Driving Distractions

Did you know that the average time a driver looks away from the road while texting is 5 seconds?  Yup, enough time to take you and me into a very happy place.  Well, at least me.  If I'm lucky enough to die instead of getting crippled.

Texting is a relatively new driving hazard.  How new?  My spell check underlined texting and gave me the following options:  testing - exiting - taxing - jesting and  tasting.  To remember my options I've come up with the following sentence.

While testing a young lady and exiting the freeway we slammed on our brakes to avoid a driver who while texting cut us off, taxing our ability to keep jesting and tasting life to it's fullest.

A much older obstacle to safe driving is the behaviour I noticed yesterday.  I'm sitting at a corner and the car passing in front of me appears to be driven by a big shaggy dog, paws on the steering wheel, happy face looking out the open driver side window.  I say appears because I never actually saw the stupid human who must at least be working the gas and brake.  There was no way he could have seen me.

Feline lovers at least keep their driving buddies out of sight, one hand on the wheel, the other rubbing the furry beast.  I think this is more the choice of the cat.  They don't like wind, they don't look happy but sometimes they do want to know what's going on so they sit in the back window, creeping me out as they stare at me.

One of the latest fashions for people who wear glasses are frames with these very wide side brackets.  They look nice but like the idiot with the dog on his lap the glasses offer no peripheral vision. At least these fashionistas (machinists in my spell check) can learn to move their head to compensate and don't have to worry about what will happen to their lap if a dog gets frightened or a cat gets frisky.

I won't bore you with statistics concerning gory death and cell phone while driving usage.  Do you really care?  Does the average person think, "Oh, this may end my life.  It would be wise to pull over and talk."  I would say that maybe 20% of people that come in for road tests between the ages of 18 and 24 actually keep their iPhone on their lap when driving, ON THE ROAD TEST!  They don't use it but you know this is their life.

I bet when they leave me they have one hand on the wheel, one thumb changing screens and doing all the other stuff I wouldn't know because I don't have an iPhone.  This prompts an interesting thought.  Your driving attention while you are on your cell phone is maybe 50% and theirs is at 10%.  What are your odds of finding that happy place?

25 Points That Guide My Voting

I cannot vote for a person or a party that encourages abortion.

Same sex orientation should not be given the status of marriage.

Education is more a local matter than a Federal matter.

We must help the poor to get out of their situation.

We should revise policies that encourage a culture of single parent families.

Protection of our borders should have priority over votes.

Revenue for social programs come from tax payers, not the government.

Our rights come from the Creator, not the government.

Our country should be able to pay for everything it provides without needing to borrow or print money.

If we don't have the money we need to first cut back on spending.

Spending can be added if and when revenues increase, not on promises.

Because we can't have everything we need to prioritize, have a say in the process, and go without.

16 Trillion in debt is going to destroy this country, hurting everyone, the poor first.

Inflation (rising gas, utilities, food prices) hurt everyone, the poor first.

Becoming energy independent must happen soon.

We are responsible for protecting our environment, but there must be balance.

Solar and wind requirements should not be mandated.

Gas millage should not be mandated.

Social engineering should not be mandated.

In today's world we need a strong military.

We should not apologize to the world for our values or history.

We need to stand with and support our allies.

We need to seek the will of God for us and for our country.

We need to cry out to Him for forgiveness and mercy.

We need to thank Him for placing us in this place at this time.

Hooray For Tomorrow!

I am excited about tomorrow because it will start the 16^th straight year that Jackie and I have observed a 40 day period of prayer and fasting which we begin on the first of October. This post is taken from one I did several years ago.

Our fasting has been relatively minor. We began by abstaining from carbonated beverages, deserts, and from eating anything between meals but have made adjustments over the years to insure we have something that will work. These things have worked because for us they are difficult, they take a commitment to achieve, and we know that we can see them through to the end. In the weeks before we start we each ask the Lord to show us what we should be praying for, and then right before we begin we talk together about the burdens that God has laid on our hearts. Doing this we end up with a common prayer focus. And prayer seems to be more effective when two or more are in agreement.

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Jackie and I both believe that our annual fast has been an important part of our lives. We praise God, not just for the answers to prayer and for the spiritual growth that comes every year, but also for the goodness of our Lord and Savior, whom we appreciate more because of this time we have spent, unified in prayer and in denying the cravings of our bodies. The results of this time have been much more than seeing God move in the areas that we were praying for. They have shown us that although we may begin and end on a certain day determined by us, the God who loves us and who knows our needs is outside of time.

