Beneath the Bickering

Each day we read the newspaper, open our web browser, turn on the television, see the demonstrators on the street corner, or hear the radio announcers constantly bickering over what is wrong in the world. Government run health care or not, more troops in Afghanistan or bring them home, global warming or just a conspiracy, swine flu as a worldwide pandemic or just another excuse for media headlines, investment in the stock market or its impending collapse yet again. People fear for their lives, their retirements, their jobs, their family, and their well-being. A few will stock up for the worst case scenario, gathering fresh water, canned food, medicine, self defense weapons including guns and ammunition. Others will go off the deep end and perform horrible acts to themselves or others. But most will choose to ignore it all, living in oblivion and saying to themselves, “I’ve always been okay so why should it be any different now?”

The choices are confusing. Most are screaming their opinions. “Follow us!” they yell. “We are right and they are the bigots!” “If we just do this, the world will be a better place.” Still others are whispering in our ears when we least expect it, slowly tearing us down until we start to believe and buy into their notion of how to fix all the problems we live in. Equality for everyone. Stop murdering babies. Think green. Peace, not war. Stop dependence on oil. Women should have a choice. Gay rights. The list goes on and on. Each of us listens to the voices. Even if we don’t want to, it is around us, consuming us. We form opinions on these subjects from the media outlets we have heard, speaking with friends and family, lessons we were taught during childhood, and teachers who shared their ideas, just to name a few. But one simple idea has simply escaped our minds amidst all the chaos.

IT DOESN’T MATTER.

Let that sink in for a moment… It doesn’t matter because there is only one answer for why these things are happening. We have lost our focus. Instead, our minds are occupied by fear, exhilaration, greed, remorse, grief, and lust. Our country’s housing market did not crash because of the banking system or government regulations. Our stock market did not crash because of a mortgage lending bubble collapse. Other countries are beginning to see the United States as weak, but not because of our President, collapsing economy, or the skyrocketing Federal budget deficit. It doesn’t matter because no matter what is happening, our focus should only be on one thing.

GOD.

You see, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Throughout history, civilizations that have focused on God and honored Him have been blessed immensely. Great power and wealth have been bestowed among God-fearing people. England was one of those countries blessed by God. It was a light into the dark world; a beacon sending missionaries throughout the world. The Bible was revered and the Gospel was taught among its people. God blessed England with prosperity, riches, and power. But over a short period of time, a Godly nation turned its back on Christ and greeted the world with open arms. Spiritual riches gave way to paper money. Sunday church gave way to alcohol and parties. Jesus’ bride opened her bedroom door and became an adulteress.

England began persecuting Christians and chastising the church. God is loving, He is patient, but He is also just. God will not sit back and watch His people, those who love Him and have kept their focus on His truth, to be persecuted. England’s reign as a world power was crashing to a halt. In 1665 and into 1666, the Great Plague of London ripped through the city, killing over 100,000 citizens. Shortly after, the Great Fire of London destroyed over 85 percent of the homes in London. Skeptics may argue these events were just coincidence. I will let history speak for itself, from Sodom and Gomorrah, to Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Germany, and Russia. Each, at one time a great power of the world, was destroyed; not after becoming corrupt, but after mocking God and attempting to destroy His people.

Our country is much the same. We began with God in our hearts and a mindset to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Even some of our most liberal universities today, such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, started as Bible schools. Over time they have conceded to the worries of this world, losing their focus on what is truly important. Violent crimes, drugs, prostitution, pornography, and corruption run rampant in this country. As early as the late 1920’s, greed was running the United States. Second mortgages were taken out on homes to invest cash in the stock market. The boom of the radio incited a new wave of corruption. In 1919, Congress passed the 19^th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. This was a good step, but what came with it was not. Women’s rights groups continued to pursue ungodly privileges. Women were leaving behind their example of family values in exchange for worldly desires. Hollywood movies began showing pornography, until regulations were imposed. For the first time, cars were made with closed tops, quickly gaining the nickname “brothel on wheels”. It became a place for men and women to hide their acts of fornication and extra-marital affairs.

