God, brake pads, and Cutter

It is so funny to me how God ties things together in life. I should not be surprised. I just have a short story to share with you guys of a lesson my son Cutter taught me. (again!)

I have the privilege of teaching the middle school kids at our church for this quarter. My friend Adrian, who is our youth minister, wanted to do a study on a book called Crazy Love, by a minister from California named Francis Chan. It is a great book. It also comes with a video. It has been a great read and study. Something that came at a great time for me. A great reminder of how big God is. The word "big" just doesn't seem like the right word for God. God is so indescribable. His love is amazing. An over used word I know, but what other word is there? He is so powerful, so holy, so awesome. One of the points in the book is this is God's creation, so why can't he do what he wants? He created this earth for himself. Col.1:16 (check it out). With the rut of life I think we sometimes forget that. We forget God can really do whatever he wants.

A few months ago my brake pads went to squeaking, so I replaced them. I bought what I thought were good brake pads. And for the first week they did a great job, and then not so good. They just started squeaking like crazy. I decided to jack my truck up again and look at the pads. I basically did the brake job again. It worked for about a week and they started squeaking again. At this point, I was beginning to get irritated. I went back to the auto parts store and asked a few questions about what to do. The car dude gave me some pointers, so you guessed it, up goes the truck again, off go the tires again, and I cleaned the brakes, re lubricated the calipers, and put everything back together. Before I continue, I have changed out brake pads alot in the past, and never had this problem. OK, it works for like three days, then starts squeaking again. When I say squeaking, I mean SQUEAKING!!!!!! The embarrassing kind of noise. Like when you pull up to a red light you hope you are the first one there so no-one gives you that "fix your brakes you loser" look. The kind of sound that will make people cover their ears because it is so loud. I go back to the store one last time. Ask them is there anything else I can do? This one guy pulls me over to the side and proceeds to tell me their brake pads are junk. Oh really? Don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out. He tells me to go to another auto parts store and get this different kind of brake pad. Ok, I have got to tell you about Cutter at this point. Before I went back to see the Benedict Arnold salesman, I tell Cutter I just do not know what else to do. He is fully aware of my frustration, irritation, and overall disgust with my brake pad situation. He simply told me to pray to God about it. I just said ok, but thinking God isn't going to help with squeaking brake pads. Now, I go and buy new pads, go home and jack up my truck, take off the tires, pull off the brakes and clean and replace and hope for the best. The next day when I picked up Cut from school I told him the brakes were not squeaking anymore. He so matter of fact simply said, "well Dad, I prayed to God to help you, and he did!" So, feeling ashamed my faith wasn't as sure as my sons, I took advantage of the incredible statement he just made to teach my son that you can ask God with help for anything. Like I really needed to tell him that anyway. He was the one who prayed about the problem, not me. Later that day I started thinking about my sons statement. How powerful was his statement. He had no doubt in his mind that God could fix my brakes. In his own simple way, he had taught me two lessons. 1. God can do anything he wants, even fixing brake pads. 2. God is simple. He does not ask very much from us. We are the dopes that make it complicated.

What made me think of this story is the lessons I have been sharing with the middle schoolers about God. His power, love, forgiveness, etc... That is what I meant with my first statement, how God ties life together with lesson after lesson. Cutter made it pretty plain that God can do whatever he wants. Then I start reading a book that is a great reminder of God's power. Is God trying to tell me something? Of course he is. Do I know exactly what it is right now? No, but I will always remember what Cutter taught me. God is bigger than any problem I may have, be it something major or brake pads.

Long time no write....I was looking through some old papers the other night and found something I had written way back in August of 2007. Back in August of 2007 things weren't real good. Things basically were in turmoil and lots of high drama and stress. I wanted to share what I wrote.

August 3, 2007
I have come to realize that blaming others is easier to do than accepting my own short comings, insecurities, and fear. Even if others are making things difficult for me in my marriage, business, friendships, and relationship with God. Because of my arrogance and blindness of my own actions, I have decided to blame instead of seeing that I have lost closeness with God. How can I handle situations or feel good about myself if I am not comfortable with who and what God is? Or what he is able to do? What has happened to my faith? When did I decide to try things on my own again? Do I just have a surface faith and not really believe in my own knowledge and experiences of what God has done for me? It is time to turn back to what I know to be true. It is time to live like I want instead of what I get manipulated into. I have to be who I am, and that might not fit into others plans, but too bad! I am tired of being hurt and feeling helpless. If someone is not good for me, then goodbye. It doesn't matter who it is. It is time to be the man God desires me to be. It is time for me to desire what God wants for me. Otherwise the hell with it all and live however I want. I am not down with that, so it leaves me one option....God's way! No more walking the fence, no more compromising. It is time for a new beginning, no matter how painful it may be.

After I read that, I remembered writing it. I remembered feeling very helpless and frustrated that I couldn't pull it together. I also remember praying hard and asking God to just take control and help me let go of control. That has been 2 years ago. It seems longer.... much longer. So much has happened since then. So much good, many blessings, alot of growth. Everything in my life is good. Marriage is awesome, kids are such an amazing gift, business is recovering and doing well. Life is good. The only thing that I can attribute it all to is God. Those feelings I had when I wrote that in 2007 are gone. No resentment, no harbored anger, nothing. It is like a distant memory, a long ago story that happened to someone else. God is so good.

I guess I felt compelled to share that because as I have learned over life, many people struggle with alot of junk and never tell a soul about it. People are so protective of their stuff. I am not saying vomit everything to everyone. I am just saying always be ready to be open and honest and help someone if you can. I am a firm believer of things happen for a reason. I believe God does two things. One is God will put you in situations to help others. You just have to be ready and open enough to do it. Secondly, God will use your stupid, bad decision making past as a way to make you useful. (see reason number one.)

So, I hope that window into what I shared might help someone with something going on in life. If not, you can rejoice with me about how God still loves us and is always ready to forgive and begin a new you.