I just learned that a close friend of mine is in the hospital with respiratory problems apparently caused by a cold that he’s been fighting for awhile.  It’s gone down into his chest, and yesterday, he was taken to the ER.  He’s on oxygen, and they’re going to take a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia.

Please pray that the Lord would heal his illness and strengthen him.  Thanx.

Aside from the blatant endorsement on my blog, this is what my bulletin board at work currently looks like:

For the record, that picture next to the Gabetopia sign is of a co-worker, who died 2 years ago today.  His gesture in that picture is indicative of his attitude toward a lot of things, but he was a great guy, and we still miss him.

Embrace Gabetopia!

edit: Immediately after posting this, I noticed a spelling error on the sign.  The editorial staff of Gabetopia has been sacked.  Order has been restored.  The sign has been fixed.

I didn’t realize that it’s been a week since I last updated.  It really feels like only a couple days ago when I wrote about the dichotomy of making plans, but trusting in the Lord to work all things together for good.  A lot has happened in a week…  A lot has happened in a DAY!

On Friday afternoon, we got an e-mail from my real estate agent indicating that they claimed to have signed the contract, which means our escrow process had started.  On the other hand, the agent indicated that she had not yet received the contract with both signatures on it, which I needed to start my loan process. The e-mail I saw looked like the listing agent had merely forgotten to attach the signed contract to it.  I’ve only done that about a million times.

So this weekend was filled with some half-congratulations, and reserved exclamations of joy.  Still, I enjoyed a great deal of it.  My Great Aunt died last week, though, and she was full-on Catholic.  So Saturday, Kim and I went to the Vigil, whereat we had to endure the saying of the full Rosary.  I can’t remember the last time I sat through the Rosary, but I’m sure it seemed like a LOT longer then.  I also got to drive a golf cart for the first time on Saturday.  I quite enjoyed that.

Monday, however, it all appeared to hit the fan.  At about 10am, I got the signed contract from my real estate agent.  I called my wife to get any information she may need, and got my ducks in a row to call my realtor at lunchtime, since I was at work.  I confirmed my final home inspection for Wednesday with my real estate agent, found out that the pest inspection was scheduled for 1pm on Friday, and just generally wondered how this process would affect my sanity!

I called my loan, got the loan started, found out that the home is appraised for $60,000 more than we’re paying for it, got an estimate on taxes and home insurance, etc. and just generally did all kinds of worrying about the process until my end of things was done.  Now we just wait on the processor from my mortgage company to call me and let me know they’re on it.  Also waiting on some sort of packet of information that my mortgage company will send me to initial and send back, etc.

What I took away from the process in terms of good news are thusly:

• My lender says the November 24th closing will be no problem in the least, which helps to alleviate one of my concerns. Namely, that my lender would be a pill, and cause me to have to extend the escrow closing date, which would cost me $50 a day.  Not good.  The lender says everything is fine, and these people are also my bank and my auto/renters insurance company, and they’ve given me every reason in the past to trust them/
• My home and land have appraised at $60,000 more than I’m paying for them.  This is great all around, really, since it makes me and my lender both very comfortable about what we’re getting for the money. It’s really an instant $60,000 worth of equity in the home.  Very good. (Also, the appraisal we had done cost me $10 instead of $325.  I like saving money.)
• The seller isn’t dragging their feet with the parts of the escrow process for which they are responsible. The seller appears to be as eager to sell this house as I am to buy it.  The only question in my mind is what we’ll find when we do the home inspection on Wednesday, but that still gives us enough time to walk if the required repairs are just too darn huge.

There is still plenty to go wrong in the process, of course.  It’s not going to be all smooth sailing, I’m sure.  However, we’ve done a great deal of planning in the purchase of this home, and the smoothness of this process thus far is a testament to planning as much as possible.  Making good financial decisions for the future is far more important than catching a good deal, but I’m pretty darn comfortable with what we’ve gotten with this house.

I’ll keep you all posted with all that is going on, though.  I confess I didn’t know anything about the process before I started, but I’ve been able to keep up with everything I’m signing, and everything that has happened so far.  I’m sure those involved in this process with me are getting sick of my questions, but I need to know what is happening in order to feel comfortable with this process.  If I can help someone else understand what all happens in the escrow process, then I’m happy.  :)

dichotomy (n)
1. A cutting in two; a division.
2. Division into two; especially, the division of a class into two subclasses opposed to each other by contradiction.
3. Conditions perceived to be polar extremes or opposites.

