marinade on this a while

Jack's Blessed Hope

2008-11-20T15:13:00.000-05:00

So Jack was at the Y and his class was rock-wall climbing. He told me that he didn't try it "because it was to high up and scary and he would rather stay on the ground where it is safe, but, he will be fine when Jesus comes back and we go up to heaven to see Jesus because we will float up and we won't even have helmets....but that will be OK."

To have that kind of perspective at 6 made me think that I need to wait in expectation for the hope that we have that Christ will return. It was relevant to his world at the Y, so I need to think more often.

So, what did you do over the weekend?

2008-04-24T10:26:00.000-04:00

As Christians, we are all looking for that "hook" to start a spiritual conversation about Christ. Whether we follow the Way of the Master line of reasoning where we point out to people that they are murdering, adulterous liars and then show them the fire of hell and tell them to repent or we take the inquisitive approach and ask, "If you were to die today....", we must start somewhere. Paul began talking about philosophy, Judaism and nature and ended up with Christ.

Let me present another option in the menagerie of ideas.

ON MONDAY, ask someone,
"So, what did you do this weekend?" and the dialogue might go something like this

--based on age and culture--"I played golf, X-Box, watched TV, Knitted, drank till I passed out or whatever, so, what did you do this weekend?".

"Really, well I played golf as well, X-box, TV, knitted, (hopefully not passed out drunk) went to an awesome party, AND I went to church"

"Oh, you go to church?"

"Yep, I go to ___________ church. Do you go to church anywhere?"

"No, not really. If I ever go, I go on Easter and Christmas."

"That's cool, what do you think about God?"

And then your conversation can hopefully begin and you tell them the truth about how Jesus through His life, death, burial and resurrection is
Prophet--points out sin and calls you to repentance
Priest--gives you grace and loves and helps you
King--he should rule and reign in our hearts

Now this is all assuming this happens perfectly and in order and they follow the rules. :)

That won't always happen and so we can go confidently into our conversations knowing that God draws people to himself and we are only a conduit to share His Good News and let Him do His work.

Hopefully, we can season every conversation with a little salt and not just try to start some hokey sales pitch of our product. There is a time for everything though and we must be sensitive to the Spirit at all times and inject truth with whomever we talk with.

I had a wonderful opportunity this morning with my 5 year old son. We were listening to my sports talk radio heroes, Mike and Mike. My son knows them by name and can recognize them from their ESPN2 morning show. Anyway, they were talking with Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL. He mentioned how "getting kids involved in sports is the most important thing we could do." I shut it off and asked Jack if he agreed with that guy on the radio. He didn't know what I meant, so I repeated what he said and then Jack told me that the guy was wrong. I asked him what was the most important thing. He answered, "Jesus, because He created everything and He died on the cross for our sins." What better answer could a guy want from his kid. I pray that it is not a conditioned response, but something that God is forming in his heart and mind and continues to be the most important thing in his life.

P.S. don't tell anyone, but Jack loves sports too and all he can think about nowadays is going to T-Ball practice. :)

Marinade on this a while...

....Or Current Youth Pastor

2008-04-15T11:13:00.000-04:00

It is unfortunate that on most of the mail that I receive at the church, after my name is the little 4 word caveat ....Or Current Youth Pastor. Sometimes I wonder why so many churches may have problems keeping youth pastors. There are tons of reasons and I don't want to name any of them, but come on, is it really to the point where we (youth pastors) are on such a revolving door, pick and choose kind of mentality? Someone in fact asked me this week, "so have you had the '2 year, do we like it' talk about being at church?'" That was a fine question to ask, but IS that a common question to ask? If it is, I didn't know it. So if I or anyone else doesn't like their job or location after 2 years do we bail? I sure hope not. And is ministry tough? Yes, because people are tough and when a job concerns people, which most do on some levels, the job is going to be messy sometimes and it may not always be enjoyable.

I pray that loyalty will run rampant through the veins of me and my fellow ministers in the Church of Jesus Christ, and that loyalty runs to Christ, not to a denomination, a pastor, a group of people or a sweet action student ministry facility.

Yes, there are reasons to leave (some good, some bad), but I hope we can do away with some of the ....Or Current Youth Pastor stuff in our mailbox.

