The Little Shop Next Door

One of our testing locations is at CenterPoint Mall.  Located down one of the CenterPoint aisles is a Michigan Secretary of State Super Center, a fancy way of saying that they are one of the few customer friendly offices of the state that has Saturday hours (until noon - yippee!).  The driver testing organization that I work for used to have a small kiosk located about 20 yards from the SOS Super Center where a secretary would sign up people for road tests or driver training.

Across the aisle from our kiosk was a little snack shop run by an Egyptian couple.  CenterPoint was not my regular location but often when I was scheduled there I would pay the snack shop a visit to pick up a healthy lunch;  a cold can of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos.  I should have posted a picture of the empty can and bag on FB labeled -  Tuesday lunch, no left overs - but it might make my cousin Gretel physically ill, healthy eater and food poster that she is.

During all the excitement a year and a half ago with the daily protests at Tahir Square I would often spot the owner reading all about the new developments there on his lap top.  No doubt, still having a lot of family and friends back home, each day was a mixture of both excitement and fear.  I would ask him how things were going there but we had only limited conversation.

Last year I did a road test for an Egyptian man who came in a very nice and expensive car.  He had a lot of things made for him in China and because I had been in a business that did a lot of importing we got talking about the ins and outs of that type of business.  The key to being successful in import is to have people in those countries that you can trust, who will find you the best suppliers, negotiate fair prices and who can take care of the inevitable problems that come with long distance relationships.

The Egyptian told me that there was a good sized Moslem minority in various areas in China and that he sponsored 4 men to attend university in Cairo for two years.  To attend a Moslem university in Egypt was an almost impossible dream for most Moslem families in China.  He ended up with locals who were very loyal and this had worked out quite well for him.  His problem now was his uncertainty about ever being able to go home again.

CenterPoint Mall underwent a major redo and lo and behold the little snack shop moved in next to us in the  quaint but rundown mall in Wyoming that we call home.  The last tennant was clothier Christopher Banks and now the Egyptian couple had a lot of extra space.  They filled this with rugs (of course), blankets (Justin Bieber looks twice as cute on an 8' by 12' scene, and a variety of other must have goods such as plastic guitairs in purple and pink and sleeping bags with pictures of whatever you can imagine visible underneath their plastic carrying cases.

Oh, did I mention 24" x 36" metal framed pictures sold for $29.95 each?  Like the sleeping bags the subject matter is quite varied.  One day I was walking past the store (I have not yet stepped inside) and saw three pictures displayed side by side by side.  I am not making this up.  The first picture had Robert DeNiro and was labeled "Scareface".  The second showed Marlon Brando and was labeled "The Godfather".  The third showed our current president and was labeled "Obama". 

Maybe they sold or perhaps someone pointed out the obvious but two days later only Scareface remained on display upfront.  Next to a sleeping bag with green elephants.  Next to a desert landscape.  Go figure.       

Morning Commute

Morning Commute

if fog comes in on little cat's feet

it sure left with a deafening roar

while passing a belching eighteen wheel treat

on a hill that had plenty in store

but then spread out in the valley below

as far as my gaze could see

was a forest of white, a dazzling show

sunlight on the pure canopy

every branch, every twig was an icy delight

every bush was as same as the trees

descending that slope put the darkness to flight

in my mind I would fall to my knees

does the maker look now at this day at this hour

to enjoy what his painting would be

was it for him to enjoy, does he rest with his power

or maybe, was he thinking of me

whatever, whomever, I'm thankful today

to have seen such a wonderful sight

it ended too soon, the morning display

how softness gives witness to might

Bulldog Faith

This post is about one particular aspect of faith.  Bulldog faith ain't pretty. It ain't easy. It certainly ain't a gimmick. It's the type of faith that clamps down on the desired result and won't let go come hell or high water. A person doesn't have to be holy to have bulldog faith. They just have to have the will to fight through to the end, ignoring everything else, convinced that the prize will be theirs if they just don't let go.