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For example, our fast begins on the 1st of October and ends at midnight on the 9th of November. On the first year we did our fast Jackie's dad had a major heart attack on the 10th of November. He lived for 6 more days at the critical care heart center on the fifth floor of Borgess Hospital before he went to be with his Blessed Redeemer. Harry was a man of great faith, a gifted teacher of scripture who prayed with many for salvation, for baptism in the Holy Spirit, for healing and for deliverance. The family would usually look to him to be the leader in praying for healing or for receiving a word from the Lord. His heart attack became a time for many more in the family to learn how to search the scriptures, to cry out to the Lord, and to hear and speak forth the prophetic word.

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One of the prophetic words during that time came from a vision that God gave our 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 a hallway near the visitors waiting room, on the 5th floor at Borgess. In the vision she saw angels with their swords drawn coming into the hospital on the 1st floor, and fighting their way up to the 5th floor, and she gave the play by play to the women as the vision unfolded. To me this vision represents the power of their collective intercessory prayer. God is showing that He is in control, and that He does respond, even if the result was not the recovery they were praying for. And one of the things that show me that God is in control is that He led Jackie and I to fast and pray prior to those events, preparing us, and especially Jackie, for the emotional strain of seeing her father die, and for the intense time of prayer and spiritual warfare that the family would be involved in.

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On the next year we ended our fast as usual at midnight on the 9th of November. Jackie had asked her mom to come and spend the night at our house because it was near the 1st anniversary of Harry's heart attack and she was worried about her mother being alone at that time. Helen wasn't able to make it, but events proved to be very interesting. There was an all day steady wind of between 40-50 mph. That evening it started gusting to 60-70 mph. Occasionally we would hear a "Whomp!", which was the sound of a tree falling somewhere nearby. The power was out before we went to bed and Jackie and I prayed for protection for ourselves, our 15 year old daughter Becky, and for our house. Shortly after ending our prayer we heard and felt the tremendous crash of trees hitting our house, followed by the scream of our daughter. I grabbed a flashlight and bolted down the dark upstairs hallway to her room, finding her huddled in a ball on the floor. There was a jagged 2 x 4 from the roof truss sticking into the middle of her mattress. Looking up past the wood and drywall and trees I could see the sky. Becky was unhurt and did not know how she ended up on the floor and Jackie and I both had the sense that an angel had intervened, moving Becky off her bed at the last second.

Two rooms sustained quite a bit of damage. The other belonged to our daughter Missy who was away at college. And that was the room where Jackie's mom would have been sleeping if she had come. There were a couple more upsides to all of this. Tarps covered the roof for three weeks before it could be repaired and it never rained during that time. Being in a woods our roof was covered with moss and insurance paid for a new moss resistant roof as well as for all the other repairs. The missing trees opened up a nice large sunny area out back, which Jackie had wanted for a long time. Even though our house got hit, our time of prayer and fasting had prepared us. God protected us physically and gave us more besides.

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Living our lives as Christians is not about religion or religious acts. It is not about if or how we fast or the fervency of our prayers, or the volume of scripture we read. It all has to do with a living Lord, who loves us and who wants to share a loving relationship with us. He desires to be in every part of our lives, and He desires that we share with Him the things that He finds pleasure in. Prayer and fasting help in bringing down the barriers of the world and the flesh that come between us and the relationship He wants to have with us.

One time I read the 8th chapter of Ezekiel during my morning prayer time. In it the Lord gave Ezekiel a series of visions showing the people of Jerusalem engaged in idol worship, spirit worship, Tammuz worship and sun worship. In one of those Ezekiel digs a hole through a wall to uncover a secret place where seventy elders of the House of Israel were standing, each with a censer filled with incense before walls that had "every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the House of Israel, were carved on the wall around it". Upon reading this my stomach felt nauseous. I became sad because I realized that God loved this people and wanted so much for them, and in return they rejected Him. But of course, this isn't to point a finger at a particular people. I realized that I too can think that I have a secret place where God cannot see. And those things that are kept in a secret place are just as much idols, and just as creepy and detestable to God as were the things worshiped by the elders of the House of Israel. I know these things will affect my relationship with Him, so the solution is to bring everything into the light. I do this not just because things will be better for me. These should be brought into the light because I understand that my sin hurts the One who loves me.

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The real benefit of a time of prayer and fasting is not just in what we are seeking from Him. The practice declares that He is the Lord of the Universe and that we believe that He is in control of our lives and that we are putting our trust in Him for all things. That trust will help soften our hearts, and a soft heart will bring a closer relationship, and the love of God will give us the strength to conform our lives to the pattern that He, in His love and wisdom, has established for us.

