Random Stories that might end up in a sermon somewhere…so I guess this is a spoiler
The best way to describe it might be that I’m feeling like winter in the middle of summer. I’ve come down with a funky cold. It’s not one of those things that keep you from going to work, but just makes you feel really annoyed and just kind of yucky all day. So, I’d love to make some great spiritual connections to these stories that have popped up in the last week of my life, but my head might be too stuffed up to think straight.
So, one day these might teach, but for now they offer you a few moments of entertainment.
I’m filing a compliant with the squirrels in my backyard. We have a cornhole set back there that my brother made, and that we used at the luau. Our landlord mows our yard, and last time he mowed he moved both cornhole boards close together. This afternoon, Christina texts me and says, “6 squirrels are playing outside and eating the cornhole bags.” I come home for dinner. The squirrels are jumping in and out of the holes in the cornhole boards, which is really cute, but then there were the bean bags. They were laying all over the yard, and each one had several holes chewed through them, and they had all been emptied of the beans that filled them. Cute squirrels, but like my two year old, great cuteness usually has the ability to make a great mess.
Like two months ago I thought God had performed a miracle. I had put my bible on top of my Toyota Highlander as I was getting Carter in the car to go to church. In my typical, scatter-brained fashion, I forgot about the bible, got in the car, and started on our trip to church. It wasn’t till I got to church that I realized I had done this. It also seemed I had experienced a miracle as I found the bible, still sitting on top of the Highlander, with nothing but a few pages folded over. I was so excited about my miracle! God had given me a sign that he was there.
Then, on the way home Sunday from Kentucky, we stopped at a Wendy’s outside of Charleston (about 5 hours away from Mechanicsville.) I changed Carter’s diaper in the car, and put the dirty diaper on top of the Highlander. The rest of the trip included driving through steep mountain grades at 70 MPH, through storms and heavy rain. When we got home at 1:35 in the morning, and I’m hurrying to get all our stuff inside so I can go to bed, as you probably guessed, I find the diaper on top of the Highlander, completely in tact, just saturated from all the rain.
So, the bible thing was a proposed miracle, but I’m not sure why or for what purpose God would preserve a diaper for five hours full of pee-pee! He definitely has a sense of humor!
I’m at Cracker Barrell, on a date with Carter because Christina is out with some friends. The people behind me ask if I’m the new youth minister at Gethsemane, and we get to talking. As we talk, the guy sitting across from us taps me on the shoulder and says, “Your son is in the pepper.” Carter is definitely playing with the pepper, but definitely not making a mess. I take the pepper away from him, and give him the peg game to play with. I sit down and look at the menu. Carter usually loves the peg game, but today, all he wants to do is through the pegs across the table. As I’m trying to clean the pegs, my buddy Chris calls. I take the call, expecting to talk for only five minutes or so. As I’m talking, the same guy that made the comment on the pepper taps me on the shoulder again and says, “You need to take better care of your son if you’re going to take him out.” Wow…I promptly end my phone conversation, ready to confront this guy for his rudeness. He disappears. I’m left embarrassed, especially considering the fact that a family from our church is sitting right behind us.
Ok, so that story wasn’t funny, but conflict is entertaining as well. And I’m definitely sure God can use that story to teach some point, I’m just not sure what yet. I’m sure he’s trying to teach me something as well.
