The Story Chapter 6 / Decisions You Make Affect Those Traveling With You

Every parent has been there.  The trip ahead is long.  The travel schedule is tight.  You hit the road with a full tank, confident the plan you have crafted beats anything AAA could muster.  But twenty minutes down the highway you hear a small, squeaky voice from the backseat.  The artillery begins to bombard you.  The questions.

Some you expected.  Are we there yet? How much longer? Can we get something to eat?

The next barrage is unexpected. Who was the first person to decide to squeeze those things on a cow and drink whatever came out? Why does our dog get mad at us when we blow in his face but when we take him on a car ride he sticks his head out the window?

Every parent has been there.  Questions from the backseat.  You come to expect them.  Every journey to a destination includes them.  The same is true for the journey of faith.  Just like kids on a trip we get tired of the journey.  We want to know when we can stop. 

We get tired of serving. 

We get tired of waiting. 

We get tired of the people we’re traveling with. 

And we grumble.  The Israelites did.  They complained about the food, about the place they were traveling, and about their ‘driver’ Moses. Grumbling does not set well with God.  In fact, our grumbling can lead to our wandering.  When offered the chance to leave Kadesh and enter the Promised Land, the Israelites listened to the fear-filled report from ten spies instead of the faith-full report of Joshua and Caleb. 

Kadesh means “Spring of Decision” and it was time for one.  They were in the right place to make the right decision.  But the majority made the wrong one.  The people wished they had died in the desert.  So God told them they would get their wish.  They would wander until the unbelieving generation died out.

And they did.  They wandered in the Wilderness for forty years.  And their children were impacted by their decisions.

The decisions you make affect those around you, just like the decisions the Israelites made at Kadesh.  You can decide to grumble or be thankful.  You can decide to turn away from God or turn toward God.  You can decide to wander without purpose through life or follow God’s vision for your life.

Just don’t forget that those in the backseat will be affected by your decisions.

The Golden Years

It all began at a very early age, I think somewhere between 9 and 11. That was when I took my first job selling newspaper subscriptions, then in the fifth grade I bought produce from my neighbor who had a farm, taking the produce in my wagon around the neighborhood and reselling the vegetables and fruit.  In May of 2007 it began to come to fruition.  That is when I turned 59 ½ and the government let me do with my 401k investments as I wanted without penalty.  Then in November of 2009 I hit the magic number of 62 and became SSE (social security eligible).  I put in my paperwork to retire on June 30^th 2010, choosing this date since the company I worked for was changing, reducing and just messing with our retirement money on July 1^st 2010.  Had I known that I was/am this good at doing nothing, I would have planned my retirement much, much sooner.  I say that in jest, as it now seems that I need to return to work just to take a break.  I never had this much going on when I was working and now do not know how I find the time to keep it all going.  God has blessed Kate and I with enough of what we need that we can do many of the things we want to do and because He has blessed Kate with a good paying job that we Pray she can keep till she can retire in April of 2013.  I would urge anyone who reads this (regardless of your age) to attend one of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University courses, I promise you that it will make a great positive difference in your financial situation and the way you handle your finances.  Just as when I worked Monday through Friday and took Saturday off and used Sunday to worship our Lord, I still do the same thing in retirement with a few exceptions.  I now cut some of my neighbors yards during the grass growing season to pick up some extra spending cash, my grand kids spend much of the summer with us and I take them to the water park Monday through Friday (adventure island has a summer pass that is $50.00 and the kids can go every Monday through Friday), we still go to the airport and park on the top level (first hour is free) and watch the planes takeoff and land, riding the long term trolley as a small train going nowhere and then go to the third floor and have breakfast and visit some of the shops.  One of the most special things I get to do now (again, I would urge any and all of you who can, to do this as often as you can) is work for the Church on Tuesday afternoon.  While the Church staff is in their weekly meeting, I get to update some of the reports, prepare drive-in service bulletins, answer the phones and anything else Shirley will let me do.  My Prayer every Tuesday morning is that my work at and for the Church will make my Lord smile (Having done some stupid things before that is not a far reach if He is watching me).  I think sometimes when it sounds like thunder outside, it is really the Lord laughing at me or something I did or said.  I am also able to devote more time to our Missions Program at NBCC and to more easily go when we have trips planned.  One of the more personal things I am able to do in my retirement is read those books I was not able to during my working years.  One last story for you about my retirement.  We do not always have a weekly income  and for decades I have been accustomed to tithing on a weekly basis, not too long back I had no income for the week and could not bear the thought of not writing a tithe check, so I wrote one (my concern was for breaking my habit, since we had plenty of money in the bank to cover the check) and put it in my envelope and went to Church as usual to do my 8:00 AM greeting and pass out bulletins.  In walked two of my favorite people and he handed me a CASH for three times the amount of my tithe to help me pay for the missions trip I was going on.  AIN’T GOD GREAT?!!!!! 

John Hartley

elder 

Restoration

You know, we serve a God of restoration. I am glad that we do. I am glad that relationships can be restored. My mom used to tell my brother and I (usually when we were arguing) that friends would come and go, but we would always be family. The church is a family. We go through things that, sometimes, aren't pretty. But we will always be family. We are all the children of God. A God of restoration.