To Uncle Dale

My Uncle Dale Van Lente went to be with the Lord earlier this month.  The list of what he accomplished and gave back to the community and his family is quite long, yet he was always a very humble and likeable man.

This poem comes from the image of a soccer star leaving the pitch.  I had never really understood what was happening until a visiting missionary to Africa did the same thing after his presentation at our church last month.


To Uncle Dale

The game was fought

with cleat and blood

showed skill both close and far.

The score was set

and time to sub

was done the local star.

As one the stands

stood to applaud,

like waves the sound did jar.

Caught up I cheered

till almost horse,

enjoyed adulation's hour.

Our hero smiled

while he nodded

arms raised as if a tower.

Applauded us

the fickle fans

and Him who gives the power.

Uncle Jerritt

This Tuesday night we met with hundreds others to celebrate the life of my nephew Matt Johnson.  Matt was reported lost on Japan's Mt. Fuji in January, his body was found in June and Tuesday was the first time all of Matt's immediate family could get together.  It was a truly wonderful service.

My daughter Becky with her kids Melody and Cy drove in from the Milwaukee area and the day after the memorial was spent with her and those grandchildren at a family cottage just south of Kalamazoo.

Some other family were there also including Rick, one of my brothers-in-law.  Rick gets out a fishing pole and walks down the steps out to the dock over the lake and 4 year old Melody hops off the little plastic tractor she was sitting on and follows close behind.  We are a little worried that Melody will be talking to Rick non stop thus scaring off any potential catches but Rick assures us that the fish won't mind.

We watched Rick cast and Melody talk and after awhile they climb back up the steps (without any fish) and we ask how things went.  Rick says that Melody always has really good questions and Melody says that she had a great time with "Uncle Jerritt."  Even though we tell Melody about a dozen times that his name is Uncle Rick, not Uncle Jerritt, the information has already been imprinted on her brain.

Becky calls this morning from her sister's house in Grand Rapids and tells me that Melody told her last night that they couldn't stay there, they had to go home, because she had invited Uncle Jerritt to visit her in Milwaukee and she didn't want him to come and have no one there.  Ah, the logic and hope of a 4 year old.

Hope was the theme for our celebration Tuesday night.  Matt's service started out with worship and included a song that we as a family had sung with tears for nine straight nights this January as we met to pray for Matt's safety, protection, and finally at the end for the searchers to find his body.  The song begins with the words "Standing on this mountain top" and then throughout proclaims that no matter what the struggles are in life "You will never walk alone."  The song's chorus speaks so clearly and powerfully, proclaiming to God how we as believers feel when we are hurting, confused, but still have hope because of the faith that changed our lives - "You are faithful, God you are faithful."

One of the other songs was an old Christian classic with an updated tempo.  "My hope is based on nothing less than Jesus love and righteousness . . . Upon this solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.".

Matt's dad Jerry spoke that night about the process of prayer the family went through until the search could go on no longer and the weather would not permit anyone to survive.  He said that until the end we always had hope that God would be with Matt to see him through.  When the end came we had peace because we knew without a doubt where Matt really was.

Those who don't know Jesus won't be able to understand the peace and hope we have.  It is not based on what we know or what we do or how well we do it.  Instead our hope is based on Someone we know.  It drives many unbelievers crazy when they see we have prayed and prayed and still proclaim that God is faithful.  Well, we don't do it because we are so stupid that we don't know how the world works.  We do it because there is something and Someone inside us that sees beyond the physical.

I was an atheist when I married into the Johnson family.  I remember asking brother-in-law Rick, who seemed to be a pretty intelligent guy, how he could believe in someone he couldn't see.  "I can't tell you Bob, you just have to believe."  It seemed so simple to him.

I could explain here what I have learned about how salvation works and why Jesus needed to die on the cross and what grace is, but that won't change the mind of a confirmed unbeliever.  I could write pages about how people tune out any time they hear the name Jesus and have this long list of complaints against believers  but especially against God.  But guess what?  God really has made it simple.

Lay down your pride and come to Jesus as a little child.  Sit on His lap and confess your sins.  Ask Him to come into your heart and be your Lord and Savior.  It will cost you everything.  EVERYTHING!

