Hitting ditches and deer

Call me an optimist or that I live in a fantasy world. After all, who else sees accidents as evidence of God's handiwork?

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were camping in Saskatchewan. My youngest sister drove up and met us there for a night, and we were going to travel up the next day to see my older brother and his wife. The shortest route was along a dirt road, rather than twice the distance on a mostly paved highway. My sister drives a 1999 Crown Victoria she had just purchased less than a year ago.

Because she was planning to leave for England just a month later, we decided that I would drive with her to spend the extra hour together. I asked her along the way if she was comfortable driving on gravel, to which she said "Yeah. If I start fishtailing, maybe I'll get you to drive." Funny, I was going to say "By then it may be too late...."

She was doing really well, though, and I wasn't worried. However, she built up a little too much speed going through a small dip in the road, and as she crested the other side, we both realized she was going too fast for the corner. She turned harder, to avoid going right over the edge, and the rear tires lost their grip and slid. After a few seconds of dust and rocks and sliding this way and that, we finally came to a dirt covered stop.

Where was God's hand in this? We hit the ditch, right? Shouldn't God's hand have kept us from hitting the ditch in the first place?

Well, first of all, I was in the car with her. With my wife and family in front on a dusty road, it took her a few miles to realize we were no longer behind her. The time it took my wife to find us, my sister would've been alone for more than 15 minutes in the middle of nowhere. Also, there was no damage to the car. In the middle of a very thick forest, the ditch was just wide enough to fit a '99 Crown Victoria sideways! And, the tires didn't blow.

In other words, we as believers are not immune to hitting a ditch! However, we can be assured that God will protect us when and if it happens, and even if the outcome is worse than my sister and I experienced, it is still within God's often practical plans.

And the deer? Well, just a week ago I was driving home at night an hit a deer. Again, where was God's hand in this? Well, many ways. First of all, it was a relatively small deer, so he didn't cause much damage. Plus, it was with my Nissan Pathfinder instead of our Grand Am, so it was a much tougher vehicle. Had we hit it with the Grand Am, who knows how much a new front end, headlight assembly, radiator and who knows what else would've cost us? Instead, all I need is a new bumper and signal light for an '87 Pathfinder.

But that's not all. First of all, my friend who gave me the Pathfinder to begin with also had a new front bumper that I hadn't gotten around to installing yet! Plus, the signal light was already broken, and I just hadn't made my way to the junk yard to pick up a new one! But the best part of it all, is my wife was actually driving the Grand Am in front of me at the time, but decided to turn and take a back way in to our acreage. I decided to keep going straight to see which way was actually faster, and not 20 feet past the intersection, I hit the deer!

Needless to say, my way was slower that night.

The God of practicality. The God who can be explained away. And yet you can see his fingerprints all over both of these situations, if you know what you're looking for.

Job vs God, a lesson in un-practicalness

God gives us a very practical scenario in the book of Job. Here is a man that is holy and blameless, and God has blessed him. Satan comes along and is given permission by God to test Job's righteousness.After all the death and destruction that Satan throws against Job, now his friends turn on him. They know the truth, and by golly they're going to scream the truth at Job until they're blue in the face! As far as they're concerned, there's only one practical reason for Job's calamity. Sin! There's no time here for sympathy. No time for heartfelt sorrow that their friend is going through such a time. Strike while the iron is hot, right! Hit 'em hard and hit 'em fast! Job's friends are going to squeeze his sin out of him!It actually makes some sense. Job is being punished for some terrible sin. Why else would God put him through such heartache and pain? Why else would Job be sitting in a pile of ashes, licking his sores and wounds? Why else would a man of such prominence be reduced to such rubble? It HAS to be sin!And yet anyone who has read the storey of Job knows the truth. We know that Job didn't sin. On the contrary, he was blameless! And, although some may find it shocking, how can we not empathize with him when he wonders what the point of being holy really is if he is dealt the same or worse fate than evil men. He is human. A human looking for a practical answer from a holy God.Job wants a practical reason for his state. His friends all believe that they HAVE the practical reason, but Job knows different. But what does he actually get in the end?Rebuked. By God himself.Was he wrong? Did he sin? No. But he did question God's ability and love. He questioned God's holiness from his human, practical point of view. And God really lets him have it. Where were you, Job, when the world was created? Where were you when I hung the stars? God puts Job in his place. You are but a mere being, a speck, nothing more. Do not regard yourself so highly as to think you could come before me and plead your case!Did Job get his "practical" answer he wanted? Nope. Until the day of his death, it was never revealed to him why he was put through such a time. But it was revealed to him that he was small, and God was great. Job came through the testing stronger and God blessed him even more than before. But never, as far as was recorded, was Job's desire for a practical reason ever fulfilled.