Don't End Your Driving Test By Hitting A Parked Car

After Pete drove his car up to our testing area his old lady exited the vehicle and took off across the parking lot for the nearby mall, leaving Pete looking up at me, a real friendly smile that shone through his scraggly hair, unkempt beard and crooked, yellowed teeth.  His arm below the cut off shirt sleeve was completely covered with a vary scary tattoo of some type of court jester.

I noticed from his permit that Pete was born in 1972 so I asked if he had a previous driver's license.  "No" he said.  "I did go to the DMV when I turned 18, went out driving with the woman and passed my test, except that I hit a parked car when pulling in at the end."

"That's never good" I remarked.  "No it's not" confirmed Pete.

Seems that Pete got a bit nervous back then, mostly about telling his father that he banged up the dad's car, and he decided to forgo the formality of actually having a driver's license.  This didn't stop him from driving.  I could tell 50 yards into the test that he probably been driving since about age 12, but would have found out that information from Pete in about 5 minutes anyway.  Guys like Pete are what I've always called "real people".  They look like there are a lot of miles on their face and body, they don't put up a false front or carry any pretense, and invariably they tell me their life story, even if I don't ask.

So in a nutshell - Pete's father kicked him out.  He has been living in shelters most of his life.  He finally got off of drugs which enable him to get a good job.  He just got a deal on a trailer and is living there with his girl friend, his 16 year old son and that son's baby (He was kind of fuzzy about where the baby's mother was).  Now that everything is rosy he can take the next step and get his driver's license.

Pete drove well and when we returned I told him to park next to the other cars over at our area.  "On second thought, maybe you should park over there where no one else is."  Pete gets his certificate and waits for his old lady to return to his car.

My next client, Kathy, is waiting for me as I get out of Pete's car.  I ask her if we will be using her vehicle or if she is renting one from us for the test.  Kathy's uncle, who looks like a rather short mountain man with his full beard and wild hair grins at me and says that Kathy will be renting because there is no way his car would pass the vehicle inspection.  (FYI - this also usually means the vehicle is not insured).  Kathy likes the 2006 Malibu she is renting and tells me that she has never been in a car this new.  "My Cavalier is a 93'."

After she asks me about what kind of gas millage the Malibu gets I repeat a joke I just read in Readers Digest while in a hospital waiting room with my wife and sister for an operation my sister's son was having.

"Speaking of gas, did you hear about the elderly man who went to the doctor.  He told the doctor that after breakfast he had silent gas, after lunch he had silent gas, and after dinner he had silent gas.  'And just now talking to you I had silent gas.  What should we do about it?'  The doctor replies; 'First thing we need to do is get your hearing fixed.'"  Kathy doesn't laugh.

Unlike her uncle Kathy is tall, but looks like "real people".  She is 22, smiles constantly, and keeps talking to herself in a quiet but high pitch voice.  When I give her instructions she replies "Yes Sir!"  or for example when I ask her to turn right at the next intersection, "I'm on it Sir!"  We are at a red light and it turns green, Kathy looks around, doesn't see any traffic and exclaims "Ah Ha!" while accelerating.  We need to make a lane change, Kathy looks around and sees nothing but clear lanes and hoots "God bless this traffic!"

The story Kathy tells me is that she loves to read but is currently writing 4 books.  One is called "Nation of Dolls" which is about the world in 2060 where only the dolls have survived.  They "shed their plastic" and form plans to rebuild the country.  I tell Kathy that it sounds really interesting and she tells me that I can be proud to have heard about it 3 years before it is published.

Kathy passes the test and when we get back to our location I see that Pete is still standing by his car.  I leave for lunch and an hour later need to stop in our office which is located in the mall.  While I am there Pete's old lady comes in and asks if I have seen Pete.  "He was waiting for you by his car the last time I saw him a couple of hours ago" I said.  "Well, I was in the mall.  Why didn't he come and get me?"

Why indeed.   

   

    

Occupy The Forest

My first road test client today was a 22 year old unshaven young man by the name of Jordan.  To strike up a conversation I asked him if he was working or going to school.

"I worked for the Forest Service in California this summer and will be going to college this fall."

"That sounds wonderful.  Did you enjoy your work?"

'It was OK."

"Only OK?"

"Do you know what Amercorps is?"

"Oh, sure."

"Well, they provide free room and board but give you  $5,000  for college."

"So, were you fighting fires and stuff?"

"We did work on some property fires, but mostly we would clear out brush and small trees."

"Like around peoples houses so those homes wouldn't catch fire?"

"Yeah, mostly houses of millionaires.  And some would complain we were removing too much and then would not even let us jump into their pools."  The word "millionaires" Jordan said with an actual sneer.

"Do you realize Jordan that the taxes those millionaires pay make up the bulk of the college funds you earned?"  I think Jordan was under the impression that government funds somehow came from some magic pot of gold. (FYI - The rainbow currently ends in China)

"Oh." responded Jordan, looking a little confused.

