Change of Plans

This Christmas, my family was supposed to be in Spartanburg, South Carolina with our parents and grandparents (along w/ my brother and sister).  We were to drive out on Monday the 21st, but at the last minute our plans were altered.  In one way, we were disappointed as we would have loved to have seen the rest of our family.  However, in another way we were relieved not to be making the trip.  First, the 14 hour drive proves less than exciting for anyone…especially w/ 2 children and 2 small dogs.  Second, the hectic pace of dividing time between both sides of the family on Christmas is enough to drive anyone mad.  Staying here in Iowa allowed us to sit back and enjoy our Christmas without running from here to there and back again.  Lastly, we won’t be getting on any of our family’s nerves and they won’t be getting on ours while we are all under one roof for an extended period of time.  Every year, it seems like one or two arguments break out simply out of frustration.  3 groups of people who are used to having a house all to themselves all must coexist under one roof.  Difficult task even for the most patient of folks.  This year, the Taylor family (my branch of it anyways) had our house all to ourselves. 

Christmas was both pleasant and peaceful.  Carsyn woke up at 8am and tried to get Kelly and I out of bed.  Despite our best attempts to get her back into bed, we heard her a few minutes later downstairs.  Kelly and I jumped out of bed knowing she had seen the rest of her presents (Carsyn and Olivia had already received a few of their presents a week before since we expected to be out of town).  I went to Carsyn and Olivia’s room to wake up Olivia.  Olivia isn’t much of a morning person and had to be talked into getting out of bed to get the rest of her presents. 

Following the opening of gifts, we went to Pastor Dan and Londa’s house for lunch.  This was a wonderful time as the girls got to play with Lilly (something they had looked forward to since we had told them since the Sunday before Christmas) and we got to talk with Pastor Dan, Londa, and PD’s mom.  Very good time and it very much felt like we were home with our family.  I think that is a testament to PD and his family that they can make us feel at home even when we are miles away from our parents.

The evening ended quietly as the girls played with their toys while Kelly and I lounged around the fire watching TV (A Christmas Story).  Each of us talked to our family to wish them a Merry Christmas and pass our love to them.  True, it was not an eventful Christmas, but it was a restful one.

A Most Excellent Adventure

The title to this one brings back memories of one of my personal favorite movies when I was younger.  To the younger ones (i.e. 20 and younger), this movie will be as obscure as some of the movies my parents watched were to me.  The movie is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  This was the first movie I ever remember seeing Keyanu Reeves.  Not one of his more intellectual roles, but a classic none the less. 

Anyways, my “excellent” adventure started Sunday night when I spun off the road in a truck that wasn’t even mine.  It was Mr. Jeff Wheeler’s.  Fortunately, I did not hit anything and came to rest softly in a nice mud pile.  Unfortunately, that same mud pile that provided a soft halt was the reason I could not get out.  A friendly State Trooper gave me a free ride up the hill to a McDonalds while I waited on a couple selfless gentlemen from church to come pick me up (a special thanks to Bob Kenward and Kevin Daugherty).  Walking out to Bob’s truck was the longest walk to date as I just knew they were laughing at me.  Shoot, I would have been laughing at me.  I don’t think any of this would have been as embarrassing if I had done it in my own vehicle.  

Monday, I headed back out to the scene of the crime to have the truck towed out.  It was in mud, so how long could this take…right?  Well, overnight in the near zero temp, the ground had frozen and the puddle the back tires were in had frozen around them.  All inch and a half of water was now a block of ice and the tires were it prisoner.  After and hour and a half on Monday night, we acknowledged we were not going to win this battle that night and headed home to gather the troops for another battle the next day.  Tuesday, Kelly and I headed back down to the site with shovels and garden hoe’s in hand as well as hammers and screwdrivers to break that ice apart.  Pastor Dan followed us down there, unannounced to us until we were a couple of miles away.  I truly did not want him to head down there with us because it was his day off and for a man who works as tirelessly as he does, he should enjoy that day off.  Rescuing a vehicle from the snow is not my idea of a day off well spent.  Pastor Dan, however, is a man unlike most.  Some people will spend Sunday mornings puting on a show for others so as to appear to be a “good Christian.”  Pastor Dan is what he appears to be.  He really is the kind hearted individual you see Sunday and Wednesday.  There is no mask there.  His actions outside the church support this claim.  I’m very lucky to have the oportunity to worship with him.  Anyways, back to my story.  The 3 of us ventured back down to West Branch on Tuesday sure this would be the day we drive the truck home.  Wrong again.  No matter how much ice I broke away, there was always more underneath it.  Now, I might be crazy but I’m sure I heard the ice laughing at me as I tried to break the truck free.

