This is one of the beautiful girls in the village in Uganda. She was injured by the LRA and lost both of her parents at their hands. Yet this smile is full of hope and melts hearts. This makes me thankful today.

We got to be there for the opening of the water well we helped raise money to put in for this village. There are now over 400 families from 2 villages that will now have clean drinking water. This makes me thankful today.

This girl was the first girl to pump water from the new well. She was so excited to have fresh water. This makes me thankful.

Normally not a two tone edit guy, but the hope in the yellow of that can for these children is huge. This makes me thankful.

However you could not be more wrong. Even though I do love the occasional picture of woodland goodness, these photos are actually of my good friends Ben and Crystal Woods. I have known this fine looking couple for the better part of 13 years now and have to say that I love them more and more as time goes on. Ben and I spent a brief time of life traveling and playing music, but have spent even more time enjoying life and pouring into each other. While in the frozen tundra of Illinois I got to spend a day taking some rad new pics for my friends and their family. Check em’ out.

Twelve hours later and we arrived in the frozen, snow covered tundra of the mid-west.

Yesterday was the perfect day and we headed out in the snow with the girls for what would be a great day of playing and fun. Here are some pics and a video of our day. Hope you enjoy.

One of my best friends on this earth, Mr. Josh DeVine. We have done a couple of extreme things together. I like that about our friendship.

As I looked down at my leg this morning there was a feather ever so gently kissing the denim between it and the skin of my thigh. I didn’t really notice it until it caught my eye.

Why?

Because it was not weighing me down. There was no burden it was asking me to carry. It was light, soft and simply taking a short journey through my story of life. That’s the funny thing about feathers of life…they are easy to carry!!! Their burden is light and asks nothing of us.

However…

Sunday I hopped a plane from DFW to Colorado. For the lack of wanting to pack a suite case that would need to be checked and go through the process of possible loss I packed all that I could into my backpack. There was also another backpack filled with camera gear. I had friends out here who wanted new photos done and so at their request along came backpack number 2. As I walked through the airport I realized what a load these bags were. They were burdensome to me. Every fifty feet or so I found myself having to stop and reposition these two bags of burden. They slowed me down and were constantly asking me to stop and adhere to them. The freedom came when I finally was able to shed those pieces of baggage.

No listen to this:

Hebrews 12:1-2

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

As I read this I realized that my life needed a definite feathering. I know there are things, weights, that I need to shed to move forward. I need to focus on the main thing, not the little things that so easily distract from it.

I need to shed my anger and apathy.

I need to shed my complacency and worry.

I need to shed my consuming and coveting.

Life must become more joy filled and simplistic if I am to recover my life. Now as far as the sin that slows us down. I am sure there are many in our lives that we could point to, but my guess is, is that if you are like me you have that one bowling ball filled bag of that one sin that must be left in he middle of the woods and never to be returned to.

Today I want to leave that bag unattended in a remote location never to be found or picked up again. May we all find that our lives are filled with feathers instead of bags full of 15 lb. Brunswicks.

However, what actually happened was that I began to absolutely fall in love with group of guys they had assembled. They were all so legit, so real, so humble, and so willing to pour into others they had ever met. Out of this my heart began to soften. I felt much like the Grinch when the Who’s accepted him. I longed to be in relationship with them. I longed to hear their stories. I longed to pour into them as well.

So here I sit three years later, having traveled to Estes Park, San Diego and now Crested Butte, CO to do life with these incredible men. At the end of the first year they gave us all T-Shirts with the attributes that they saw in us that stood out the most. Out of this journey I have gained 19 new friends, but two of them have become those that I would call close friends. In fact the post below this one is of those two incredible men. Josh and Kyle. Josh is a guy from Nashville who is changing his story each and every day in order to be more like Christ. Kyle is a man who three years ago was ready to be done and today is a man of confidence and great faith. He loves people unconditionally and is now at a really great place in life. On the backs of their shirts there were two phrases written that have been key in the Rhythm of their lives.

Here they are:

So what word or phrase would be used to describe you and the rhythm of your life?

Hope you are having a great week.

From the top of the mountain…