Good thing He loves us. 

Destroying Fortresses

"Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses."  (2 Corinthians 10: 3-4)

For almost 40 years I have been interested in eschatology, or the study of end time biblical prophecy.  One part of that is the discussion of the who and when and where about the person the Bible calls the Antichrist.

One of the descriptions given in scripture of the Antichrist is that he honors a god of fortresses.

"He will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know;  he will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures.  He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god."  (Daniel 11: 38-39)
 
This would seem to indicate that this future world leader builds up an impressive military force within his own culture and territory in the last days.  He first establishes his own base and with that secure he goes on the offense, perhaps in alliance with another culture which follows a different religion.

One day I came across the word "fortresses" in 2 Corinthians 10:4 and I realized that fortresses are also strongholds that our adversary uses to secure his territory within us.  The next verse defines what they are:

"We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God."

Then tells us how these can be destroyed:

"And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

The spirit of the antichrist which the apostle John tells us is already in the world denies that Jesus is God  come in the flesh, that He suffered and died for our sins so that we could be reconciled with the Father, that He rose as the first fruits of a wonderful salvation that defeated the world, the flesh and the devil, and that one day every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

The spirit of the antichrist, like the world we live in, denies that Jesus is Lord.  And so the struggle we have is that although through Jesus we already have the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil we often do not live in that victory.  We want to be lord of our thoughts, our emotions, our feelings.  We want to be lord of our activities, our finances, our future.  By our own devices we guard ourselves against all the hurts and pains that are part of living in this world.

The enemy knows this and works full time to confuse, diffuse and abuse.  The first tactic is the same today as it was in the Garden of Eden - Did God really say?  And his next is just as ancient.  Knowing that after we get hurt we want to protect ourselves from suffering again he helps us build those fortresses that ultimately exclude the only One who can truly heal and protect.

And isn't it strange?  Just as the Antichrist honors a god of fortresses with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures, so in the same sense do we.  We take pride in our strongholds.  We take pride in our knowledge.  We invest resources and time to maintain their beauty.

But God did say.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  True freedom only comes through total surrender to the One who truly loves us.

Jesus is Lord and as Lord He wants to be involved with the way we process our thoughts when we encounter all the stings and stones that are hurled against us in this life. 

Come to the Lord who created you and has a plan for your life.  Come to the Savior who took away your sins and says "Go and sin no more."   Come to the Son of Man who loves you so much he sees your tears and feels the pain you feel.

Come and then obey.  I tell you with every fiber in my being - It is so much better.

  

There Are Strange Things Done In The Midnight Sun

In the midst of the hottest Michigan summer since the 1800's, on a 96 degree humid afternoon with very little breeze, I sit.  Even in the shade of a choke cherry tree my Big Lots reject plastic chair offers little comfort as I'm waiting for my next client to drive up.  I have a sheen of sweat on my arms that almost makes my 80 gauge sunscreen appear to float.  I try to rub it down but nothing changes.  It still glistens.

Directly across from me but separated by a couple of hundred feet of roasting parking lot is the back of Duthlers grocery.  Duthlers sits just across the street from an Aldis which is a very popular discount grocery chain and is on the same block, same large parking lot actually, as a Family Fare, a big local chain of grocery retailers.  Family Fare is so popular that when they built the one on our block they neglected to tear down the old one which is located only one city block away.  Both are busy.

This competition would seem to hurt a little guy like Duthlers but they must have found a certain niche that allows them to prosper.  I'm told that 80 per cent of their day time business is paid with food stamps and that the evening traffic is an entirely different clientele.

Duthlers is in an old building and from my shady vantage point I can see their rusty roof air conditioner units and rusty steel back doors.  The faded yellow cinder block walls have openings for two large PVC pipes that discharge massive amounts of water on a day like today, forming two rivers that follow the slope of the parking lot.  The back of the building containing the warehouse area is single story with a flat tar roof while the rest rises up one more with a peak in the middle of the steel roof.