In 1929, God warned this great nation. Do not put your trust in material things. Turn your hearts back to Me. The stock market crashed and people lost everything. They tried to sell their shares, even at a huge loss, but no one wanted to buy them. The United States crumbled overnight, not because of the stock market, but for a much more important reason. “We’ve seen that throughout history God has brought down cities, nations and entire empires just to protect his testimony on earth” (Wilkerson, 78).

Even after the era of sex, drugs, and rock and roll in the U.S., this nation was still hanging onto its Christian roots. As late as the late 1980’s, long-term missionaries were reaching out and being supported from here. But the church was changing. Values and morals deteriorated at a rapid pace. Pastors began buying into worldly thinking and leading their flock astray. Not purposely, but devastating nonetheless. Christians have opened their ears to the mainstream media. Preachers are afraid to speak out on certain subjects. Perhaps they are afraid of lawsuits, or even just hurting the feelings of those they have been called upon to serve. Being politically correct has become the new status quo. How can our church survive when our leaders become afraid to speak out on politics, or even how to raise our children with discipline and to love the Lord?

But what have become truly alarming are current events; Christians are being persecuted within our own country. It wasn’t enough for the evil to persist on its own. These people have turned their hate and worldly desires against God’s people. It seems to be a daily headline. Tearing down the Ten Commandments from a courthouse. Illegalizing the pledge of allegiance. Forcing public schools to teach sex education and homosexual rights. A father pulling his children out of public school to save them from these immoral ideals; the school attempting to force the children back because the government wants control of our children’s minds. Astonishingly, even some churches have accepted openly homosexual pastors to serve on staff. You can’t live a single day without hearing the Bible or the concept of God being hounded and discredited. President Obama said it best. “Whatever we once were, we’re no longer a Christian nation.” Should we even be surprised by such a comment? The immorality, drugs, violence, decline of family values, destruction of the church, ultra sensitivity to everything morally wrong is evidence to the path of this country. “Now we’ve completely forgotten why we were ever blessed” (Wilkerson, 71).

You hear it every day. People love to say the reason for our greatness is due to our ingenuity, work ethic, inventions, and technical skills. But where did they come from? God works through people to give and take what is His. Our prosperity and power came from God, and God alone. God blessed us and that blessing has gotten to our heads. We no longer focus on the Giver, but the gift. We no longer invest in the Giver, but the gift. Where is your time being invested? Are you spending your evenings watching Sportscenter, writing friends on Facebook, surfing the internet? A pastor may ask, “Are you leaving time for God?” So is that what we need to do? Leave some time for God? Everything else has become the priority… and then we spend what little time we have left, if any, to God. It disgusts me when I see churchgoers wearing earpieces, listening to the big football game during the sermon, or when worship service attendance is mysteriously down each time the Seahawks have a morning game. Apparently, God does not even deserve His own day. Let us change our focus. Let’s give God all of our time, and if we have some left over, then enjoy the multitude of gifts He has graciously given to us.

We also have a responsibility to maintain our gifts. If we have been blessed with a home, protect it by locking the doors. Preserve it by keeping up with basic renovations. If our blessing is in retirement or investments, do the best we can. Let’s not ask God what mutual fund to invest in or what the next big stock will be. Remember, these are gifts, not necessities. At anytime, they can be taken away. As long as our focus is on Him, it will not matter. We do not need a house. We do not need retirement. God has promised to provide for his children, and he will provide us with what He knows we need, not what we believe we need.

Everything of this world waivers and dies. It is only after we began to focus on God alone that we will truly have peace. This is important, because things are only getting worse. More drugs, more suicides, increase in terrorism both home and abroad, stock market crashes, persecution of Christian rights and values, and higher crime rates are just the tip of the iceberg. We are to just do the best with what God has given us, without worrying about if we have enough put away for retirement, if the stock market crashes, if our house forecloses, or whatever else happens. First and foremost, we need to focus on God, and Him alone. Only then will we truly have peace. Because we will finally understand that no matter how bad it seems, He is standing beside us, ready to provide us a miracle. Are you prepared for Him?

The following reference was used:

Wilkerson, David. God’s Plan to Protect His People in the Coming Depression. 1998.