"And you might be surprised to learn that in their eyes, you represent THE MAN.  As in -THE MAN wants to take away all of my trees."

"Oh" again said Jordan, now embarrassed that he had unwittingly become a tool of the US government and their Wall Street buddies.

Jordan ran through a stop sign 20 yards from the end of the test so maybe we'll have a chance for another mini economics lesson.

Singing About Jesus

A great benefit to having daughters is that they remember the songs we used to play over and over in the house when they were kids. Jackie and I would always be playing Christian albums so even though I'm not current with what's being played today on their ipods/iphones/i-whatever I can still pipe up out of the blue the Evie tune, “One man came to Jesus, John in chapter 3”, and any one of them (much better if they are all together) will join in, “and so afraid, oh oh so afraid”.

From Evie's YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN and 4'11 to Keith Green's THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS, complete with every Keith Green nuance, it's in their hair covered computers and quick to their lips. Praise God! Oh course, behind many Christian songs are the scriptures they are inspired by. And so here is the rest of the story after Evie sings, “and Jesus said be born again.”

A prominent member of the Jewish Sanhedrin comes to Jesus at night and makes this statement; "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him." Nicodemus is looking for God to establish an earthly political kingdom and wonders if God has sent Jesus for this purpose. Jesus answers Nicodemus by saying; "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (quotes from the 3^rd chapter of John)

Nicodemus asks the obvious question; "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" To which Jesus replies; "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In other words, what we are, flesh, blood and spirit, comes from our parents, but who we will become in the spirit comes from God.

Nicodemus, recognizing that Jesus was sent from God, wanted to gain understanding in his mind (soul) as to what the will of God was. Jesus tells him that the will of God is to be "born again". He goes on to say that one must be born of "water", which I think is referring to the baptism of repentance happening with John the Baptist at that time, and "the Spirit", which I believe is talking about the regeneration, or rebirth, of the human spirit, dead through sin, through the action of the Holy Spirit. "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Jesus then gives Nicodemus an example from scripture that will also apply to Jesus. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

The example Jesus gives comes from the 21st chapter of Numbers. The Jewish people complain against God and Moses that they were brought out of Egypt only to die in the wilderness, to which the Lord responds by sending fiery serpents among the people. Many were bit and many died. The people then go to Moses, repent, and ask Moses to intercede for them. The Lord instructs Moses to make a fiery serpent in bronze and set it on a standard, and then if anyone is bitten they should look at the bronze serpent on the standard and they would live.

Jesus too would be lifted up on a standard and seen as detestable like the fiery serpents. The cross was a symbol of shame, but much more, the shameful sins of mankind would be put upon Jesus. The result would be that all who look upon Him in faith, believing that it was our sins and shame he was bearing, would live.

Jesus suffered, bled, and died for us as the perfect, God proscribed sacrifice. And God raised Him from the dead that not only would we be changed spiritually, but one day physically as well. Jesus always was (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” John 1: 1-14). Through Mary and by the Holy Spirit Jesus became a person built just like us, physical body, soul and spirit. This means that the spirit of Christ that went to the cross for us can now by the power of the Holy Spirit unite with our dead spirit, and we can become "born again".

The exciting thing here is not only are our sins forgiven, not only will the sin of Adam be canceled, but we can have a spirit made new by Christ. In Him we are indeed a new creation. And the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us that Jesus is God, who brings the spirit of Christ to unite with our spirits so that we become a new creation, will also live in our reborn hearts (spirit) as well. This allows for fellowship with God, but more than that, we now are part of God’s family, truly brothers and sisters with Christ.

This new life in Christ Jesus is exciting. It is not because we have followed a teacher sent from God and have advanced in our soulish efforts. Instead, our spirits are alive, allowing the Holy Spirit to minister His joy, His truth, His power in our lives. As Evie so cheerfully sings: “Born again, there's really been a change in me. Born again, just like Jesus said. Born again, and all because of Calvary. I'm glad so glad that I've been born again.”

Fire And Ice

Fire and Ice

by

Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

On a recent road test the young lady driving remarked that she enjoyed reading poetry. “What poets have you been reading?” I asked. She mentioned a few including Ogden Nash. Having a chance to reveil my vast literary knowledge I proceeded to receite what I've always thought was an Ogden Nash poem.

“Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

If I had my desire,

Ice would suffice.”

As you can see from the poem on top I had both the author and the verse confused. I was always quite happy in my ignorance, having quoted my version many times, but that evening I went home and did a fact check on myself and discovered the error.

Oh bliss no more, you can be sure, my verse was wrong but heart was pure.