"The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes from outside ourselves. And each of these rare and precious moments in life (beside the Canyon, before the Alps, and under the stars) is an echo of a far greater excellence, namely, the glory of God...The more the Hubble Telescope sends back to us about the unfathomable depths of space, the more we should stand in awe of God. The disproportion between us and the universe is a parable about the disproportion between us and God. And it is an understatement."

- John Piper, from his book 'Don't Waste Your Life'

i'm balancing out my hour and a half workout at the y this morning with a cherry vanilla coke float...it's all about keeping things in perspective, right?

kids ask questions nearly incessantly...it is quite subconcious, this need they have to find out about the world around them. they have a keen curiousity and an unashamed way of satiating it. when we grow up, do we not ask as many questions because of our fear of the answers, or worse, not getting any answers at all? sometimes we cannot even form words around the questions that tumble haphazardly around our hearts and minds like tennis shoes in a clothes dryer. sometimes we simply don't want to expand our understanding any further - we've gotten all the answers we want out of life, we hole up, we coast. may it be that i retain some sense of wonderment, of being suprised by something and wanting to know more, of knowing that i don't know it all... that i can still form opinions, that i still have a ways to go in this wide world before i come to the next one.