Navigational Error

Good afternoon.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I am doing good.  There are certain things in life that I think could be going better, but it's all in the Lord's hands.

My weekend has been pretty good so far.  We are having our men's conference this weekend and I have been busy.  I'd figured I'd take a little bit of time to write about some things that have been on my heart. As always, feel free to comment on this post.

Here is a basic update about some things:

• My mom has a boyfriend - This doesn't really bother me, as I have stated before, but I have my worries.  Most of which I will keep to myself (if you are a close friend of mine, you know why I am worried).  She did tell me that she is extremely happy at this point in time.  I am very glad of that.  I've been praying for my mother to receive some joy in her life.  If this is the form that God wishes to send it, then I will not argue with the Lord.
• I sold one of my guitars - I was hesitant at first to do this, but I found a home for it with someone who I know will be good to it.
• I am tired and hungry - That's all.

I went to Vegas on Thursday because I had an appointment there.  It was the first time I had been to this office and I looked up the driving directions on Google to give myself an idea of where I was going. As I jumped in the car, I decided that I wanted to get an idea of exactly how long it would take to get to where I needed to go.  I typed the address of the office into my GPS.  Side note:  I consider the GPS to be the friend that you have who knows everything about everything.  He is right about 67% of the time, and the rest of the time he is outrageously wrong.  Take a minute to think of that person you know who is like this. That is what GPS is to me.

When I originally typed the address into Google Maps, I didn't notice what went on.  I zoomed straight into Las Vegas to see the city view.  I know how to get to Vegas.  As I was on the highway heading out of town, I realized that I had left my phone in navigation mode.  For the fun of it, I left it on.  It was something that I don't usually do because of battery life, but I wanted to go to Fry's anyway and get a car charger.

I was about 20 miles out of town when I was told to make a u-turn.  I was shocked.  I asked myself, "Does the GPS know something that I don't?  Should I take the suggested route?  Maybe there is road construction.  But I would have known about that."  So I went on.  Taking my chances I continued driving down the road.  I figured that maybe there was a glitch and that it would get it right after it recalculated the route.  I checked the GPS every ten miles seeing if it had changed it's mind.  I got about 60 miles out of town and it was still telling me to make a u-turn.

And one point in time, the GPS wanted me to take a road that wasn't clearly marked, and I'm not even sure that it existed.  I turned it off.  Obviously it wasn't going to give me an accurate estimate of  how much time until my destination.  Here's what I found out though:  Evidently, according to Google, there is a portion of non-travel-able (I've never seen so many hyphens) road on the US-93.  Look it up.  Try and change the route.  Go ahead.  When I drove into what I am now calling the Willow Beach Triangle,  Google told me that I could not find a route to my destination.  Like I had just fallen off of the face of the earth.

How many times have you listened to your friends, thinking that they should be right, only to find out that they're not?  It has happened to me on several occasions.  Sometimes we are not smart enough to think for ourselves.  And sometimes, we know what is better for us.  I've known my share of people who will tell me what I should do.  I've learned to trust God and to listen to his voice.  Had I went the direction that my GPS told me to go, I would have been late, or lost, and maybe even stranded.

Next time, use common sense, not your GPS.

Small Problems

Hello. I'm sorry that I haven't been as consistent with this as I should be.  But I am going to try and change that.  I had planned on making this post on Friday, but I got delayed.  At any rate, I'm back.  Enjoy.

Some of you may have heard that I had an uninvited guest in my house recently.  I'm not sure that I would like to post all the details about this event, but you can read the article on the Kingman Daily Miner website.  I read through the comments recently and I'm thinking a trip to Disneyland, and a German Shepherd puppy are in the works. The puppy will have to wait until the current one passes, but that might be something to look into.

But on a serious note, and maybe a bit of a humorous one, I ended up chasing this guy thorough and out of my house.  At that point in time, I was already on the phone with the 911 dispatcher for about three minutes.  Needless to say, the police were right around the corner.  As this man was running out of my house I went after him. Just to let you know, I was still in bed when my daughter alerted me of his presence.  I also sleep with a minimal amount of clothing on.  So I ran out my house barefoot and in my underwear. It was quite embarrassing as there was passing traffic while all of this was unfolding.  Looking back at it now, it is quite comical.

The part that I really want to get to has to do with having bare feet.  It's a general rule in my house that if you go into the garage, you MUST wear shoes.  I have a drill press that I use to drill through metal, and use an angle grinder on a semi-normal basis.  Although I try my best to sweep and vacuum the floor, there might be a rogue metal shaving and I don't want it ending up in anyone's foot.

But there I went.  Running through my garage with no shoes and no socks. You can guess what had happened, but I didn't realize that I had a metal sliver in my foot until late that evening.  It was a consequence of my action, but I didn't really notice right away.  In fact, I thought my shoes were giving me an issue.  I had initially inspected the bottom of my foot and hadn't found anything to constitute the pain.

The next morning, I awoke and re-examined my foot.  I knew then that it wasn't a result of bad shoes.  I twisted my leg into a precarious position in order to see the bottom of my foot more clearly.  I finally found the problem.  It took me a good part of the day and a nice body ache to extract the sliver from my foot.  But even with the added pain, the relief was great enough to make me smile.

Fast forward to yesterday-

I noticed that my daughter had a splinter in her hand.  I'm not sure of how long that it was there, but it was on the road to an infection. So my wife found the tweezers, and I went to work.  At first, my daughter was frightened at what was going to take place. She had tried to argue with us that there was nothing wrong with her hand.   She does that often.  She will say she feels fine when she is sick.  She does this so she doesn't have to go to the doctor and have to take medicine or get a shot.  But her parents know better.

My wife held her so she couldn't squirm and I continued to pull the splinter from her hand.  As I was doing this, I could feel the anxiety she had about what was going on.  It was almost heart-breaking.  Finally, I was able to pull out a disgusting looking piece of wood from her hand. As I pulled it out, I could feel the relief that went through her body.  It didn't take her long to exclaim, "That feels better!"  She even thanked me.

From that, I drew the following analogy:  We have little things in our lives that are causing us pain.  Much like my foot, these issues can crop up because we don't make good decisions.  It can even take awhile to realize where the issue lies.  Leaving our issues unchecked could possibly lead to bigger issues, like an infection.  And leaving an infection unchecked could lead to a loss of limbs, blindness, or even death.

We must realize our issues and then take them to God.  We might have to go through some pain and discomfort, but the end result will be worth it all.