the bitter cup

Just read a great article at Randy Alcorn's blog.  The article is titled, Nourishment for the Soul, and you can read it by clicking here.  The article has to do with suffering and the goodness of God.  If you have a few moments you should click through to read it.  In it he mentions the sufferings of Joni Eareckson Tada, Sono Harris, and himself.

There is also a Spurgeon quote that I found to be less difficult to read than it used to be.

“It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”

Seeing that we have done so much talking about suffering at church lately, I knew that I needed to post this quote.

Theology of Suffering

Because we've been going through the Book of James at church, that means we have been studying trials, tribulations, and suffering.  The relevance of this topic has increased since the beginning of our study, which I believe shows the providence of God in His direction to start studying James.

Though the topic of suffering has been tackled by many great men, I believe that the reality of the dilemma of suffering might best be understood through the eyes of Charlie Brown at the hand of the great theologian Charles Schulz.

Comic can be found at comics.com/peanuts/1967-09-17/

In the midst of suffering we can feel a little bit like good ol' Chuck can't we?  From the cry to heaven at the beginning to the looking both ways at the same time feeling in the next to last cell.  The truth is, our theology is important to our suffering.  Whether you are in the middle of a trial or you are in that lull between trials, seek ways to build your faith today.  You don't need to go to seminary to become a suffering theologian.

Umm ... Who needs video games?

Who needs video games?!? I have a fuel system to play with!

I had to replace the corroded parts. This just didn't look safe to me.

Looks good to me. Now it is time to stick it in the tank. I hope this part goes well!

Big Red (Day 2)

I could summarize the entire day in one sentence:

"I spent 2 hours and 15 minutes trying to loosen 2 bolts."

Yeah, that about says it all, but here are a few pictures of the first day. I am currently waiting for the dew on the ground to be sufficiently dried up before I go out there. I will try to post some more pictures later.

I have a fear of the vehicle falling on me, so I make sure that it is securely jacked up.



Taking off the clamp on the big hose where you fill the tank.



This is at the beginning of the 2hr.15minute brawl that ensued between me and the tag-team bolts!



Say hello to my little friend!



Lowering the tank down with a jack.



The tank is now lowered, but now I have to disconnect everything from the top of the tank.


In case anyone might want to search this out,I will put in a few key words:
this fuel pump replacement is for a 1995 Chevy Astro Van.

Big red

My first official day that I am not in school.

Normally this would result in heading off to work... my other work. In the summer I am a mover. (If you didn't already know this... they you haven't really been reading my blog.) And usually the very first day after school I am headed off to my summer job.

This year is different though. This year I have a ton of work to do right away, because I am getting ready to move. It looks like everything is going well on the house selling, so I need to get to work fixing the things that I agreed to fix.

I need to replace a glass window pane. I need to put in soffit vents. And there is some electrical work to be done. (I can't do that last one myself.

So, here I am, all ready to get to work on this lovely Monday morning, and guess what... Big Red won't start.

My wife's parents were here, so they took her to work on their way out of town, but that still leaves me with a big red, big pain! I think that it is the fuel pump. This has happened before. (Read about it here and here.)

God has used vehicle repairs in my life on many occasions. While I am replacing alternators, God is replacing attitudes. While I am putting in a new fuel pump, God is putting in new trust. While I am swapping out belts and pulleys and fluids, God is swapping out faulty beliefs about Him. I am not joking with you. Broken down vehicles have resulted in more change in my heart than almost any other thing.

So, pray for me today. Pray that as I tackle this fuel pump... which is located inside of the fuel tank... (equals giant pain!), that I will also be receptive to what God has to teach me today.

Without any further ado, I am off to get the parts that I will need. Big red, here I come!

my wifey

She's awesome!

Yesterday while I was at work she moved all of our stuff to the basement apt. that we are going to live in!

Those of you that know me, know that I work for a moving company during the summers. And if there is anything that I enjoy doing it is moving stuff. (weird, I know!) So I was expecting all day to have to go home and move a bunch of stuff. But that just wasn't the case. She had moved all of the stuff except a couple of big things to the basement.

The really cool thing is that she did all of this with the kids. I just can't figure it out. When I watch the kids by myself, I can hardly get anything done. After I have been watching them the house is usually a wreck, toys everywhere, food stuck to their faces, etc. But after she has been with them, the house is usually in more order, they are usually neat, and their is a meal waiting for me. And yesterday, on top of all that other stuff, our entire living space was rearranged!

Amazing!

Sick Joke -- Sick Kid

Last Friday was my wife's birthday.

And being her 30th birthday, I really wanted to make it special. Now, I know what special means for me, but for her it is a slightly different story. She loves the party. The get-together. The social event. So I began to plan.