When I think of bulldog faith I think of examples from 4 different men. The first comes from the Bible and his name is Jacob. It says of him in Hosea 12 - “In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed; He wept and sought his favor. He found Him at Bethel and there He spoke with us, even the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is His name.” In Geneses it says that Jacob wrestled with the angel through the night. As a reward Jacob got two things. God blessed him and changed his name to Israel and his hip was dislocated as a reminder.

The second is the story of my father-in-law receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. After reading about it and becoming interested he attended a couple of prayer meetings at an abbey where he observed the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated. Believing that this was indeed from God and desiring the Holy Spirit baptism with the evidence of speaking in tongues he went home and spent the entire night praying the name of Jesus. He went to work the next day but then spent that night as well, all night long, laying in bed and praying the name – Jesus, Jesus, JESUS! Night two ended, he went to work and when bedtime came on night three he again began to pray – Jesus, Jesus, JESUS!. Then, almost right away, he began to speak in an unknown tongue with which he praised God the entire night.

The third is another account from the Bible, found in 2 Samuel chapter 12 of David's prayer for his infant son, born to Bathsheba as a result of his lust for her.  Because of this and sending her husband Uriah to his death  Nathan the prophet spoke this word to David; "Because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme;  the child also that is born to you shall surely die."  The child becomes very sick and "David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground".  On the seventh day the child dies.  "So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes and he came into the house of the Lord and worshiped."  David then goes to his own home and eats.  This confuses his servants who ask why, when the child was sick David fasted and wept, and then when the child dies David stops crying and eats.

David replies;  While the child was still alive I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.'  But now he has dies;  why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I shall go to him but he will not return to me."

My last example is a man who ministered in the first half of the 1900's. Smith Wigglesworth was a Welsh plumber who was saved through the Salvation Army movement in the 1890's, got filled with the Holy Spirit during the next decade and then had a powerful worldwide ministry for the next 50 years.  He was rough, uncut diamond, fairly uneducated and always direct.  There are many stories of him encountering someone who had a tremendous need, dropping everything else, and praying through the night for that person until victory was achieved. I guess it takes an uneducated plumber to realize that some things just don't get fixed unless you keep at it.

I've told the story before about my father-in-law's heart attack but it's worth relating again. For 6 days he was in the critical care heart center on the fifth floor of Borgess Hospital. He had been a man of great fatih, a gifted teacher of scripture and had prayed with many for salvation and/or for baptism in the Holy Spirit. He had also prayed with many for healing and deliverance. As a family we had learned to pray as well but we had always kind of relied on him when crunch time came. Now crunch time was here for Harry and we were in almost constant prayer for him during those 6 days.

One of the prophetic words during that time came from a vision that God gave my daughter Ceci. She was with Jackie and some of her aunts and cousins praying intensely for Harry. They were in a semi-secluded area in the hallway, near the visitors waiting room on the 5^th floor at Borgess. In the vision she saw angels with their swords drawn, coming into the hospital on the first floor and fighting their way up to the 5^th floor. She gave the play by play to the women as the vision unfolded.

To me this vision represents two things. First, there is power in collective and intense intercessory prayer. God was showing in the vision that He is in control and that He does respond, even if the result was not the recovery that was being prayed for. And second, we think we are praying for the thing right before our eyes without realizing that at the same time we are often engaged in spiritual warfare. We struggle with doubts and despair, with losing hope, with fear, with growing tired, with looking at things as they are and not as they can be. Everything works to make us want to give up. 

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to pray through for things and have grown weary after only an hour or two. Sometimes after only 10 minutes!  If I was with the disciples in the Garden on Holy Thursday I would have been the first to get out my sleeping bag even after Jesus had asked to hold Him up in prayer. As I've said at the beginning; Bulldog faith ain't pretty and it ain't easy. But if you are willing to put aside your comfort, to trust that He will reward those that seek Him, then I believe that the little faith that you and I have will grow as we hold on tight.

Upton Abbey

Last week Jackie and I stayed at Carrie's house to watch Grey and Jack while she, James and the girls took a trip to Disney World.  Before she left, Carrie told Jackie that she had the first season of Downton Abbey downloaded on her computer along with season 2 on DVD's.  That's how I got sucked in.

