Sabbath

This week has been wonderfully stressful. An oxymoron, you say! I disagree. Let's recap the week up to this point. I'll highlight the stressful parts red and the wonderful parts yellow, so you can see just what I mean.

Sunday:
I taught my first lesson as "interim campus minister." We will be studying on the book of Hebrews on Sunday evenings throughout this semester. I admit I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to have been, but God showed me the direction of my lesson on Chapter 1 early Sunday afternoon. It was a small group, due to the weather and long weekend, but the singing and discussion was great.

Monday:
Got up super early to go to the hospital for Toni's cerebral angiogram. First off, I'm a little worried about my wife...obviously. Secondly, I'm not at all familiar with hospitals and thus rather uncomfortable in them. Long day, but the news was good -- no aneurysm afterall.

Tuesday:
After meeting with our church's pulpit minister I intended on fleshing out my devotional for the weekly "Supper and Study." Not far into this process, I was interrupted by a phone call informing me that our lodge for retreat THIS weekend was cancelling on us. I scrambled and made several calls this afternoon and found a great house in Deep Creek, MD. Though my preparation time was cut short, the devotional went great. We have 17 people currently signed up to go to retreat -- a very good number -- and two of them are brand new folks. Sweetness.

My devotional this evening was on the principle of Sabbath or "margin." Just like a written page in a book needs blank space between the lines and around the edges, we need margin in our lives. God commanded us in Exodus 20 to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (set apart). In the New Testament, Jesus explains that this time of rest was made for us and is good for us. Jesus himself often went off alone (or sometimes with his closest disciples) to pray and get away from the crowds. We too need time away from the stressors of this world to just...relax...and spend with God.

Cannot wait for retreat this weekend.

Introduction

First off, I'm new to blogging. My wife, Toni, is a on-again-off-again blogger and after checking out her most recent blog, I wanted to join the online craze that has become blogging. In fewer words: I wanna be cool too!

I cannot promise to keep this up regularly. My goals in this, however, are twofold. One, I will try to update the undoubtedly few readers of the goings-on in the lives of the Brainard's. Two, I hope to take time on occasion to put my meandering thoughts into words. Wish me luck.

The title of this blog comes from an Alter Bridge song. If you haven't heard of Alter Bridge, I recommend you check them out. The band is made up of members from Creed along with an excellent lead singer, Myles Kennedy. I love Alter Bridge. I love their brand of Rock. I love the awareness, the soul searching, and the longing for a better world that is embedded in their lyrics. The attitude of this particular song is one we could all stand to adopt.

The wind is blowing cold
Have we lost our way tonight?
Have we lost our hope to sorrow?
Feels like we're all alone
Running further from what's righ
tAnd there are no more heroes to follow
So what are we becoming?
Where did we go wrong? I want to rise today
And change this world
Oh, won't you rise today
And change this world?
The sun is beating down
Are we ever gonna change
Can we stop the blood from running?
Our time is running out
Hope we find a better way
Before we find we're left with nothing
For every life that's taken
So much love is wasted
I want to rise today
And change this world
So won't you rise today
And changeThis world