Buying a house is quite the ordeal, let me tell you. From offers, to counter-offers, to addendums, to everything else involved, it’s an ordeal. And it’s clear the Lord has given us the capacity to make plans, but it’s a dichotomy of existence.

On the one hand, the Lord has given us brains.  We have the capacity, most of us, of rational thought. Something that has historically been a virtue is Christian Prudence.  The Lord has granted us the ability to judge between the better of two alternatives, and in cases where there is no direct command in Scripture from the Lord, we are to use that rational thought to judge the better course of action.  In other words, we are to make plans.  We’re to labor industriously to provide for ourselves and our families. This kind of thought is very practical, and historically, the Church has always taught this.

However, the dichotomy comes about when we consider the sovereignty of the Lord. You see, when we get in the mindset of planning, we want to make sure that everything goes according to our plans, and to the best of our abilities, we ought to do that.  At the end of the day, however, when all has been done that can be done, we need to be able to lift it up to the Lord and say “Lord, this is all in your hands.  Even my abilities are in Your hands.  It’s been in Your hands from the beginning of time, and it is in Your hands now.”  And leave it at that.  That is a dichotomy that is hard to live.

For the last month and a half or so, we’ve been looking for a house. At this phase, I don’t have a command from Scripture to tell me which house to buy.  Sure, I’ve got guidelines from various areas of Scripture about being a good steward of my finances, about my responsibility as the man of the house to ensure I can provide for and protect my family.  But I don’t have a verse that says, “Yea, when thou purchasest a house, buyest thou a house on 345 N. Second Ave.” And the whole “What Would Jesus Do” movement doesn’t offer anything in the way of real guidance. In these cases, Christian Prudence is the order of the day.  I know there are those who sit in prayer at the doorway of every house they’re considering and ask for the Spirit to move them to purchase the right house.  I don’t see any support for this in Scripture, and it reminds me of a joke:

A man was in his home, which sat on a small hill.  He loved his house, and when the storm came, stayed, and started to flood the town, he prayed that the Lord would save him. He had such a peace in his heart that the Lord would, indeed, save him that when a boat came by in one of the washes near his house and called for him to grab his essentials and get in, the man said, “the Lord will save me.” The boat continued on its way; the driver had others to help.

A couple hours later, the man was hanging out the window of the second floor of his home; the first being primarily under water, when another boat came by urging him to the same action as the first.  The man simply replied, “no, the Lord will save me.”  The boat left.

A couple hours after that, the man was on the roof of his house, clinging to the weather vane when a helicopter flew by, dropped him a rope, and waited for him to climb on. The man shouted out, sure in his faith, “NO!!!  The Lord will save me!!”

The man drowned, and his house was washed away.

When he got to heaven, he demanded of the Lord…

“Why did you not save me??  I had faith!  I had a surety in my heart that you WOULD save me!  I waited, and waited, and you didn’t!  WHY????”

The Lord, gently but firmly said, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter!”

I don’t believe it’s wise to expect some miraculous answer from God as to a course of action.  We ought to apply scriptural principles, and in an area where there is clear Biblical command, we ought to abide by these commands, but in all other areas, we ought to simply take what the Lord tells us about His will in Scripture and attempt to apply it as best we can.

Ultimately, however, we need to be willing and able to let it go, because it was never in our control to begin with. What we find through Scripture is that while we labor for our Daily Bread, the Lord is actually the one who provides it.  While we make plans and attempt to order our lives, the Father of Lights is the giver of every good and perfect thing.  We make plans, but the Lord is sovereign, and at the end of the day, we need to recognize that in every one of our actions.

As a more personal example, we’ve picked out a house, and we’re sort of in the middle of signing papers for it.  We’re on the verge of beginning the mortgage and escrow process, and there are some things that I have to wait on.  I’ve done everything in my power to help things go smoothly, and spent almost my entire lunch today going through legal papers, talking to some family, my realtor, and my lender. I’ve set everything in motion that CAN be set in motion. There are things up in the air, and it’s hard for me to let all that go.  I feel as though I should be DOING something, but there’s really nothing I can DO.

It is at times like these where I need to be reminded that the Lord is sovereign.  If someone makes a better offer on the house we’re trying to purchase, and the bank accepts it instead of ours, that’s the Lord’s clear voice.  That’s God revealing His will to us.  We make plans as best we can, but ultimately, the best-laid plans will fall out according to God Who works all things according to His immutable will.