I took Wednesday off from work so I could dedicate the entire day to getting the truck out of the ice block it was in.  I started at roughly 10:30 (perhaps 11am) and FINALLY got the back driver’s side tire to bust free of the ice at about 2:30pm.  Excited, we called the tow company.  However, due to the heavy traffic that resulted from a wreck that had happended 100 ft away from where the truck was, they couldn’t get out to us until later.  After waiting an hour and a half only to be told it would be another 30 – 45 min, we elected to wait until the next day to try to pull it out.  We hurried home to shower and get to church for AWANA where we learned Thursday was to welcome in an ice storm.  All my hard work would be wasted.  I called the towing company to see if they could meet us out there that night.  They agreed and at about 9:30 pm (roughly 77 hrs after the accident) I was out of the median and back on the road.  Like a prisoner set free, the Dakota was back on the road.  A bit dirtier (well, a LOT dirtier) but back on the road none the less. 

Through all of this, the Wheelers have been wonderfully understanding.  Their first concern was of my well being.  I got the playfull ribbing that a friend would give you following such an occurance, but it was the same kind of ribbing I would have gotten had I done this in my own car.  I count myself truly fortunate to have such understanding and patient friends as the Wheelers. 

With this, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and safe driving.

Braggin on God

Every now and again, God seems to put us in difficult positions just so He can remind us who is in charge.  Recently, we’ve had troubles w/ our Passat.  The warranty covered the first major issue we had, but then just as soon as we picked it up from the shop we found another problem (such is the life of a car owner).  What was found was a flaw in the engine design made it more susceptible to sludge in the engine and drastically affected it performance (to the point of temporarily robbing the engine of oil..not good).  Basically, everything that oil came in contact w/ had to be replaced.  Not cheap.  We were hoping our warranty would cover that, but we found out today they would not.  Figures.  The guy also told us VW knew about this problem and had extended the warranty to cover such a situation as ours IF we provide documentation of ALL of our oil changes since we’ve owned it.  Wouldn’t be a problem if every oil change had been at a dealership, but that was not the case.  If we were unable to come up w/ proof of all of our oil changes, VW would not cover the cost of the repairs.  We were able to find all but one of our oil change records (via numerous phone calls), however even one missing record would void VWs responsibility.  Needless to say, I was a little frustrated and stressed.  I knew God would take care of us somehow, but I was fearful of the pain we would have to endure before God showed Himself all powerful and we saw we were better on the other side.  The man in the service dept said he would run our request past the service manager to see if they would okay our request for VW to cover the repairs.  At about 5pm tonight we received a call from VW stating the WOULD cover the costs.  Talk about a burden lifted off our shoulders.  We are talking about roughly $1500 we did not have right now to fix the car.  Just a reminder from God that He’s got our back even when the situation seems impossible.  After all, the VW dealership would have been justified to deny our request since we did not meet the terms of their warranty extension.  Why would they OK this?  I chalk it up to a God thing.

Christmas Past

During my 30 years, I’ve had some great Christmas memories.  I remember when I got my first Nintendo (the original).  Man I thought I was big stuff w/ my Super Mario Bros. game and Hogan’s Alley.  Another Christmas memory I have is when I received my Photon shooting system (like Laser Tag but w/ more equipment http://www.retrojunk.com/img/art-images/photon.jpg).  Matt (my twin brother) and I had a blast playing with it.

However, not all Christmas memories are wonderful (although I laugh about them now that I’m older).  The one thing I’m most frequently reminded of is when I ruined my Dad’s surprise gift to my Mom.  Dad had bought Mom a grandfather clock during a special trip to Gatlinburg, TN he took w/ my brother and me (a “guys” weekend in Gatlinburg).  He was so excited as he had every detail planned out and just knew Mom would be surprised.  Of course, 10 yr old Mike had to ruin the surprise by going up to Mom one day and asking her, “What would you do if you got a grandfather clock?”  To this day I have no idea what I was thinking, but I still haven’t lived that one down.

Another Yule Tide frustration I’ve stored away in my memories was self inflicted.  My Mom would start a month and a half asking us what we would like for Christmas.  Matt and Christi would get to work writting up their list.  Me, not so much.  I couldn’t think of anything I wanted.  I was fine w/ what I had.  This drove my Mom crazy.  One year, it got all the way up to Christmas Eve and I still didn’t have a list made up.  So, on her birthday (Christmas Eve) Mom took me around town looking for something I’d like.  I tried to tell her I was fine w/ what I had, but she wouldn’t have any of that and almost threatened me w/ a spankin if I didn’t decide on what I wanted.  I had to laugh at her.  It was one of those moments where you just had to laugh (kind of like when my dad would tell us to smile for the camera or we would get a spankin.  Smiling out of fear…that made for good pictures).  In hind sight, I laugh when I think of such moments. 