This combination must be ideal for pigeons because there are at least 22 birds that call Duthlers home.  The numbers vary depending on the success of the local hawk.  One of the pigeons has a totally different coloration than the others, a nice almost reddish brown.  While most of the pigeons seem to enjoy the closeness of the others company it's different for the odd guy.  I've seen the flock take off, circle the parking lot and then land on the edge of the upper peak.  The last on in is Mr. Reddish Brown who sets down four spaces from his cousin.  He takes three little hops to close the gap and the cousin hops three spaces further.  This repeats itself until they run out of available peak meaning both birds have to take off and start over.

In the morning the back of Duthlers is busy with various truckers unloading their goods.  Sitting here watching reminds me of the Andy Griffin Show (bye Andy) where Goober tells Barney that he has to leave because it's going to fun watching them unload a truck at the local Co-OP.  I suppose I should start worrying about myself but don't none of you laugh until you try it.

Anyway, today the trucks are gone, the sun is hot, the air is moist and the wind is on vacation.  I'm praying that my next person comes with a working air conditioner and that they are normal so the parking lot portion of the test isn't two to three times longer than what is necessary.  I look up from my prayers and I see a guy pull out a cart from one of those back doors at Duthlers and the cart is loaded with full and half full bags of ice.

Something must be wrong or outdated with this stock because the young man, still dressed in the coat he must need for his warehouse duties, begins to tear open the plastic bags and dumps the contents on the ground.  This goes on until there is quite a large pile of ice sitting there.  The young man finishes his task, goes back into the building, and here I am, so close and yet so far.  I really want to walk over and stuff my head into that pile but that would require getting up and starting to sweat.  And what if the heat were playing tricks with me and the ice is just a mirage?

My cousin Marcia just got back from Alaska.  Before returning she posts on Face Book that it's 50 there and what should she expect in Michigan.  I should have replied - "Don't know but right now I'm looking at a pile of ice and it hasn't melted yet."

Oh Padiddle!

I'm sure there must be hundreds of variations of the game when two or more young people are in a car at night and they see an oncoming vehicle with one of the head lights out.  I've had my arm pounded by a younger sister who would yell "slug bug" (also works if you spot a Volkswagen Beetle at any time of day), had a girl friend who for some unknown reason would call them "turtles", and found out when dating Jackie that the proper term was "padiddle".

Padiddle can also be used as an exclamation when something goes amiss, as in "Oh Padiddle!  I'm not sure where this comes from but it must have some real life origin.  Since a lot of exclamations have to do with body functions perhaps it can be connected to what a puppy does when it gets over-excited.  "Oh padiddle, we have a little mess on our hands."

There seems to be both a choice of words and a progression of size involved in body functions that enables a person to  magnify their displeasure over something.  Jackie's family did not allow any type of swearing and even saying "fart" could get one sent to their rooms.  You can see how far society as a whole has come when I can blog "fart" and not be worried (and yes I am ashamed to sink so low as to try to get laughs from that word).

I grew up in a different type of family.  My mother and father also did not allow any type of swearing from their children but that did not seem to apply to my dad who would often say "excuse my English" after an outburst of profanity.  He grew up in a big city, lived through a tough war, and could get mad in an instant.  After saying what he had to say he would be fine - wasn't upset, never held a grudge.

Once when I was young my father and his brother Jack bought a sailboat together.  This was a case of two admirals with no crew on the same small boat gliding across a pleasant little lake in the conservative town of Holland.  I'm told that noise carries very well over the lake and that they turned the water blue.

Now back to the progression of displeasure.  Padiddle is far to one end because no one is certain what it means.  Everybody knows what the word "poop" means but we usually associate that with children who might say, "Mommy, I need to go poopy". Then would come fart and of course the jokes that surround the process.  Eddie Murry made a career with it.  Next would come the word "crap" which somehow isn't too offensive or funny but is widely used.  A parent might say to their innocent child, "clean that crap out of your bedroom" and we translate it as "mess" or maybe "junk".  "Oh crap!" is a little dicey because that does imply a body function and that phrase was banned for both Jackie and Me. 


