29 September 2009

Another normal day on call. Got up. Did my devotions. Spent most of the morning studying 1 Peter 3.1-6, where Paul gives instructions to believing wives. Waited around all afternoon for our treadmill to be delivered and then put it together, not to mention taking a 2 mile run on it. I was home alone for the evening. Cherie was out with her group of high school girls; Kelly was with Andy, Brie, and Andy's brother; Matt was at Waverly for Campus Life. I ended up going to bed early.

Off to LAX this evening; then a redeye to TPA, and back home Saturday evening.

28 September 2009

A day of being on call. Woke up, did my devotions, headed off for the Haslett pool to swim. I only managed 1100 yards. Swimming once a month is not conducive to getting into excellent swimming shape! Came home and paid some bills. Wasted over an hour with Cablespeed trying to get my bill sorted out, to no avail. Worked with 1 Peter. Took a nap. Campus Life. Monday Night Football. Read some. To bed. An uneventful day.

Typical Sunday

It was a typical Sunday yesterday, woke up, did my devotions, and then off to church. I missed Sunday school because I was on call and my phone does not get reception in the basement of the church. Home for lunch, then a nap, then read and watched football until it was time to go to church. Evening church where we commissioned Mike and Teresa Alchin for ministry at Barakel (and heard an excellent sermon on 2 Samuel 24. Then back home, a lot of reading, and bed. Unfortunately, I awoke at 4 am!

One note of interest from 2 Samuel 24. The parallel passage to this one (2 Chr 21.1) says that Satan incited David against Israel. Perhaps the easiest explanation of this discrepancy is that both statements are true. This would track with what we actually see happening in Job where God allows Satan to attack all that Job has, even his body, but not to kill Job. In this case God is responsible on one level and Satan on another. Satan could not have done what he did had God not allowed it.

Football Saturday

I had to run out to Best Buy to buy a hard drive for our iMac G5, since it died last week. I spent most of the rest of the day putting it in. It didn't take that long to install, but re-installing the operating system took a couple of hours, then I had to run a backup to save what I could of the old hard drive, that also took a couple of hours. After getting it up and running, I thought I had a newer backup so I installed that. As it so happened what I installed was a backup I had done for my Macbook Pro. Doh! Re-install old backup. The computer finally finished about 1 am. Thankfully, the computer did most of the work itself, but it took a long, long time.

Spent most of the day watching football and working on the computer. I did manage a two mile run on the treadmill, and a couple of sets of pull-ups.

Recovery Day

We took a rest day after our century on Thursday. I went out out to breakfast with Cherie (pancakes at Flapjacks, Dewitt). Then we ran some errands in town, then we had lunch with Matt at Applebees. A few more errands and then we went home. Cherie and I watched a couple of movies on Netflix and talked with Dakota when he got home from work and then off to bed for us.

Dakota was complaining about his upcoming geology trip to the UP—costs too much, mixing it up with everyone else, etc. We tried to point out (and I think Dakota understands), that God doesn't waste situations like this. He put Dakota on the trip for a purpose, so, rather than complain about it, he ought to be asking, "Okay God, for what purpose did you send me on this trip?"

God's ways are mysterious and he doesn't always show us plainly what he is doing, but some guesses were: To force Dakota out of his comfort zone in regards to interacting with people (he's a bit of an introvert...okay a lot of an introvert); to make him trust the Lord for money, rather than Krogers; to demonstrate Christ's love by living it out for a weekend with people who are mostly strangers. The list can go on and on.

The point is this: When you are thrust into a situation that you do not want to be in, take it as God means it to be, an opportunity in some way. God never wastes incidents like this. He put you in it for a reason. Look for the opportunity that he is going to bring to grow you to be more like him, to grow you in service to him, to demonstrate his love, trust, dependence, etc. You get the idea.