The "God who can be explained away"

I'm starting to notice a common theme with all my posts, along with some other situations I have faced. Maybe I shouldn't limit this book to God's practicality, although that is what it is many times. However, I've noticed that many of these situations can be easily "explained away", without even allowing God to enter the picture.

How about my roofing style as mentioned in my first post. I can hear my critics now, "It wasn't God, you dufus! You simply realized a new method of shingling as you "accidentally" started differently than you usually do! It wasn't God!"

Or what of the lawyer fees and down payment money? "That wasn't God either, you fanatic! The tax money came because the government owed it to you! The lawyer decided to charge you $700 because that's what she needed! It was just coincidence! Not a miracle!"

And don't forget the little stuff! "Sheesh, calm down preacher man! You got that laminate because someone had no more use for it, and you happened to be in the right place at the right time to receive it. Could've happened to anyone! Where's the miracle in that? Dreamer."

Accidents. Coincidences. Chances. These are the arguments that can be used to explain away God's actions. It wasn't God, it was a big BANG, right? It JUST happened, no miracle.

I have another recent example of God's "quiet", explainable ways. My mother-in-law went to the doctor and they found two lumps each the size of a quarter in her breast. Being that she's a nurse, the regular statements such as "Could you please come in right away? We just want to check a few things." didn't quite set her at ease. In fact, we were all very worried. And the fact that they wouldn't wait more than a day to see her again meant this was serious! We all prayed, but it was hard to be joyful when you are faced with such a great unknown. Suddenly, horrible thoughts parade through your mind. You are faced with the great blackness of uncertainty. What will happen? How far along might this be? Is it too late?

Finally, she went into another appointment. This one was to take samples for testing to see if these were cancerous. But they couldn't find a single lump. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.

Say what? Nope! Nothing there! Sorry for the inconvenience, but you can go home now. See ya later!

Wow. Now THAT's a miracle! Did we pray for healing? No, not really, but we did pray for God's will. And this was obviously his will. We may never know his purposes in this whole thing, but we know that he was watching over her.

"WAIT, stop just one minute! I've had enough!" scream my critics, "You are so quick to jump on the "miracle band wagon", think about this! The doctors probably made a huge mistake. Maybe they had too much coffee that morning, or maybe not enough! God didn't 'miracolously' make the lumps disappear, they weren't there in the first place. Sheesh. Calm down already."

It was just a mistake. Or an accident. Or a coincidence. Or it just happened.

Can God really be explained away like that? Why would He perform a miracle if we humans in our limited minds could just explain it away as something other than God? Why wouldn't he make it so it couldn't be expained in any other way but by God?

Where is the faith in that? Where is the hope? Where is the choice?

The God who we explain away. The God that can be missed. Maybe that's what I should title this book.

Roofing - Again!

Well, God has been good to me throughout this whole roofing ordeal. A job I should've turned down. I didn't have the time at all, and the quote I had given him had already expired. When I did the quote, I was inexperienced, and I had underquoted him labour by about 75%! And I was really worried about the material estimates. According to all the measurements I took, I should've been about 5 bundles short! Not to mention that the price of the bundles was higher than when I had quoted him, resulting in almost $200 extra above the quoted price.

