But I already paid!

Posted on by

Dirty carMarch must be a good time to own a car wash in the Midwest. Unlike Hawaii, Florida, or other balmy climates, our cars get dirty fast. When it snows, road-salt coats everything with a cloudy film. When it rains, mud adds a new layer, and when the sun comes out, it bakes everything into a stubborn crust of filthy.

My favorite stay-in-the-car automatic wash is next to my grocery store, so I use it often during these messy months in Michigan. Recently, though, it refused to cooperate.

I entered the code numbers into the computer as always, and the automated voice instructed me to pull forward, as always. But when I got to the place where the light usually flashed “STOP,” it gave me a strange instruction instead: “BACK UP SLOWLY.”

auto car washAssuming I’d pulled in too far, I crept back to the starting line, thankful no one was waiting behind me. Pausing to give the wash-computer time to re-boot, I slowly began moving forward again. But when I got to the sign, it still said, “BACK UP SLOWLY.”

This time I backed all the way out to the machine where I had punched in the code, thinking I could simply re-enter the numbers. But when I got there, the voice was already talking. “Please wait. Car wash in use. Please wait. Car wash in use.”

I poked my code in anyway, but it didn’t change her message. Nevertheless, I’d paid for a wash and was determined to get one. Pulling forward a third time, I saw the same BACK UP instruction and decided to take a new approach.

Turning off the engine, I left my car and walked around to the busy gas station, where I got in line at the check-out. When it was my turn, the attendant surprised me by yelling at me. “What do you think you’re doing going back and forth, back and forth in my car wash? You’re going to break it!”

“It’s already broken,” I said, “but I didn’t do it.”

“You did!” he said, in front of three customers. “I saw you!” He pointed to one of 4 TV monitors at ceiling level, and sure enough, there was my parked car on the screen.

“But it told me to back up instead of stop, so I did.”

“See?” he said, feeling vindicated. “That’s when you broke it!”

I tried to defend myself, but he cut me off. “Get your car out of there!”

Jabbing his finger in the direction of the TV monitor, he repeated himself in a louder voice. “Get it out of there right now!”

“But I already paid for a wash!” I whined, trying not to look at the faces of disgruntled customers waiting their turns.

(…to be continued)

“All things should be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40

Preacher Man, Conclusion

Posted on by

As I sat at Derek’s dinner table digesting God’s big surprise (yesterday’s post), he asked me what I thought of Nelson becoming a pastor.

“It’s glorious!” I said, confident that the Lord had been schooling him to this end for a long time. “But how can he be a pastor without being ordained? And how can he be ordained without having gone to seminary?”

Derek’s answer surprised me (God’s Part Two). “You don’t need to go to seminary to become a pastor here. It’s about being the man the church ‘puts forward,’ combined with an interview and ordination process that happens in front of a panel of Baptist pastors working in Hawaii.”

Two weeks later I was sitting in the back of the church as its members discussed the possibility of Nelson becoming their new pastor. Five different people stood and told of their long-ago hope that if Derek ever left, Nelson would step in. When they voted whether or not to extend the call, it was unanimous – and that day they “put forward” the man they wanted as their new pastor.

IMG_2180Two weeks after that, Nelson was sitting in front of six Baptist pastors, answering questions about God’s Word and his own faith. I was privileged to listen in on the process and their discussion afterwards. Once again the vote was unanimous, and they agreed to ordain Nelson the following day.

And what a day it was!

After these same men had preached in their own churches that morning, they and their wives joined us to participate in Nelson’s afternoon ordination service. The charge was given, followed by the pastors encircling our son to pray phenomenal blessings over him as he received Part Two of God’s amazing surprise….

IMG_2218

….and I couldn’t help but weep.

As I listened, God gave me a flashback to the days of difficulty Nate and I had had with a youthful Nelson as he made one unwise choice after another. I remembered a teen who ran away from home on a sub-zero night and was missing for four days. I thought of court room episodes, car accidents, alcohol, and a tearful conversation with Nate during which I questioned what would ever become of our wayward son.

FullSizeRender (7)As Nelson kneeled in the little sanctuary in the process of being ordained, God gave me the answer. Directly into my heart and mind he said, “During those troubled years when you were looking at Nelson, all you saw  was a rebellious kid.

But Me? I saw…. a pastor.”

“I have chosen the way of faithfulness.” (Psalm 119:30)

Preacher Man

Posted on by

The longer I live, the more I see God as a good Father who loves to gift his children with surprises. And recently he delivered a big one to us.

Nelson with YWAMNelson, our firstborn, has worked in Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for about a decade in a variety of locations and assignments, everything from pie-in-the-face youth activities to complicated teachings. Over the years, he’s also performed weddings, done baptisms, led worship sessions, and preached sermons.

But Part One of God’s Two-Part surprise didn’t begin with any of that. It all started with… a hernia operation.

Nelson had done more than his share of heavy lifting over the years, particularly in his landscaping business, and was badly in need of a repair. So the surgery took place in a small hospital on the island of Hawaii with an expected good result – as long as Nelson agreed not to lift anything heavier than 15 pounds.

Since his position with YWAM included lots of action and some unavoidable lifting, it seemed wise to recuperate away from all that, at his friend Derek’s home off campus. And it was during those 10 days that God unwrapped his surprise.

Derek and familyDerek’s family was in the process of making a big decision during those same 10 days – whether or not to move away from Hawaii to live in Colorado and pursue a worthwhile opportunity there. Derek has pastored a small but famous church on the Big Island for a decade (The Little Red Church) and Nelson has attended whenever possible, subbing in as the preacher now and then, when Derek has been away.

Hashing this over together during Nelson’s post-op days, Derek’s family, Nelson, and God all came to the same conclusion: it was indeed time for the family to move to the Mainland. What happened next surprised us all. I’ll let Nelson tell it:

“As I spent time with them, processing and thinking about how we as believers try to hear from and obey God, the logical question was, ‘Who will pastor the church when you leave?’ And almost as soon as I asked it, I felt a strong impression that it would be me… like God was challenging me to at least be willing.

“So I decided that if it were needed, and if it were possible, I’d do it. I wondered if I’d even qualify – never having been to seminary and not being ordained.”

And that ushered in Part One of God’s surprise, which was that he had prepared Nelson with a ready “yes” to becoming a pastor, if that’s what the Lord wanted. But God wasn’t finished yet.

Since I was already in Hawaii, Derek’s wife Heeran invited me for dinner one night while Nelson was still there recuperating, and Derek presented the surprising development that he was leaving and Nelson might take his place. “So… what do you think?” he said.

(…tomorrow, Part Two of the surprise)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)