Riding near Lumpkin Street

Riding under the overpass, Athens, Georgia

On the Dirt Loop

Sunrise over the water in South Carolina

View of the mountains off of Cooper Gap

View of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Dahlonega, GA

Here's a view of the mountains from town. While this isn't really a good image (the foreground sucks), it does show the awesome views that we get to enjoy every day:

Wine Creek Trail, Sumter National Forest, South Carolina

Riding Camp Wahsega in the snow

Finished reading: "Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul"

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge.

This was definitely a good book. However, it was assuredly written with women as the target audience. I do believe that I gleaned some good information from it, and that it will help me understand my wife better. However, there were many sections that simply didn't apply to me, as well as sections where I felt completely lost in an alien world of estrogen.

I still have much to learn.

Finished reading: "How to Stay Christian in College"

How to Stay Christian in College

Click here for my first post about this book.

This book did prove to be an easy-to-understand guide to college life. I definitely recommend it to Christians entering college as freshmen, as well as new Christian converts currently in college.

However, I do not think this book is in depth or authoritative enough on its own to stand up against all the rigors of differing opinions that will be thrown at you in a secular university. But still it is a good starting point, and may whet your appetite to do more personal research in pursuit of truth.

Hypocrisy in the Church: a commentary on two short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I saw much of what Michael Lancaster and Margaret Dukes wrote about in their posts, but I primarily saw Hawthorne taking this subject of sin a slightly different direction. From the subject matter of both of these texts, I believe that Hawthorne was speaking out against what he saw as rampant hypocrisy in the church of his day.

Starting with The Minister's Veil, it soon became apparent that the minister himself had a great sin to hide. He refuses to confess it to God, and go forward living a life of joy in the forgiveness and grace given by Jesus on the cross. Instead, he attempts to cover it up, and atone for it on his one through some sort of lonely suffering. The people of the town were both convicted by his hidden sin, and on the other hand condemnatory of the minister, even though they themselves had sins that the would never reveal to the world.

Secondly in the story of Young Goodman Brown, they hypocrisy of the leaders of the church is clearly evident, much more blatantly so than in the previous story. The deacons and the ministers were revealed to actually be consorting with the devil. The old lady that had taught the protagonist his catechism was, in fact, a witch. I believe it was the deacon that was quoted as saying he would rather attend that night's evil gathering than attend any sort of sunday service. While young goodman brown eventually resisted the urge to join the evil ranks of the devil, he was haunted for the rest of his life by the knew knowledge that he had of the secret evil inside everyone. He snatched the young children away from the old catechism lady, and shunned the minister and the deacons. He could not even trust his wife, because he did not know what had happened to her that night, or what her secret sin even was.

This recurring theme is one that I believe many of us can resonate with. The question is, we will be part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Last ride at Hawkes Creek

GSC Main campus

Bicycle (and mountain bike) miles in 2009

Mountain Bike Miles:
1037

Straight-up road miles:
40.5

Total 2009 bicycle miles:
1077.5

The Birchmore Trail in Athens, Georgia

Some cell phone photos:

Reception hall

Setting up before the wedding

Glass balls in the reception hall

Sydnah helping set up the reception hall

Rocking the 3D glasses for avatar

So it's not any size then is it?