Olympic Trials.......................................................................Lauren Swims on Monday

It's finally here...Olympic Trials starts today and Barrett's adorably sweet girlfriend LAUREN BAILEY swims in about three hours. WHOOPS! I WAS WRONG---SHE SWIMS ON MONDAY MORNING. I KNOW CAUSE I WATCHED EVERY EVENT TODAY ON SUNDAY AND SHE WAS NOT IN IT!!! Lauren will swim the 400 IM pre-lim's MONDAY. Barrett is in France and he would so be in Omaha, Nebraska to see her swim if he was stateside. Britt's friend WALTER RUMANS will swim the 50 and 100 Meter freestyle---those events are not today. And, of course, our FAST friend DANA VOLLMER will be trying to make her second Olympic team. Dana swims pre-lim's this morning in the 100 Fly and should make it to finals tonight cause she is ranked second in the world in this event! You have to watch morning pre-lim's 11:00 AM CT on the internet and then tonight 6:56 PM CT those who make it to finals will be on NBC.
GO LAUREN!!!!
GO WALTER!!!!
GO DANA!!!!
TV Coverage for trials is NBC tonight. Then, Monday through Thursday every night at 8:00 pm ET, it's on USA Network. Then, next Friday Saturday & Sunday, it's back on NBC every evening live. You can watch morning pre-lim's on the internet. I have goosebumps!!!

Tide and Thunder are roaring rolling in...it's my second day at the beach. Witnessed the spectacle of a silent sultry sunrise. Jogged a couple of miles alone on the beach---silence at sunrise. Needed silence! Kierkegaard wrote: "If I could prescribe just one remedy for al the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence. For even if the word of God were proclaimed in the modern world, no one would hear it; there is too much noise. Therefore, create silence."

God confirmed in my happy heart some "right turns" I have made this past couple of years. And as I listened hard to His voice, I am so deeply encouraged in all my sin for His grace is greater. He is detaching me from dependence on being a citizen of this earth and attaching me to dependence on being a citizen of heaven.

"Progress on the journey is not measured by conventional external measures like achievement, prosperity, or health or by conventional internal measures like self-esteem, social comfort, or recognition." It's a quote from a 141-page curriculum from The School of Spiritual Direction by Larry Crabb. I attended the school last summer and am reading the manual again this week at the beach. But for me progress is detachment from what demands my heart and attachment to what God created me for.