Words of Truth

­­­I don’t think it’s any secret that we aren’t doing too well financially. Our faith has been tested over and over for the past couple years, culminating in the past few months when we literally have not had enough money to pay our bills, and have been pushing things off each month as hours have not materialized at work, and the paychecks keep getting smaller. There is hope on the horizon, but we’re still here in the valley for now.

I got paid last Friday. It was enough for me to pay our mortgage, pay one bill, and that left $254.26 in our account.  I knew that our car insurance would be coming out (which it did today), and that would leave us no money for groceries and gasoline, so I took $240 out in cash to make sure I would be able to get to work for the two weeks, and we would be able to eat (not well, but eat). We bought some groceries, and filled up the tank once, leaving us with $115.  Today our tank said it had a quarter of a tank of gas, so I knew we would need to fill up today.

Also, our van has this fancy “hey-idiot-one-of-your-tires-has-low-pressure” lights. It has been going off about once a week for the past three weeks, and we just fill the tire up, and hope it lasts until next payday when we can get it looked at. Today my father-in-law looked at the tire and said there was a nail in it.  He said, “You should be able to get that fixed for $5 or $10.”  I called our local Discount Tires (where we buy our tires), to ask about the price, and even before he knew I had ever set foot in the place, the guy told me that it’s free to fix the tire.  Wow.  And when Kim went there today to get it fixed, they said that it is free only if the tire is repairable. Then he told her that since our tire was still under warranty (we bought it there a year ago), if they had to replace the tire it would only cost us $14 for a new one.  Wow.

I have read the Bible through several times in the past 30 years, and it still amazes me when God shows me something I’ve never seen before. Monday we were trying to think of how we could make the $115 last for the next week and a half (until payday).  This includes being able to travel to Richmond, IN for my wife’s sister’s wedding, which is a once-in-a-lifetime event and we can’t miss it.  We have been praying for a check to come in the mail, but the only one that has was a $0.04 check from eBay.  It made me laugh that they paid 30 cents or so to send me a check for four cents.  Ha. 

Anyway, I have been reading through the Bible again, and yesterday I read Isaiah 25:1, and God hit me between the eyes. I know there are those that say the King James is the best version, and I would agree that it sounds the best, but it’s just a fact that we don’t talk like that today, so I think we miss some of the meaning. Sometimes the Greek and Hebrew gets lost in the “King’s English.”  So this time I’m reading through in the New American Standard Bible.   Isaiah 25:1 says,

“O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.” 

Did you get that?  God has a plan, and God is faithful. He is never surprised.  He made these plans a long time ago, and His faithfulness is perfect, so we can be assured that He will carry out His plan.  When I combined this verse with His promise in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope,” I understand that God has not abandoned me.  No matter how tough the times get, God has not and will not abandon me. Can you count on God?  Does the sun rise every morning?  Can you trust God?  Has He ever given you reason not to trust Him?

We are not going hungry.  We are not destitute.  Things are worse than they have ever been, and that in and of itself is a testament to God’s goodness and faithfulness.  We are truly blessed, and He is firmly in control.  Today I am thankful to God for everything that He is doing for me. One day I will look back on this time and thank God for all He has done for me, as I see the effects of our trials ripple through history. I don’t know how God is using our problems to glorify Himself, but I do know that He has a plan, and that He loves me.  And that’s more than enough.

This fall I started taking classes with the aim of obtaining my bachelor of science in nursing. I don’t have a lot of money (actually, I don’t have any), so I applied for about 20 scholarships at the beginning of the school year. You get this idea in your head from the financial aid people that there are rooms somewhere in the country with stacks of cash sitting around waiting for someone to apply for the scholarship to obtain those stacks. I have not found this to be so. I didn’t get one scholarship.

One of the scholarships for which I applied was the Ayn Rand “Atlas Shrugged” essay scholarship contest. I had to read “Atlas Shrugged,” then write an essay about a specific question regarding the book, and then wait to see if I won. I didn’t.
The book is over a thousand pages long. I read it in two weeks in September and wrote my essay. The gist of the book is that people should not be forced to support other people. It is as anti-Marxist as it could be. To quote from the Wikipedia article, “”Moochers” demand others’ earnings on behalf of the needy and those unable to earn themselves; however, they curse the producers who make that help possible and are jealous and resentful of the talented on whom they depend. They are ultimately as destructive as the looters – destroying the productive through guilt, and appealing to “moral right” while enabling the “lawful” looting performed by governments.”
The central idea is that every person should enjoy the fruit of their own labor, but that we should not accept free gifts from people without earning them somehow. In chapter one of part 3 of the book, one character says, “So I’ll warn you now that there is one word which is forbidden in this valley: the word ‘give.'”
So it was with humor that I read the email from the people at the Atlas Shrugged contest. This is what it said:

Thank you for entering the 2011 Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest. I’m sorry to inform you that your essay was not selected for a prize in this year’s contest. This is a competitive contest with students from around the world entering. As our way of thanking you for participating, we would like to offer you a free book as a gift.

