Ultimate Plumbing

I had the opportunity to play ultimate frisbee last night at Johnson Park with about 15 people and I must admit it was pretty fun. I think it's really only the 2nd time I've ever played, but it took me back to my elementary days when we used to play football. Losers walk, the big "kickoff", speed can really change the game, strategy. I can't throw a straight frisbee to save my life, but catching, running, and defense are fortunately part of the game as well. So my team went 2-2 and we didn't play a 5th cause people were tired and it's not so much about winning with them--or so it seemed. I've got to practice up for when I'm down visiting Whitley because she's really good (so I hear, anyway).

The Himes house update is that I finished running the plumbing for the washer/dryer combo-- and there were no leaks (though I did get quite a bit of water in the wash/mud room because I forgot to shut the valve off when I turned the water supply back on--oh, well, it was only concrete. I couldn't figure out where the running water sound was coming from cause the basement was dry). It's always a good day when water is contained.

This picture is from before we reframed the wash/mud room. We had to eliminate steps and pour concrete to make for a bigger room. Isn't it a beautiful house?

Gull Lake Lessons

So it's always good to reflect on teachings that you hear and make sure that you can apply them to your life. It's the only true way to have life change. I was at Gull Lake with the family and Whitley this week and heard some great talks from I Samuel and Habakkuk from Dr. Jim Allen (missionary with HCJB). Anyway, this post is more for me to put words on paper than for entertainment of others, but you're welcome to read it!

God doesn't want us to try to impress him. In I Samuel 15, King Saul was commanded by God to utterly destroy the Amalekites and every living creature (v. 3). It wasn't a vague command by any means. So Saul destroyed the Amalekites, but kept King Agag alive and also spared the best of the animals to present as an offering to the Lord (while building himself a monument). When he returned from battle, Samuel asked why he had disobeyed the Lord and hadn't utterly destroyed everything. Saul believed he had done a great service to the Lord by keeping the best of the animals for an offering--try to impress God by his thoughtfulness and actions. Samuel responded, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." God doesn't want us to try to impress him by our actions or to try to add to what he has already said is sufficient and good. He would rather a humble spirit focused on serving and knowing him, while not trying to add to his commands.
Here's five goals:
1. Never lose the goal of total obedience to God.
2. If my life isn't for God's glory, then it's in vein.
3. God should be honored in every setting, even if we know we're right.
4. There is danger in thinking activity will please God.
5. Do things God's way.


When circumstances in life bring you joy, you're in danger. We are commanded to be joyful, not as some fuzzy feeling, but as an outward expression and attitude for what God has done, and continues to do, in our lives. In the last chapter of Habakkuk, it speaks of barrenness and utter despair because of imminent capture. He uses words such as tremble, quiver, shake, destroyed, barren, fail, die, empty to describe the situation at hand. But that's not the end of it. "Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation." Our focus shouldn't be on our physical circumstances, but on God and how he loves us, has saved us, and calls us to show his love and joy to others. If we don't radiate joy as Christians, how can an unbelieving world notice a difference?

nano

A big thanks has to go out to my sister and her husband for blessing me with an ipod nano for no reason at all other than being generous and showing love. They never stop showing kindness.

Whitley is still the greatest girlfriend ever!

I got a brand new....

My friend, Whitley, came up for the weekend from NC. We met in Chicago with 2 of my friends, Joel and Sharon, and saw some sights (Lincoln Park Zoo, Wrigley Field, Magnificent Mile) and ate some great food (Gino's East). Unfortunately, Whitley's luggage didn't make it to the baggage claim, so she ended up going without for almost 2 days (fortunately, Sharon had a few things). And even then, only one piece showed up. The other is still missing--so we're still praying. Not once did I see Whitley get upset or bent out of shape--it was educating to observe her kindness toward others while they were trying to find her luggage.
We then went to Grand Haven to see Lake Michigan because Whitley had never seen. She and I headed out Saturday night and, after walking the pier, wading in the lake, and grabbing a dinner, we finally had "the talk" and she consented to begin dating!! Yea!! Neither of us is over-excited to do a long-distance relationship, but we are excited about the plans that God has for us--both individually and together--and where He will take our relationship.
On Sunday/Monday, we made it to Gull Lake where we met up with my family and had a great time catching up, eating, attending a service, and being at the beach. The saddest part was driving Whitley to the airport and seeing her go back home.
I'll have some pictures up sometime this week when my girlfriend :) sends me some. She is an unbelievably wonderful godly woman (the kindest girl you'll ever meet) and I feel privileged to even know her--let alone begin dating.

Whitley just sent me a picture, so here it is. She's so great!

Vacation

The end of July is always a great time of year. Not only do my two oldest sisters celebrate birthdays, but our family always gets together at Gull Lake Ministries for a week (or however many days each of us can spend), and it is often the only time outside of Christmas that our entire family is together. I get to see my sister and brother-in-law for the first time in a year since they live in Taiwan, my pregnant sister and her husband are up from SC, and my other sister and her husband are coming from the other side of the state. And, obviously, my parents are on their way from up north. My friend, Whitley, get to join us as well for a few days after we get back from Chicago, so it projects to be a great weekend.