Lie In Wait For Blood

2008-04-08T15:35:00.000-04:00

As you know, as you read my profile, I am a youth pastor and things like this vido clip from CBS really disturb me. Basically, this is a video of a girl who was lured by some others to come over to the house and unbeknownced to her she was going to be beaten up mercilessly for a thrill and a chance for these students to post the video on YouTube. Allegedly, this beating was the result of a comment on MySpace.

You may watch the video below; parts of it being the beating and parts of it an interview with the victims parents and police. Be cautioned that this is not for the faint of heart or stomach.

This scenario reminds me of some verses in Proverbs, but I am not so sure that is the first thing I would think about if it were my child being the victim of this. My flesh would want to retaliate and avenge my child. But I do know that vengeance is the Lord's, but that is a hard truth that wars with our sinful nature.

Anyway, the Proverb is this, 1:8-19 Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse"--my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.

Where are the parents teaching this to the kids? Why are these kids left alone to be at home with 8 or so other friends unsupervised? Where is the restraint in the hearts of the attackers?

Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

God can and he can cure it. Jesus (God) came to save sinners. God can give us a new heart. We need to respond to Him in repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ.

Here it is.

I am not the best SUPPLICATIONER, PRAYERER, INTERCESSIONER OR THANKSGIVINGER

2008-04-08T13:12:00.001-04:00

Of course those aren''t words, but they are words used by the apostle Paul when telling Timothy how he should pray for ALL men, including world leaders and those in authority.

Now relating these things to how we pray for others
#1 Supplication--Asking God for the personal needs of others
#2 Prayer--This involves worshipping God and pointing out things about Himself because of another person
#3 Intercession--Asking God's favor on behalf of others
#4 Thanksgiving--Thanking God for others and specific things about them

I am not the best at this because honestly I realized that I don't often ask people what kind of personal things I can pray for and when I do ask and when I do tell people that I will be praying for them, often, I never do. I don't write it down, I forget and then I feel foolish when I see that person and am reminded of that prayer I was supposed to pray and told them I would (yes be yes kind of thing) and then even sometimes I lie to them and tell them I have been praying for them. OUCH

I am not the best at this because honestly, sometimes I am to focussed on myself that in my prayers I forget that it is about worshipping God and when i think about people, often it is not for all people, but a select few on a list I might have written down or in my mind and I certainly do not have my mind focussed on seeing what God has put in other people for the sole purpose of not praising them but praising Him and the grace he has shown them by giving whatever gift He has to them and the grace He has shown me by allowing me to see Him in someone else which causes me to want God to show me grace and help me be like that aspect of Him I saw in someone else so that I can be conformed to the image of Him (His Son Jesus). OUCH

I am not the best at this because honestly I don't know what kind of favor people need from God. I don't slow down enough in the hallways at church, in between the weight machines at the Y, in the hallways of my own home to STOP and ask, "how can I intercede to God on behalf of you?"...well people don't quite much talk that way anymore, but you get the point. When will I stop? slow down? sincerely ask? follow through? OUCH

I am not the best at this because honestly sometimes I don't think about how God has blessed me with other people. Sometimes, I wrongly feel like I deserve others to "bless" me when in reality I deserve to be a lonely hermit with no love because before God saved me, I was an enemy of God (acc. to His words) and did not deserve Love and Grace, but God who is rich in mercy chose me to be saved and chose me to be blessed in many ways by many people so that I could bring Him glory and honor and praise. OUCH

There are two words that I would rather not say again. HONESTLY AND OUCH. But isn't that what God's Word is for? James says that looking into God's Word is like looking into a mirror. It shows you who you really are and that because of His kindness of telling us who we really are, it leads us to repentance which results in saying the word, "honestly" and then we say, "OUCH" because we know we have violated God's precious Word. So I guess I don't want to stop saying those words but maybe saying them less and less. It is only with God's strength and Holy Spirit that I am going to be able to do that. And I know that Jesus who had no sin became sin so that I might receive the righteousness of God.

How could you say "Honestly and Ouch" today and what would it be about? Maybe it means that we all need to be in the word a little more so that it drives us to repentance towards the Holy God and Faith in His Son Jesusthe sinless sacrifice who became sin for us, died on the cross and rose again defeating sin.

I Timothy

2008-03-25T12:35:00.001-04:00

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while, but I need to get back to it, so here goes.