I replied:

Please don’t think me ungrateful, but doesn’t a free book as a gift constitute something unearned, and therefore diametrically opposed to the central tenet of Atlas Shrugged? That, my friend, is irony. Thank you for the opportunity to compete for the scholarship.

After I sent it, I wondered what possible reactions they could have to my email. One reaction would be to acknowledge the irony, and then forget it. We’ll call this the “whatever, kid” reaction. Another possibility would be for them to get angry that I have pointed out their logical fallacy, and withhold the promised book, or even make sure that I am blacklisted from future contests. This is the “Who do you think you are?” reaction. The third possibility (and this is the one I’m hoping for) is that they will read my reply to their offer of a free book like Willy Wonka (as played by Gene Wilder) at the end of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (just the first three minutes of the video here):

Maybe this rejection email was just a test to see if I truly understood the meaning of the book. Maybe they will call me on the phone and say, “Steve, my dear boy, you’ve won!” and give me the $10,000 grand prize. We’ll call this the “Indefatigable Optimist” reaction.

So, loyal reader, which of these three do you think will be the reaction of the people at the Ayn Rand Institute?

Here are two similarly themed, political jokes, which I find humorous.  If you don’t, don’t blame me.  Enjoy (or not):

Joke #1:  A young teenage girl was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a liberal Democrat but her father was a staunch Republican.

One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to taxes and welfare programs. He stopped her and asked her how she was doing in school.

She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA but it was really tough. She had to study all the time, never had time to party. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend and didn’t really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying.

He asked, “How is your friend Mary?” She replied that Mary was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, but was very popular on campus. She went to all the parties and often didn’t show up for classes because she was hung over.

Dad then asked his daughter why she didn’t go to the Dean’s office and ask why she couldn’t take 1.0 off her 4.0 and give it to her friend who only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a 3.0 GPA.

The daughter angrily fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair, I worked really hard for mine and Mary has done nothing”.

The father slowly smiled and said, “Welcome to the Republican Party”.

Joke #2: I was talking to a friend’s little girl, and she said she wanted to be
President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, “‘If you were to be the President, what’s the first thing you would do?”
She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.”

“‘Wow – what a worthy goal.” I told her, “You don’t have to wait until
you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the grass, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a place to live. ”

She thought that over for a few seconds, and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”

And I said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”

Her folks still aren’t talking to me.

This is the type of gun I have. Mine has a scope and a wooden stock, but otherwise the same.

Today has been kind of frustrating, but it ended well. I had the right gun but the wrong ammunition. Details below:

My best friend knew I couldn’t afford to hunt in Missouri this year, so he gave me a muzzleloader for my birthday/Christmas/Thanksgiving/Kwanzaa present. That way I can hunt in Indiana, which is one of those weird “no rifles” states.

For those of you unfamiliar with muzzleloaders, you need three things (other than the gun itself) to shoot it: a slug (the “bullet”), gunpowder (I use Pyrodex pellets), and percussion caps or primers. My gun is a Knight Rifles “Black Knight” model, and the specs say it uses a #11 percussion cap. Guess what? It doesn’t.

Today I grabbed my gun and accoutrements and headed to the closest free gun range so I could sight in the rifle (make sure the scope is pointed straight). That would be the Wilbur Wright Wildlife Area in New Castle, Indiana. That’s about an hour away from my house. I didn’t know I had the wrong percussion caps until I got there and tried to fire the rifle. I drove home.

Tonight I spent about an hour talking to different stores to see who carries either the right caps (nobody) or the conversion nipple for the cap (nobody has it in stock). I called my friend from church, Hank, who said he would give me some musket caps. I drove to his house (about a half hour away), got the caps, and drove home. These caps are too big, but so long as I don’t point the gun up in the air, the cap should stay on the nipple (and yes, that’s really what it’s called).

Tomorrow is payday, so I can buy my hunting license ($24) which is cheaper than the “nonresident license” from Missouri ($225). So tomorrow I hunt in Indiana for the first time. Look out, deer!