However, when I started purchasing the materials, the other pieces of trim and flashing started ringing up cheaper than I had quoted, thus balancing the extra $200 incurred from the shingles!

And as for the expected shortage? Well, God allowed me to make an error in my measurements that would end up countering the error I made in the estimating! Hows that for irony? It turned out, I had EXACTLY the right amount of shingles for the entire job, leaving me only half of a bundle left over! Wow!

Now, this was no magical trick, no lightening of a miracle. God simply allowed me to be me and mistakenly measure the roof area! Just so happens that my oversight was just enough to make up for the amount of shingles I thought I was going to be short. God IS good! And He does have a sense of humour, as well. For once my mistake benefited me!

Don't forget the little stuff!

You know, God also works in the little stuff as well. He doesn't only involved himself in the big things in our lives, such as purchasing a home. He also doesn't contain himself to solely tragic or sad times, neither does he come down to only chastise us and bring us back. He also cares about the little things in our lives, the "petty" details that we so easily overlook.

If you're a parent, you probably have a slight understanding of what this is like. I have a 15 month old daughter. She is probably the cutest kid to ever walk this planet, although I do have a tendency to be slightly biased. She has brought Corrie and I such joy and excitement since she came into this world. Especially now when she's at the stage where she's becoming more independent, and more like a "little person" than a baby. She loves to explore, she loves to check everything out, and she loves to play with her toys!

She's not alway perfect, however. Yes, she does have her frustrating moments, and, sure, she has tested my patience a time or two. However, as a proud father, I feel like there isn't anything that I wouldn't do for her.

The other day, we were doing our weekly grocery trip and Taryn was in the cart. We passed by a little pink stuffed toy someone had left on a shelf. Right away, Taryn noticed it and reached for it. It didn't have a price tag, but it was obviously brand new, just misplaced. Taryn hugged it and played with it the entire time. And in the end, we bought it when we left the store. Why? Well, partly because she'd chewed on it and I didn't think it was fair to put it back covered in baby drool! But also, it delighted her. It made her smile. Did she need another toy? No. Does this mean that we would buy her something every time she asks for it? No.

Do we need everything we desire? Do we have to have everything we enjoy?

Do you really need that bigger TV? Do you really need that nice couch set? Do you really need those new shoes? Probably not!

But often, it's in these little things that God also decides to be involved simply because he loves us. He allows us to obtain some items because he enjoys watching the excitement and pleasure that we as his children get out of them.

Now, I'm not trying to sound materialistic, nor am I giving an arguement to justify purchasing that new 42" plasma screen television. I'm simply saying that we are so often blessed by material items from God, and yet we never even thank him for them!

Sure, God wants us to be good stewards of our finances. He wants us to tithe, to help others when we can, and to provide for our families. But he also cares about the little things in our lives.

My wife and I bought a 1974 Mobile home. It was previously owned by a bachelor, and to be honest, held no appeal whatsoever to us when we bought it! The land was great, and the potential was there, so we bought it. However, it was a solid roof over our heads. A place to keep warm, and somewhere we could call home. By North American standards, we didn't have much. But by many other countries standards, we were living like kings.

The flooring was green lino, completely throughout the house from the kitchen to the bedrooms. Was it not doing its job? Did it not hold us above ground? Were there gaping holes? Nope! It worked just as a floor should. But it was green.

We didn't need to replace the flooring, but we wanted to. So we made our plans, and decided as soon as we could afford it, we'd start working on it. But you know what we didn't do? We didn't pray about it! Why not? Probably because we felt that flooring was not that important to God when he had poverty, natural disasters, terrorists and the like to worry about!

But that didn't stop him from working! God provided us with free laminate flooring, enough to complete the entire kitchen and bathroom! It's beautiful, and it makes the trailer finally feel like a home. Did he have to do it? Not at all. So why did he? I like to think that he simply enjoys watching the joy and excitement it gave us! He did it to simply see us smile, just as many father's do when they purchase a simple toy for their child.