I'll admit I'm not a stranger to the going ons of the upper crust.  My father told me when I was young that he grew up very poor.  "Our butler was poor.  The upstairs maid was poor.  The downstairs maid was poor.  The cook was poor.  Even the horsemen were poor."  "Dad" says I, "you lived on a busy street in St. Louis growing up.  I don't think you had horses."  "That's because, son, we were too poor."

Bill often liked to tell stories after dinner about how he met our mother.  "We were in the midst of darkest Africa . . ." was how the typical adventure would begin.  When I had a family of my own I wanted to continue the tradition and regale my offspring with exciting tales of finding my true love, their gorgeous but often in peril future mother.

After beginning to explain how I was in a hot air balloon over Victoria Falls, looked down and saw a beautiful young lady, tied to a pole and about to be cooked in a large cauldron of boiling water and then eaten by a tribe of pygmys equipped with poisonous blow darts, my oldest daughter Ceci puts her hands over her ears and tells me to stop. "That's not how you met mom.  You met on a ski trip!"  "Well yes, in darkest Africa" I assured her.  "No, it was in Canada.  There are no pygmys in Canada."  Sensing that she probably had me there I waited for another day, like when Ceci was staying with friends.

But what goes around comes around.  Ceci's oldest daughter Ellie is very bright but has never lived in an imaginary world.  When Ellie was little Ceci was so excited to give her a little kitchen set.  Ellie opens the door of the wooden refrigerator, looks in and says, "Hmmm."  Then she rubs her hand over the painted on burners of the stove, turns the cute little red knobs and again says, "Hmmm."  Checking under the little plastic sink to see if anything is connected to anything, she rolls her eyes.  Ellie never played with that set.  Her younger sisters later on were thrilled with it, but not Ellie.

One time after Piper was born and Ceci was feeding Pipes a bottle she asked Ellie if she wanted to feed her doll a bottle.  "Mom, it's just a big hunk of plastic.  It does not need a bottle."  One day Grandma Roberts gave Ellie an Easy Bake oven.  Ellie examines it carefully and then remarks, "A light bulb?"  But Ellie loved that little oven because it could really cook something eatable.  Now as a 5th grader she looks up recipes on line for stuff I cannot pronounce, gives her mom a shopping list, and makes them.  And best for me, anytime she knows I will be coming over she fixes up a delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Just like on Downton Abbey, life sometimes has a funny way of switching things up.  We use to live in "the big house" but now we live upstairs and downstairs and watch over the lady of the house who lives on the main floor.  Only our eldest daughter married a proper Englishman, and he's not all that proper (although I did spot him with a tie one day).  Two girls went orange and married Dutch and our youngest married Young, a guy with fiery red hair.  Come the revolution we've got contacts.  Our son went Ukrainan for a mate.  I'm pretty sure her ancestors live somewhere east of the Netherlands.  They got engaged at the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago so that should give him a good starting point for keeping up the family tradition that tells how he met his true love.

Or as Becky likes to quote - "Wov, true wov."

We Buy Gold

I suppose it's a sign of the times that the routes we drive for our road tests in Grand Rapids pass about a dozen places that proclaim loud and clear, WE BUY GOLD.  I actually did a test for a guy last year who has a job dressing up as an alligator or something, standing by the side of 28th street while gyrating around with a We Buy Gold sign.  He was a hip hop dancer otherwise so life was good.

This time of year they have some competition from the Statue of Liberty roadside hawkers offering $99 tax returns from the Liberty Tax chain, currently being undercut by the $49 guys.  I had a Liberty girl for a road test earlier this year as well.  She had also worked as a roadside donut for Krispy Kreame in New York City so she is really filling out her resume nicely.

The biggest gold buyer is a place right here in Kalamazoo which advertises about 100 times a day on each cable channel for every available cable channel.  If you live in West Michigan and have ever watched TV for more than a few hours it is now ingrained in your subconscious that "Scotts is buying".   They have a large family that gets in on each commercial, each one repeating the mantra.  What amazes me is that this group and every other location can promise the exact same thing;  "We give you the best prices for your gold."

