These past few days have been fairly rainy, on and off between sprinkling and complete downpour. I usually love the rain… it hits a sweet spot with me in time with the Lord many years ago. Rain speaks to me of His faithfulness and nearness in times of deep need to hear His voice. I usually love the rain… except for when it remains 70 degrees outside, meaning rain = feeling like I’m in a sauna. I attempted to go for a long run this morning, and it turned out to be one of the worst in my life. I felt like I was fighting to breathe the whole time. Not fun. That is not the point of this post. Welcome to my rabbit trail.

This week, our team of staff for Houston’s First – Downtown took a 2 day planning retreat with the purpose of praying through and mapping out all of 2014. It was a great time together, and I’m so thankful for the unity we’ve been blessed with as a team. My brain hurt by the end of the retreat, but I simultaneously felt refreshed and energized for what the Lord has planned for our church this year. I absolutely love being outside and observing the Lord’s creation, and woke up early the second day of our retreat to do so. Here are some pics I thought you might enjoy through my lens of His beauty.

This photo was taken by my boss, Lee. Literally taught him how to turn on the camera and focus the lens, and he snapped this. Super impressed with his newly discovered skillz.

We stayed at Hunt Retreat, which is a retreat center owned by our church and used for ministry purposes & outreach. It used to be a small farm house, and they just recently completely renovated it and built this beautiful retreat. Here are a couple more pics of our time there.

Quite possibly the best photo I’ve ever taken of anyone.

This was a lamp made out of an old typewriter. So good.

Sam taught us a song called “Your Grace Finds Me”. What a beautiful reminder of God’s grace to us regardless of where we find ourselves.

I hope you have a great weekend, and find rest not in just relaxing, but in actively pursuing renewal in Christ. May you be refreshed and restored to praise Him from the depths of your soul.