Lawyer fees

Corrie and I bought our first house this spring, and God provided for us each step of the way. We didn't have a down payment saved up, yet we managed to get the house!

We went with our realtor and looked at the house. We loved the land (3 acres), and the house could look good with a few fixing and touch ups! So, we decided we wanted to make an offer. However, we didn't have the down payment yet! But, we had prayed about it, and were still praying, so we continued in the direction of purchasing. We set up the meeting for the next day, still not knowing where the money would come from.

That next day, I checked our bank account online. And there it was. Enough money for our down payment deposit! Was it a miracle? Sort of. Was it magic? No. Was I expecting it? Well, not really!

A month or so earlier, we had filed our income tax. I knew we were due about $1000 in return. However, our down payment would be closer to $2500 in total, so I wasn't really counting on that too much. It was going to help, but we would've still been short quite a bit! Well, it turns out I made a few mistakes on the return, and we actually received $2700! Wow! Sure, God didn't "drop it on our doorstep", or say "SHAZAM" and it appeared, but He worked his miracle for us nonetheless, practically.

A few weeks later, we needed to come up with the rest of the deposit. Now I owned a little Ford Ranger which I had before Corrie and I had gotten married. We weren't using it anymore, as it didn't quite have the space for a carseat that we needed! Plus, the engine was blown, and the transmission was close to keeling over at any minute. So, I had tried to sell it earlier, but was unsuccesful. Well, two weeks prior to needing the money, I had put it in the paper again, and forgotten that I had done so! Guess what? Sure enough, the day before we needed the rest of the down payment, a guy phones me about the truck! Still, not one to get my hopes up (or have enough faith is maybe the more accurate way to say that!), I figured that once he realized the work involved, he'd walk away. Well, I came home that evening and Corrie was standing on the deck holding a wad of cash. He bought it! I watched him tow it away and was amazed at how God had worked out another detail right on time for us. And, again, it wasn't a huge, amazing miracle of flashing lights and dazzling colours, but it was a miracle nonetheless, and it was huge for both Corrie and myself.

And, finally, we come up to the lawyer fees. Well, we were down to the last of our money, and we still had to pay the lawyers. We only had about $700 left from the tax money and selling the truck after paying the down payment. The secretary phoned me one afternoon and asked if we could come down and sign the final papers tommorrow. Oh, and could we bring $1000 for the fees? GULP! Sure, I said...

So that night we prayed again (I was finally getting the hang of this whole "God's provision" idea). We said amen and guess what? We still only had $700! All that night, every where I went, I searched the ground for where God was for sure going to drop off the extra $300 we needed. I never found it. The next morning, I checked every pocket in every jacket and jeans that I owned, thinking that maybe God had put the money there. Nope. Maybe he had forgot?

Finally, that afternoon we started driving towards the lawyer's office, still with only $700. I thought to myself, well, maybe God was going to give it to us when we got to the office. Or maybe it was in the bank right now, and when I write the cheque, it would miraculously go through! I had no idea how He was going to do it, but we were certain God would provide us with that extra $300 somehow.

And he did provide. But he didn't give us any more money! We got there, we signed the papers, and finally, the lawyer looks at me and asked us how we wanted to pay for it. DOUBLE GULP. Maybe I missed the $300 on the sidewalk? Did I check every pocket? By cheque, I said, still wondering how far I should push this before I told them we couldn't actually pay for it! I asked her what the exact amount was that they needed. She calmly looked at me and said, "$700".

SHAZAM!!! There was my miracle! Dumbfounded, I asked her why we were told $1000 on the phone. She said sometimes they request extra to cover any other fees they might incur while processing the final papers, but this time they would just charge us for what they'd used up to that point. If they needed more later, they'd request it then.

Wow. Amazing! Exicting! Practical! God is good, all the time!

Shingles (roofing, not the illness!!!)