I am reading and studying through the Pastoral Epistles (I, II Timothy and Titus). My goal right now is to read I and II Timothy completely through each day up until the first week in June.

I will try to keep some thoughts of mine updated.

I Tim 1:1--Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.

Just as Paul was commanded by God to be an apostle, what is it that God is commanding us to do in our lives? Many churches call this their mission/vision/purpose/whatever statement and try to bottle the "most important" thing that God wants from us. Other people have these same kind of statements for their lives. Not that there's anything wrong with that (JS) and I think it is a good thing to think about our main goal and what God has commanded us, but as I look at the whole of Scripture, there are commands from God that we don't even think of and sometimes pass by like they are just pithy nice suggestions. Let's take for example I Timothy 2:8. Now I know I am jumping ahead of myself but just bear with me. We may argue on this verse whether it is a command or not because Paul said that he desires that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.... Now if that is a desire coming from one of the apostles with God's authority, Timothy probably got on the phone or email right then...well, maybe Timothy actually got a little personal with people and directly talked face to face with them...but anyway, Timothy probably got to it right away forming a prayer group of men who lifted their hands. I don't lift my hands when I pray, should I? I don't know, but Paul said it was something he desired of the people, and if it was good enough for Paul, should I simply just write it off as a cultural position of prayer or a hyperbolic symbolism? I have heard a few things about lifting our hands, it is the common position of someone surrenduring, it is the common position of someone drowning and it is the common position of children when mommy or daddy get home from work. Maybe we are telling God something by lifting up not only hands, but holy hands in and during our prayers.

As I did a common Google search for commands in the NT, I found somewhere around 1000commands. Now some were to the apostles and some to Christians and some to specific people, but the majority of them are very viable for Christians living today.

I pray that I never just focus on one command of Scripture over any other and I hope I always remember that I can do nothing apart from Christ and all I do whether I eat or drink should be done to the Glory of God. God never let me think of your commands as pithy suggestions but as preordained commands coming from the One who created all and the One who has the authority to command.

P.S. I know some may jump on my statement about not wanting to focus on one command over another, because Jesus said there was a 1st and 2nd great command to Love God and Love others. He also said that those 2 summed up the entire law and prophets. What I am thinking of is where to lump all the other commands into those 2 categories and then how do we do them. Welcome to ministry.

What did Jesus do on Halloween

2007-11-01T14:25:00.000-04:00

Last night, the middle school group at New Life Church went out from 6-7pm during beggars night and handed out Gospel of John booklets door to door along with a rice Krispie treat. Neat idea huh? Anyway we handed out maybe only 30, but that is 30 people with the Gospel in their hand that may not have before.

In my group, I had my wife and kids (Jack a pirate, Layla a princess and Ben a bear), 4 boys and another adult. We coached them on what to say (Hi, we're from New Life Church and we want to give you a treat, have a great night.) Simple enough. We did not take any candy from the homes, but my kids did. haha.

Anyway after we did that, we had a fire outside and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Yummy. We had only about 1/4 of the normal amount of kids we normally do which was disappointing, but we all know how important candy is. :(

We then played a few games and talked about what God thinks of witchcraft and other things associated with Halloween. The students who were there interacted about ouji boards and horoscopes and mediums and how there is a distinct push on TV and in Magazines to market this kind of thing to young people and make it look very cool. We discussed the best thing about all this stuff and that is that God is immeasureably greater and stronger in all aspects of life than anything the enemy may throw at us.

Anyway, We got home that night and put the kids to bed and I layed down with my son Jack for a few minutes. His first question to me in bed was,
"Dad, what did Jesus do on Halloween?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
"Well," he said, "He died on Easter and was born on Christmas. What did he do on Halloween?"

That is a pretty insightful question from a 5 year old and it was a very, shall we say a little bit convicting question to me after I had spent a good part of the day studying the origins and symbolism of Halloween.

Anyway, I told him that honestly Halloween is about scary stuff and some bad stuff and there is nothing that has to do with God. He perked up with a very confused look on his face because he thought that a holiday celebrated something about God. We went through some other major holidays and what God had to do with them; Thanksgiving--God providing for us
4th of July--God giving us Freedom

I told him that even though it is a Holiday that has nothing to do with God, we were trying to spread God's love and His Word to others tonight by handing out the Bibles and giving treats instead of taking them. We also got to know some of the people surrounding the church and give them some exposure to Christian people.