There is another Scott from Kalamazoo who dives for gold on the show Bearing Sea Gold.  Psychotic would be a generous term for Scott.  My favorite Alaskan Gold show is Gold Rush.  I started out routing for Todd Hoffman but after almost 3 seasons he has worn out my patience.  It took their team a season and a half before they stopped digging everywhere the old man said in that funny voice of his, "I can smell the gold."  At least my lungs get a good workout yelling at the screen.

Here are some thoughts on gold taken from verses 7-10 of Psalm 19.         

The law of the Lord is perfect,
restoring the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever.

The judgments of the Lord are true,
they are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold,
yes, than much fine gold.

Crystal Clear

My niece had a neighbor who was dying of cancer. The lady had tried different medical solutions but she finally gave up on them and went down to Mexico to check out holistic type healing. That was unsuccessful as well. One day some years ago my niece phoned Jackie and me to see if we would drive to her little town and go over with her and her mother to pray for the sick neighbor.

Jackie and I cleared our afternoon and we were able to get there about two hours later, praying the whole time in an effort to have some guidance from the Lord as to how to pray once we got there. By the time we arrived at our niece's house we had not received any direction.

We walked across the street to the neighbor's home, met the lady who was laying in a bed set up in her living room, and talked a little. I then suggested that we all begin to pray silently and wait for God to show us what way to go. We prayed and waited for a long time. I got nothing. My wife and her sister are usually very sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit but they also got nothing.

Finally looking up and around my gauze landed on a crystal obelisk sitting on a window ledge near her bed. Knowing that she had gone to Mexico for a holistic approach I asked the lady if she had tried using the crystal for her healing or for any other type of purpose. She said no, it was just a decoration, but I had a strong feeling that she wasn't being honest with me. I asked her if she was sure about that and she repeated her denial.

My sense now was that we probably were not going to get anywhere but we were there so let's do our best and trust the Lord. I led her in a prayer to renounce Satan and all of his works, which she did, and then led her through a basic salvation prayer, which she prayed as well. Still not getting any specific direction for healing prayer and feeling all along that she would say anything at this point to be free of the cancer we prayed as best we could for her physical healing.

As we left the house I looked back and noticed a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign hanging by the peak in the front of the ladies home. For me this was a conformation that I had come unprepared for doing spiritual warfare which I believe would have been necessary in this situation. The neighbor lady did die several months later and my hope is that I was wrong about her willingness to say anything and that her decision to ask Jesus into her heart was sincere. Someday I'll find out.

Bodie and Brock Thoene are two of my favorite Christian authors. They write fiction series that follow a family or families over several generations. I love a quote they used in the dedication page of the last AD Chronicles series book of theirs that I recently read:

For Captain Todd Mirolla, HMS Victorious

described by Jack Aubrey as:

“A master tactician and a man of singular vision, who always says,

'Never mind maneuvers, just go straight at 'em.”'

Pace e bene!

Another of my favorite sayings from the AD Chronicles series, repeated in every book, is “Everything means something.” I thought of that this week when thinking about some spiritual cluelessness displayed by several  dear people I know. Wanting to pray about it to see if there was anything I could or should do I asked God to give me some wisdom from my daily scripture reading.

My current reading is from 2 Samuel which gives accounts of things that happened during the reign of King David. Before David became recognized as king he had been anointed as such by the high priest Samuel. The Jewish king then was Saul and things got to the point where Saul was always trying to kill David.  One time David received shelter from Nahash who was king of one of Israel's enemies, the Ammonites. After Saul died and David ascended to the throne he proceeded to go out to conquer and subdue all of the countries enemies. In chapter 10 of 2 Samuel, my reading for that day, David hears that king Nahash has died and even though the Ammonites were now an enemy David sent some of his servants to offer consolation to Hanun, son of Nahash and now the new Ammonite king.

The Ammonite princes suspected that the real reason for the visit was to spy out their city for the purpose of being better able to overthrow it. “So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, and sent them away.” As you can imagine this humiliation did not go over well with David. This led to a war related later in Samuel where David does not go with the armies, stays home and spots Bathsheba, commits a series of great sins by sleeping with her and having her husband sent to the front lines to die in an effort to cover up the ensuing pregnancy.