Century #6

Cherie and I completed our 6th century of the year yesterday. We were going to follow the route of the "Middle of the Mitten" century, which starts in Midland, Michigan. The ride is on Saturday, but it is supposed to rain on Saturday, so we decided to do it on Thursday. The only problem was that we never did find, the stupid route!?! Fortunately, there is a gorgeous rails-to-trails bikeway, that goes from Midland to Clare. We took that to Clare, then rode further west for about 8 miles before turning around and having lunch at McDonalds in Clare. From that point we rode back toward Midland, with a 10 mile detour so we could get in the full century. I have tendinitis in my left knee and that started bothering me a lot on the ride back. With the help of ibuprofen, I made it, but it was a painful last 20 miles.

Cherie was bothered by allergies and said she didn't feel too well coming back from Clare, but you couldn't really tell it, she kept up, no problem and even took some turns pulling. We finished. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of fun.

22 September 2009

Left on a two day trip this morning. DTW-BWI-(sit for 3 hours, Grrr.....) LAS. Then day two we will go LAS-DTW (sit for 3 hours, Grrr....)-MKE-DTW. Then 3 days off. It was a pretty nice day to fly. A bit turbulent, but BWI wasn't bad and LAS was severe clear as it is most of the time. We landed in LAS almost at sunset with the sun directly into our eyes, which was kind of difficult. It was sort of like landing by faith, "I think the runway is clear..."

Hit the hotel in LAS, got something to eat, and then went to bed. Tired.

21 September 2009

I had to get up at 0450 to make a 0915 departure for Denver so that I could get a line check on the way back from Denver. This was day of work 8 out of 9. I'm on call today, but hopefully I won't have to go in. At least the weather was gorgeous. The check pilot was Rainier Jennings who I know pretty well. He is a good guy. The line check went great and I was back home by 1900, tired. Watched some of the Cowboys/Giants game and then went to bed at 2200.

I woke up this morning at 0450 when my alarm went off for yesterday. Doh!

John Piper sent out the following tweet last week which made me put my thinking cap on. "God is the only Person for whom self-exaltation is an act of love. "He exalts himself to show mercy to you" (Isaiah 30:18).

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Just so. Hard to get a handle on at first, but the Scriptures mean exactly what they say, and Piper is exactly correct. For any other being in the universe self-exaltation would be an act of sin. Since God is the highest being, self-exaltation for him is good and right because their is nothing higher or greater or mightier or more praiseworthy than himself.

16 September 2009

Absolutely cooked, zonkered, wiped out. Didn't sleep very well last night and today was a full day of study with an exam at the end, followed by 4 more hours of study for tomorrow. Barely had enough energy to wade through my devotions. Too bed for me. I hope I sleep better tonight.

Missed my Dad's birthday, great son that I am...

14 September 2009

16th floor of the International Plaza Hotel and Resort (soon to become the Doubletree Resort) doing my devotions. Hot and humid here in Orlando, but a beautiful resort. 3 pools, one with a waterfall, beautiful workout room, HDTV. These Delta pilots do know how to live.

Flew from SEA to MEM to MCO yesterday and got in around 11 p.m. The northwest was gorgeous, clear and warm, it was a gift from God just to be there for 18 hours. I ate dinner and breakfast at the Specialty Coffee house near the hotel. They make absolutely killer pastries. Their sandwiches are great too.

I'm working on memorizing 2 Corinthians 2.14-17, which is a favorite passage. I finish a four day this evening, sleep in the pilot lounge, then leave for MSP tomorrow morning for 4 days of training. Wow, I'm really looking forward to THAT.

11 September 2009

I awoke at 4.30 to the sound of a bell going off in the hallway (Park Plaza, Boson). A fire alarm? Is there a fire? Unfortunately, after traveling so much, I'm too lackadaisical about such alarms. They are usually false. I get dressed slowly and finally leave my room when everyone else is coming back to their rooms. Apparently there was a fire alarm on the 15th floor and the 14th and 15th floors were supposed to evacuate. I'm on the 8th floor. I go back to my room and the stupid key won't work.

