God's child

It's a bit odd sometimes having young parents. I guess I really didn't notice it all that much growing up, but now being more than half their ages, its just weird. My dad will be forty years old in February; I'm twenty-two. In appearance we look more like brothers than father and son. So much so, he tends to ask every waitress or cashier what our relationship is; he gets quite a kick out of it. But I just feel awkward sometimes. I'm sure in part is because my parents divorced when I was six and that I moved out of my Mom's house at sixteen, but still it's awkward just the same. I am not extremely close with either of my parents, though I've always been pretty close to my mom. Genetically, I can see in both my mom and dad the traits I’ve inherited and such: sensitivity from my mom, cocky humor and wit from my dad. Sometimes I wish I had a closer relationship with my dad. Sometimes I think how nice it would be to be able to open to my dad and just talk with him about anything and everything; to seek advice and counsel, confidence and encouragement. It's nice to go and mountain bike with my dad and stuff, but sometimes I just feel more grown up than he is; how young and arrogant of me. I think it’s just that this that I would like from my dad is that which I once had with my grandfather. Growing up my grandfather was always there for me; He taught me, He inspired me, He encouraged me. It was from him that I gained my character, my generosity, my need for adventure; oh, the tales I have to tell. It is a goal of mine to write these adventures one day; one day. Sometimes remembering the past brings endurance for tomorrow; tomorrow brings new adventures to soon remember. Father, let me always be close to the children you one day give me; let us have grand adventures...

Remembering Grace

One of the greatest parts of life is being faced with what seems to be an insurmountable challenge and then through grace and sheer heart pounding, sweat breaking determination what once seemed impossible resides only as a gleeful memory of triumph. God’s sense of humor and timing of trials tends to bring forth an inner laughter in my laugh. It must be the same type laughter that Sarah let loose as an angel told her she would finally become a mother at ninety; I’m not quite sure but it just seems so similar. My papers are finished for this fall semester and as always it was but by the grace of God, which is quite frankly the underlying theme of my entire life and existence. So like usual I had planned to write my papers at the end of the semester and by the end of Thanksgiving break I was well on my way to a little chip shot up to the green and putt to make par without breaking a sweat; haha right. So during my break I had written a little over eighteen of the twenty pages that were due the following Wednesday, with only five pages of content to go on an exegetical due Tuesday, and then a super easy 5 page church evangelism strategy deal due Thursday; piece of cake. Well Monday morning I found myself sitting in class on time for once and had an urge from within to back up all the work I had done on break to my jump drive. So I dug through my bag, but just could not find the drive, so I decided I’d do it later… Well, go figure the urge was God giving a bit of warning as usual because less than an hour later I felt my hear sink as my computer gave up the ghost. On the outside I believe I was somewhat calm, but inside I felt as if I had just stepped out of an airplane at ten thousand feet with a defective parachute. Apparently, the once easy chip shot was now to be made in a raging hurricane and then only if I could borrow someone else’s wedge. One would think having an expensive computer die unexpectedly would more or less suck, but no, oh no I wasn’t worried much about the computer at all really, I’m they are replaceable, but the hours, upon hours invested in eighteen pages of one the hardest assignments I’ve ever had, that was to say the least, a bit frightening. But even through all this, I knew my God is bigger than any of these “little” problems so I Pressed on getting what needed to be done, done. For some reason every thing that so worried me about the situation seemed to dim and have little phasing effect upon me; every time I thought, “how can I get this all done?” God reminded me of all He had done before:

"Alex, remember how I took care of tuition? Alex, remember how I took care of your car? Alex, remember how I gave you a place to live? Alex, remember and have faith I Am bigger than anything you will ever face; I will get you through."

By Tuesday I had finished the exegetical and went to a computer repair shop to see if maybe, just maybe, my computers hard drive might possibly still have those papers I really did not want to or have time to rewrite. The time at the store seemed like an eternity and a half as the computer lady attempted to access the needed information. Time and again it just did not work; I think it’s been quite a while since I’ve prayed as hard as I did that day. Finally she found that my hard drive worked! And by God’s wonderful and continuous grace my papers were recovered. I’m not quite sure if anyone has ever felt so blessed after their computer has broken. God I remember; help me never to forget and let me always live in Your grace...