Next of course is the four letter word "s**t".  An ugly word if there ever was one.  Why it is so much worse than "crap" baffles me.  What is interesting is that one can raise the ire level by adding animal names to the word.  "Horse s**t" indicates so much more displeasure than almost anything.  If I were to exclaim "dog poop" when getting mad people would laugh, but "horse s**t would make a guy want to punch me in the nose.  Why horse is superior to dog I can guess, but to elephant?  Beats me.

Which reminds me of a story my dad once told me.  He was a very successful salesman for many years, as was his father and my uncle Jack.  Thus my dad had a lot of stories about salesmen.

There was a guy named Joe who every month was on the very bottom of the sales list.  Finally the sales manager calls him into his office and tells him that if he doesn't quickly improve he will be looking for another line of work.  At the end of the next month the sales manger checks the totals and lo and behold Joe is at the very top of the charts.  He takes Joe out to lunch to congratulate him and asks him about his last sales call which resulted in a very big order.  "Tell me what you did different?"  Joe answers that his secret all has to do with one little phrase - "THAT'S FANTASTIC!".

 "The buyer shows me a picture of his daughter and tells me she was homecoming queen, has a 4.0 and works 20 hours each week with crippled kids on her own time.  I tell him THAT'S FANTASTIC!  Then he shows me a golfing plaque and indicates that he is club champ 6 years running and he just got his third hole-in-one.  Again I say THAT'S FANTASTIC!  Finally he tells me that his company is going to expand and that he will be the new branch operating manager.  WOW, THAT'S FANTASTIC! I shout".  The buyer then gets out his books and we write up a lot of business".

The sales manger asks, "so what did you do different?"  Joe replies, "In the past when they would feed me that crap I used to say - THAT'S BULL S**T!

Oh padiddle, please excuse my English.

Revival And The Spirit Of Antichrist

It is my firm desire to see the society I live in transformed by a third "Great Awakening".  Transformation of a society, at least for a season, maybe decades, hopefully longer, can only come through changed hearts of a large segment of the population.  And that change can only happen through a powerful move of the Holy Spirit.

He will bring upon the people a desperate desire for repentance and will draw men and women to a living relationship with the Christ.  This will not be the Christ of hymnbooks and doctrinal statements, so many of which flowed from the revivals of the past.  This will be the Christ who drives us to our knees to cry for mercy, then helps us stand up to live for Him.

God has a plan to finally end rebellion and although I do not know His timing I can read the signs of the times. But I have hope.  As the dark gets darker there must come a light that shines brighter.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world". (I John 4: 1-4)
      
Even in the first century of the Christian faith there were people who proclaimed themselves Christians, but who had separated themselves from the Christian community. They fashioned theologies that used Jesus to represent the mystical, pagan and worldly ideas that permeated their surroundings. Their Jesus was not God who became man, dying and rising from the dead so that man could be reconciled to the Father, and who comes as a person to live in our hearts and to lead us by His Holy Spirit. Instead, their Jesus is a lifeless icon, representing religious works, denying that God who became man shed His precious blood to redeem mankind. The spirit of antichrist denies that Jesus is indeed the Christ, and that spirit has been at work in the world to prepare the world for the son of rebellion, The Antichrist.

The Antichrist is identified in Revelation as being one of the horns that comes from a beast that comes out of the sea "having ten horns and seven heads" (Rev. 13:1), who will appear at the end of this age, not only to lead men to worship the false god of this world, but also to try and complete the process of rebellion in this world that has been going on since the evil one first sinned. The evil one has always wanted, not only dominion over this world, but also to be recognized and worshiped as the true god of this world. But the end of this age will instead see the Son of Man restoring all to the plan that the Father always had. Jesus is the Christ, and He will reign and rule on this earth, and He will give all the glory to the Father, and will restore all things to the Father.

In one of his visions Daniel saw a series of beasts. The 4th one was "dreadful, and terrifying and extremely strong", and it had 10 horns. From among the horns rose up a little horn which would grow bigger and rip out 3 of the first 10. Daniel keeps looking at the vision until he sees that "thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His hair was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, and the books were opened". (Daniel 7: 9-10)

This is an awesome picture of a judgment that is yet to come. God is shown here as a holy and righteous judge who has waited patiently for thousands of years for rebellion to take its course but is now ready to burn away all the accumulated rot and re-establish His dominion and kingdom. 

