Stories and other stuff

I think there's a little life lesson to be learned in this story, and it's this:  You think you know people, but what you know is kinda just what you see.  And what you see at work, OK, we interrupt this blog post for an important update:  The SNL skit on right now is a parody of Californians.  The guy is on a date with this girl and brings her home.  His friend is there and his date is married to his friend.  They've been separated eleven years. I can't make this stuff up.  ..Wow...Just wow! Anyway, no reading between the lines on this one.  I thought it was funny and thought y'all might too. My first supervisor at Hill asked me one day if I knew someone at the Guard.  I said I did and he told me about how he knew that person.  Small world, I thought... Today, I asked a guy I go to church with if he was related to the guy from the Guard.  He told me he was and it turns out that the three of them kinda sorta have their liv...

Y'all know by now that I think there's a life lesson or twenty to learn from a children's book called Because a Bug Went Ka-choo.     Today's story goes like this: I think I mentioned that the truck had a malfunction.  It happened the day after the car key quit working, which happened the day after I was planning on doing something about my, um....,  situation.  Anyway, I was able to drive it when I needed it for a while but a couple of weeks ago, that became a bad idea.  I figured out what it needed to make it drivable, and yesterday I bought the parts and installed them.  I drove the truck to work to make sure it would be all right because the kiddo wanted to use it today. Last night, I asked my boss if I could leave for a couple of hours so I could attend a Good Friday service at church.  He wasn't happy about it.  But because the crane we were using ran out of gas at just the time I needed to leave, he let me go.  I figured I'd h...

John 19:28-30 (NIV) Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Can you imagine being there to hear “it is finished.”  So many hopes had been dashed at those words.  Surely, many thought, this man was the Messiah who would deliver Israel from the Romans.  Finished.  He died.  No angels came.  God didn’t come to save Him.  No miracle lifted Him from the hands of the oppressors.  Just "finished." 2,000 years later we understand what the disciples wouldn’t until three days later.  Yes, Jesus’ earthly life was finished.  But the new things were yet to come and the disciples had absolutely no way of kn...

I got a letter last night at work from my employer.  It was explaining that in response to the sequester, they had waived the requirement for reinstating use-or-lose annual leave (paid vacation).  We can only carry over so many hours, anything above that number, if you don't use it, you lose it.  Except this year because the budget cuts have created chaos. At first, the letter seems harmless, but when you read between the lines, what the letter says is "we're not going to let you take leave because we're already losing a day of work a week and we can't offer you overtime, either, so.... Sometimes you have to read between the lines.  Sometimes what's not said is just as important as what is said. And sometimes, not so much. I had this conversation with a good friend yesterday.  I'm so thankful I have a friend who thinks enough of me to tell me I'm nuts.  I need that, and sometimes I know things don't make sense in my life.  If you think I und...

I've always wondered what pastors were talking about when they talk about the power Christians have.   I think I found out over the weekend.  It's the power of the word, "no". I had a chance to say yes to a lot of things that in the past I would have said yes to.  And I didn't get the power to say no on my own.  It came with a lot of scrapes and bruises over the last three years.  I didn't do this on my own... I had help. It's the whole power of the Holy Spirit thing.  And it's pretty cool that things that used to master me, I now have the power over.  God's pretty good!  And I'm so thankful. I have to tell y'all that this is a pretty transforming thing that I didn't see coming.  For the last couple of weeks, I've been asking God to give me more faith because it's kind of hard to keep trusting when you don't know where you're going.  It didn't help that I'm physically weak from being ill all week and just f...

I honestly can't believe I saw this on MSNBC, but there it was.  The Gospel being delivered by a liberal media commentator, and with PASSION!

I had a bit of an epiphany last night.  I was listening to a radio program I enjoy which was kind of an answer to a prayer I had earlier.  About half-way through the program, though, I came to realize something.  That something we'll get to in a minute. A good part of being a Christian is enjoying fellowship with fellow Christians.  Some churches have this group or that.  I work nights and attend a small church, so groups aren't exactly for me.  Often times, there are things I'd like to attend that I miss, but for the most part, missing out on those things isn't a hardship.  They're things I'd like to do, but can't because I work.  They're not groups per-se, but more activities, like Bible study or sharing a hot dog in the summer. If my church did have a group thingie, there's really no group I fit into.  I'm not a couple.  I'm not single.  I'm not a widow.  What I am, for lack of a proper term, is alone. I realize it's b...