I learned how to hyperlink today. Whitley would be happy.

Read Psalm 39 sometime.

Windows Part II

Here are a few picture updates on the front porch of the house.
I did one half on Sunday and Tim and I did the window-side half last night!
(Sorry for the blurry pic...I'll replace it later).

The Bus

(as i was to ride the bus this morning, i thought of this poem. maybe someday i'll be a writer.)



Waiting for the bus to come,
A family sits with me.
"A lovely day to be outside."
I say, "I must agree!"

Though a lower class of people ride,
They all seem very kind.
Some smiles as I walk the bus--
This ride I will not mind.

The driver enjoys a friendly laugh;
A rider--a distant stare.
We pass the first of many stops--
I ride without a care.

Apartments, houses, and stores I see--
My stop is drawing near.
A new rider with a question asks,
"Can I reach the mall from here?"

I pass my car--it's in the shop,
That's why I ride the bus.
I'm thankful it is getting fixed--
Though it has caused quite a fuss.

The bus is getting full by now;
The highway just ahead.
Just one more stop till I get off--
I'll walk the rest instead.

And so I finish this bus ride
With a few more coming soon.
I will ride again tomorrow, too--
Until then I'll hum a tune.


dan
02/02/06

Yea God!

Hopefully I'm not the only one that wakes up or goes throughout a day thinking about all the sin that still lingers in me. There are definite times when I feel very far from God. This morning was one of those times. It seems as though bad situations, poor conversations, worthless actions, and impure thoughts tend to slowly build up until I feel a great chasm between myself and God. Confession and repentance are two very different things in my book. The first comes quite easy, but I never feel nearly as reconciled to God until the latter takes place.

But the incredible thing to me is that, though I feel unworthy of God's kindness and pathetic as a Christian, God still is right here wanting to bless me. I don't always understand it. And it's hard to always accept it. This morning I had two specific examples of his kindness, love, and favor. I dropped my car off at the shop this morning to have a few lights checked out on my dashboard that came on last week. The bus stop is right there, so I was waiting for the bus to arrive when a truck pulled up next to me. I recognized the man (he works maintenance next door at the Brann's restaurant and his wife used to work at the hotel) and he told me to jump in and he'd take me to work. I honestly don't know him that well--and he's definitely not a believer--but he showed kindness.

The second occurrence happened when I received a call from Menards confirming my window replacement cost (I busted the glass about 1 1/2 weeks ago). I had gone to a glass shop and was told it would cost about $160 to replace the glass, while the window had only cost $140. Go figure. So I went back to Menards and the lady this morning told me that the window company would do a free replacement. I had told her it was my fault that the windows broke, but she said when she spoke to the representative, since the windows were so recently bought, they wouldn't charge a dime, and as long as I didn't mind receiving free sashes, she'd place the order. I didn't mind.

I remember reading Joel Osteen's book, Your Best Life Now, and he speaks of proclaiming God's favor, and thanking Him for it, before things take place. I believe that has truth to it, but I also believe that sometimes God just wants to bless his children and remind them that He is God and he can pour out blessings when we least expect it or feel the farthest away from Him.

Yea God!

Southern Belles

It's amazing to me how different southern people are from us northerners. I've been able to meet 3 fine ladies from Georgia--all of different ages--over the past few months and they never cease to be kind, friendly, social, hospitable, less time-conscious, and happy. I can see why my sister, Rebekah, does well in that environment, as she exudes all those characteristics. What are some characteristics of northerners? Well, I feel we are more selfish, more isolated (and 6 months of winter doesn't help the socializing as much as 12 months of spring/summer), less expressive, dependent on the weather for our outlook on the day (come on, you know it's true), and more entertained my material things/media than cultivating friendships. I know this doesn't include everyone up north (I hope I don't portray all these characteristics), and I'm sure there are some mean and unfriendly southerners, but it's something to consider. When I was in South Carolina a few months ago, I was amazed at how friendly people were walking down the street to each other. It's contagious. I try to create conversation with strangers or retail personnel up here and it's amazing how many of them don't want to chat or won't even look at you.
Just some food for thought.

"Trash"

It saddens me as I see
trash on the ground.
As I look I see more and more
trash all around.

A cup and a bag and a
wrapper from gum,
It would take near a year to pick
up one by one.

I wonder just how littering
people were raised,
Or if it's some sad, sick, and
gross new world craze.

The cigarette butts are my
least favorite, still--
They cover the ground like ants
on a sand hill.

Recycling sounds like a
thing of the past--
That's way too much work and the
ground is so fast.

The trash leaves our hand without
thinking at all--
I'm sure it will be on the
ground till next fall.

I pick trash up daily as
part of my job.
Could that guest truly be that
big of a slob?