Back home again

I made it back from Oklahoma... barely. Yet another adventure at the airport. I arrived plenty early and checked in at the front counter. I noticed a new departing time, which was 30 minutes later than the original departure. The American Airlines attendant told me it was due to a mechanical problem, and was currently being worked on. No problem, since I had almost an hour and a half layover in Dallas anyway. I decided to sit in the lounge before going through security because I had an open water bottle and didn't want to waste it. So I sat down, sipped on my Dasani, and watched the big screen in front of me display all the flight times. As time went on, the screen continued to update and then I saw it... the flight was now delayed by 45 minutes... an hour, and finally an hour and a half. Great! Now I'll miss my connection flight. I have to work tomorrow, so that's not good. I decide to ditch the last remnants of the water bottle and crawl my way through security. I arrived at my gate to find a lot of passengers waiting angrily with no attendants manning the counter. So, I sat down and twirled my thumbs as the original departure time came and went.

Finally, two overly polite ladies arrived at the desk and announced the obvious... that our flight had been delayed. They went on to say the aircraft was not able to be fixed, so another plane was flying in from Dallas to pick us all up. At this point, one of the ladies listed about 30 connections, instructing us to come up to the counter if we were on one of these connecting flights. Of course, over half the people got in line for their new itineraries. Lucky for me, I would now be flying on Frontier airlines, and only had to walk four gates down, where my new flight was boarding rather soon. When I checked in at the Frontier gate to get my seat assignments, they gave me 3A for the first flight to Denver, and 1A from Denver to Seattle. Sweet! I was flying first class!

Not so fast. Apparently Frontier does not have first class. They believe in the philosophy that every plane should have one class... and that would be coach. For the next five hours, I stared at a tiny television screen in front of me, displaying the same adds over and over again. DirecTV in the sky, for only $8. "Just swipe your credit card and your life could be so much better. You could be watching so many wonderful things and not bored out of your skull." I have to confess, if it was Saturday, Sunday, or Monday night, I would have gladly shelled out the cash to watch some football. Sadly, it was Tuesday, and there is nothing on tv on Tuesday. So I sat in my midget chair, twirled my thumbs some more, and stared at the flashing screen.

Enough of the trip home. The week visiting my sister was great! I spent lots of time with her, Johny, Calvin and Maya. Anna was so exhausted, and Maya is not helping in that department, as she does not like to sleep. I firmly believe she is training early to be a doctor. Unfortunately, Anna and Calvin came down with some virus and were not feeling well. I think even Johny got it after I had left. I was so happy to be able to help out in a time of need. Cleaning up, cooking, shopping, playing with Calvin, holding Maya, chatting with Anna and Johny in the evenings. It was all so much fun and I really felt blessed being able to help out where I could. Johny even showed me some pictures of construction jobs he has worked on. They all looked beautiful and it is obvious he does excellent work. One day I'm going to steal him away from my sister to work on something for me. LOL!

I slept in Calvin's room during my stay. Obviously he is not used to anyone sleeping in his room. Each night as I would quietly make my way into bed, Calvin would start to rustle around in bed, see me moving around, and then stand up in his crib. He would cry out, "Hold? Hold?". So I would pick him up and hold him for a little bit, and then put him back in bed and tell him it was sleepy time. After telling Anna about this, I guess I'm just supposed to tell him to go back to bed. So, I used that strategy for the last few nights I was there.

I did take lots of pictures while I was there. I've picked a few of my favorites and will post them below.

Calvin loves his storybooks...

Too cute!

Taking a ride in his new Tonka truck

Listen to that engine roar!

Having a grand ol' time...

Calvin loved helping out in the kitchen...

A Day in my Crazy Brain

Biggest understatement of the year: Last night was weird. I have no idea what got into me. It may have been the mixture of macaroni & cheese with blackberry cobbler topped with vanilla bean ice cream floating around in my stomach. I’m really not sure if lots of cheese mixed with lots of sugar would create the chemical imbalance in my body necessary to evoke such an interesting evening. I was wired! I couldn’t sleep at all… well, that it is until my body collapsed into a state of comatose somewhere between 3:30 and 4 in the morning.

