Chasing a Lion

I am continuing to really dig Mark Batterson.

I got a copy of his book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars at the conference and being that school is not officially over, I have not had a chance to read it yet, but from the skimming I've done, I really like it.

He posted a Chase the Lion manifesto on his blog and I thought it was really cool, so here you go.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!

My favorite: Don't let what's wrong with you keeping you from worshiping what is right with God. wow. and ouch.

any way, that's my thought for the day. here's another one: aren't blogs wonderful suckers of time when you should be doing something else? right. back to the grind stone, only one exam left. sigh.

Laura abroad

So my little sister is studying abroad in Italy for about 6 weeks. I'm dead jealous. But she's keeping a blog(for which she is getting three hours credit. again, dead jealous), and it should be entertaining.

She's a little nervous about International living, this is the first time she's gone anywhere where she doesn't know anyone. That's a big step for a small town girl who has always had a group of friends that she's known since grade school around. Not that I know that from personal experience.

So keep her in your prayers and those of you with European living experience, I'm sure she's up for advice. Kelly, I'm telling her if she gets into any trouble to run to Spain ;-). Speaking of which, does anyone have any connections in Florence? She's in a really great campus ministry in college, so if any body knew of a church she could hook up with, that would be really cool.

She's taking a communications class and an elective, "A gastronomic tour of Italy". That's right she gets class credit for traveling around eating good food and drinking good wine. Dead jealous.