No way I'm taking the elevator. I go down one set of stairs that leads to the street, then back up to find a stairway to the lobby. After winding around in a maze, I eventually stumble onto the lobby. I wait in line 10 minutes while some lady argues with the counter guy about how the hotel personnel handled the fire alarm. She gets nowhere. Neither I, nor the counter guy understands what she wants, except maybe to vent about being forced up in the middle of the night.

I finally get to the counter and get my room key reset. I start up the stairs but can't remember the way through the maze to get to the 8th floor. I head for the elevator. They tell us to go to the staff elevators because the regular ones will "take forever." A bunch of us pile into the staff elevator. The door closes and the elevator lurches and then stops. The girl next to me tells her husband, "I'm getting off this elevator." Her husband reassures her. We stop at the 3rd floor. The door opens and closes and the elevator lurches twice, but doesn't go anywhere. The door reopens. The girl and her husband (and me) decide it will be better to climb the stairs. I finally get back to my room at 5.15. No more sleep for me tonight.

7 September

Recovery day from DALMAC. Spent most of the day studying for training next week. More to do tomorrow. Watching the Miami - Florida State game right now. It's a pretty good one with a quarter to go.

5 September

103 miles from Lake City to Boyne City today. Gorgeous weather again. High about 79, very light winds.

We had one crash but no one was injured and we all finished with only a few cuts and bruises on Ed Sawyers' body. We did a trip up "the wall," then back down and up the alternate route then up the climb for tomorrow to Kathryn Hixson's father's house. Finally back down to Boyne City.

I had a flat at the high school. First change and the stem broke. Second change and the stem was leaking. Third change and it was fixed...until I discovered that the tire was warped. I had to buy a tire and change it a fourth time. Grr...

One funny incident; we were at the top of the hill out of Boyne City and here came Ed Sawyer up the hill past Boyne City. He asked, "where is the high school?" We answered, "back down the hill you just climbed!"

God gave us a great day and kept us safe during our crash. He also allowed me to get the flat after I arrived at the high school for the night.

4 September

Vestaburg, MI, on the morning of day 2 in DALMAC. We had an absolutely fabulous day yesterday, ultra light winds, sunny, and clear.

We left at 0745, stopped for lunch in Perrinton and arrived in Vestaburg around 1300. I had to get in 8 more miles because we left from home vice MSU. When I got back, Cherie already had the tent set up! Took nap and then watched the Vestaburg football game. Gorgeous full moon last night.

Spent some of the ride going through my prayer list, missionaries mainly.

3 September

Heading out on the first leg of DALMAC this morning. Laingsburg to Vestaburg. Should get in about 70 miles. Weather should be gorgeous, this is probably the best week of summer so far. Thank you, Lord! Experiencing a little bit of tendonitis in my left knee so we'll see how it goes.

Slow day yesterday. Packed for DALMAC, took care of some bills. Dropped our stuff off at MSU so we could leave from here this morning. We are good to go...well, as good as we're going to get anyway. Cherie's foot is a problem. Who knows if she'll be able to make it.

Whatever difficulty we may be facing is paltry compared to the Valley of the Shadow of death that Steve and Bonnie Opper are going through. She has leukemia; he has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Both had chemo. Steve will have radiation. Bonnie will hopefully get a bone marrow transplant. Through it all (Steve discovered his cancer in the midst of Bonnie's treatment) they have glorified God. Quite a testimony. I'm humbled by their demonstration of faith in a situation where it's difficult to know what God is up to.

2 September

Last day before we start out on our 2nd DALMAC. We're both really excited although Cherie has a foot injury and I'm recovering from tendonitis in my knee. 70 miles, 80 miles, 100 miles, 72 miles. It should be a lot of fun and looks like the weather is going to be okay!

Busy day yesterday. We rode up to Owosso to see Lance and Mike (last ride before DALMAC), then ran into Lansing to get stuff at Walmart and Sam's Club. Back home and grab some stuff to pack today and then hung out in the basement in the evening, practiced the drums, watched some television. Too tired to read any more at 9.15 pm, but wide awake at 3 am this morning.