It was a great conversation to have with him.

I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of Halloween because the discussion could go on for hours, but I will say that I was reminded that even 5 year olds can understand why we do what we do and I have to be aware as a parent of all that I do. I do know that we are to let our light shine before men as Christians and maybe shutting off all the lights in our homes in order to avoid our neighbors that we probably should know better because we think they are celebrating the devil on a day that God has made for salvation might not be the best way to let our light shine. I have marinaded on the Halloween thing quite a bit and I don't think that total avoidance or total indulgence are the best routes to take. I don't have the perfect alternative at all, but we are set apart for God's glory and any way we can make God more famous on this day and any other day is the best choice. We each have to figure out the best way in our own context. Maybe it is handing out Bibles, having a pre-beggars night bbq for your block, handing out candy with tracts, carving a cross in the pumpkin instead of the scary face or any amount of other things. But please let's get away from the avoidance mentality and figure out how we can ACTIVELY glorify God and make Him famous not make our OWN homes famous for being the lights-out Christians on the block. But also, let's not do what everyone else does just because everyone else does. How can we do it better?

May we seek out knowledge and understanding and wisdom from God in all areas of our lives...even our celebrations.

On another note, in my studies I found a great verse relating to mediums and those that talk to the dead.
Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10 talk about how the dead have no functions on the earth anymore and contribute nothing to our world in the grave. Look them up and read them and be ever more careful of those shows that have people that claim they can talk to the dead.

Discipline at the Plate

2007-10-25T13:42:00.000-04:00

Today in the car I was listening to pretty much the only thing I listen to in my car and that is 1460 The Fan, sports talk radio. Anyway Bruce Hooley, one of the hosts, was talking about what sets the Red Sox apart from many of the teams in MLB. He said that it was their discipline at the plate that stood out to him. Basically, discipline at the plate refers to how often a batter swings at pitches inside and outside the strike zone (there are actually stats out there on this subject for each player...what a boring job). Anyway, the Red Sox, according to Hooley, have great discipline at the plate which means that they swing at fewer balls than strikes...are you trackin with me? Good. To explain it even further, it could be said that the Red Sox batters SEE the strike zone well and can tell if a pitch will be a strike or not before it crosses the plate.

Another example of this is the women's softball team that cleaned house in the Olympics a few years ago. I watched a TV special on them and one of their batting drills was to have balls pitched from a pitching machine at like 100mph. The trick was that each ball had a number 1-10 on each ball and each player had to call out the number on the ball before it crossed the plate. Each player could do it with almost perfect precision.

This got me thinking about the choices we make as people/parents/students/Christians/etc...

We have to decide if we are going to make wise choices or foolish ones and we have to be able to read the situation/temptation/idea/strategy/etc... that we encounter on a day to day basis. Discipline at the plate takes lots of practice and time and it induces within baseball players feelings of frustration/quitting/physical pain/joy when accomplished/even more joy when the practice plays out in a real game.

I Timothy 4:7-8 NASB
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Our discipline or Self-control as some may call is an active part of us, in and of itself, that is up to us. God helps us, gives us power and gives us wisdom, but He cannot make us be disciplined people. It is up to us to gather the knowledge, rest on our faith and act on it in all discipline.

I love to workout at the gym. In fact if I had it my way, I would be there every day at 6am and stay for a few hours. But as this verse pounds away at me every time I go to the gym, I realize that it is doing me some good (I am healthier, stronger, creating more avenues for blood to go to and from my heart, I feel better about my appearance, I burn off some of the horrible food that I eat, I meet some people, it relieves stress etc...). But, it does not profit me in other and sometimes more important areas of my life like family time, wisdom, time alone with God, serving others, compassion, sometimes losing sleep to workout (not always a good thing) etc...

That verse does say that godliness, or the pursuit of being conformed to the image of Christ as Rom 8 tells us, is valuable for all things. That is a promise I must believe and be disciplined to act upon.

I could go on and on, but just read 1st and 2nd Timothy and you will get the point.

I could have probably called this post ETC... Sorry for using that so many times.

Reflection of God

2007-08-20T22:14:00.001-04:00

Today was kind of an interesting day at my house.

