The object in this challenge was to lower the tent pole to the ground and your two fingers must stay in contact with the pole.

Tug O War… War Retreat style on logs.

The riddle we could not figure out… and as a result we had to roll the dice to see what we had to eat…. octopus, seaweed or a Habanero pepper.

We rolled and we had to eat the Habanero… it was so hot my eyeballs were sweating!!

Resorting to chugging a beer to cool off your mouth was apparently the right choice!

For our work project we built a balance beam team building challenge.

“Big Bad” Bob Turner aka my Irish brother.

“Big Bad” Bob Turner on the balance beam.

The Treehouse

]]> http://www.amongtherealm.com/war-retreat-photos/feed/ 4 http://www.amongtherealm.com/mere-christianity/ http://www.amongtherealm.com/mere-christianity/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 01:47:30 +0000 Andrew http://amongtherealm.com/?p=627

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant thinker. I have been re-reading Mere Christianity. This material in the book was first given on the radio and then later published in three separate talks.

I will admit it starts out slow and boring. I almost put the book down and gave up on reading it again. Trust me make it through the first few chapters and your golden. Hopefully it will challenge you and make you a better person and Christian.

God has been revealing a lot to me lately (probably more along lines of I am being open to what God has to say). TRUST is what I have issues with. God is destroying the barriers I have built.

The Cardinal Virtues- This is one of the chapters I have recently read in Mere Christianity. Cardinal is not one of those Roman Catholic guys dressed in the funky clothing. It is from the Latin word meaning “hinge of a door”. They were given the name Cardinal virtues because they were pivotal. There are four in total; Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude.

1. Prudence is practical common sense. God is efficient in my mind. “He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have” (Mere Christianity, 77). God does not care how smart you are, instead He wants you to use what He has given you. In other words be efficient don’t waste energy in becoming someone your not, use the intelligence you have to make a difference.

2. Temperance in today’s world means teetotalism which is a fancy word for abstaining and promoting abstinence from alcoholic beverages. This was not the original definition. “Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further” (Mere Christianity, 78).

• The mark of a bad man is that he struggles to give up what he desires and demands every one else to give it up too. “That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons-marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”
• God is not deceived by externals. When people focus on the word Temperance as it relates to drinking, they forget that we can be just as intemperate about anything else. Focusing on a golf game or becoming obsessed with shopping is just as dangerous. The only difference is it does not show on the outside as much as a someone who gets drunk at night.

3. Justice- “Justice means much more than the sort of thing that goes on in law courts. It is the old name for everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life.”

4. Fortitude- “Fortitude includes both kinds of courage-the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. You will notice, of course, that you cannot practice any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play. In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a virtue.”

If actions were only thought of it would encourage three wrong ideas:

• Right actions done for the wrong reasons do not help build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue’.
• We would tend to think that God wanted us to simply obey a set of rules: But God really wants people of character or who are willing to build their character.
• “We might think that the ‘virtues’ were necessary only for this present life-that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. There will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here.”

That is deep stuff. Ponder on that for awhile without your brain hurting. If you want more brain hurting and possibly life changing thinking go read this book….twice…maybe even five times.

Its Friday, and I was driving home from UPS at 2 am. It was snowing and the roads were getting bad in spots. I was on Ronald Reagan Highway when I noticed a car had slid off into a ditch on the right side of the road. I felt a urge that I should turn around and see if this person, this stranger was o.k. By the time it took me to slow down and turn around a middle aged woman had stopped as well. The girl was fine just a little shocked and scared. This woman and I began to push her out of the ditch and moved her about ten feet but the car was stuck again and we could not move it any farther. By this time another man and a woman stopped and we began the process all over again. That is all it took, four strangers coming together to help and we got her car out of the ditch (during this whole time I was praying but I did not even realize it, it was natural, I was asking God for help to get this car out, and He delivered).

I am amazed at human beings right now and their ability to come together and help someone in need. I am amazed at how God works in peoples lives. I laughed cause this one lady said, “this is some real good Samaritan shit.” The same lady also asked, “is she your family?” Everyone replied no. Her response was awesome, “Well we are family now!” I am not going to lie it felt good to help, but that is not why I did it. I did not do it to make myself feel good about something I did. I did it because that is what humans should do. Help each other when we are in need. It seemed like all it took was for one person to take the initiative and more people were willing to help.

This girl was crying and obviously besides herself. This girl, a stranger to us and a stranger to this city. She had just moved here three days ago and did not know anyone. Turns out two of the ladies lived where she lived! How amazing is God and how He plans stuff out. God you are cool in my book. So we escorted her back since we were going to the Colerain exit. It was a caravan and she was in the middle protected by everyone driving with her to make sure she arrived home.

Taking initiative is a huge step but can bring about some awesome results. It can be scary at times to make the first move. You will get dirty when helping people. I was covered in mud from head to toe. But I was fine with that. After all Jesus got real dirty for me and took on all my sin so I could live a life worth living. The one commandment in the Bible that Jesus was concerned with the most was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention this girl’s name was Charity!

Here is some video I took on my iphone of the caravan approaching the Colerain Exit.

Caravan from Andrew Hughes on Vimeo.

As I was writing this I came across these pics of when I use to play in a band. We played quite a few gigs at Reality Tuesday Cafe.

One of my favorite drinks… a vanilla steamer. They also have invented a few drinks that I love called “The Grasshopper”, its awesome.

A picture from my seat.

I am supposed to be not eating as much sweets since the Holidays wrecked me in that area. But this chocolate cake was beckoning me from the display.

That is my niece Sarah getting stuffed… stuffed really good too. Sorry Sarah, I still love you even though you got the smack down on you.

Sarah either shooting the ball or going for a rebound.

Sarah taking a shot.

Another motion shot. These are the first time I have taken any motion shots. It was tricky to get. Most of the shots turned out grainy since I had my iso cranked up.

Amie driving the lane.

Sarah, I think she was embarrassed that I was taking pictures of her.

Team mascot

The final score… we won!

Prayer at the end of the game.

If you want to view all the pictures <— click here

]]> http://www.amongtherealm.com/coffee-shop-and-basketball-game/feed/ 0 http://www.amongtherealm.com/departure/ http://www.amongtherealm.com/departure/#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:17:03 +0000 Andrew http://amongtherealm.wordpress.com/?p=185 I was browsing through some old journal entries, this one I wrote on October 3, 2002.

It was not until recently, when I departed from “religion” that I began to understand my relationship with God. My departure from church was an attempt to grow closer to God. I did not want to go to church so I simply did not go. Why should we feel that we always have to go to church because that is what we are supposed to do? I want to go to church for the right reasons. I needed time away so God could bring that desire back into my heart. I have to believe it 100% in my heart for it to be real to me.

sometimes my life feels as lonely as this street is at 3 am.

I feel like I should I print this picture and post it at my desk…sometimes we all need to stop and relax. I have been meaning to have a sabbath day once a week. A time for me and God to spend quality time together. To talk, laugh, and cry. For me to be angry, to be honest with God. Brutally honest on how I feel.

I was up at 4 am this morning… I have a hard time sleeping. I was doing some blog rounds when I came across this post on thisisreverb titled 50,000 pairs in 50 days

So without thinking I donated. If I would have thought about it I would not have done it. I am not saying don’t research who you donate to. I have heard of them before so I knew about them already. The company is called soles 4 souls.