Stories and other stuff

Question: What do chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, a very odd story about two football teams that didn't play tonight by the way (one in green and yellow uniforms, the other in orange and black uniforms) from two other co-workers, a stack of change found on the self-checkout machine that wasn't working ($1.06 for the missions fund!) at the Smith's, a radio program about a guy named Bob who found Jesus and the pastor in the story quoting from Joel 2, an empty house, and a three word text have in common? Answer: God is GOOD!

I'm looking at Christmas in a really different light this year. It started with the Christmas tree the other day.  I put it up but it was like a chore to do it.  I dunno.... it hasn't felt like Christmas time and maybe it's just the holiday blues.  Maybe it's a lot of stuff going on, which will work itself out in time.  Maybe, just maybe, though, I'm getting lazy about Christmas. Part of the fun about Christmas for me as a kid was decorating the tree.  And then decorating Grandma's tree.  It was always fun for me to unwrap the ornaments, and carefully hang them on the tree.  We had a Santa Claus light bulb and these big frosty GE light bulbs that came in their own yellow corrugated boxes.  It was always cool to screw that Santa bulb into the light socket and see him light up year after year.  Decorating the tree was a big deal.  Decorating grandma's tree was always fun, too.  My grandma saved the candy canes in the original Ike'...

I suck at this.  I mean it.  I'm kind of fighting a battle I wish I didn't have to fight and had I been less stupid and selfish, maybe I wouldn't have to fight it. I bumped up against some truth last night and the truth is this:  I am still very much alive and human and as such there are things I have to deal with and sometimes those things are going to come up in conversation.  I had an opportunity to clarify what I said to someone last night with the fact that while I have those feelings, under no circumstances, are they to be construed as an invitation to action outside of God's plan for my life. That's all the details you get.  My mom reads this thing. What drew my attention to this is a post from Christian Men's Network about missing out on great because we settle for good.  It seemed good at the time to say what I said.  But it wasn't my best.  I'm trying to fight the battle my way and I also ran into the truth that I don't know how to...

In the large scheme of things, we never know how God will use events in life to shape us. I've had an interesting weekend.  My friend from church is ill and I was asked to take him to the hospital yesterday.  I was only too happy. I wrote the other day about being in the waiting room.  I was, literally, for about a half-hour, while they moved my friend into the ICU.  He's not well.  We spent six hours in the emergency room waiting for a determination where they were going to put him.  He wasn't going home, to be sure. Here's a conversation you don't want to hear:  A nurse asking what your friend's do not resuscitate instructions are.  It wasn't polite conversation, nor was it routine.  They had an 85 year old man they revived, only to speak with the man's family and find out they'd have rather him just pass.  He did later on in the morning, before we got there.  It's part of their jobs to deal with death.  They go to work...

Short post tonight.  Not much going on.  All the words have been spoken.  The actions have accompanied them.  Now it's just time to wait and see.  In the waiting room though, I saw something really cool tonight. Waiting room by the way, is a metaphor for just hanging out and waiting to see what happens. I'm not at McKay Dee again. Anyway, about ten o'clock we saw a Great Horned Owl flying around the hangar.  Owls are so cool.  They're just fun to watch.  We were treated to see him twist his head backward and then see him fly to a couple of different spots before heading back outside.  Pigeons are frequent, albeit unwanted guests in our hangar.  To see a bird of prey was really kind of neat. Owls are just cool because you don't see them every day.  No, I'm not looking for any hidden meaning in it.  I just saw an owl in real life and thought it was cool. Owls are associated with wisdom, which is something I've been aski...

I'm seriously considering buying that lottery ticket. Today's post is about belief.  Do I believe that God can give me six numbers and I could hit it big?  You bet I do.  Do I believe He will?  No.  In the first place, I don't want the responsibility.  In the second place, there's a Scripture verse my pastor shared yesterday on Facebook that sums up what I want from God.  Just enough.  Not too much.  Not too little. I believe that God is and does control events.  It often doesn't look like it, so when I talk about belief, I want to start at the Christmas story, because it seems a good place to deal with unbelief. The Christmas story starts with the conception of John the Baptist.  This was a point in the sermon on Sunday which I loved because of what it says about belief.  I actually e-mailed it to someone else so she could read what I heard on Sunday.  John was born to a couple who were advanced in years.  Kind...