This has to be the shortest blog post I’ve ever seen. I believe it’s something we’re called to do if we’re followers of Christ and this is a good way to think about it.
Something I can’t help but do…
Comfort the afflicted.
Afflict the comfortable.
From Ben Arment’s History in the Making. Direct post link.
Had the chance to go up to the Mill Mountain star observation deck tonight with Chris. Good view, even though it was humid out. Stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way up, but the doughnuts weren’t hot. Bummer. I’ve been keeping busy this week–hopefully, I’ll make it to the river this week and get back into more regular posting.
One of the most frustrating things that I see is people who call themselves Christians, go to church on Sundays, and wake up Monday morning and live exactly the same as their friends who have never been inside a church. On Sunday, they pay lip service to God, yet Monday they’re out putting themselves before anything else. Fudging the numbers to get the results, cheating a client on a business deal, giving into temptations, making bad decisions, using people, it just goes on and on.
I’m sick of people playing pios on Sunday. Game over. Your life doesn’t show the fruit of a believer. I’d rather you not call yourself a believer, a Christian, whatever. All that does is cheapen the title for those who have made Christ Jesus the head of their lives. For those of you who have made Jesus the lord of your life, what are you holding back from him? It’s a huge risk to cast your entire life onto Jesus, but the reward is a relationship now and forever with God. It’s worth it.
I like the way Donna Lasit from Hillsongs Church in Australia puts it in her song “Believe.” I don’t want to be satisfied with my life as it is. I want to be a Monday morning Christian–going as hard after God on a Monday morning in class or at the office as on a Sunday morning at church. No one said it would be easy, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.
We believe in You
We believe in the power of Your Word and its truth
We believe in You
So we lay down our cause
That our cross might be found in YouI’m not satisfied doing it my own way
I’m not satisfied to do church and walk away
I’m not satisfied, there’s no love in my life but YouI’m not satisfied living in yesterday’s hour
I’m not satisfied to have the form, but not the power
I’m not satisfied, Oh Lord I am crucified in You
A little known fact about A Capitol Fourth, the PBS aired concert and fireworks coverage live from the steps of the capitol, is that the dress rehersal on July 3 is open to the public. This year, we went down early and ate dinner inside security so that we could save time and get good seats. The crowd wasn’t as large as last year, but there were still thousands of people there. Since there was a Nationals game downtown tonight as well, the metro trains were crowded coming home after the concert.
Last year, the dress rehersal wasn’t really a rehersal at all. There were no breaks and no do-overs. However, only about half the acts for the actual event were there. The Beach Boys were filled in for with a band half their age. This year, every single scheduled performer was there, even though several numbers were repeated and there was a break in the middle. Jason and the other headliners did an excellent job adlibbing through the wrinkles.
The headliner was Stevie Wonder and the announcer Jason Alexander (George on Seinfeld). Other guests were Vanessa Williams, Elmo, JoJo, Michael Bolton, Jo Dee Messina, and the National Symphony Orchestra. With this extrordinary cast, the highlight of the evening was easily Jason Alexander. He performed the opening number singing, dancing, and drumming during the course of several choruses. As the announcer, he did most of the introductions from a booth located behind the VIP seats–about 50 feet to the right and maybe 15 feet in front of me. During one of the breaks, he came up to the fence near my section and was talking with people. I didn’t get in a word or a handshake, but I was able to snap a close up picture on my cell phone. Too bad I let others convince me that I wouldn’t need my camera the year I got up close seats.
Tomorrow morning, I’m headed back to Blacksburg. My summer class starts on July 5.
This morning, we enjoyed a large hot breakfast provided by the hotel. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car, and headed back to the 16th street mall to pick up some last souvenirs of the trip. When we were done shopping, we jumped in the car and drove to Red Rocks park 15 miles west of the city.
The original plan was to take a look at the famous amphitheater, which is beautifully surrounded by naturally occurring red stones, and is also acoustically perfect. Since there was a concert this evening, the amphitheater was closing to the public minutes after we arrived, so we hurried up to the amphitheater, got a quick picture of the stage, and then headed to the park’s trading post.
We decided not to hike the Red Rocks trail, since it was over 90 degrees outside and we were already hot from running to the amphitheater.
From Red Rocks, we drove to Dinosaur Ridge, a hill that has many dinosaur fossils exposed along a winding road. Unfortunately, the road was closed and we didn’t have time to walk up the road, so we didn’t get to see much of the ridge.
To see a little more of the city, we drove to the airport on the east side of the city by going through the city center instead of taking the interstate around the city. We got to see several of Denver’s neighborhoods and took a mid-afternoon snack break at a local burger and frozen custard chain. Today’s flavors were strawberries and cream and vanilla. Both were excellent in the 90+ degree heat of the afternoon.
Now, we’re waiting for our flight in the Denver airport. We’re hoping that our flight is on time, since it leaves at 6:40pm mountain time and lands at 11:50 eastern time. I don’t have internet access in the airport, so this update will actually go out once we’re on the ground and back to the house.
This morning, we started our day early with a tour of the Denver US mint. This mint makes all denominations of US coins currently in circulation. Unfortunately, the tour did not allow us to bring cameras in, so the only picture I have of the mint is from the mint’s website. The thing that I found the most interesting about the mint is that it uses the same type of machine to mint all types of coins–only the dies and the blank coins fed into the machines change to change the type of coins being minted. Today, the mint was making pennies. Pennies account for 62% of all coins minted in the US.