And while this can make us feel helpless, it seems to me that we only feel that way when we lack a proper perspective on God. When we truly understand what the Lord has revealed about Himself in the pages of Scripture, His sovereignty ought to be a comfort to us.  When we screw things up, when we do the wrong thing, we cannot mess up His plans.  He’s not stumped by man.  He accomplishes His will.  Hallelujah!

And Amen!

I posted about a bunch of stuff on Friday, and some of it has had updates.

To begin with, I mentioned on here awhile back that I would be brewing a beer for my son, to be aged for 21 years.  The plan is that Iain would have a special beer to drink on his 21st birthday brewed for him before he was born. As I said in that original announcement and poll, certain styles of beer are suitable for aging for multiple decades.  A general rule of thumb is this: The higher the alcohol content, the greater suited the beer is to aging.  Now, this also assumes that one is not filtering the beer prior to bottling.  Yeast in suspension are part of what helps to age a beer, so unfiltered is the rule.  When homebrewing, unfiltered is the norm, so I’m not concerned about this.

Now, despite the egregious voter fraud that took place in my last poll, I have decided to allow the majority their say in what we will brew for Iain, and the winner is…..Russian Imperial Stout.  I’ve never brewed one of these, but they can be anywhere from 8%-15% abv, and should provide an interesting subject for a greatly aged brew.  The name of the beer?  IAIN-BRU.  (I’ll let you all figure it out.)  :)  Feel free to post any speculation as to why we’re calling it IAIN-BRU aside from the fact that our son’s name will be Iain.  lol.

Brew Day for IAIN-BRU will be November 8th!

In other news, we’re preparing to accept the counter-offer made by the seller of the house we’re trying to purchase, and I’ve gotta say, I’ve never signed my name so much in my LIFE!  I had to sign no less than 30 times just to make the offer, and the Seller of the home has now sent me an Addendum to the counter-offer, which is going to require me to initial approximately 16 times, and sign once.  Such a pain.

However, we’re very excited about the purchase of this house.  There’s a lot that has to be done on it, including putting in a security system, replacing a couple doors, and painting, but we’re definitely looking forward to all of it, the work included!

The Scotch Ale this weekend was amazing, as was the Irish Red, the Honey Porter (man, I wish I’d had this beer before now, as it really was tasty), the Black Lager, the Brown Ale and the Boston Lager!  (That Sam Adams Variety Pack was really quite spectacular!!!)  But yeah, that Scotch Ale was well worth waiting 2+ years for, and I can’t wait to try it again! I was afriad, with Sam Adams’ focus on the hop content of their beers, that they may have over-hopped this Scotch Ale, but I didn’t need to worry about it at all.  Those guys really make a great beer.  If you can find the Scotch Ale, (and I’ve only seen it in the Variety Pack), pick it up.  You’ll be quite pleased.

Finally, my friend went on a date with his wife, and he reports that it went well.  It went well, that is, until the very end where she stated that she wasn’t sure she was ready to put her all into reconciliation.  This does a couple things:

1. It acknowledges that every fiber of their beings is going to need to work on this.  It’s not just going to happen.  It’s going to be a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  I’m glad she realizes the serious up-front cost that will be required of both of them.

2. It really demoralized my friend.  He has been willing to work on this (though not willing to compromise Biblical Standards) from day 1.  The statements from her, however, have not been so gung-ho.  Finally, he was getting the message that she actually wanted to work on the marriage, and then at the end of the date, she says this.  It’s gotta be really rough on him.

He told her that he was willing to work on it, but that she needed to be sure she was willing to work on it as well.  He told her to figure it out by Friday; that the papers were ready, but she needed to decide whether she wanted to sign them.  He also gave this Friday as a “drop dead” date.  This might seem overly harsh, but you have to realize that the Session has already given their consent to the divorce.  It would have been EASIER to just go ahead and file the papers, regardless of her statement of willingness to work on the deal.  He didn’t do this, because he really wants to work it out.

However, she’s dragged this out for nearly 3 years.  She claims she doesn’t want a divorce, but refuses to return (until recently.)  She claims she’s a Christian, but ignores the Word of God when it’s been shown to her, claiming that there is some other interpretation to the Word of God, though she refuses to provide us with another interpretation of “God hates divorce”, etc. She claims that the Lord is ok with divorce if the two parties aren’t both “happy” regardless of what the Word of God says.  She has refused to cut of these close friendships with guys where she texts them and goes over to their home to spend time with them alone in the evenings, but claims that she doesn’t want a divorce.  It’s been a mess, and through it all, my friend has prayed for her, asked her to return, and preached the Gospel to her.  It’s been really hard on her, and she has brought this to the last hurrah.  NOT putting an end date on her deliberation would be an invitation to drag THIS out for another however many years, and if she’s serious about working on this, then she has an entire week to let him know.  If not, well, she’s made her choice then as well.