Dominion over the earth had originally been given to mankind through Adam who by sin surrendered it to the evil one. Jesus came thousands of years later, living a life obedient to the Father, showing Himself glorified at the transfiguration to Peter, James and John, so they could testify as to who Jesus really was.  

Jesus died on the cross as the sacrifice that the Father required to conquer sin, rose from the dead as the first fruits of a promised eternal life with Jesus and the Father, ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father and asked the Father to pour forth the Holy Spirit.  

The Spirit would change, empower and comfort all those who would confess that Jesus had come in the flesh to be their Savior and Lord. The kingdom of God could now be in the hearts of people, who in turn could minister in the power of the Spirit to change the hearts and lives of others. But there still remained a struggle over the dominion of the earth and the control of it's kingdoms.

The little horn is a picture of the coming Antichrist who will make an agreement with the many that is to last seven years (see Daniel 9:27). I believe that this agreement will allow the Jewish people to once again set up a tabernacle in or near Jerusalem. When it is set up they will anoint priests, cleanse the tabernacle, and set up daily offerings and sacrifices. 

Midway through the seven years the Antichrist will cause the offerings and the sacrifices to stop. An image of the Antichrist will be set up in the tabernacle, and it will be given the power to speak by the false prophet, who has received power and authority that came from the evil one, and many will begin to worship the image (see Matthew 24:15). 

Worship of the image in the tabernacle is the ultimate denial that Jesus is God come in the flesh, who became the sacrifice the Father required to reconcile man to Himself. The evil one, through the Antichrist, wants to inherit and rule through the earthly kingdom promised to Jesus, and from there to have permanent dominion over all the kingdoms of the world.

But it is not to be. Daniel sees that the forth beast (the kingdom of the Antichrist) will be slain, its body destroyed and given to the burning fire. Then Daniel notices with the clouds of heaven "One like the Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed"  (Daniel 7: 13-14).
    - 

We are told in the first chapter of John that Jesus, who is called the Word, was present with God from the beginning, and that all things were created by Him and for Him. Jesus is called the Son of Man because the Word became flesh. As both the Son of Man, having become the second Adam, and the Son of God, He will be given authority and dominion over the kingdoms of the earth, ruling from Jerusalem.

John writes later in the Book of Revelation; "And the beast (the Antichrist) was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who have received the mark of the beast, and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20). 
    -

The evil one is bound for a thousand years, released for a short time near the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ, then is also thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone for eternity. After this there will be a new heavens and a new earth, Jesus will turn everything over to the Father, and things will be different in ways we cannot now imagine. Indeed, even now our image of who God is; His glory, His eternal nature, the vastness and complexity of a creation that He designed and implemented, and His love, is so limited.

The visions in Daniel would identify the ancient of Days as being the Father. But the apostle John records in the beginning of Revelation another vision in which he sees seven golden lamp stands, "and in the middle of the lamp stands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters" (Rev. 1: 13-16).  
    -

Here John, who saw the transfigured Jesus, sees in a vision someone who has the same look as the person described in the vision of Daniel, who appears as both priest and judge, and who identifies himself a few verses later as God did to Moses at the burning bush; "I am the first and the last" (v17). This is repeating how Jesus identifies Himself to John earlier in the 1st chapter; "I am the Alpha and the Omega', says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8).

My daughter Becky went to a Division I University to play soccer and to get her nursing degree. Eighty per cent of the students at that college had been born and raised Catholic, maybe 40 per cent had gone to private Catholic high schools, and religion for most was part of their daily lives. So Becky, coming from a religious and conservative non-Catholic home was very surprised to find that most of her teammates would get drunk every weekend and many were sleeping with their boyfriends on a regular basis. I don't suppose that this was any different than the average secular college, or perhaps the same thing can be said for some  other Christian colleges, Catholic or non-Catholic, but it was upsetting to my daughter.
    -

She saw in so many students religion without any relationship with Jesus and tradition that did not lead to a healthy fear of the Lord.  Becky eventually began to pray that there would be revival at that school. She prayed for revival everyday and even started a meeting that meet early in the morning at the student union, joined by students from a variety of Christian groups on campus to pray for revival. But it was easy for her to get discouraged. One time Becky expressed to me her frustration that she was not seeing anything happen and I e-mailed some encouragement, telling her that I sensed that there would come a time when people would fall under the power of the Holy Spirit at the school, even in the classrooms.

