God's role in my car's breakdown

I would like to start by saying thanks to God. Thanks God.

Here's why:

As you know, my car broke down due to a bad fuel pump. This cost roughly $640 to repair. For me, this is a lot of money. Fortunately I had the money and enough to pay off school tuition at the same time. This is blessing #1.

Second, I am most grateful for the timing. The car broke down on Sunday after church. (It was a very good sermon from Dr. Marshall about the importance of daily devotions, habits, and grace. Very apropos to my life right now.) This was excellent timing. Amber and I had several hours before I had to be at work in order to deal with the situation. Additionally, I am very grateful that it went out on Sunday rather than Saturday.

Saturday morning I drove to Ozark for taekwondo. I tend to drive in excess of the speed limit. I'm not entirely sure what would have happened if it had on out on the way to or from Ozark, but I'm certain it wouldn't have been good. (Can you say 20 car pile up.) So that's blessing #2. It didn't happen on the highway.

Blessing #3 I am most thankful for. Amber went out Saturday night to various parties for co-workers for quasi-political reasons. I didn't go with her because I was at home working on my termpaper. She made it home safely, albeit late at night, and I am really grateful for this. It's a guy thing. I know Amber is good in a crisis and is generally levelheaded; but man-law dictates that a guy protect his girl. Not being there means if something bad had happened I couldn't have done that. Thusly I am thankful that God was riding with Amber and was following Bro Code #282, "Don't let anything happen to your Bro's babe if he's not around to watch out for her." So, again, thanks God.

Blessing #4 is minor in comparison to #'s 1 through 3, but I feel it is worth mentioning. I was able to go out with Amber, have a nice dinner, and watch a movie that made her jump every two minutes (which was very entertaining for me.) If the car had broken down on Thursday or Friday we would not have gone out. I'm thankful that it waited, because we had a nice time out and I think we needed that. I may be reading more into that is there, but I don't think so. So, again, thanks God.

Blessing #5 ties into blessing #1. I was able to purchase the router that I needed to finish my termpaper. It was rather expensive by itself. So I was able to pay off school for the semester, fix the car, go out with Amber, and buy my router, all on one pay check.

Finally, I am thankful for my awesome friends. Joey gave me a ride to work on Sunday, Hillary gave me a ride to a job interview on Friday, and Hanna and Chris loaned Amber their Intrepid for a few days. (This is despite the fact that the last time Amber and I were alone in the car we wrecked it. (The car has a nice hood, by the way.)) Lindsay volunteered to give rides as necessary, which was awesome. I'm not sure who else Amber asked for help, but I know any and all of you guys would have come running if asked. I know this because you've all been there for us at one time or another over the last ten years. I am really grateful for your love and friendship, and I really do thank God for you from the bottom of my heart.

I love you guys, and thanks.

A Busy Semester

This has been a very busy semester for me, hence the abundant lack of posts. I do, however, feel that much of that time was well spent. I have learned quite a bit (most of it self-taught too.)

I have setup an interim website for Bryan, over at weeping-prophetic.com. I taught myself much of the xhtml and css necessary to do it, but I did receive help from the Omega Brethren, for which I am grateful.

I taught myself how to configure and secure a webserver. I have one up and running now, though it is currently blocked off because I need to tweak the firewall some more.

I have, with help from Joel, learned basic C# programming. This is supposed to be a class, but we meet once a week, and it's mostly a do it yourself course. I found that C# for dummies was a better book than the text book too.

I have a new appreciation for the dummies books. They were very useful in learning introductory skills. There is also a company called O'Reilly's that publishes awesome books for anything computer related.

I am nearing the end of the semester. My paper is done (though I think it sucks), and finals are in a few weeks. I have quite a bit of reading to catch up on, so there won't be any deep posts for a while yet.

I have thought of a few topics. In the coming weeks, look for posts on Sabbath in 21st Century America, A comparison between God and superman, and other random things.