So it’s sort of a bummer, after all of us getting our hopes up, not to mention what my friend is going though.  Against his better judgement, he got his hopes up, and she dashed them again.  It’s really hard to counsel my friend to obey the Lord sometimes, but he’s done so.

So, please be in prayer for these situations (the house, and my friend.)  Regardless of the outcome of them both, we’ll praise the Lord for His provision and mercy. We know the Lord is sovereign, and that He works all things according to the counsel of His own immutable will.  We know that these situations will work out according to His will, so we ask for prayer, mostly for ourselves.  Prayer that we would accept whatever way the Lord works these things out.

To begin, I’d like to state that I realize my life isn’t totally crappy.  That being said, everyone’s problems are relative to their normal situation. Lately, aside from my wife being pregnant, it seems as though much of the news I’ve received has been of the “not so good” variety.  In the past week or so, however, some pretty incredible things have happened.

First off, news about the friend of mine that has been having some serious marital trouble over the last nearly 3 years. Ultimately, the Session of our church had given him permission to seek legal advice regarding whether or not he should divorce her.  I’m not going to get into the details, but my friend’s situation is one of only 2 reasons Christians are permitted to divorce, though it should be said that at all times, reconciliation is preferred over divorce, whether or not the Christian is allowed to divorce.  When my friend brought his wife a couple preliminary papers to sign (not divorce papers…just a statement of assets, etc. for the lawyer), she indicated that she wants to get together with him, go on some dates, and see if they can get to know each other again.

This is completely miraculous on a lot of different levels.  For one, this woman has shown no desire to compromise on several things that are definitely not becoming of a Christian woman, which she claims to be.  She’s never admitted that she needs to work on things, claiming that my friend is the sole source of problems.  She has said several things in the last week indicating that she wants to work on things, and knows that some things need to stop.

On another level, my friend’s heart has been hard for a long time towards this situation.  From a completely human perspective, I completely understand.  However, I was really worried that if she DID attempt to reconcile, that my friend would not be able to.  However, he’s excited about this, and it really has buoyed my spirits!  This is a total answer to prayer, and is exactly what the church discipline system was designed by God to accomplish: repentance and reconciliation. My friend’s wife admits that she does not know if this will work, but is willing to try, which is more than we ever expected.  It’s truly amazing when the Lord works this way.  He’s softened BOTH of their hearts, and it’s just amazing!

In other news, the sellers of the house we were looking at made a counter-offer, and we’re very inclined to accept it.  They raised the price from what we were asking, but kept all other terms the same, and we’ve verbally accepted the offer!!!  We are signing the papers to accept the offer formally on Monday, but this is VERY exciting!!! Our first home, and we’re looking forward to it!

Finally, Gabe picked up a variety pack of Samuel Adams’ beer, and 2 of the bottles in the pack are the elusive SCOTCH ALE!!!  We have seen pictures of this beer for a couple years now, but have been unsuccessful in locating one.  Now, Gabe has two.  We’re totally drinking it tomorrow, and I have high hopes for this beer, really!

In all, a lot of good news in a short amount of time.  My brother-in-law is getting married early next year, my sister is getting married later the same year, and a lot of things are going well!  Praise the Lord for His goodness and mercy in a time of distress!  :)

I’ve never had much use for those little “Current Mood” indicators, to be honest.  Most of the time, I blog when I’m frustrated about something, which means a large percentage of my posts would read as the title of this post reads. It eventually becomes about as helpful as packing an accordion for an elk hunting trip.  Today, however, I have a directed bit of frustration that I need to take care of.

Many of you know, and some of you don’t, Kim and I are looking for a house. The looking has been a bit frustrating, as I’m sure many of you already know it can be. Finding a house that isn’t too messed up, looks ok from the street, isn’t in a bad area…there’s so much to think about, it’s hard to keep it all in your mind.  We found a house we thought we might be interested in a couple weeks ago.  It was in our price range, and we knew it needed some work.  When my father-in-law looked at it, however, he didn’t like it at all. He didn’t think we would be happy.  We respect his opinion, but it is definitely frustrating walking the line between cost and value.

