A Flat Tire

"We're going to have to stop," I said.

"What's going on?"  My wife, Elaine, asked me.

"We've got a tire that's going flat," I said.  We were driving into the town of Loogootee, coming home from church, and I was looking everywhere for a sign that said "Air."  At the least, maybe we could make it home if I filled it up with air.  I didn't see anything and finally pulled into a gas station that didn't have an air compressor to change the tire.

It was ninety-two degrees in the shade with high humidity.  As I stepped out of the van in my white shirt and dress slacks, I could feel the perspiration beading up on my forehead.

I looked at the tire.  It was really flat.  Oh, well...

I tugged the jack out of the back of the van and began to jack it up.  I moved over to try to loosen the lug nuts and found that the wrench wouldn't fit over the lug nut's head.  I pushed on it and kicked, to no avail.

A man walked out of the convenience store.  "Can I help?"  He asked me.

"I can't get the lug nuts off, so I can get my spare tire on,"  I said.

The man fiddled with the wrench and then nodded.  "Won't fit,"  he grunted.  "Let me see what I've got."

He returned in a minute or two with his own wrench.  It was a tight fit, but he managed to get it over the nuts and began to loosen them.

"You sure picked a warm day to have a flat tire," he said.

In five or six minutes, we had the tire changed.  "Thank you so much,"  I said.  "You were just what we needed.  God bless you!"

The man's eyes crinkled just a little as he started to walk away.  "I hope the rest of your day goes a little better," he said and jumped in his 15 year old F150 and drove away.

I am glad for this episode.  I am not glad because I enjoy having flat tires on ninety-two degree days.  I am glad because it gives me hope.

It is easy to believe that in this dark world, all kindness has left humanity.  It is easy to believe that most people walk through life focused on themselves (and their phones), unable to see or care about the needs of others.

Maybe that is true in some places, but there are still men who will stop and help a stranger change a tire on his mini van when it is really, really hot out.

The man who helped me would probably laugh and say it wasn't a big deal.  It is just the sort of thing that anyone would do.

He might call it "no big deal," but I call it "love."

And that's exactly what this world needs.

Glimpsing the Future

A few weeks ago, at our supper meal, our children began talking about weddings and wedding receptions.  More accurately, my daughter Anna, was sharing her views on them.

"At my wedding reception, we'll (I guess that's the groom and her) have Pomeranian Rice,"  she told us.

"What's Pomeranian Rice?"  Elaine asked.

"Oh, you know, it's the rice that's sort of orange colored and you can eat it by itself,"  Anna said, in a statement that brought absolutely no clarity to the situation from my perspective.

"You mean Rice Pilaf?"  Elaine asked.

"Yes, that,"  Anna said.  "And then for a main dish, we'll have rice and beans.  To finish it all off, we'll have Rice Pudding!"

"Will that be enough?"  I asked.  Certainly this sounded like a relatively cheap reception meal, but I had a feeling the guests might end up grabbing a bite elsewhere afterwards.

"Well, we'll have cake too, and ice cream and punch,"  Anna said, with an air of finality.

"I don't want punch at my reception,"  Vince said.  "Everyone will drink water.  I don't like punch."  Vince doesn't like sweet drinks at all.

"But what if your bride wants punch?"  Anna asked him.

"She won't,"  Vince said flatly, as though that settled it.

The conversation moved on into other, equally odd directions, but I was left with an amusing glimpse of my children's vision of the future.  This image told me more about Anna's like of rice and Vince's dislike of punch, currently, than it did about anything that will really happen down the road.

Many people believe that they know what the future holds -- at least in some limited way.  They have plans for themselves and their families.  They have hopes and expectations based on these plans.

What I have discovered is that none of us knows the future.  We have our hopes and dreams, but the future remains an uncertain mess.

The best thing is to give all of these hopes and dreams to God.  For He has His own plans for us -- plans for good and not for ill.  Though those plans might lead us through hard times, in the end, they will far exceed anything we could imagine in scope and in the wonder they will bring to our lives.

Questions and Answers

"Dad, what is the biggest number?"  My son Elliot, who's five, is full of questions these days, many of them surrounding numbers.

"There really isn't one," I answered.  "Whatever number you think of, there is one more than it."

"Oh," he said.  He was silent for a little bit, taken aback, I suppose that there wasn't any easy answer to this fairly simple question.  A few seconds later, he asked me, "What's one hundred and two plus eight, Dad?"