One evening that winter she went for a prayer walk around her downtown campus, lifting it up to the Lord for revival. As she was walking it started to snow. Becky had actually walked several blocks pass the campus, and when she turned around to go back she noticed that everything on the campus was covered in white. Even the main city road running alongside the campus was now snow covered without any traffic having cut channels through to the pavement. At that moment God spoke to her and said something like this. "Revival will come when repentance covers the campus as the snow you see now is covering the campus. And when it does you are to lay your hands on people and say - Believe in the Lord God, the Almighty; who was, and who is, and who is to come. - And when you do, they will fall in the power of the Holy Spirit".

This hasn't happened yet but the point is still valid.  All revival, be it one person at a time or a mighty surge of humanity, starts with the Holy Spirit leading us to repentance.

John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus and he ministered with a baptism of repentance. Jesus said of John that no greater man had walked the earth. But when Jesus eventually came John realized that the focus of what the Holy Spirit was doing through him wasn't about him at all. John's attitude was that he must decrease so that Jesus would increase. 
    -

Lord, it is my prayer that you would search my heart, and show me where pride is limiting the move of your Holy Spirit in and through my life. Show me where sin is hiding. I repent of my rebellion towards you and my lack of love toward those around me. Burn your light into every corner of my life, and let my life be pleasing to you., I reject the lies of the evil one, and I will make every effort to walk in honesty and humility before you and my fellow man, no matter what the cost. This is my prayer, not just for now, but for the rest of my days on this earth. You have been my Savior for these many years. Help me know you as Lord each day forward.

What Kind Of Birds Don't Fly?

Christopher drives up for his road test today in a nice late model Chrysler 300.  I'm pretty happy to see this particular vehicle approach because it's 99 degrees out and the 91 Subaru Loyale driver by Jessica just prior was without working AC.

The guy behind the sunglasses looks like he is in his mid 30's so I know that he probably has had a previous license, lost it for some reason, and is now in the process of getting it back.  His temporary permit says "verify restrictions" and those are on a sheet stapled to said permit.  I read among other restrictions listed that he is only permitted to drive a vehicle equipped with an interloc, which is a device he must blow into to check for the presence of booze or drugs before the vehicle will start.  Not seeing this device I ask him anyway if his vehicle is equipped with an interloc.

"They told me at the Secretary of State Office that I don't need one for my test." 

I explain to Christopher that the test includes driving and that according to the restrictions on his permit he is only allowed to drive in a vehicle equipped with an interloc.  "I do several tests a week for people who bring a vehicle equipped with an interloc.  In fact I did one early today.  Don't you have a vehicle with one?"

"I do but I didn't bring it because they told me at the Secretary of State Office that it wasn't necessary."

Um, right.  I inform Christopher that it will not be possible to continue on with the test and that he will need to reschedule and bring a proper vehicle next time.  He complains that he is going to have to pay a reschedule fee when it was not his fault and then guns the car through the parking lot toward the office.  About 10 minutes later I'm sitting in the shade waiting for my next test when I spot the Chrysler 300 speeding across the parking lot, a one finger salute pointed my way.  Like I'm the one responsible for any of his problems.

This made me think of a wonderful young man, neighbor to family, who was killed last year by a young repeat drunk driver who was involved in prior multiple accidents caused while he was intoxicated.  Even after being convicted for a very long time he still could not show remorse or take responsibility for his actions.

It is rare for someone to fail the driving test if they have had a previous license.  However if I do end up with Christopher again (won't happen, these guys usually go somewhere else because their failure must have been our fault) he would be wise not to do any rolling stops.  I could mark "rolling stop" on my score sheet, one point deduction, or I could mark "ran stop sign", an automatic failure. 

Hmm.  What kind of birds don't fly?  JAIL BIRDS!