if I'd known that those notes were going up on "The Internet"...

... I might've wasted more time trying to polish things up a bit. :)
Isn't that what we all do to some extent? Spend time ensuring that our best foot is forward when we think it counts. But when does it really count? Is that time well-spent?
Just some thoughts. Not to say that sending you updates is unimportant.

I think... I just wanted to post something. Haven't done so in a looong time (*tumbleweed*).
This layout is so refreshing. I feel like I'm having a coffee with you, Karen (and everyone else). :)

Alright, here's something of substance so your time reading this is not wasted.
(from the intro to the study guide of DWYL)
A newly retired couple moves to New Mexico to spend their twilight years on the golf course. A middle-aged man labors all day at the ofice to make enough money to provide his family with a nice house in a safe neighborhood and un vacations in the summer. A young student enters college in hopes of gaining the education and skills needed to have a good career. Is this all there is to life? Or did God make us for something greater than the America Dream?

It is our conviction that God did indeed create us for more than the American Dream. Nevertheless, millions of people waste their lives in pursuit of the vain trappings of this world because they never discover the simple, obvious, glorious, biblical reality that "[God's] steadfast love is better than life" (Psalm 63:3). They are never gripped by the truth that "to live is Christ, to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21) ...

Our prayer is that God would use this [book] to awaken in you a consuming desire to not throw your life away on "fatal success." Our desire is that Jesus Christ would explode into your life, unite your fractured dreams and fragmented heart, and produce a single, whole, all-embracing passion for his name. And then our hope is that in this passion you would be set free from small dreams and weak visions, that you would lay down your life for the cause of Christ in the world. As Jesus said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mark 8:35).

For many, the American Dream is still something to chase after. It's not a vision only for Italian immigrants from the 1950s when they first set eyes upon NYC's Statue of Liberty, as mainstream media would have you believe. Are you falling prey to that "dream"?