Perhaps it was the stunning victory I pulled off after dinner on Tiger Woods golf. After forcing a playoff on the final hole of a tournament that has more than doubled the amount of gray hairs on my head, I was victorious after a birdie put on the first playoff hole. I danced around, pumped my fist, fell to my knees and yelled at the top of my lungs. Well, on the inside I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t be loud, for there were people trying to sleep. All right, it was time to calm down because I had to get some sleep. Brush the teeth. Wash the face. It’s only 11:30 pm! Two nights ago I went to bed at 6:30 am. Yesterday, in my attempt to slowly work my way into a more “normal” routine, I went to bed at 3 am. But 11:30? Yes, this was too early. I tossed and turned, my heart beating a million miles a minute. I poked my feet out of the covers to cool off a bit. No luck. I chucked the blanket off… and then later the sheet flew off the bed. I even sang Christmas carols. Anything to try and fall asleep. Just a hint for those of you who find yourself tossing and turning in bed… singing Christmas carols will not help you fall asleep. But alas, during one deep moment of true inspiration, I came up with a brilliant word. You see, I was contemplating the reason for my fanatical non-sleeping behavior. It may have been the golfing, I thought. So I blamed it on the “golf endorphins”, which must be pumping through my body and keeping me from much needed sleep. Suddenly, my German accent came alive, and I stated the same excuse, but really fast. Wow! A new word! Golfendorfins. Come on, you can do it too! Use your best German accent and say it really fast. It’s the most amazing word ever. I love it! So, as you can see, it was “that kind of weird” last night.

I woke up in time for my flight. A grueling three hours after falling asleep… dragging myself into the shower. Driving to the airport. Ah, yes, the airport. It’s my favorite place in the whole wide world. I love waiting in line to check in, even after I supposedly already “checked in” online. I love paying for a baggage fee, after already paying for my plane ticket. I love walking to gate security, so I can wait in another line. I love watching the TSA worker look at my driver’s license and boarding pass and then put a beautiful little red stamp on it. I really love getting into the next line. Grabbing 15 bins so I can strip away every last bit of my dignity and throw it all onto a conveyer belt. I love taking my shoes and belt off, just so I can walk through the metal detector and make it go off. I love the looks the security guards give each other. I love how one of them will tell me to walk through it again, as if this time, magically, it won’t beep when I walk through it. I really, really love having the same guard wave his super duper trusty wand all around my body and find nothing at all. I love putting all my clothes back on, packing my carry on again, trying to find all the missing items that somehow beamed up to space while going through the conveyer belt scanner. I love walking over a mile because no matter what gate my flight is departing out of; it always seems to be the one farthest from the security entrance I went through. I love getting to my gate, looking at my watch, and realizing I still have an hour until the plane starts boarding. I really, really, really love boarding time. I love when they call my section of the plane to board, how there are hundreds of people waiting in line to board. I love realizing fifteen minutes later, none of those people were actually boarding at that time, but rather just standing around the boarding area waiting for their section to be called. I love the stale smell of airplane as you walk down the boarding ramp.

It was here, inside the boarding ramp, that I first saw it. That last section, when you can look out and see a part of the plane up close. The paint job, chipping away, looking as if it had been repainted multiple times. A really big, deep scratch about six inches wide just above the door. I could see rivets everywhere, most of them protruding from the body. For some reason I thought they were supposed to be flush with the rest of the plane. I really don’t like American Airlines. They have become the ghetto airlines alliance. GAA for short. It seems all they fly are 40 year old MD-80 planes. I made the mistake of going to the restroom during my first flight. I thought it was loud where I was sitting towards the front. Oh no! In the back, the noise is deafening! I’m surprised the environmentalists haven’t been involved in noise brutality lawsuits. Oh, I forgot, their not all that interested in human suffering. But I’m sure if we put some crickets in the back of those planes, they would be shut down in less than a day.

For the next few hours, I played this really awkward game with the guy sitting next to me. It’s called “Nudgy”. The rules are you can never lay your arm over the entire middle armrest. You are only allowed to occupy a maximum of 50%. The goal is to occupy the largest portion of the armrest (up to 50%) but without touching the other person’s arm. If you do happen to touch, absolutely under no circumstances do you ever make eye contact. Just grown ever so slightly, make an awkward movement in your seat and pretend like it never happened. Now slowly make your way back onto the armrest and the game goes on. I failed miserably in this game. I probably had well over 20 awkward touches during my four-hour flight. But I never made eye contact, and that was victory enough for me.