This past month, I took on a job shingling a roof for a customer that by all logical means, I should've turned down. I quoted him in the spring, before I really understood quotes very well. And he didn't ask me to do it until the fall! Technically, according to my quote, it had expired and I could've re-quoted him. However, due to my "please everyone" attitude (that will someday be the death of me), I told him I'd do it, even though I had underquoted my labour costs by 75%!!!

So, I got my brother to come and help, and we started ripping off the old shingles. Well, due to a few events that I did not forsee, such as the steepness of the roof as well as there being TWO layers of old shingles, it took us all day to simply rip off the singles on ONE SIDE. Being that this was a second job for me at the time, I only had weekends and evenings to work. So, by Wednesday, I noticed that I was not going to get this roof done before the weekend, which was Thanksgiving.

My wife and I lived near Edmonton, Alberta. We had moved from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan just two years earlier. That meant that almost every long weekend, we travelled back to see our families in Saskatchewan. Now, Thanksgiving was a big weekend! And, by the looks of my roofing situation, we weren't going to make it. It was fall, and the sun was down by 8pm, giving me only 3 hours to set up and work every evening before the frost started forming on the roof. I started to despair, knowing that I wouldn't get the roof done in time, and knowing that I was going to disappoint everyone by not being able to go home for the weekend! So, I prayed.

I really didn't know what I expected God to do. Would He miraculously shingle the roof without me? Would he "hold the sun" so I could finish before dark? Would he give me "Superman" strength that I would work extra hard, extra fast and not fatigue?

I went to work that Wednesday evening depressed. How was I going to get out of this one? When I showed up at the site, the roof was still staring at me with it uncompleteness taunting me. But what was I to do? Before my brother left, he managed to get about 12 feet of shingles ripped off the one side, so I had to get that covered in case it rained, or worse, snowed! So, I set up and started working, grumbling about why I had taken on this job in the first place.

Now, I was not an experienced roofer. I ran a small handyman business which I had started that summer. but I had not shingled many roofs before. And the ones I had done, I would start building up in one corner, working up at an angle to the top of the roof. This was the only method I had ever learned. Now by this method, it meant that in my 3 hour time limit, I would not be able to get the entire section done that my brother had cleared of shingles earlier. I might be able to get half way. At this rate, I wouldn't be done the roof until well into the next week! But, nonetheless, what choice did I have? So I started working.

As I started, I decided to shingle slightly different that I ever had before. At the time, I didn't know why I was doing it this way. However, once I reached the end of a couple rows, I suddenly realized that by doing it this way, I could complete the entire section that was cleared without leaving anything open! It was amazing! Suddenly I realized, God had answered my prayer!

No, he didn't finish the roof without me. No, he didn't "hold the sun". And, no, he didn't even give me "Superman" strength! All he did was cause me to shingle in a different method than I actually knew! With this new method of shingling, I quickly did the math and realized that I would be able to complete the entire roof by Friday night working section by section, and we'd be able to get home for the weekend! Praise the Lord! Praise the God of practicality!

The God of Practicality

This blog is going to be dedicated to expressing my thoughts for a new book I have the desire to write, which I am going to title, "The God of Practicality". I've had a burden for quite some time now to write a book, although a solid, well experienced subject has evaded me up to this point. Recently, I've started to notice the practical ways that God works in my life and in how he answers my prayers. This has led me to decide that I would like to write a book on this subject.

So often, I've looked for the great miraculous and wondrous signs that God would perform when I prayed, and so often I've not seen them how I've thought they should be. Does that mean God is not working? Does that mean God did not answer my prayers? Does that mean God did not perform a miracle?

No, and again I say, NO! God DOES answer my prayers, and he DOES step in when I cry for help! He DOES perform miracles, and DOES do wondrous things! It is merely the fault of my limited and narrow mind that causes me to miss them all together!

The God of practicality. So practical at times, I completely miss his actions all together. So easy to rationalize away. So easy to miss. So practical, why didn't I think of that before?