Rain Time Driver

Having lived in New Zealand for so many years, I have grown accustomed to rainy day driving.  It rains most every other day over there, so if you can't drive in the rain, you just can't drive.  Rockhampton is not so!

I am not certain that any inhabitant of Rockhampton (especially if they have been here for more than ten years), has ever really contemplated the difference in vehicle handling that becomes apparent when the roads have slicked up!  Really- I have almost decided to start a company- L2DITR2D (Learn 2 Drive In The Rain 2day).  i think I could make a killer profit- except that Rockhamptonians are under the impression that they are fantastic drivers, which they would be, IF THEY WERE DRIVING ON THE ROAD COMPLEELY BY THEMSELVES!!!!

Anyway, now that I have ranted about terrible drivers, I will share some more spectacular news.  The family of six in which I now reside, will immenently become a family of seven.  Without a doubt, this is a wonderful thing, and I am very excited about having a new life within my clan!

As I write this, an electrical storm is blowing in.  Thankfully I have a mostly indoor job these days, and the rain does not affect my ability to work.  However, rainy weather does seem to cause people to think less about buying solar products- roll on the sunshine!!

Jim

Has God Forsaken Our Land?

And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.

 Ezekiel 9:8-9 

It seems to me that every day there is more news about a natural disaster of some description.  Christchurch- a massive earthquake, the same size as the one that struck Haiti, destroys half the city.  Victoria- flooding has placed many houses under water.  Hurricane Igor, and Hurricane Karl, fires, flooding, earthquakes- it seems like a world under attack!  But it's not.  More likely it's a world under judgment.

We are seeing the same attitude in people today that Ezekiel saw all those thousands of years ago in the people of Israel and Judah!  A feeling that God has left the Earth, forsaken it, and does not see or care what it going on.  An attitude that says, "we can do what we like, because God will not see it anyway."

Let me remind you of a passage of Scripture that will show you that no matter what we do, God will see, and he will not be turning a blind eye:

Psalms 139:1-24
1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3  Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
5  Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
6  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
7  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10  Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
13  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
19  Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
20  For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
21  Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
22  I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

God is everywhere, and the time of his coming must be soon.

Jim

Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

Something I heard on the radio recently made me stop and think about this.  I was wondering about the manifestation of this fruit in the lives of Christians, and what it means if this fruit is missing.  I believe that if a person is 'Born Again', then there will be some sort of manifestation of that in their lives.  I am not saying that they will suddenly become the great Christian who can do no wrong, what I am saying, is that, in some way they will be different.

The difference may just be a nagging when they are doing wrong- at the point of Salvation, the Holy Spirit begins to dwell within you, so you have an additional conscience poking you in the heart when you know you are doing wrong.  Maybe it's a sudden desire to make things right with other people, or maybe the activities you enjoy just loose a little of their gloss.  Whatever it is, there will be something.

As a person grows in their relationship with God, there ought to be an obvious change in their lives.  This is shown to us in Galatians 5, when we read what the Fruit of the Spirit is.  I wonder how many of us (myself included) are showing some, or any, of these fruit?  A Christian should have an underlying joy in their lives- even in times of sorrow and hardship.  A Christian should be gentle (I don't mean soft, there is a difference between being a coward, and being gentle,) humble, and slow to anger.

After reading Galatians 5, I started to wonder about the world of Christianity in today's day and age.  I was wondering if we exhibit these Fruit of the Spirit, or is their no difference between us and the world.  Do our Facebook posts honour God, or when our children read them in years to come, are they going to be ashamed or hurt by it?  I have, in the past, been guilty of some harsh words, but I know, when it comes down to it, our actions will typically be a representation of our walk with God.

I hope this will encourage you to think about what your actions are saying concerning your walk with God, and how the Fruit of the Spirit is reflected in your life.

Jim

Gashed Up- The Final Chapter

I have promised to end this saga soon, and this is it.  The final post has now arrived, so all you dotting grandparents of Christian may finally rest easy.  So, to pick up where I left off...

You should realize, that when I say, "I leaped out of bed" I am talking about a not very comfortable, little green arm chair thingy, that fold out to a stretcher bed about one and a half feet wide.  I tell you, if you think Christian was the one suffering, you have another thought coming- he was being waited on hand and  foot!

Charli arrived right after breakfast (not that we got breakfast, what with the pending operation, and all) with all the siblings to say "hi" to Christian, and pandemonium broke out in the room.  Thankfully we were still the sole occupants.  Just before the bedlam arrived, the surgical doctors all traipsed through to look at and oooh, and aaah, and poke a little at Christians nose.  We were told that a surgery time was not yet known, but, "we will get back to you."

The Nurse came in and gave me a hospital gown- you know, those things that don't close up at the back!  Poor 'ole Christain.  Right after bath time we learned that 10:00 was the most important time of that day.  Charli left the kiddies with Tracy (Perkins), and we sat and waited.  I had to step out briefly, and missed the procession down to the operating theater, but soon found Charl's waiting there.

Two hours.  He was gone two whole hours before we heard the screaming from down the hall, through the "swipe card access" doors.  It didn't take long for the nurse to come and get me to pick him up.  He was screaming "Muuummmama, Muuummmama" but it appears that Daddy would do.

Within an hour of coming out of Recovery, our little bruiser was playing football in the ward, acting like nothing was wrong.  He did finally get to eat though!  Yay!  Everything was great, we were just waiting for the release, then we were going home.