Yesterday, we found a house.  We were pleased with a lot of it, less pleased with some of it, but overall we think we can do most of the work it needs ourselves.  (This is never certain when dealing with me.  I’ll build a computer from its component parts…troubleshoot what’s wrong with it, etc.  Give me a hammer and ask me to fix something, and I’m much more likely to hit myself or an innocent bystander than I am to actually sort of fix the problem.)  We’re relieved, and we’re ready to make an offer.

WELCOME TO THE FIRST RING OF HELL!!!!!

Seriously, people.  I ask for a good faith estimate from my lender so that I can make the offer with our realtor.  I tell them what we have in terms of cash to work with. The papers I get back look nothing like what i asked for.  My wife, however, doesn’t realize this, so she sends them to our realtor, who sends them to the title company, who gives me back a GIANT LIST OF GOBBLEDEGOOK! Now, I have a giant list of gobbledegook which does not correspond to what we were trying to do in the first place.

We were hoping to have an offer written today, but if my current results are any indication, it looks like we won’t be ready to make an offer for another 30 years or so…

And God bless Kim’s heart.  She says she feels like she’s operating with half a brain, which I’ve heard is typical of many pregnant women.  One of the books Kim’s read calls it Estrogen Poisoning.  However, I can’t deal with any of this while I’m at work, so it falls to her to make sense of these confusing lists of numbers. She’s frustrated and I’m frustrated.  Makes for some exhausting days, I’ll tell you.

In all, I’ve gotten to the point where I would rather do all of this in e-mail than talk to someone.  Perhaps this is my analytical side taking over, but when I talk to someone, I feel ignored.  I try to emphasize what I feel is important to communicate, but it’s up to the listener to HEAR me.  I’m finding that people just don’t listen anymore.  How many of the problems I’m having to deal with right now are as a result of someone ignoring what we’ve told them?  100%.  THAT is the essence of frustration.

I’ve now sent e-mails asking for corrections.  If they care to, they can get everything I need them to know from the e-mails I’ve sent them.  If I have questions, I’ll ask them through e-mail.  I’m sick of feeling like I’m being snowed by someone who doesn’t want me to understand what this is all about.

Ok…I feel a little better after venting.  Current Mood: A Little Less Frustrated

I’m not going to give any details, but suffice it to say that this friend is a very close friend, and that his problems have been going on for nearly 3 years.

Recently, his circumstances have changed, and he is now able to move to the next step.  Please pray that my friend’s attitude would remain as God would have it be.  Please pray that the other person involved in this situation would repent of her willful sin and return to obeying the Word of God.

And please pray that the Lord’s will be done in this situation.

Thank you.

I know, it’s technically been fall for longer than today, but today feels like fall to me.

In the land of TheDow, however, the seasons are marked more by changes in beer than in the weather, I think. Those of you who have never heard much of seasonal beers might be wondering at my insanity, but it’s true, I tell you.

The summer and spring are marked by hoppy, fruity, light lagers and ales.  Essentially, these are ales that quench your thirst after mowing the lawn, or beside the pool. The only also often associated with the summer with which I disagree is the India Pale Ale, or IPA.  IPA’s are generally higher in alcohol than standard Pales and Lagers, so they have a tendency to warm me up a great deal.

In fall, however, the beers begin to darken.  While there are some lighter fall ales like Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale (and indeed all the myriad pumpkin ales that are released in early fall), you also start to see a tendency of what are called “winter warmers” to appear on shelves. I live for these beers.

The winter warmer is characterized by an intense malty experience. Many think that hops are to beer what grapes are to wine, but I couldn’t disagree more.  What makes a beer is the malted barley, and these beers have a huge, rich, complex maltiness that sets them apart from the crowd.  Lots of malt means lots of fermentable sugars, which means lots of alcohol in the finished product, hence the “warmer” aspect of these beers’ name. In non-traditional beers, cloves, cinnamon, and other spices are used to give these beers a taste of winter.  (Alaskan Winter Ale uses spruce tips, which adds a bit of…acridness to the finished product.)  These non-traditional winter warmers are also quite pleasant and remind me a great deal of what things will be like in a few short months.

The fall heralds Scotch Ale season, to be honest, and I’ve missed it a great deal.  The “thin” light, the gusty winds, the rain, and the wonderful beers are what I look forward to when the weather changes.