Stories and other stuff

I had an odd day.  It was good, but odd. To set up the story, I have to way back in the wayback machine to the first time we were deployed to Bangor, Maine in the fall of 1990.  We were helping ferry stuff to the Persian Gulf region because Iraq invaded Kuwait.  For those that don't know, the United States Air Force has been actively fighting wars since 1990.  A lot of it was just called "enforcing a no-fly zone", but flying missions is flying missions and takes its' toll on the equipment. Anyway, a friend of mine met a very nice young woman who was kind enough to invite us to her home for a meal.  When you're TDY, restaurants are normally where you eat, or the chow hall if you're on a big enough base.  After a week or so, a home-cooked meal starts to sound pretty good. Having spent 6 months in a hotel room myself, I can attest to what that little bit of hospitality might mean to someone.  Secondly, you never know what kind of an impression you c...

The young lady had the side of her head shaved.  She was wearing a tee shirt and a shark's tooth necklace.  She had a ring in her lip.  And she and I had a wonderfully insightful five minute conversation about church. The young man comes to church in holey (I know the proper spelling is holy but we're talking about church so the misspelling is intentional to make a differentiation) jeans. He refuses to wear shoes.  He has a past.  So do I, and but for the grace of God, mine would have looked a lot like his thirty years ago.  He's got tatts and I wanna rip that thing out of his lip because it's ugly.  He's excited to sit down over a meal and talk to me about his faith. On any given Sunday, I can spot the faithful as they're on their way to the ward.  I don't know.  Is there a reason for it? The point is I can spot them a mile off.  Sunday best for the ladies who seem to not be under the white blouse curse.  Colorful dresses see...

I think I mentioned the other day that I was re-doing my Experiencing God workbook.  Yesterday's lesson was about spending quiet time with God.  I am a fully engaged Christian in that department.  I speak with God frequently during the day.  Sometimes God answers back. The idea was to go for a walk.  I took the dog.  The dog is a great way to meet people because the wondermutt always smiles.  He's friendly and people like to stop and talk to him, which cracks me up to no end.  But the idea was to spend some quiet time with God.  I should have gone alone. At the end of each lesson, there is a response block for what you sense God is telling you.  The only thing I sensed was that I needed to go for a walk.  That was yesterday's lesson.  Today's lesson was about how God engages us in a love relationship.  What I needed to know was that God loved me.  Things are in that slump stage when things just seem to not go righ...

I'd like to talk to you today, this day before we celebrate the Savior overcoming death and offering us eternal life, about God. That's no surprise, but what surprises me is how much I'm learning about God these days.  Our relationship has changed into one where I'm discovering what a real presence He has in my life.  I may not understand what He's doing at the time, but He's making me want to really learn more about His ways. God put someone in my life a couple of years ago and told me to love her.  I failed because I didn't just love her.  I tried to do this and that.  I made judgments based on my own experiences.  None of that was what God told me to do.  He just told me to love her. He did NOT tell me to love me. He told me to love her. A while back, I asked God to pick a mate for me.  And then I had some things happen to me and it looked like God was working in my life, so I followed.  Today, I had it all explained to me. ...

Today's blog post is written from my sick bed.  I've been sick for four days now.  I can function OK for just a short time then I get dizzy.  My muscles ache.  My back hurts, but that's a different malady.  And I'm emotionally worn out. The tank, much like the bank account, is empty. Many of you know how I wound up in Ogden.  For those that don't, here's the Cliff's Notes version of the story.  I was TDY to Edwards AFB and Wendi went with me.  She started freaking out long about July because we didn't have a place to live.  I told her to go home and find one.  I'd live anywhere but Ogden.  At the time, we were living in a hotel room in Lancaster, CA That's how I wound up in Ogden. My sister, when we were in our teenage years, had a cat named Trouble. Wendi has a son named Wyatt. You need to know all that stuff. Yesterday we had our regular Bible study lesson and Pastor Karl, as part of the lesson talked about no coinci...

"[During this course] and during your life you will have times when you want to respond based on your own experiences or your own wisdom.  Such an approach will get you in trouble."  Henry Blackaby Experiencing God I've been thinking about how I got where I am today and this quote from today's lesson in the Experiencing God workbook started out with these words which summed it up nicely. The way forward in my life is not a big picture view.  I thought I had that last week, but it wasn't God leading.  There was a lot going on but mostly is was an attempt to deceive.  Truth tells me that the evil one can disguise himself as an angel of light.  Truth also tells me that the sheep know the Shepherd's voice and this sheep wants to make sure I'm hearing right.  Or seeing right.  So I can follow right. I should have known something was up when I quit singing.  Often times there's a song in my heart because God gives joy.  Even in circu...

As I stood in the checkout line this morning, I noticed two things:  one was a very attractive woman in front of me.  The other one was a very distraught woman employee of the store I was shopping at.  One of them caught more of my attention than the other. As I stood there, I didn't watch the woman unload her cart (but boy the God of all Creation made that one pretty!).  My attention was toward the woman working at the store.  I saw her put her hands to her head and bend down while she faced the shelf she was working on.  She had one of those little computer gadgets she was pretending to look at.  If she wasn't crying, she was close.  At one point, I saw her take her left hand and swat at something on the shelf out of utter frustration. There are times when I think it appropriate to approach a stranger and ask if there's something you can do and this, I think would have been one of those times.  Here's why I didn't... I'm a guy. Had ...