What good can I do in this
world going wrong?
I guess pick up piece by piece
till all is gone!

written by Dan
2/3/06
I was reminded today of this poem as there was lots of trash on the ground at work. :(

The fullness of a day

Saturday was a long day. Considering it started at 12:30 am. My friends, Joe and Molly, and I made a road trip down to the greater-Detroit area for the day. Both work Friday nights, so we couldn't leave until after work to visit our friend, Dave, in Toledo. It was just past 3 am when we arrived at Dave's. But it was well worth the trip. After taking what seemed like a nap, we cooked a breakfast and headed out for some sight-seeing of Toledo (many of the spots I was familiar with when I lived there--yea for BV, Dave!). Not only did we get a Tony Packo's famous hotdog (it's a Hungarian restaurant), but McD's was having 35 cent ice cream cones! We played some pickup basketball at a park, and then headed to Dave's mom's house for some dinner. And to cap off the night, we headed to Ann Arbor to visit with some other friends--and got to see Taz, the fraternity dog, and notice how fat he has gotten. About 11:30, we began the trip back to GR. So it was a full 24 hours, but a great time to see some friends and hang out with one of the best dogs in the world. Check out the fraternity website: www.phialphakappa.com

Charcoal and Fireworks

Mom, dad, Jason, and Liz made the trip to Grand Rapids for a cookout at the Dan house for July 4th. Not only did we have some excellent chicken and burgers over a charcoal fire, but the corn on the cob was incredible (Jason and Liz definitely liked it from the pic). And needless to say the desert was pretty good as well (brownies, strawberry shortcake, and, as always, ice cream!). Thanks for bringing all that food, mom and Liz.
Later in the evening, I met up with Joel and we cruised out to Grand Haven for fireworks and the world's largest musical fountain show. They had a new firework where they lit about 200 feet of the coast with glowing fireworks of all colors for a few minutes while shooting off other fireworks. Grand Haven does a pretty good job. And how can fireworks not be a good time with Lee Greenwood and Celine Dion patriotic songs playing over the loud speakers?

90 Minutes in heaven

I recently finished a book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven"--a true story about a Baptist pastor, Don Piper, who was pronounced dead on the scene of an accident for 90 minutes until he miraculously came back to life. In the book he tells his story of his brief time in heaven and then expands primarily on his recovery--physically, mentally, and spiritually. When someone speaks of experiencing heaven, Western culture has a way of being skeptical--and rightly so most of the time--but thankfully I don't believe that was his primary focus of the book (it only presented itself in the first two chapters). I think he had 3 main principles he tried to convey.
1. Heaven is real. We can have assurance that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord for Christians.
2. Prayer changes things. Another pastor actually entered his car when he was "dead" and prayed earnestly for him and for his life. Specific prayer was instrumental in his return to earth and recovery, and he definitely saw miracles because of the prayers of God's people (the reason he believes he is still alive today).
3. There is a reason we are all still on earth. It took Don many years to overcome depression and a desire to be in heaven, but some 17 years later he is understanding his role in the Kingdom and how he can be a blessing to others with his story of hope and faith. He's a living example of the goodness of God.
Overall it's a pretty good read. It's a great example of overcoming severe obstacles in life--and how those can only be overcome with God's help and the constant help of Christians. He definitely experienced supernatural life change.

Happy July 4! Start up those grills!

Dan made a mistake.

I was once again reminded yesterday that I am not indestructible and that I can make mistakes. I was reframing a section of the front porch (the right side windows in the picture (taken at the time of move-in), in my house because we had bought new windows a few weeks ago to make the porch more private/useful/insulative, and things were going fine until I came down from the ladder and put my foot right thru a nail. It was the "palm" of my foot and the nail probably went in about a 1/4 of an inch. Being the tough guy that I try to be, and never wanting to wait even a second on injury (because I'm fine and I need to be efficient), I hurried and cleaned the wound, put some neosporin on, and got back out to finish framing in the window.
Not long after that, the window was going in the rough opening and all looked good. I must preface the next part by saying it was extremely windy yesterday. I looked for some stats online today, but no one likes to carry the wind factor. Anyway, I had a couple screws in the window, it was in the frame, and when I reached for a few more screws the wind swirled and pulled that brand new window right out of the opening and onto the ground.
Glass definitely broke and fell all over the ground. It was about a 4' drop for the poor window. After looking at the window for about 3 minutes and getting upset, I remembered that the window that goes to the front porch has the same size openings, so I pulled the panes out of that window and put them in the new. Thus, we have a working window and 2 panes that are broken. I guess the other window will have to wait a few days to be put in until glass can be repaired.
I tried to think of positives from what seemed to be a yucky day, as I've been reading the Bible that we are to praise God in all situations. My foot has not become infected. We had an extra set of window panes that fit. I was only cut once by the glass--and a small cut at that. We have a good-looking window that does what we wanted. It'll just cost a bit more than expected. :)