As I reflected on the chapter I didn't get insight on spiritual cluelessness but later that day I still had a burden for the matter, sat down and randomly opened my Bible to 1 Chronicles, verse 4, reading immediately the following verse (Chronicles goes over some of the same stuff as told in Samuel): “So Hanun took David's servants and shaved them and cut off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, and sent them away.” For me this was definitely an encouragement to reconsider what I had read in 2 Samuel, chapter 10.

It came to me the middle of the next night with the thought – "Don't let the enemy into your home."

In this case Israel and the Ammonites were enemies. The concern of the Ammonites was genuine but they handled it wrong. Hanun should have sent his servants to meet away from the city with David's servants to thank them for David's expression of condolence. A few gifts of gold and silver for David's servants to take back with them might have also helped prevent a war that they would ultimately lose. Yet the original advice of Hanun's princes was sound. You don't allow the enemy in where you live.

The problem with many is that they don't even know they even have an enemy who wants to deceive, steal and kill. They think there are neutral spiritual forces that are benign or that anything spiritual that looks attractive is good. They are blissfully unaware of the spiritual warfare that is raging around them so they don't protect themselves from the tactics of the evil one and his minions.

I am not going to go over here the numerous traps set for us by the enemy in this current day and age. It should be enough to know that his motives have not changed and the ultimate results are still the same.  The enemy will always try to deceive us by presenting bad things as good.  That is why it is imperative to:

Guard your home, the body.          Guard your mind, the soul.         Guard your heart, the spirit. 

There is a reason that we know God, not as a force but in three PERSONS. Only as a person can the Father love us.  The Father's love for us is so great that He sent His only Son to suffer and die in our place so that we may live.  Jesus then rose from the dead and sent The Holy Spirit whose work is to reveal the person of Jesus to us as well as to help us in our journey here on Earth.  Jesus brings new life to our spirit and then His goal is to direct us to the one we call our Father. 

David wanted to show grace to his enemy Hanun, who rejected it by humiliating the messengers.  The Father wants to show grace to us.  Yield only to The Holy Spirit.  Surrender only to Jesus.  Honor The Father by worshiping Him in spirit and in truth.    

Here Come Da Judge

When I was in 9^th grade at EE Fell Junior High School one of my classes was Government, the most mind numbing, sleep inducing courses ever. I would take my seat next to the large windows of the second floor classroom, lean my head against the ledge and count the seconds between red and green lights for the traffic signal just down the road on River Avenue. Every day, every government class, all semester long I watched that light.

But as Winter faded to Spring and Spring then rushed to the near end of the school year we got an unexpected treat; a class field trip to City Hall which was about a 5 minute walk up River Avenue, just across from Centennial Park. I have two memories of that little excursion. At age 15 I still could not whistle, yet walking along those sunlit city sidewalks I breathed in and produced a little tweet. Oh glory! Working that tweet for all it was worth it was then only a day more before I reversed engineered my lips and breath to produce an acceptable tune. Bridge on the River Kwai here I come.

More relevant to this story my second memory was our class sitting in a court room at that City Hall and watching the characters who came forward to meet the judge for whatever purpose they were there for. One old guy in particular was interesting. Seems this was at least his 6^th time standing before the Honorable So and So, all related to his driving habits. The judge pulls out a long paper that looks like Santa's naughty and nice list and begins to read all of the previous infractions, many which had to do with the guy getting caught driving without a valid driver's license.

The judge's tone of voice was quite loud. I don't know if it was for our benefit, young about to be citizens of the road who perhaps were being sublimely warned to watch ourselves. Maybe it was for the old guys chastisement, hope against hope that he would learn his lesson. Or maybe the judge was actually really irritated, both at the guy taking up his time but also at the legal system that that produced a punishment too small to stop the behavior. All in all, real life was way more interesting than reading about the 3 branches of government. In college I was a Political Science major, so there you have it.