At first I didn't think that I was going to be able to pull it together. I am not much of a party-planner. But then I called upon her good friend, Julie, a.k.a. the youth Pastor's Wife. Everybody that was going to go to the party was going to rsvp to Julie, and she would then tell them what to bring. Nicole also volunteered to help by organizing the child care. And I convinced my good friend Jonathan to pick up the tables and chairs for me. Things were going good.

The day of the party came and I left the school to go buy some last minute items. Because of the traffic it took me longer than I anticipated. I made it home about 20 minutes later than I expected. I called the babysitter and asked her to pick up some McDonalds on the way to the house to feed the kids. We finally got on the road about 25 minutes later than the plan.

All of the guests were going to meet at the Church just down the road and wait for the van to drive by. Once we drove past the church, I knew that my whole goal was to take my time. I started by getting some gas at the friendly neighborhood Meijer Gas Station. I took as long as I could. I then began to weave my way to through the town, slowly but surely. At every turn my wife thought that I was going to this restaurant or that one.

Finally the call came. The babysitter says, "Son 1 just threw up." Through the course of the deception that I was weaving, we turned the van around and started heading back. The atmosphere in the van was full of concern, frustration, and depression. And slowly we weaved our way back through the town.

When we finally get to the house, my wife goes inside and and nobody is there. The babysitter calls from the basement, saying that Son 1 is down there. And even though my wife thinks that it is weird that her sick child is in the basement, she heads down there. As she rounds the corner, she sees a table with balloons, and thinks that is weird, but still she is looking for her sick child. She turns the other way and right there in front of her are several of her best friends saying, "surprise!"

Everything turned out great. The surprise was successful. The party was fun. My wife was pleased. But then it happened...

The trick to get my wife back to the house backfired. Saturday, Son 1 got sick. Sunday morning at 3:30 am I found myself in the van driving Son 1 to the E.R. He ended up needing an I.V. (which he was very brave during that process). And by Monday we found out that he had Mono. Today we also realized that he has a cold on top of everything else.

Last night I went in to see him. He was curled up in a little ball, his legs bent up underneath him. I thought he was asleep until I saw that his eyes were open. I bent over and said, "how you feeling, buddy?" Without changing his gaze, he said in a his shaky little voice, "...bad."

Oh, my heart sank. That's what I get for making my wife think that he was sick all the way back through the traffic of Lafayette!

Hasn't this happend before?

It is interesting how it seems the same things are happening to me all of the time.

For example, I was really looking forward to going to the stewardship banquet this year. We have been talking about stewardship all this month, in our classes and in the services, and it has gotten me to thinking about the whole concept of stewarship. I also heard that the speaker was supposed to be really good. But probably the most important thing is that I had been looking forward to sending the kids to the nursery for a few hours, and going to this thing with my lovely wife.

But sure enough, about one week ago Josiah gets a cold, which develops into a worse cold, which evenntually turns into something called "croup." No problem, that should only last a few days, and even if he still has it, no croupy cough is going to keep us from going out! Then comes Sunday morning. Samuel, who never feels sick enough to not want to go to church, tells us he is not feeling well. (And if you have been around us long enough, you will know that if our boys are feeling like they are sick to their stomach, it is not going to be pretty.) I end up heading off to church by myself. While in our ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) I start to feel a little weak and shaky. It progresses all of the way home, until I am at home feeling a little weak and shaky. Then about 15 minutes after I get home, I find myself holding a big orange bowl while Sam is puking his guts out. (not pleasant, especially when you are feeling weak and shaky) Now, I am not going to go into detail right now about the great dramas that our sick kids have put us through, but I will tell you that in the midst of that moment, I suddenly had this feeling of "I've been here before."

To make a long story short, we ended up missing the banquet, because of our sick kids. (I know that's happened before!) But all I can say is, "Oh well!"

I will have to admit at times like these doing right doesn't seem like it has a great pay-off. Sometimes it seems that being a family man and doing the right thing, just leads to days like these. And in many ways that is true. And I've had many "days like these." Doing right isn't all cinnabons and rose gardens! Doing right is holding puke bowls. It's changing diapers. It's playing old games. It's rubbing a back or forehead. It's administering medicine. It's working long and sleeping short. It's caring for sick people and pretending you feel fine, even when you don't. It's smiling when you're sad, giving when you need, and being strong when you're weak. Doing right is hard, but there's nothing like it in all the world.

Everyone knows there are some eternal rewards for doing right, but it is easy to forget that there are also some temporal rewards, too. There is no better way to have a good night's rest, one of peace. Because when you aren't doing right, there is no peace! There is also no greater joy, when right has been chosen in your life, and has been followed through. God knew when he made us that in order for us to have any form of happiness, it had to be through the avenue of right!

This was meant to be a blog on how it seems that my kids get sick everytime that there is a big event that I want to go to. Instead it has made me remember even as I was typing it, that the banquet was no great loss in the long run. Instead, I received another chance to love my family. Though not at the stewardship banquet, I still was challenged on the topic of stewardship. I hope that I was a good and faithful steward today.