The next flight was even better. After everyone was on board, buckled in and ready to go, the pilot spoke on the intercom. Apparently one of the computers had failed and we would wait for maintenance before heading on our way. Hmmm… I’m not sure about you, but I’m not a big fan of computers crashing on my plane, especially when they are responsible for avionic controls. And why, pray tell, would a pilot ever inform his passengers of this scenario? The only plausible reason I can muster is that computers crashing on planes must be a “routine” experience for this pilot, so it’s no big deal. Welcome to American Airlines! We hope you enjoy our flight experience today… and we would like to offer you a chance to purchase life insurance before we make our departure.

Well, I bought that life insurance and lots of it. Now, let’s see… what shall I do for the last 30 minutes of my life? Duh! Play my favorite game in the whole wide world! Nudgy anyone?

Home Sweet Home

I made it home. Nothing too interesting about the flight back, other than someone trying to steal my cherished window seat. Some people prefer the aisle, but I've always been a window person myself. It was a rather large plane, with two seats, a row, three seats, another row, and two more seats. My seat was 18G, and it was most definitely a window seat as I had purchased the ticket months and months ago and specifically picked the window. I was walking in the aisle towards row 18, looking at my ticket, and then back up at the numbers. It's funny I do this... as if in the brief moment that I look up I will forget what seat I have. So I keep doing this head bob thing while I walk down the aisle. And then I can finally tell where row 18 is... and there he is... sitting in the window seat. I look at him and he acknowledges me. I tell him I'm sitting there but it doesn't faze him one bit. I'm thinking he must not understand that I mean the actual seat he is in. I place my back in the overhead compartment and then tell him that he's sitting in my seat. He gets up and points at the numbers above the seats. I show him my boarding pass and then point to the "G". He doesn't seem to understand and continues to argue that "G" is the aisle seat. I point out that on the sign, it shows the "G" next to a window icon... and his "F" seat does not have a window icon next to it. Finally he gives up and lets me sit down. Some of you might think I'm ridiculous... but for an almost five hour flight, there is no way I'm giving up that window. I could tell he was upset after sitting down and kept looking around at the other empty seats, waiting for a chance to pounce on them. Lucky for him, the once overbooked flight had many empty seats because a bunch of planes never made it to Atlanta due to weather problems. So after we start to taxi and of course with the fasten seat belt sign already illuminated, he unbuckles and darts a few rows back where he can have his very own little window. It's amazing what we do for a tiny view of the outside world.

A ways through the flight, I started messing around with the built in console in front of my seat. Being such a large plane, it had been updated and each seat was equipped with it's own 7" touch screen system. The only free game was "In Flight Trivia", which proved to be impossibly hard during my first two attempts. But as the saying goes, third times a charm. You play against other passengers in the plane and get points for answering questions correctly, the faster you answer the more points you obtain. There is, however, an all time high scores list, which is displayed at the end of each round. These are the top 10 scores of all time for the "In Flight Trivia" game. I was on a role my third go around. I answered 12 of the 20 questions correctly, giving me 4,450 for the round. Enough to garner #9 on the all time high score list. So the next time you fly the friendly skies with Delta, be sure to look me up.

After a week in the south with the heat and humidity, I was ready to plunge back into the cool northwest weather. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. A heat wave ripping through the northwest had temperatures in the Seattle area over 100 degrees. The house I stay in does not have air conditioning. Worse yet, my bedroom is on the top floor and trying to sleep in a room with the mercury measuring a cool 95 is just not my cup of tee. After a restless night, I dawned the bulletproof vest, jumpsuit pants, longs socks, boots, and a 20 pound duty belt. Fun times! Luckily things have a cooled down a bit and I think todays high is a very reasonable 85.

So, back to my trip. I have a few pictures of Sean and family. I also drove down to Panama City Beach, Florida to spend a few days relaxing on the coast. So there are also a few pics of my time there. All in all, a very fun and mostly relaxing trip.

