OUCH!

That’s the first thing I thought when I saw him fall.  Kitti and I were heading back from Decatur to our new apartment in Midtown.  We were at the intersection of Moreland and Memorial Dr., waiting for the light to turn green.  We noticed a guy on a bicycle coming down the hill to our left, moving pretty fast toward the intersection.  We also noticed his front wheel was beginning to wobble.  It was one of those moments when everything seemed to move real slowly as we watched the front wheel turn, and he flipped over the handlebars and landed on the pavement in the middle of the intersection.

Amazingly, no cars were coming; and equally as amazing was the fact that he stood up and carried the bicycle to the side of the road, where he sat down in a daze.

Kitti and I did a 360 through a gas station and drove across the street to see if we could help.  Initially, he refused our help.  He was a bit confused, in pain, and embarassed.  Finally we prevailed upon him, and he allowed us to drive him back to East Atlanta Village, where he lived.

His name is Brian, and he’s a student at Emory, where he studied Classics and Religion.  It was one of those moments that slipped by without a clear verbal witness on our part.  Partly, I wasn’t prepared to probe beyond what he volunteered to tell us, and partly I just wanted to get home.

I’ve learned that a huge hindrance to the kingdom of God spreading into the lives of others is my willingess – or not – to engage others.   Ouch!  Pray for Brian that he’ll recognize the grace of Christ in our stopping to help.  Pray for me that I’ll engage others by the grace of Christ.

June 09 eNews

Connections Classified

(We promise we won’t turn this blog into a marketplace!)

TO SELL:

Our house! Yes, we’re moving into Post Renaissance on July 1st! They (management and corporate) were a bit taken aback that we were willing to move in with no guarantees that our house would be sold by then…heck, we have our moments when we’re taken aback as well! So, not only is selling our house a personal need, it would be such a beautiful picture of God’s provision to our new friends at Post. {www.918.RealtyCaffeine.com}

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TO BUY:

Two or more Peachtree Road Race numbers. One of our first events will be a pre-race pasta dinner for the residents. We’re assuming some of them will be running and we’d like to join in. It’s been years since either of us have run the Peachtree, but 13.1 miles makes a 10k look easy!

This is the shirt from 1982, the first year Bill ran!

A camera. We’d like to chronicle our events; for Post and for you. Our little point and click camera may not be up to the challenge! We’ll eventually create a facebook group for residents that would include videos, so a camera with a decent video function would be even better. Anyone out there upgrading? (We can’t take our brand new treadmill with us – this might be a good trade)

The Anguish of Addiction

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who’s trying to make good decisions about his sister, who is an alcoholic. He already lost one sister to alcohol and is trying to walk that fine line between helping and enabling. His heart is heavy with compassion and anger all at the same time.

His sister desperately needs God’s grace – as we all do. I’m convinced God is lavishing it upon her, but she hasn’t figured out that it’s there or how to receive it. Ironically, she’s closer to the font than most of us, if she can only trade-in her self-loathing for humility.  That will take the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Hello world!

Thanks for checking in.  I’ve set up this blog to keep friends, family, and interested parties updated on what we perceive God to be doing in, through, and around us.  Hopefully, there will be alot to write about.  Please check back regularly.