Christmas Day 2007

The Chinese restaurant in Ft. Scott was busy on Christmas day. It was a good thing that Betty made reservations or we would have been standing in line for an hour or so. In honor of our Chinese buffet lunch we tried to watch the movie A Christmas Story, but couldn't get the DVD player to play nice with the TV.
Avery was excited about getting lots of presents. I hope Bart and Pam have room in their car for all of it.
On the way home there was an accident that closed Hwy 69. We backtracked and took a county road over to K-7. It turned into a long trip home.
Here is a video I made:

The Right Tool

"Get the right tool for the job." I don't know if Ben Franklin said it, but he should have. I've preached this statement as well. At least I preached it to Brenda when I was on my way to Home Depot. Part of the fun of doing a project was finding the excuse to buy "the right tool" I needed to complete it. As a perpetual DIY person I always had a wish list of cool toys.

But it seems I sometimes ignore my own advice in little things and it turns out to cause a big problem. I've refused to give up on changing my own oil in my vehicles. I'm picky about the kind of oil and filter I use, and auto service companies don't have what I want. And changing oil doesn't take that long. At least it didn't until yesterday.

Auto makers have for years designed cars no normal-jointed person can work on. This allows tool manufacturers to make a living selling tools to reach into places no human can touch. When I bought our first Expedition I found this to be the case with the oil filter. I had to buy a new filter wrench to get the old oil filter off. It worked, sort of. I had to put the wrench on the filter and thread a hammer up between the frame and the engine and tap the wrench sung on to the filter. I then prayed the wrench wouldn't pop loose as I unscrewed the old filter. It always worked, after the fourth or fifth try. That is, until yesterday.

I always put the new filter on "hand tight". It's what I learned way back in high school shop class. I don't know if it is because of my recent strength training, but "hand tight" was now impossible to get off with my marginal tool. Of course the oil was already drained so I hopped into Brenda's Expedition and was off to the parts store to buy a better tool.

The only one they had was made of plastic. It did fit snuggly on the filter and I reasoned that the plastic industry has made great innovations in creating strong polymers. I bought it and headed home with visions of an easy job now that I had a better tool. I slid back under my car with my new tool in hand. This tool didn't have great innovation or strong polymers. It must have been made from recycled milk jugs. It promptly snapped leaving my old filter still smugly bonded to my engine. Another trip to the parts store and I found they only have plastic filter wrenches. I got a refund and went to Wal Mart.

Wal Mart had an old-style filter wrench with a new twist: a swivel handle. I did some quick mental calculations and decided it might just fit. It was under $4 so I wouldn't be out much if it didn't work. When I got home, I slid under my care and had the old filter off in less than a minute. Of course the whole oil change process had now taken 2 hours.

There is no substitute for the right tool.

Fear of Success

Elan's blog: Point of vulnerability

In high school I defended the next to the last position on the tennis team. You had to win to move up, and I would usually play to a deuce and then lose the game.
I've recently seen how this pattern has played out in other areas through my life. I like to start things, but I have difficulty finishing. I used to think this tendency was because I like the process more than the completion of it. But I now realize it is the fear of success.
I've listened to a lot of speakers talk about motivation and goal setting. A few have talked about the power of the sub-conscious. The sub-conscious mind believes whatever it is told, and it is much more powerful than the conscious mind. If the sub-conscious believes that winning isn't a good thing, it will find a way to prevent it.
I'm just beginning to understand that I've been afraid of success and being a winner. I appreciate Elan's comments on pressing through to victory and success. We can all use this kind of encouragement.

Through a Glass Darkly

The "sons of the prophets" in the Old Testament were in touch with what was going on. Elijah was on his farewell tour and they already knew he was being taken away that very day. I would like that kind of connection to what's happening. But usually I stumble along and only find out what God was up to by looking back in wonder.
Our rehab house on 12th St. has been a weight on us for a long time. We recently listed it with a "for sale by owner" service hoping that someone would pick up the magazine from a grocery store and at least make us an offer. But I kept feeling that I needed to do more. I thought I needed to take the flyers and visit realtors in the area who might find me a buyer.
I searched online and printed maps. My first stop was in downtown Kansas City, KS, but the address was the Census Bureau building. I supposed that the real estate office may lease office space in the same building. But the receptionist hadn't heard of them. Someone standing nearby said the real estate company owned the building. She said she would take a flyer just the same. I thought it was probably a waste of time.
But I got a call a few days later from a woman working for the Census Bureau asking about how our lease-option offer would work. She was interested in seeing the house. When we pulled into the driveway she said, "I love it already." She liked everything about the house as she walked through it. And she wants to buy our house! She won't be able to buy it for 6 months or so but will lease with the option to buy.
I thank God for His leading even when, at the time, I don't see what He's doing.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving Day when I was growing up meant crowding into a small space to share a meal with family you don't get to see more than a few times a year. And it was always fun. Our house was not as crowded with family as the Thanksgivings I remember, but we still had fun being with family.

Friday we went to Topeka so Michael could talk to Don Brent about a camera. Don let Michael try it out and we went to Dana & Jakes for dinner. Michael took lots of pictures of all of us, especially Judah. Brenda & I had our first encounter with the video game "Wii" as we played with Chris & Jacob.

