Spring Beak keeps rolling along...

Our time here in Ohio will come to a close later today. It has been a great time. We brought one of our daughter's friends with us and that was a great decision. I have been keeping completely soaked, eating junk food, drinking tropical drinks while reading poolside, and best of all; hanging with my family. It dawned on me again that with the boys in Jr High these opportunities will continue to get more limited. The reality of all of the responsibility of home calls, yet so does that lounge chair by the pool. We do miss our dog...

Spring Break... Kalahari is not just a desert

We are HERE for the next 2 and half days. Looking forward to some good times with my wife and kids. Day one was great. As you can see in the pic below they have a slide that lets you know how the tidy bowl man feels. Also, due to the generosity of an awesome friend I am now in the world of laptops again. This mean I can do a better job of blogging as well as some other projects.

Back to the family...

The Day the world changed -- part 4

This blessing seems a bit odd in some ways. It has however provided us insight to God's grace and a sense of relief. That is the fact that as this amazingly horrible crash occurred, no other people or property were damaged, injured, or worse.
We may never have complete insight into what actually happened in those last moments but we have been able to put together that for some reason dad's van was travelling at a high rate of speed in the center of a 4 lane road. As he approached the area where the road curves, which so happens to be right at an intersection, he continued on straight. His path took him across a lane of traffic, over a curb, along an embankment with about a 30 degree slope, past a tree and several utility poles, across a side street with an oncoming carload of teens and finally into a loading dock.
The list of might haves, could haves and what ifs in this thing is amazing. There were so many vehicles on the road at 12:30 on a Saturday, yet not one was damaged. When the van left the road and crossed the curb it went straight rather than into a furniture store where a woman sat behind her desk. The van did not roll on the embankment. It missed the tree and poles, only grazing a support wire. The teens saw the van coming and stopped to let it pass. The van hit a concrete wall and did not go into/ through the warehouse where there were people working inside.
This brings us circled around to the subject of coincidence... I cannot bring myself to believe how one could chalk all of these things up to mere chance. As much of a painful thing this has been, we have been buffered by the knowledge that no other families had to go through this and that there is minimal follow up insurance wise because of what or what did not happen. All of these things do not lead us to jump for joy, rather to nod in thankfulness to a Father who cares.

The Day my world changed -- part 3

I will be continuing to share from the numerous lessons and blessings that have come our way in the wake of my father's death. This one was one of the first, but we would not fully understand it's fullness for several days.
My dad had left the house to run 2 errands that day. He needed to pick up 3 prescriptions (2 for him, 1 for my mom) and then he wanted to pick up carryout for their lunch that day. He had accomplished his stops and was on his way home when the accident happened. As the news reached us and the afternoon unfolded we discovered an amazing thing. The impact of the accident damaged or destroyed most everything in the van; including the prescriptions. Excapt for mom's. The police chaplain was able to get the bottle for my mom who would be needing those medications that evening. One solitary pill in her bottle was broken, the rest were perfect. All of dad's were broken and or contaiminated in the crash. IT has been especially in these "little things" that we have found our solice that even if we do not like it, or understand that situation, God has had it in His control.
It would be easy to check this off as a mere coincidence. The only thing is that there are really no such things as coincidence or luck. Add to that the fact that there ahave been far too many of these "coincidences" in the past 3 weeks to pass them off as such. Romans 8:28 is viewed in many circles as a platitude and has been used in ways that have made it a cliche. The fact is that as stated in my first post on this topic it is TRUTH. Sometimes the truth is obscured by our personal preferences or just the simple fact that we do not want to accept it. As I look at that scripture again I begin to see just how great it is. In fact, taking the next segment of the passage and including it only makes it that much more remarkable and powerful. (read Romans 8:28-39)
Volume upon volume of commentary has been written on these words and I do not suppose that my thoughts would hold a candle to the insight and scholorship that many who have explored this passage have shared. I do see a few keys that stand out to me as I read this with a new perspective of life:

1. we need to remember that we are called according to HIS purpose, not ours. (vs. 28) We so often look at the blessings of God as given just because we as individuals are special. It's not all about us.
2. If God (the real Creator of the Universe) is for us, who can be against us? I can't add much to that thought.
3. Christ is in heaven working on our behalf (vs. 34) That's a pretty high level advocate if I ever heard of one.
4. How much better would we be if we could grasp and apply the fact that we have been called to become MORE than conquerors. We seem to want to settle for the fact that we win. That is true, but as is the norm, God has raised the standard. What would my life look like if I applied this verse alone?
5. Verse 38-39: "For I am convinced that neuther death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A bottle of medicine seems like such a minor thing in so many ways. But God cares about those things as well.

The Day the world changed - Part 2

I mentioned in a previous post that there were/ have been numerous things that have reminded us that the Father has all of this under His control. One of those was what we found in dad's Bible.
Dad was persistent in doing his Scripture reading and devotions. If for some reason he missed, it became a mission to not only do the next one but to make up the missed reading. When his Bible was opened we knew that he had not done his devotions for Saturday the 25th. His Daily Bread booklet was stuck (as usual) in the pages he last read. In this case it happened to be Psalm 116. You can read the devotional that he read as his last while here on earth HERE.
The gist of all this is that we believe that God had this as a message for us. We also see that this lesson could well have been a preparation for dad. We were reminded quickly that we were not alone in our time of grief.
The obvious question is "If God understands so well why would he allow the painful situation?" All I know is that I have to reminded that His ways are not mine. God does that which will bring Him the greatest glory in the end. I feel like I have been in so many ways reaching for platitudes and cliches. I then have realized that these are actually the truths that I have learned in my personal journey. Truth is much more than a cliche. It is an anchor that we can hold to and be supported by when life crashes over us like a rogue wave (guess Ive seen too many episodes of Lobster Wars and Deadliest Catch :). The distinguishing mark is that truth is truth no matter the situation of circumstances. That is why we can learn so much from Job. That is why we find comfort and resolve to live on in Psalm 116:15:

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Next: medicine bottles and utility poles...

The day my world changed

Today marks exactly 2 weeks since I last wrote a blog entry. Not that I haven't thought of it. But each time I either wasn't in a place it web access, didn't have time, or just plain did not feel like it. On Saturday August 25th in the early afternoon I received a call that I wish never came and I pray that no one else ever would have to endure.
On the other end of the line was a police officer, I could hear my mother crying uncontrollably in the background, who asked that I come to her house immediately. As I look back I think that I knew what was happening already. The brief conversation in the next few seconds solidified the notion. As I was running out of the house I called to my boys to tell that I had to go. One of my boys had been on the phone with my mom about 10-15 minutes before. He then told me that she said she was a little worried about grandpa (my dad) because he had been gone longer than expected. I sped to their house pleading to the Father that it wasn't what I thought.
The officer met me outside the house and explained to me that my dad had been in an accident and had passed away. The world I know was different in an instant. Everything seemed to speed up and slow down all at once. I went inside to be with my mom. I called my wife and told her, and told her that the boys needed to be told. A couple of hours later I had to tell my daughter as well. So many thoughts, questions, emotions. How? Why? Who?
As we began to gather more information about what had happened we began, and continue to this point to see that God had His hand on all that happened. How can that be? Certainly the Heavenly Father knew that I needed my dad in so many ways; my mom needed her husband; my kids needed their Papo.
There have been so many lessons in the past two weeks. I will be writing much more about them as I process them myself. Let me begin first by saying that I realize that in these situations you come to know and test what you hold as belief. Another point is that I cannot see how people who do not have the "blessed hope" within them or have a strong church and physical family around them cope in times like this. The thoughts, prayers, meals, cards, and hugs have sustained us. We are thankful for each one!
God is sovereign. His ways are not mine, and that is a good thing. I came to realize on the day of the viewing that I should not be as much sad about my dad as I am jealous. He has entered into that which we all aspire to. That leads me to what we found in his Bible...