The Happy Family

Walking along

Sandy toes

A Water, A Miller Lite, and A Gatorade

So on Tuesday I woke up at 4:15 am. Actually, I crawled out of bed and rolled on the floor into the shower. I lathered up, rinsed off, dried myself, and got dressed. I think by that time I would actually consider myself awake. Now some of you may think this is a normal time to get up. Well, I usually don't even go to bed until around 5:30 am... so needless to say, it was quite the shock to my system. The reason for this early rise and shine episode was a trip to the deep south. I was off to Atlanta, Georgia. For the first few days of my trip, I'm visiting my younger brother, his wife and there soon to be six month-old son. Then I'm off to Panama City, FL for a little R & R before heading back home. So after a very long day yesterday and getting some much needed sleep, today was my first full day of the visit.

I woke up around 11 am. Since I'm staying in someones house, I put on a shirt before heading out to the bathroom to take a shower. After shutting the bathroom door, I pulled my shirt off. Along with the shirt, a scorpion flew past my face and landed on the floor just by my feet. I'm not even sure if it was on my shirt or actually under my shirt and against my skin. It wasn't that big of a scorpion... about an inch and a half long... maybe two inches if you stretched out the stinger, but I haven't seen a scorpion outside of a cage for quite some time. To be exact, it's probably been all the way back to when I used to live in Indonesia. I can't say I'm too fond of the creatures... so it gave me quite the surprise. After giving myself CPR (It's difficult to do... but can be done) and coming back to life, I threw a hand towel on the critter and stomped on it really hard with my foot. (If you are a member of PETA, please remove yourself from my blog as I don't want you here anyway) Everything went great after that... but I was checking every nook and cranny for scorpions all day long. The shoes, clothes, the bed, every time I felt something on my feet, rechecking the shoes... and the bed. Nope, no problem here. I'll sleep fantastic tonight. Hey, what's that on my leg?!

So after breakfast, Sean showed me a tour of the house. Then we went golfing. Lately I've been honing my skills on the golf course by playing Tiger Woods Golf 2010 on the Wii. Some people say it's too hard of a game. It is fairly difficult, but after many hours of playing, I have actually become a pretty descent player. I was excited to play since it would be my first time in almost two years. But that was okay, since I had so much time playing on the Wii... it was like practicing on a flight simulator before piloting an aircraft. I was ready to conquer the course!

But wait! I was already sweating in the muggy heat of North Atlanta. I needed something to drink. So I meandered into the cafe and asked for two bottles of water. Oh, and then I saw some Gatorade and asked for two of those. I handed the lady my debit card and she took it and then looked at the items I was purchasing. "You need $10 to use a card", she told me. Goodness gracious! I know this is the South and all, but seriously, when will businesses finally wake up and realize that cash is the currency of yesterday. I get pretty irritated when places like Arco Fuel and Dairy Queen charge a transaction fee for using a debit card. Well, I was already thirsty, and four hours of playing in this heat was going to kill me. So I looked at the drinks in the fridge. Let's see... I have water to keep hydrated. I have Gatorade, so we're good on electrolytes. Then I saw beer. Oh, gotta have that if I'm golfing. So, I ordered two Miller Lite's and now my bill was acceptable at $12. The waitress gave me the bill to sign and then turned to another customer. I had just finished signing it when she turned back towards me and said that if I wanted to leave a tip to just write it below the total on the receipt. Both of us looked down at the already signed receipt. I looked back up and said, "Oh, sorry". I grabbed my drinks and left as she muttered something under her breath. A tip?! For what? All you did was grab a few drinks out of a fridge and place them on the counter in front of me. You want a tip for that! I'll give you a tip. How about you get a job at a place that doesn't require a $10 purchase to use a debit card.

Okay, so were finally ready to golf. I'm stretching out and feeling quite tight. Airplane seats are not made for 6' 3" human being with long legs. So I stretch some more and try a few warm up swings. But I have a secret up my sleeve. I've been practicing on the Wii... and with that new Motion Plus controller, it's supposed to be super realistic. It had to help my game. I'm all set on the tee box. Ball is on the tee. One last practice swing. Set my feet and let it rip! Oh my! Haven't seen a fade like that in quite some time. Don't think I'm going to find that one. I hate losing a ball on the first shot! I guess I'll start drinking the beer first. It's going to be a very long four hours.