But first,a few days ago, I put a for sale sign in the window of my awesome 1990 chevy lumina. I always wished that Exibit would rollup and take my car and Pimp My Ride. Never happened though. Anyway, my for sale sign was prompted by our neighbor across the street who no longer wanted that eyesore in front of her house. I did that at about 7pm. Well....8pm rolled around and we were putting the kids to bed and right before bed every night we pray as a family. That night, I told my son Jack to pray that our car would sell fast and would sell for the 500 dollars we wanted. He prayed. We were done praying when all of a sudden someone called on the phone. It was someone who wanted to purchase our car. I yelled to Jack that God was beginning to answer the prayer already. I went outside and the guy was waiting by the car. I told him of all the problems and what I had done to it. He drove it and I had to give him some pointers such as: at a stop sign, put it into nuetral and rev it up a bit. He brought it back and the next day took it to his mechanic. He called again and he wanted to buy it. It was not for 500 but 275 would suffice for me.

What an awesome thing for a 4 year old boy to see his God at work. I wonder how many opportunities I have missed to give my kids the opportunity to see Him work. God help me to take those opportunities.

Today I worked a half day at my office amidst a painter painting away in my office. I didn't get too much work done, but I had some good conversation and cleaned my office up a bit.

I went home at noon and the first thing I hear is my daughter crying. I go in to see what had happened and as it had turned out, she had made a minor discretion that required punishment. My wife was about administer the necessary means to restore order. Hmmmmm....a verse comes to mind about spoiling a child. Anyway, as any good dad should, I rescued my wife from having to do the punishing and told her to let me do it. Well I did not know that it had become a sort of battle of wills. My daughter would not assume the correct position to encounter the punishment and she very stealthily placed her hands in a defensive position behind her to block anything that may come into contact with her. Neither of her hands would budge, and she needed to move them and in a sense submit. She has some endurance I must say. this went on for a good 45 minutes. As the submission did not happen, the punishment became worse. My daughter is a very smart child and she has beautiful eyes that could melt and a sobbing cry that could talk anyone into anything.....but I am DAD, I will not budge....right? Well after a few administered encounters with the backside, she still would not willingly move her hands. No matter what we did. After that 45 minutes and some "encouragement" she decided what was best for was to move her hands. I stood my ground and did not give in and I knew that this would be a triumph of submission and a life lesson for her life to come. The entire time, I was not sure if what I was doing was the best way--as a lot of us parents feel a lot of the time--but I pressed on. But when it was over, something amazing happened. I stood her up and looked at her eye-to-little brown eye, holding each side of her little sweat and tear soaked head as it was mildly moved by a sob here and there and told her over and over again that I loved her as my eyes welled up and I began to sob at the thought of how much I loved her. We hugged and I kissed her many more times than she got spanked. Mr. Tough Guy Dad who was going to be the one to punish became a father who so dearly loved his child enough to punish her when she had done wrong and didn't want her to do it again.

Automatically my mind raced to Hebrews 12

"My son or daughter, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."[a]

I know we are not supposed to rewrite Scripture to make it say what we want, but could I just imagine it differently as a proverb of sorts for young people?...

"Son's and Daughters, don't think it is a little thing when your Dad disciplines you,
and do not be discouraged when He lets you know you have done wrong and
corrects you.
because your Dad disciplines you because he loves you,
and He does it because you are his child and He accepts you for who you are, but wants you to make better choices and to obey Him."

God loves us so much and considers us His children that he takes time out to punish us. When we see God's punishment as love, we might just have a better understanding of our own parents or even of your discipline of your own kids. We are to love as God loves. Will we do that perfectly? Nope, but as we look at God's Word and how he treats us, we can learn rich lessons of being a parent and through it God will show us His Glory.

My daughter may not remember this punishment in the future, but the rest of the day, she didn't shun me or run away from me, she desired my love and affection and care. I was the one that day whom she wanted to hug and squeeze and save her from the monster running around the house....well, that was just mom playing a funny game. But the punishment drew us closer together and not further apart. Maybe that has something to do with the faith of a child. Maybe God built in to us the knowledge that punishment done in Love should draw us closer. When we are young that may work. For I remember in my family it was called "making up" and usually it was the child who wanted to make up with the parent. Later on, because of our sinful nature and flesh, that response may not happen as my daughter gets older, but I will cherish it now as a reflection of God.

air conditioners and license plates

2007-07-16T16:22:00.000-04:00

Last night I had a party at my house hosted for the high school students from New Life. It was a lot of fun and the first time that most of them had been to my house. I have to do that more often. Anyway, while they were there, some were outside playing the best game ever, cornhole, and some were in the livingroom playing the best game ever, twister, and some were in the dining room playing the best game ever, eating, and some were in the other livingroom playing the best game ever, wii.

