his name is phil.

my pastor from college rocks.

i mean, really. he packs a punch. every message. every week. so much so that i still listen to his messages even though i'm at a church in maryland and he's moved to a church way down in florida.

today (while driving across the great state of . . . illinois, i think) i listened to a solid message on phillipians 3:9.
check it out on www.pinewoodpca.org
the message from march 19th.

do yourself a favor and listen. be encouraged.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
phillipians 3

drove 574 miles today.

thru 4 states.

(can you guess which ones?)

yeah. that's what i'm talkin about.

rock on meadows family.

CURRENTLY:
columbia, mo (right in the middle of the state)

here's our route across the states:

CURRENTLY:

right across the west virginia/kentucky line,

between huntington, wv and grayson, ky.

partial lyrics from a song i was listening to on the drive tonight.

really hit home with me.

any control I thought I had just slips right through my hands

while my ever-present conscience shakes its head and reprimands me

reprimands me

then and thereI confess

I'll blame all this on my selfishness

yet you love me

and that consumes me

and I'll stand up again

and do so willingly

You give me hope, and hope it gives me life

you touch my heavy heart, and when you do you make it light

as I exhale I hear your voice

and I answer you, though I heardly make a noise

and from my lips the words I choose to say

seem pathetic, but it's fallen man's praise

because I love you

oh God, I love you

and life is now worth living

if only because of you

when i go down, relient k

all of my family's belongings fit into a 53-foot long space.

i know this because at midnight last night i watched a moving van of that size pull away from our house in virginia. with all of our stuff.

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mom and i sat on the porch and watched them finish packing the van. she held my hand, still comforting me from the mini-breakdown that i had after walking thru and feeling (not just seeing) the emptiness of each room. it's interesting how even without furniture there i could still picture the rooms just as they should be. last night was the first set of tears.

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this morning i woke up in our empty living room floor. mom, dad and i spent the night there last night instead of getting a hotel room. it certainly wasn't the best night's sleep i've gotten, but i wouldn't have wanted it any other way. it was the last night i had to be in that house.

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in some ways today has seemed somewhat normal. dad was awake first and busy doing things when mom and i got up. we sat around the breakfast table with carla and marisa (our neighbors of 13 years) talking about typical life stuff and listening to marisa play her recital peice on the piano. i sat out on the back deck for awhile with the cat. i swept the floor.

but doing a few "normal" things doesn't make the day itself normal. such was the case today.

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i am currently sitting in a hotel right across the kentucky state line. my family (including the cat) has spent all day packing up the last remains of our home in virginia and setting out for the west . . . golden, colorado to be exact.

i have decided i will use this lovely little internet creation that we call a blog to keep everyone updated on the events of our trip. as those of you know who read my blog, i rarely post daily events, but rather ideas, musings, mad squirrel disease thoughts. the next week and a half will be a mixture of the two. take it for what you will.

i leave you tonight with a verse that i thought of as we were driving thru the beautiful mountains of virginia and west virginia today:

You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
isaiah 55
(read the whole chapter for even greater encouragement)