I don’t think I could narrow down my Christmas moments to any one favorite.  I’ve been so unbelievably blessed to have parents who sacrificed when money was tight to make sure we always had good Christmas memories.  These “bad” memories I speak about weren’t bad at all.  In fact, they provide a laughing point for us now a days and make for hours of good conversations.  However, one of the more enjoyable Christmas seasons I’ve experienced was in 2001.  Kind of odd seeing as how we were only 3 short months removed from our nations worst disaster since Dec. 7, 1941.  However, that was the Christmas season I met my future in-laws and asked for their blessing to marry Kelly.  It was a good thing they bought in to me since I already had the ring (which Kelly didn’t know about at that time).  Such a good time as I reunited w/ my wife to be, my family, and got to know my future in-laws.  Hard to top that one.

What makes for a good Christmas for you?

Unanswered Questions

Don’t be fooled by the title.  This is in no way a serious topic.  On the contrary, it is a collection of unanswered or stupidly intriguing questions I’ve heard during the course of my life.  If you have any you’d like to share please do.  I’m all ears.  So, without further ado, here goes:

1.  If nothing sticks to teflon, how do they get teflon to stick to the pan?

2. What are hyenias laughing at anyways?

3. How do asprins find headaches?

4. Why do dogs circle before they lay down?

5. If “pro” is the opposite of “con,” is “progress” the opposite of “congress?”

6. Did Adam have a belly button (must credit Pastor Dan w/ this one)?

7. How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

8. Why do we have all that brain but use so little of it?

9. Why does everything taste like chicken?

10. Why do your shoe laces always seem to break at the most inopportune time?

 

There is a world full of questions, but these are just the first 10 I thought of.  What questions do you have?

Good News

Buy your lottery tickets now for hell hath frozen over.  Don’t believe me?  Look and see.

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Hell

(rest easy, it’s Hell, Michigan…yes there is such a place)

The Eyes Have It.

Last night while teaching the Awana council time for the Truth in Training group, I taught them about why it is important to filter both what you watch and hear.  Admittedly, I feel fairly certain I went a bit over their heads w/ some of what I said…perhaps because I was beginning to grow annoyed at some of my boys who where uncharacteristically misbehaving while I was speaking (and I am somewhat of a control freak when I’m speaking publicly). 

For those who missed it, I started off with an activity.  Each clubber was standing at the access to a church pew.  When taken as a collective, they formed a “wall and the pews in between my 2 “walls” was my “city.”  The object of the game was for me to get into the city (I was the bad guy) without the use of force.  The only way I could enter the city was if part of the wall stepped aside and thus invited me in.  The boys were fired up while the girls remained apprehensive about this game (I’m amazed at the difference between boys and girls at that age.  Girls are much more of a thinking person than boys during that stage of life).  Suddenly, the mood of the kids changed when I went to my jacket and broke out the candy.  This was to be my bribe to whomever would step aside and allow me to pass.  As predicted, many of the girls passed on the opportunity to take the candy and maintained their post.  The boys, on the other hand, were about to lose their mind at the chance to sell their post for 2 suckers.  Finally, I found a girl who would step aside and allow me to claim victory for the mere cost of 3 suckers and 2 packs of smarties.  Following this game, I told them of the Greek mythology of the fall of the city of Troy (the Mike’s abbreviated version).  The point of the activity and the story was tied back to scripture (finally) as I discussed how things in our everyday life can serve as infiltrators to our spiritual lives.  I also told them that in the same manner that I did not force my way through them or the various armies could not force their way through the walls of Troy, Satan cannot force his way into our lives.  He must be invited in (or at least no longer blocked out). 

So, I asked them how we can read our Bible and pray daily yet still lose various spiritual battles.  One answer is fairly simple.  We’ve opened the gates to our heart by what we immerse ourselves in.  How many times do we hear a song but not listen to it?  I know I’ve sat enjoying the tune of a song but not actually heard the words of the music until much later.  By that time, the words were already ingrained in my memory even if on a subconscious level.  Another gate opened.  The internet.  It’s a wonderful tool (that is how my wife and I found our church) or a dangerous weapon (more than 10% of ALL websites are pornographic in nature). 

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  When we allow a massive stream of information (both visual and audio) to enter our mind unfiltered we bring the Trojan horse into our city.  It is only a matter of time before the gate is opened and we become overwhelmed.

I hope the kids last night got something out of my lesson.  I know the teachers who were there already knew all that I was saying, so I hope it was not wasted on them (no offense meant).  I don’t pretend to believe that my 10-15 min w/ these kids once a week will change their life, but I hope it does slow them down every now and again and make them at least consider what they are doing.  Make them at least ask the question is what they are doing right.  If I can get that, I would consider my efforts a success.