More Drama

On Wednesday March 28, 2007 there was a fire in my building downtown.

You can read about it here:

http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/326025.php?

Our office evacuated the building and I climbed down 26 stories worth of stairs. We sat outside for about an hour before catching a train home for the day only to find out that they let people back in another hour later.

Oh well.

While we were outside standing around someone from Starbucks decided to go around handing out little cups of coffee.

I almost cried. Firetrucks and free Starbucks coffee - it was perfect.

I am glad March is ending - Way too much drama.

Happy 7th Birthday Joshua

Yesterday we got into an accident. We were leaving the parking lot at the train station and someone turning off the street through the alley broadsided us. They fortunately hit the front end of the car and not the passenger door where I was sitting. It was very sudden and without seeing it coming there was no way to prepare for it or escape it. Our car tipped up and then came down. It was pointing in a different direction. The directional was gone and the front fender was smashed. The bumper was bashed too. The paramedics came and checked me out. Gary was ok and talked with the police and the other driver. Thankfully he has insurance. Although I didn't go with the paramedics I did go to the hospital. My poor little car got towed away and my sister came and picked us up. We were at the hospital for about 4 hours. I stayed home from work today. I am so very sore on the whole right side of my body. Nothing is broken so that's good but I didn't get much sleep last night.

There are a lot of things I am thankul about though - good things. If we had not been moving as slow as we were, he could have hit us in the door where I was sitting. There was a police officer close by so we didn't have to wait a long time for a police. The medics were very nice and kept talking to me to help me calm down. I was shaking a lot and they were very gentle. The people at the hospital took good care of us and the doctor was nice too and he was certain that nothing was broken and said I didn't need x-rays. It could have been worse.

So I am at home right now and Gary had to work. My mom is coming over to bring my prescription muscle relaxers and my sister who stayed with us the whole evening yesterday driving us around and waiting at the emergency room brought me an ice pack this morning.

I love my family.

We got a call today from the apartment complex office. Evidently we won the drawing for free tickets to Great America. I think it will be a while before we can use them.

Every Good Thing

Every good thing and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father.
James 1:17

Today I caught every single green light between my home and the train station. I arrived in record time, paid for my great parking spot and calmly climbed (un-rushed) aboard the train I take to work every day. This may not seem like a big deal but to me it was a very good thing. It was a whole string of good things.

As I sat down I thought, "Wow, thanks, God." Suddenly this thought occurred to me that maybe God had nothing to do with these things. That perhaps God wasn't interested in my schedule and that in the grand scheme of things whether or not I am out of breath when I hop on the train is of little consequence. Then in the same moment this verse popped in my head. "Every good thing and every perfect thing".

I believe that God cares about me. I believe that that care is not limited to my spiritual well being. I believe He is after my affections and attentions. I believe that it is a good thing to catch all the green lights. I decided to go with my original thought and thank Him.

What would happen if I decided to thank Him for "every good thing"? If I think about all the good things that are in my life and that happen to me - little or large - and if I acknowledge that every one of them is from Father, then I have much to be thankful for every day.

But what if I am wrong? What if God didn't save me a great parking spot? What if the sale on milk had nothing to do with Him? What if everyday stuff like this doesn't qualify as a "good thing"? Then I will have given God more credit then He is due. (Is that even possible?) And if so, well, I am sure that there are many things He does do - to me and for me - that are good that I do not thank Him for.

In the very least, attempting to thank Him for every good thing would, by default, cause me to "acknowledge Him in all my ways" and THAT is a very good thing.