Saturday we hung out at home with Michael & Heather. We did some shopping & then watched MU beat KU in football.

Sunday night we traveled again to Topeka for a wiener roast at Elaine Spade's house. We got home relatively early, but we were still tired. It was a good weekend.

Hallelujah Ho-Down

The tone of his first words to me had a hard edge, "Our pastor preaches the truth here. Some people are afraid to hear the truth." I thought of a brilliant response, 5 minutes later. We were in Tulsa waiting for the funeral service for Mary Carr, Brenda's aunt, to begin and the man who spoke to me was a member of the church. I became more apprehensive when everyone from the church was called brother this and sister that. I suspected what was in store for us in the service, and watching it develop was amusing to me.
There were hymns sung and a prayer. Mary's sister sang a song that was quite good. When the pastor read the obituary, he looked out of sorts and uncomfortable and presented it poorly. Another of Mary's sisters sang and played the piano. It was really good. Then the pastor stood to speak & I suspected from his demeanor that he wasn't planning to do a eulogy. He was revving up for a good preach. He had a handkerchief in his hand, along with a wireless mike. This was going to be interesting. To his credit, he did talk about Mary and her impact on him, the church, and the hospital staff. He had not known her long since Mary had only lived in Tulsa since April, but he gave a clear presentation of the kind of person she was. I noticed that his talk was scripted and he didn't make any eye contact with the audience. When he did look up he didn't look at anyone.
It wasn't long before he was pacing and talking louder. He became more animated. Soon spit was flying and sweat was dripping. I was glad he remained on the stage. The performance was void of serious content or a coherent point, but the crowd did respond to the emotion. I was fascinated and amused by the performance. Several thoughts came. I wondered how many microphones rust during the year. I thought, "This man is the wrong color." I noticed that when he really got going he added the syllable "uh" to the end of his words: "praise-uh" & "Jesus-uh". He did say that Mary would want us to celebrate rather than mourn. In his way, he was doing that. It just didn't register on the celebrate meter for me.
When it was over I thought about Mary's personality & said to myself, "She would have liked this." It did fit her personality and was a fitting tribute to her. At the graveside there was some quiet conversation about the intensity of the service. A lady standing by called it a "Hallelujah Ho-Down". That was an apt description.
Dale & I talked about the church as we drove home. He said they have a vision to add 50 new families to the church. I said that would be a challenge. There are some people who will like and respond to the style of service they offer. But I think many will find it weird. I think that "weirdness" is a problem many churches face. I think the world looks at Christians and assigns us to the "weird" pile. We're not remarkable enough. And becoming more like the world in an attempt to be "relevant" isn't the answer. We need to be different in a way that makes the world want to know what we've got.
When and if we think of evangelism, we think like hunters. Go out into the wilds of the big, bad world and find a trophy to shoot our evangelism gun at. It's intimidating for both the hunter and the hunted. I think fishing is a better metaphor. Throw out a line with something that's appealing. Make them want it enough to bite and be drawn by the Lord into the kingdom. I pray we can become people who are fishers of men.

Staring Down the Hidden Menace of What Might Be.

Ford Prefect, in the book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, constantly quoted from the fictional "Hitchhiker's Guide". Everything worth knowing was in the "Guide".
The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferris, has become my Hitchhiker's Guide. It seems that I'm always telling someone about an idea or fact I learned form this book. This blog entry is now my latest reference to The 4-Hour Workweek. It's about Tim's strategy for dealing with fears. He talks specifically about the fears people have about taking a risk, quitting their job and following their dreams. He was running a successful business and was miserable. It consumed every moment of his time and still demanded more. He controlled every aspect of the business. His fear was that if he didn't "run" his business that it would wither and die. He desperately wanted to pursue his passion and travel the world. But he was afraid.
His solution was to "define the nightmare". He thought through every possible worst-case-scenario and found that even if all of his fears were realized they would really only have a minimal and temporary impact on his life in the long run. At the same time he realized that his worst fears would probably never happen. He includes a quote from Mark Twain: "In my life I've known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."
I had my own time of defining the nightmare a few weeks ago. I wrote about our situation of no work on the horizon and 3 empty houses with mortgages, repairs, utilities, and marketing expenses eating away at our reserve funds. As I thought through the various worst-case-scenarios, my mind automatically gave strategies to deal with each one. The most radical strategy I called the "Nuclear Option" and was one step above living in a trailer by the river. But in each scenario I realized that we would survive. The result was that I began to look beyond the immediate problems and make plans for coming through on the other side, no matter what happened. And I relaxed.
We did the fall Home Show. It was close to a total bust. But we both felt better than we had for weeks. We had faced the monster of "what might be" and seen how insignificant it really was. The following week, our phone began to ring. We are now busy meeting prospects and sending out proposals. I'm still hoping for the phone to ring with buyers for our empty houses. But we trust the Lord to provide what we need. And we stand in faith knowing that nothing will ever separate us from His love. We also are thankful that our family is praying for us. We are truly blessed.