Fast forward to this week where I get 3 guys in 2 days, all born in 1965, who are taking the driving test I administer. Each has been driving without a valid license for years. Each has been caught multiple times. Each is on a payment plan with the State to pay off fines which now total over $1000 anytime you get ticketed for driving without a license. The first guy lost his license at age 18 for not paying other fines. The second was in the military overseas for 10 years and the third, Jesse, had never applied for one.

I get in the car with Jesse to begin the drive, go over the instructions before we start and then ask him if he has any questions. Jesse, who is gripping the steering wheel very tightly, tells me that he is very nervous. “Oh, you have been driving for a long time, everything should go fine if you take it easy and obey the traffic rules” I assure him. Jesse replies; “That's what my brother, wife, my girl friend tell me.”

I start laughing. “Well, if you can manage a wife and a girl friend at the same time this driving stuff should be a piece of cake.” Now Jesse starts laughing. “I call her my wife but we have been living together for 22 years and I have two kids with her but she is actually my girlfriend.” Still laughing and giving Jesse an exaggerated wink I nod and say, “OK then.”

I ask Jesse, “Does your brother have his driver's license?”

“A, no.”

“Maybe you can be an inspiration for him. What about your girl friend?”

“Yes, she does.”

“And your wife?”

“You know she goes everywhere my girl friend does.”

Jesse does really well and passes. Like all the other ones I've tested who have been driving forever without a license he is so relieved to finally be legal, not having to look over their shoulders every time they get behind the wheel.

I had one guy from a small town who got caught 13 times driving without a license. The State started taking money out of his paycheck to pay off the $30,000 worth of fines he had accumulated. I asked him why he kept driving and he told me that he had to get to work. “You would be money ahead if you had taken a taxi” I told him. “Well, every time I got caught I sold my car and bought another, thinking that the cops wouldn't stop me. I guess they must have recognized my face. It wasn't always the same cops but I always had the same female judge, and she was never happy to see me.”

Thinking back to my 9^th grade court visit I tell him, “I bet she wasn't.”

Go Forward Young Man

Young Mr. Johnson handed me his Temporary Instruction Permit as we were beginning the paperwork for his driver's test. Noticing that his permit requires him to be wearing corrective lens and he has come without I ask if he has his glasses with him. Johnson smirks and answers, “I sure does” and pulls them out of his coat pocket.

After the paperwork and vehicle inspection is completed I give the instructions for the parking lot portion of the test. The first exercise is to drive forward and get the vehicle as close as possible to a line between two cones that is 40 feet ahead of us. Showing Mr. Johnson the diagram and moving my finger forward on it from our current location to the illustration showing a car stopped before a solid line extending between two cones I read to him: “Drive forward and stop with the front bumper of your vehicle close to, not on or over the solid line between the cones ahead . . . “ Then I ask him if he has any questions.

“So you want me to go in reverse?”

Now it's my time to smirk. “No. Do you see that solid line ahead of us sitting between those two cones?”

“A huh.”

“You need to drive forward to get there.”

“Oh, OK.”

He passes the parking lot portion and we end up on the road. To help him relax a bit I ask Johnson if he is going to school or if he is currently working. “I go to CC” says Johnson. I ask what classes he enjoys most. “I be trying to keep up width all my courses so dat I not git behind any and I be doing pretty good with deem so far.”

“Is there anything that you are studying for?”

Johnson replies, “I want to be a lawyer.”

“Oh really, why may I ask?”

“Well, I um, um, um, you know, um, yeah, um, I want to work for the State.” His budding lawyer skills have left me pretty confused so I drop any further conversation.

We are nearing the end of the test and Johnson is 1 point shy of failing but it looks like clear sailing until he runs a red light just before our parking lot. I tell him when we get back that it was very, very close and that he would have passed if he didn't run that red light. “Oh man! You mean I almost passed? Wow!”

Several days later Johnson comes back. He has taken to heart all my advice from the end of his first test, does very well and passes. After I inform him of this he tells me, “You know I went home after dat test and cried like a baby. My momma says, 'Why you crying boy?' and I says 'Cause I almost passed but ran a red light.' “

I hope Johnson keeps going forward on his studies. We sure does need lawyers with a heart.