After the US mint, we toured the Colorado capitol. The capitol building is designed to resemble the US capitol, except it features a real gold dome. 200 ounces of gold cover the gold. The building is beautiful inside, but was hot and quiet with both houses of the legislature in recess. The capitol building is shared by the executive and legislative branches of the state government. The supreme court used to be in the same building, but moved to a larger courtroom in a building across the street in 1977.
 
Just a few streets over from the capitol is the home of the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Mrs. Brown became a wealthy woman through her husband’s gold mining, which caused them to move into this Denver home from their previous home in Leadville, CO. Mrs. Brown was one of the survivors of the Titanic, and she helped to rescue many other people and make sure that their needs were met once they landed in America. Today, her house is restored to its 1910 splendor and open for tours. No pictures were allowed on the tour, so the only picture we have is of the house exterior.
The high today was 98 degrees, so we escaped the afternoon heat in the hotel’s indoor pool. In the late afternoon, we returned to the 16th street mall. We walked several blocks past the end of the mall all the way to the South Platte River, where we were able to see the mountains in front of us and the city’s skyline behind us. On the way back toward the hotel, we stopped in many of the shops, but didn’t find anything worth buying.
 
Tomorrow morning, we will enjoy the hotel’s complimentary hot breakfast, drive through some of Denver’s famous neighborhoods, hopefully make it to Red Rocks Park, and then head back to Washington. It’s been a good trip, with lots to do, but not enough to make us need a post-trip vacation to recover.
This morning, we drove from Colorado Springs to Denver, a trip of about an hour. From Denver, we headed northwest to Boulder to go on the Celestial Seasonings factory tour. It was interesting to see what goes into their teas–Celestial Seasonings sells about 75% herbal teas, which are technically not even teas, since they do not include any part of the tea tree. Unfortunately, Celestial Seasonings uses a lot of proprietary equipment, so they do not allow people to take pictures on the tour.
In the afternoon, we went on a tour of an operating gold mine (they will be blasting next week). The mine tour was not what we were expected, with a real miner as our tour guide. The mine owner was quite the talker and we suspect that he had been in the bottle before we arrived. Everyone involved with the mine was quite the character. We also had the chance to pan for gold (and found several small flakes) before leaving.
Back in Denver, we checked into our hotel and walked five blocks downtown to the outdoor 16th street mall for dinner. We ate a Maggiano’s, an Italian restaurant where Laura went for prom. We had a five course family style dinner with enough leftovers to be tomorrow’s lunch. On the way back to the hotel, we enjoyed seeing the real gold dome of the state capitol lit up at night.
Tomorrow morning, we have a tour of the US mint, where they make several types of coins. We also want to see the unsinkable Molly Brown’s house and experience downtown Denver.
Today’s adventures began with a cog railway ride up Pike’s Peak. The 8.9 miles of track to the top take over an hour each direction to travel. The ride is narrated on the way up, so the hour flies by. The trip down seemed to take forever. The view from the top was okay, but there was some precipitation in the area that eventually turned into snow flurries on the top of the mountain. It was also 35 degrees at the top. Too cold for me.
Today, we spent the morning in back in the hot springs. In the afternoon, we drove over four hours from Pagosa Hot Springs to Manitou Springs, which is next to Colorado Springs.
Since we arrived in the evening, we had a fun dinner at The Mason Jar and then tried to go to Seven Falls. The elevator was out at Seven Falls and we felt that $10.25 per adult was excessive to see a lit up waterfall, so we decided to go back to the hotel and plan out tomorrow instead.
Tomorrow, we’re taking the cog railway up Pike’s Peak in the morning. In the afternoon, we’ll take in The Garden of the Gods and some of the other Colorado Springs sights. We’re spending two nights in Colorado Springs, but plan to leave early for Denver on the last day.
Today’s adventure started in Mesa Verde National Park, home of the famed cliff dwellings of the Pueblo Ancestors. The park is surrounded on three sides by a Ute Indian reservation, so it takes nearly an hour of driving to reach the cliff dwellings that are near the southern edge of the property. We took an interpreted tour of Cliff Palace and saw several other cliff cities. At the peak of the Pueblo Ancestral people’s use of Mesa Verde in the 1300s, 4000 to 5000 people lived in the area. To put that in perspective, Cliff Palace is the largest dwelling and probably was home to about 120 people.
In the afternoon, we drove to Pagosa Hot Springs, CO. We’re staying in The Springs Resort, which has 18 pools fed by the hot spring, plus two heated fresh water pools. We’ve enjoyed soaking in the various pools and dipping our feet in the cold river that the pools drain into. Today, the pools have ranged in temperature from 96 degrees to 114 degrees. We’ve enjoyed sampling the different pools. Our favorite so far is called Marco Polo, which was 100 degrees most of the day today, small enough to be cozy with four people, secluded, and right on the river, so we could hear the soothing river sounds.
Tomorrow, we’re going to enjoy more of the hot spring pools, then head to Colorado Springs. We’ll stay two days there and see Pike’s Peak, Garden of the Gods, and hopefully see some of the famous buildings at the Air Force Academy.