Surprise!  "Mr. and Mrs. Hartley, we think it is best if Christian spends another night here so we can have him under observation."  I guess that a two year old having his first General anesthetic is not exactly a 'do it and get out' sort of job.  But life goes on.

I tried to convince Charls that I would stay the second night, but she wouldn't hear of it.  No way.  So I vacated the little half bed, and went home for a sleep on our nice big bed (with no nurses waking me up constantly), and left Charli to the pleasure of a 'great nights sleep,'

Well, the story pretty much is finished.  His recovery has been great, if it weren't for the be red line down one side of his nose, you would never know that anything had happened to him.  Our Christian is a great little trooper!

Thanks for stopping by, I trust you were enlightened about little Christian and his nose duel.  Feel free to stop by now and then,  you don't have to not come just because Christian is now on the mend.

Jim

Gashed Up- The Saga Continued Just A Little Bit More

After being poked and prodded, held down and jabbed, poked and prodded some more, and finally being admitted to the children's Ward, we thought we would have a little relief- some time to relax and let the little man sleep.  Not quite.

As we made our way up the elevator to the sixth floor, we were wondering what was going to happen.  Neither Charli nor myself expected him to actually be admitted to hospital.  Yeah, he nearly cut his nose off, but a full-on stay in hospital (with hospital food)?  Surprise!

Bed nine.  I will never forget bed nine.  There were four beds in the room, two of which were already occupied.  There were four "parents chairs" in the room, four of which were occupied.  My son was place next to a little Aboriginal boy, whose "parents" were taking up two of the said chairs, while the other two were taken up by a little girls daddy and his feet.  This guy didn't even pretend to give up the foot stool chair, but wouldn't look at me either!

After admission, Charli and I decided that it would be best if she went and relieved our baby sitters (thanks Chris and Tracy), and get the rest of the little clan sorted and fed, and bedded down.  This was not an easy thing for her to do- leave her injured little man.

Within about an hour of being admitted, the little Aboriginal boy next to us was relocated.  Yay! Chairs, space, quiet, all in one go.  We found out later that he had been shifted to the infectious diseases part of the Ward.  Not so cool.  Within another hour of that, the girl across the room was discharged, leaving us with a four bed room all to ourselves!

Dinner that night was party pies.  Christian got two, I got two, but the rest of the food wasn't really all that edible, so he started right in on the custard and jelly.  I, on the other hand, waited until my dear wife arrived with McDonald's.

Christian went to sleep very soon after dinner was finished, and was sleeping fitfully, when Darren and Tracy Christie arrived to see how things were getting on.  (We were preparing to enjoy a beautiful BBQ lunch at their house when the accident occurred.)  They got past the nurses by telling them he was my adopted brother (which is true! we are both Christians, therefore, brothers), and it was good to have them stop by.

It felt like every hour, but I'm sure it wasn't, that the nurse came by to check his vitals, administer his antibiotics, and generally wake him up.  Each time the curtain whipped back, I leapt out of bed to hold his hand and comfort him.  Inevitably, I would end up laying in his bed for about twenty or thirty minutes after each round.

This is the Third installment of the story, and in order to not have too long a blog, I have decided to stop there for now.  We are nearly at the end, and I promise that the final chapter will be written with the next post.  I hope you are enjoying reading the drama that has unfolded in our lives, and trust you will continue to pray for Christians healing.

Jim

Gashed Up- The Saga Continued

At the end of my last post, I promised that I would share the remainder of the story of my son's fight with a concrete path.  So, read on, and you will find the story- as remembered by me, of course!


As soon as the paramedics arrived and looked at him, they said, "this will be a trip to the hospital!"  Now, this is exactly what I was expecting, however, with three other children, the logistics were a little stretched.  Thankfully, we were amongst a group of people who were fast becoming good friends.  My wife and I decided that I should go with him in the Ambulance, as she would be more able to calm the others, so off we went- the first of my children to take a ride in an ambulance!

As we departed the scene, Christian set up a howling that could wake the dead.  Then, after calming down, we pulled up at traffic lights alongside a silver car that looked just like ours.  Well, the little man was convinced that this particular car was housing him mummy, and would not lie still and quiet for some time.  The trip to hospital took maybe around 10 minutes.  During this time, Christian successfully screamed, slept, lay awake, screamed again, and slept again!  All in a day's work.

Once we reached the hospital, the blood was still flowing.  You know head wounds- even the tiniest cut will bleed, and bleed, and bleed!  So here we are, fresh from a Bar-b-Que at which we hadn't had a chance to eat, probably that was a good thing though, and we got to sit in the Emergency Department for a good long time.

We were not given a bed in Emergency- they were kept for the more serious cases- like drug withdrawal sufferers, and people with seriously screwed up broken stuff- we got to sit in the middle of the corridor where everyone could stop and stare at my little child.  I am almost certain that I could see their mind thinking, "how could you let that happen to your child? you terrible parent!"

The poor little guy hadn't eaten since breakfast, now he was basically fasting.  They wouldn't give him anything to eat right away, in case he needed surgery.  So, we waited, and waited, and waited- you know how emergency departments can be, until finally, a doctor came to see us!  Now, the Doctor was a nice enough guy, but he was not content to just look at the wound, no, he had to poke it, and prod it, and pull apart the two halves of it to look right down inside- not easy to watch. Especially when it's your own child!

Anyway, this concludes part 2 of the continuing saga of my son's accident.  Come back later for what should be one or maybe two final installments.  Thanks for coming by.

Jim