This was a little easier.  "One hundred and ten,"  I replied.

The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh." 

There is no end to the asking of questions, particularly not for a five year old.  Even after completing four years of college, four years of medical school, three years of residency, and doing continuing medical education every year, I still have many questions (although few of them involve numbers).

There is a time in each of our lives when we want all of the questions answered, particularly when it comes to our purpose, God, and the meaning of life.  It seems that few of these questions are easy to answer.  At the same time, I know from my own life that satisfaction did not come from having answers to all of my questions, it came from meeting someone.

People say that Jesus is "the answer" and perhaps that is true, but I know Him and still don't know a whole lot in the scheme of things.  Certainly I don't know what the biggest number is, or why all sorts of bad things happen in this world, but I know Jesus and I trust Him and I suppose that is enough.

So often I have come to Jesus like my five year old son, asking questions and desiring answers.  The whole time He just wants me to put my small hand in His great hand and walk with Him.

For, I do not know anyone who has found joy from having all of their questions answered, but I know plenty of people who have found joy from meeting my Savior.

An Ark Encounter

On Wednesday, my family and I went to the Ark Encounter near Williamstown, Kentucky.  It is a full scale replica of the ark -- a pretty amazing structure to behold and to tour.  Unfortunately, our 15 month old daughter did not enjoy it as much as the rest of us and began to wail, cutting short our journey in the confines of the ark.

Going through the ark, I realize that one of the big points that Ken Ham, the visionary behind this construction wants to make is that the story of Noah and the flood is within the realm of possibility.  With an ark this size, Noah could have housed and fed the animals necessary to survive a world-wide flood.

I understand Ken Ham's point and to a certain extent I agree.  Certainly, I do believe that God created the earth and that there was a world-wide flood that destroyed everything except what was inside the ark.  That probably makes me pretty weird in an environment today that demands explanations for anything unusual.

I just don't need naturalistic explanations for the miraculous things found within the Bible, including the flood.  It is as easy for me to believe that God, by His divine power, lead each animal on to the ark and that He then put them into a hibernation state, only to awaken them when the time was right, as it is to imagine a situation in which Noah was charged with daily care and feeding of the animals on the ark.

I suppose it doesn't really matter which version of the account is correct.  There is no particular explanation given in the Bible about what Noah was doing during the flood.  Either way, God was in charge and He controlled the destiny of each one and made sure that no one perished who was within the ark of safety.

Miracles are by definition unusual and not easily explainable.  If they happened every day, then they wouldn't be miracles.

There is no natural explanation for Jesus feeding five thousand people, raising a little girl from the dead, or many of the other things He did.  There are only eye witness accounts of what happened with the explanation simply that these were miracles.

That's enough explanation for me.  God often chooses to work through miraculous means because anything else would be too simple.  It just takes a little faith on our part to accept them as such.

And that's just what it takes to accept my Savior.

Clean My Room?

"Dear God," my son, Elliot, prayed.  "Please help my room to stay clean."

Elliot and Vince's room has a strong tendency not to stay clean.  I can't really say that it is the rooms fault.  As far as I can tell it is actually the occupants of the room who have brought random books into it, stacked toys in different spots, and drop their clothes at various points over the floor rather than in the clothes basket in the closet. 

The fact that Elliot and Vince had to clean up their room recently probably had brought this top of mind to him.  He didn't want to have to clean it again, any time soon.

My grandmother often says, "God helps those who help themselves."  Now, this isn't found anywhere in the Bible and in fact I think the bigger factor in whether or not we gain divine assistance in our endeavors isn't whether or not we are "helping ourselves," but if we are serving God with our whole heart.

That said, prayer is not a substitute for hard work.  "God, help someone to cook supper for my husband and kids tonight," or "God, please help the weeds to stop growing in my garden and someone to mow my lawn for me," are the sorts of prayers that God is unlikely to answer in the affirmative. 

"Please, God, help me ace my test tomorrow," is more likely to be answered positively, if the person praying it has studied a lot.

If I am honest, there have been times when I walked in my son's shoes.  There have been moments when I tried to use prayer to cover my own personal laziness and what I received was a nudge to do more, rather than a quick fix of my problem.

For, in my experience, God is far more likely to give strength and perseverance to two young men tasked with the job of cleaning a room that they "dirtified," than He is to magically clean it for them.