God

You call my name, and I call you
You dwell in me and I in you

I can hear you every time I say
I love you, Father
I can hear you every time I say
I love you, neighbor

Substantiate through the Spirit, the water, and the blood
Love incarnate, holy
Eternal life comes from the Son
Water and blood: wholly God, wholly man
Water and blood, holy God

I can’t see your face, and I can’t hear your voice, Lord
But you call my name
I can’t feel your warmth, and I can’t comprehend, Lord
But you

You call my name, and I call you
You dwell in me and I in you

Potterphile

Every once in a while, you have to do something crazy and celebrate, even if that craziness is simply staying up way past your bedtime. Staid, reserved Jon was among the thousands of eager readers lined up at midnight for his copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Staid, reserved Jon was not quite wild and crazy enough to stay up all night reading, however and is looking forward to starting the story. ;-)

To the boy who lived!

Fire Works

This is all I have for any kind of light show from Monday night. I could hear fireworks from my friends' backyard, and I saw a few as I drove home. But I didn't go to a show.

Of course, I have to include the obligatory "me" shot (taken much earlier that evening).

Four Square

I took a very long walk during the late morning and early afternoon of July 4. I started at Golden Gardens, walked down to the gardens at the Locks, and then wandered Ballard looking at apartments and writing down phone numbers for places that had rental signs.

Mason Lake

On Saturday, I went hiking up to Mason Lake, which is on the other side of Snoqualmie Pass from Seattle (I think). It was rainy on the hike up, so I kept my camera safely tucked away inside its Ziploc waterproofing. Unfortunately, that means you miss out on seeing the wonderful views of the forest when we took the wrong path. Our guide (the fisherman) said that the path we wanted to take was a bit overgrown. We left the main trail after a short while and headed up his path. It was indeed overgrown at first, but as we went straight up the side of the mountain, it cleared up, eventually leaving us in a rich red and green world of cedars and moss. Every step felt not like dirt or rock, but centuries of decaying wood underfoot. It was something I never would have done alone. It was magical. And exhausting. The outside tendons or muscles on the upper back sides of both my knees are still a bit sore.

Things cleared up enough at the top for some shots at the lake. We found the main path and took that route down past the alpine wildflowers.

(An apology about the reds. Either iPhoto doesn't like RAW format reds, or my Olympus is putting out way too strong a signal in that channel. The detail is all there, but I can't mute the reds alone with the software I have, so some of my flower shots will have to be a bit desaturated until I figure out how to fix that problem.)