Monthly Archives: March 2012

Against All Odds

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When I was a single career girl in 1968, I owned a red hard-top convertible Corvette and lived in an apartment with 3 friends on the near-north side of Chicago. Although it wasn’t a dangerous neighborhood, when walking home from distant parking spots we kept our eyes open.

One Sunday afternoon I arrived home briefly and just needed to run inside to pick up a few things before driving off again. Incredibly, there was an empty parking space right in front of our building. With the car so close, I figured I could safely leave the top down during my quick in-and-out.

But when I came back 10 minutes later, my Corvette was gone. It was difficult to believe someone had stolen it in so short a time in broad daylight, but they had. I filed a police report, but the officer said, “A Corvette? They’re chopped up within minutes. You’ll never see it again.”

Lo and behold, 4 days later, the police found it! The convertible top was still down, and it was parked in front of a gun factory with a “Now Hiring” sign out front. The police wouldn’t have noticed it except for the screwdriver sticking out of its ignition hole. The officers hid, waited for the driver, and nabbed him when he tried to get in the car.

I got my Corvette back with only minor damage and classified it as direct intervention from God. Because of his arrangement of circumstances, the impossible had happened.

Last month, the impossible happened again. This time it was Louisa’s 16 year old Honda Accord. She parked it outside her Chicago apartment after returning from work, and when she went back to it, it was gone. Wondering if she’d forgotten exactly where she’d parked, she asked friends to drive her up and down the streets, just to be sure. But it was nowhere.

She filed a police report, but the officer said, “They steal them for parts. We’ll probably find the empty shell abandoned under the el tracks in a day or two.”

Lo and behold, a week later Louisa got a call saying her car had been found, parked illegally in front of a fire plug. Police had it towed to an impound and told her where to pick it up.

“Is it damaged?” she said.

“We didn’t check.”

Incredibly, it was in perfect condition, even the ignition. Although the car’s contents were disheveled, nothing was missing except a five dollar bill. When Louisa called me with the good news she said, “It was God for sure.”

I agree.

Sometimes we feel distant from the Lord, as if he’s not hearing our prayers and has no concern for our needs. At other times we can’t get over his startling activity on our behalf. The trick is to think back to those times of his dramatic involvement during the moments when he seems distant.

True then?

True now.

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings…” (Hebrews 10:22)

Wait on Weight

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Today Birgitta and I took Jack to the vet for treatment of what we thought might be an ear infection. We were right, and we left the office with 4 prescriptions to cure him. But that wasn’t all.

While we were there, our well-padded dog had to get on the scale, and the news wasn’t good. His Kibbles ‘n Bits have been agreeing with him a little too much, and since his last weigh-in, he’s put on 9 new pounds. His grand total is a smidgen below 90, and the doctor recommended a weight of 70, “at the most.”

The lethargy we’ve noticed lately in Jack might be unrelated to ear troubles (as we thought) and more a result of extra girth. The truth is he won’t live as long, feel as good, or enjoy life as much if he holds onto those 20 bonus pounds.

I’ve never been sure how much we should feed Jack, and we’ve been using a plastic scoop-cup to guesstimate his dinner each day. Today we brought the cup with us, for some professional guidance.

“Do you fill it to the brim?” the vet said.

“Yes,” I said.

“Do you know how many cups are in this container?”

“About three,” I said.

“Let’s find out,” he said.

It turns out Jack has been getting nearly twice as much food as he needs. As they say, my bad. Tomorrow we officially begin his weight loss program, though we plan to do the dinnertime-downscale just a bit at a time.

It’s hard to say “no” to Jack’s pleading brown eyes. He demands virtually nothing from us and gives back a great deal. Depriving him of food, his #1 crave, seems mean, yet all those extra pounds are hurting him. I hope we can discipline ourselves to stick with it, and I hope he can get leaner.

None of us likes to be kept away from the things we crave. All we have to do is check bookstore shelves to know most of us aren’t good at denying ourselves, and it isn’t just food. We need help breaking the bonds of bad habits in all categories, anything we do that’s hurting us or those around us.

Jack’s extra weight came to him one unnoticeable ounce at a time, and that’s how all habits begin, with steady repetition of one small behavior. The encouraging thing is that good habits are also formed this way. Our cravings can be good ones, the kinds we can freely satisfy. How can we tell the difference? If our craving moves us closer to God rather than farther away, we can go for it.

My personal opinion is that Jack couldn’t get any more handsome, but who knows what a 20 pound drop might do for him.

“They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.” (Psalm 78:18)

Snapping toward Zero

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Friday while driving from Michigan to Chicago, I saw a van painted like a can of Coke Zero, black with red writing. Since I love Coke Zero and was enjoying one at the time, I thought I’d pull alongside and hold up my can. The driver would see how enthusiastically I endorsed his product, and it might make his day.

But as I leveled off with him, I glanced at the driver who, it turned out, was far too busy to notice my raised can. With one hand holding a phone to his ear and the other texting on a different phone, I figured he was probably driving with his knee. I decided the wisest thing was to distance myself from him and his no-handed driving.

Multi-tasking is one thing, but being stretched too thin is something else. A perfect illustration is our age-old childhood friend, Silly Putty. We all played with this rubbery stuff as kids, shaping and reshaping it endlessly without it ever becoming dry or hard.

If we rolled it into a ball, it bounced around the room energetically, never running out of pep. But if we stretched it slowly side-to-side, it thinned with impressive elasticity that seemed to go on forever. Until, that is, it broke in two.

Each of us can take only so much stretching-thin before we fall apart. It’s true God gives us work we must do, just like he gave jobs to Adam and Eve. Scripture says we’ll also have tasks to accomplish in heaven. But the work of Eden was deeply satisfying, and the work of heaven promises to be rewarding. Meanwhile, present-day work between those two ends isn’t nearly as good. Because of that it can quickly stretch us thin and bring on a snap.

Of course we’ve all been told to choose work that leans into our natural giftings. Nate told our children, “Try to make a living doing something you love.” That’s wise counsel but doesn’t always work out. So what do we do if we can’t work at what we love? Is there another way to keep from cracking under frustrating workloads?

There is.

Proverbs says, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established.” (16:3) Scripture tells us that even those tasks that don’t use our natural skills can take on rich meaning if we’ll first dedicate them to him. I learned this years ago in reference to the endless, messy work of motherhood. If we’ll pull God into whatever job we have to do, we’ll do well at managing it, and more importantly, we’ll change the way we think about it. The NLT version says our plans will actually succeed. That’s a pretty good deal.

I’m not sure, however, if God will ever make it easy to talk on the phone, text a message, and drive with a knee, all at the same time.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” (Psalm 37:5)