Okay, so admittedly the last two blog posts have been, just okay. Neither time was I really interested in saying something, or maybe more importantly I had nothing to really say, but I felt I had been offline for too long and I needed to remind you all that I was still here. But that's over now, the real Pastor K has returned and today we are going deep...maybe.
With only a bit of sugarcoating it has been a pretty crappy couple of weeks. As I have previously shared in detail about a month ago now my car got hit while Mary and I were eating lunch at Ponderosa. Then, again as previously stated, although in shorter limits, about a week later my bank card was compromised, because of that we had a few bills that ended up being late, hence late fees were attached to some bills. Then another week or so later Mary's plane back from Denver got delayed 5 hours, so we were too tired to make the 2 hour drive to church. I didn't know if I would get paid for that week since there was no one besides myself that decided I wouldn't be there that morning. So, when I got to church the next week and there was only one check there I didn't really question it [on one of the few bright sides of the past month today I received two checks, for this week and for the missing week, turns out they had just forgotten to give it to me, and since I wasn't sure if I was getting it I didn't ask] but because I only got one again things that should have been paid got left behind and yet again late fees.
Mary and I had come to a plan on how to attack the bills and get back ahead, but then a few short days later (or yesterday depending on how you want to think about it) we were heading home from church and we stopped at a light, when the light turned green the car wouldn't move, instead it started making a loud noise, and unfortunately the same noise happened in drive, first and second, and reverse. I got out and pushed the car to the side of the road about an hour away from home. We turned on the blinkers and called Mary's family, Janice (my wonderful mother-in-law) got in her car and started driving to us, a three hour drive from their home. As we sat there not knowing what to do, and around mile and a half away from any place to eat or waste three hours, we began to dwell on how the last month has been a big pile of dung.
Fortunately a car pulled up and two strangers/angels gave us a ride to a restaurant so that we could eat something, then after we finished a rather stressful lunch we walked to a Meijer and wasted another hour and a half until Janice showed up. We called someone to tow our car back to Anderson and so it waits until tomorrow. We are hoping/praying that the car will not be as messed up as we fear, Mary's dad thinks it may be the transmission, which if you know anything about cars is most often not a cheap fix at all. Which begs the question will we be able to get it fixed, or will we need to get a new car [did I mention that this was our 'good' car, the one without a hit n run dent in it, the one with air conditioning, the one that we have hardly ever had any problems with...unlike mine which is just the opposite], which while it would be great to have a new car comes with a sizable monthly payment which is unneeded in the wake of having a new life form in our house in about 4 months.
I wrote a blog awhile back about how I don't believe that God is in the punishment business, but I can't say that it hasn't crossed my mind that maybe there is something that I am doing [or not doing] that is causing this stuff to happen to us. But I also realize that bad stuff happens to everyone from time to time, and in addition I am fully aware that this is not the first time that bad stuff has happened to us in our about to be six years together. To that end I realize that much like we have made it through other tough times that we will make it through this one as well. But there is still the small voice that worries and frets and tells me that maybe this time will be the one that breaks us...to that small voice I say buzz off.
I preached this morning over the 23rd Psalm and about how we are constantly in the valley of the shadow of death, its just that we too often don't realize it. Today I am all too aware that we are in the valley, but I also know who walks with us, and while the path may not always be easy we are never alone in it. That truth gives me hope, that truth helps me stand, that truth knocks away the worries, that truth banishes the small voice, that truth gets me through.
Today my prayer is that you would also take in that truth. That today we can all start walking with our heads up instead of down. Today we can hold each other up when the other is falling. Today we can know that our great, caring, loving God walks beside us and within us, helping us to carry on through the sunshine and the rain alike.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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