While those who were playing wii and eating were in the same, somewhat large room addition on my house it was ever more apparent that there was no air conditioning in that room. When it was built, they put in baseboard heaters and no air conditioning vents. Kind of odd. Well as guys and girls played wii for almost 2 hours it began to get a little, shall we say, musty in the room. Wii had fans, but that was not sufficient.

Around 9pm when everyone had left and we put the kids in the tub for a quick cleaning of red Faygo pop lips and cheeto fingers, I decided that I was going to break down and go buy an air conditioner to put in the window in that room. I helped wash and dry the kiddos and off I went to Wally World to get the best deal on an air conditioner. I got one and I got back home around 10. I proceeded to read the directions....yes really, and put it all together to put in the window. My lovely wife told me that I should have 2 people, one on either side of it so it wouldn't fall. I pretty much had it all assembled and all but sealed into the window so I thought I would be fine. As I was putting it in, there are some funky little accordion looking things on either side of the unit that help insulate it from the elements and make it fit the window properly. One side got stuck so I had to lift the window in order to readjust it. Well I found out my wife was right and that only one, unfocussed finger cannot hold a 60-70 lb air conditioner.

Yep, it fell out of the window about 3 feet down to its fate in mulch and mud. My flesh told me to let out a few choice words, but I refrained. I went outside and picked it up and saw that it was bent up a bit and had some mud on it. "Still workable" I assumed so I put it back in the window with my wifes help of course. I got it in there perfectly and plugged it in and turned it on with the credit card sized remote and UREKA!! it worked.....well, kind of. It made a horrible sound like the fan was scraping some sort of animal and was causing it severe pain. Maybe it wasn't that bad, but to me I had just wasted $137 on something I broke. So what was my initial reaction. I was pretty angry with myself and said to Tammy, "What am I going to do, I can't lie about it and get a new one." But then that other part of me took over for a moment as it does with all of us and it said, "just take it back, that little fall should not have broken it. It's Wal Mart, they aren't going to miss a little cheap air conditioner."

So I boxed it up as neatly and perfectly as possible and put it in the car and went back at 11pm to Wally World. As I was riding in the car still wanting to get that moment back in the window before it fell, I was flipping stations on the radio and got to one of those kind of cheezy (don't get offended) Christian Easy Listening, Adult Contemporary stations and I kind of left it there--we all need our fix of Avalon every now and then--not really--but I left it there and the song was singing about how I have given Jesus my heart and how He is holy and stuff like that and I knew I had to go to WM and tell them I dropped it and ask for some grace. That sounds very spiritual but if I were to say it in layman's terms, I would have to say that God pretty much spanked the whole "it makes a funny sound, give me a new one" thought out of the water. So, not very spiritual, but that is what happened. So I was trying to figure out my story and how I would phrase it. I got there and put it in a cart--note I had lifted this thing maybe 10 times since buying it and by now it felt more like 200 lbs at 11pm. I wheeled it up to the door and a very nice lady with only a few teeth who worked at WM started yelling something to me when I was about 20 feet away from the door and I couln't understand a word of it. I got closer and she was telling me that returns closed at 10 and that I had to come back tomorrow. So I cart it back to the car, get some gas in the van and go home. I put it on the table and decided to tackle the problem on my own. I got a screwdriver and took the outer shell off and found that the fan was scraping a little plastic piece. I put the plastic piece where it belonged and put the shell on and put it back in the window--with Tammy's help. I plugged it in turned it on and guess what happened. IT WORKED :) NO SOUNDS:)

At around 12:30 we had cool air and I had a shower. I asked Tammy a question when all was said and done. I asked, "What would you have thought if I went and lied to WM about the AC?"
Her answer is between me and her. But I guess there is a life lesson in all of that. I don't think I am the only one to get too much change or forgot to put something on the checkout belt that was under the cart. The question is, what do I do with it?

I will get to license plates later. Not enough time now.