Doing my best to be invisible!

I’m doing my best to tip toe lightly on this Tuesday, January 6, 2009. We have guests staying in our home and since I get up early, get ready early, and leave early, I end up doing my best impression of a mime character acting out in the dark so as not to disturb anyone. It does seem slightly odd to be doing this in my own home but it’s such a blessing to know that God is working in Bro. Milton’s recovery and part of that is through his family who are able to come and go. Of course throughout history families have for the most part camped out together. That’s right. Often, there were several generations at a time in the same living space. It’s only in fairly recent times that folks need huge homes to accommodate very few people and often only one or two. We do treasure our privacy, don’t we? We put a premium on ‘our’ routine. We desire to function the way that suits us best. In contrast, the Bible tells us to be always willing to share our space with others. In fact, we are told that some have actually opened their homes to guests, unaware that they were angels sent from God on a special mission. (See Hebrews 13:2)

When it comes down to it, we are all pretty much set in our ways. That’s right. And I am probably more set than others. I don’t like it when things don’t work the way they should, especially as it relates to maintaining my idea of the ‘status quo’. This past Sunday my WiFi adapter that talks to the router we have for high-speed internet in our home quit working. It’s brand new. It was working fine but then it quit working. I needed to help someone with airline reservations but suddenly I had no internet to access the airline because of this problem. I called my emergency hot line, that is, our eldest son, who typically can walk me through most computer glitches and get me back up and running. In this case, he immediately figured I had done something wrong. Perhaps this is based on history, however, in this instance it was a component failure. ‘New defective’ is a difficult concept to appreciate since we usually would not consider something that comes all nicely packaged and priced at a premium to just up and quit. But that’s what happened. Having determined this to be the problem, my next task was to find the receipt. In all the moving and upside down living we’ve done of late I spent nearly an hour but could not find that receipt. Fortunately, the electronics store was able to retrieve my transaction by using the purchase date and my debit card number and I was able to exchange it for a new one, however, they didn’t have the same one so I had to pay $20 more for the next level up. After more wailing and gnashing, with my son on the telephone, we got it installed and working. BUT, while I am happy it is working, I’m still somewhat disgruntled by the whole experience. Why? Because I don’t like my needed functionality to be messed with, ever. This is an area I need to work on. I resolve to go back and read the blog I wrote about resolutions for the New Year.

Sorry about blowing apart your opinion of how even handed and calm I must be. No, sadly, I can go from zero to sixty in record time whenever things don’t go to suit me. Oh by the way I forgot to say how I questioned my wife carefully since she was the last one to use the computer before the component gave up the ghost. I particularly wanted to know exactly how she went through the shut down procedures but as it turned out that had nothing to do with it. But I did want her to feel a part of my pain and to be included in the partnership activities we both enjoy. (That sentence sounds much better than how it actually went, as if you wouldn’t have guessed.) Of course my eldest son more than made up for any questions I posed to her by his relentless pursuit in trying to figure out what I had done to mess up his Sunday afternoon. It’s not such a small world after all, but it is one where we struggle together in pursuing the life God has given to us. Have a great Tuesday and always remember that we can do all things, including dealing with a DOA router adapter, through the strength that comes through our relationship with our Savior. Amen. ….More later.