Slap the Man Behind the Curtain

A number of times, I’ve written about the weird “coincidences” that keep happening when I go to church. Here is tonight’s.

On Tuesday, I had to sit through a sales pitch. I wrote about this already.The salesperson was the daughter of someone my dad knows. I wouldn’t call this man a friend. He’s in real estate, and he tries to get my father to invest in things that I think are extremely ill-advised. I can’t warm up to people who hawk risky investments to senior citizens, especially when they go after my family.

The daughter contacted my dad last week, and she asked if she could do a sales presentation. He referred her to me. All she would tell me was that she sold something related to cooking. I told my dad how much I was not looking forward to the presentation, and derider of Christianity that he is, he said it was my Christian duty. I believe God speaks to people through their parents, so at that point, I let it go and decided to suffer through the pitch. It was very out of character for him to say that, so I figured there had to be a reason it had happened.

It turned out she was selling Cutco knives. I didn’t take any; they’re extremely expensive, and I don’t need them, and the quality doesn’t exactly give me goosebumps. On top of that, I felt that buying from her would be perpetuating a relationship in which her family had a pattern of taking advantage of mine. Breaking out of destructive patterns is a big part of Christianity. Maybe I was overly wary, but the whole thing put me on edge.

Let’s move to tonight. The pastor was talking about living life on the offensive. Somehow, he wandered off into a story about a young acquaintance of his who had a new job. And guess what that job was? Selling kitchen knives. No company was mentioned, but obviously, this kid is a Cutco rep. The big differences in our stories are that the kid in the pastor’s story cut himself badly while demonstrating the product, and that the pastor bought some stuff. Okay, maybe he’s a better Christian than I am. On the other hand, I doubt the kid’s father ever tried to get a high-interest loan from the pastor’s dad, to finance a buy at the top of a real estate bubble.

After church, my payoff was that I had a “coincidence” story for my dad. The more of my testimony he hears, the better off he’ll be. Sooner or later, he’ll crack.

The sermon was excellent. He was talking about the necessity of taking the initiative in life. If you’re on the offense, you design the game, and you force your enemy to react after you strike. I listened to this stuff, and I wondered why I needed to hear it. I wondered what I had been doing wrong THIS time. Generally, when I hear a sermon, I find that it addresses some issue I need to work on.

Here’s the great part. After a while, I came to the conclusion that I was doing okay! I think he was talking about an area of my life where I’m doing pretty well. That came as a relief. After hearing so many sermons in which faults of which I had been unaware had been made clear to me, it was wonderful to hear about things I was doing right. I’ve put in a lot of work. I’ve been on the offensive for years now. I started praying regularly in 2001, and I’ve been moving in God’s direction ever since. Maybe tonight it was time for a little harvesting. A break. A reward.

I think regular prayer is an extremely powerful, life-changing way of taking the initiative. Think about it. Isn’t most prayer reactive? You do it as a defensive measure. For example, you get a disease. Your child has an accident. Your husband gets fired. So you start to pray. “Please fix this problem.” Then the problem goes away, maybe, and so does the praying. Or the problem overcomes you, and you stop praying, because you figure there is no longer any point. When you live that way, who decides when you pray and when you go to church and when you behave? Satan. Am I wrong? You’re not making the rules or choosing the playing field. He is. But if you get up every morning, even when things are going great, and you pray, you’re eating into his profits. Hammering holes in his front lines. And he can’t predict it. He doesn’t know the future. He can’t see your punches coming. He has to react as best he can, and he loses over and over, because he is weaker than we are.

I thought about this tonight during church. I’m always mad because I was born into a world where hostile spirits have been attacking my kind since we were first created. It’s like living in a tank full of invisible sharks. They have been harming me all my life. Spoiling my dreams. Ruining my relationships. Taking money from me. Injuring me. They do the same things to you. The Bible refers to these miserable beings as “destroyers” and “devourers.” If you’re a Christian, surely you’ve wished you could have five minutes alone with one, in a locked room, with a blow torch and a broken beer bottle. Well, you can. Sort of. If you take the initiative, you become THEIR destroyer and devourer. You spoil THEIR dreams. You make them suffer. You ruin their plans and humiliate them. You wreck and take away the things that give them satisfaction. And it’s not a symmetrical situation. They can never break even, because in the end, they’re going to be condemned and disassembled before the cheering people they used to torment.

That’s inspiring. I can get excited about that. Revenge is wrong, when it’s directed at human beings. When it’s directed at principalities and powers, it’s far from wrong. It’s our purpose. It’s our duty. We are supposed to do what is right, and doing right is what makes them suffer. We are not expected to forgive them. We are not expected to turn the other cheek. It’s open season. When you pray or you give money to charity or the church, or you do things to help other people, you are like a festering blight in Satan’s garden. I never realized this until today. We CAN have vengeance. We can be to Satan what he has always been to us.

That’s really wonderful. When I do good, I eventually run out of steam. I have a limited amount of love to drive me. But anger…that never runs out. I have seen and experienced too much suffering to ever get tired of punishing the most guilty parties. Looking at it this way, I find it much easier to forgive human beings. If I can get at a vicious and cowardly supernatural being by forgiving a person, I’m happy to make the exchange. For as long as I have been aware that these creatures existed, I have wanted a way to cause them despair and make their efforts come to nothing. I didn’t fully understand that I was already doing these things.

The knife thing really weirded me out. I hope things like that keep happening to me for the rest of my life.

No Fish

I have once again graced the sea with my presence.

Today my dad and I hosted his ex partner, the partner’s son, my friend Pat, and Pat’s cousin Lazaro. All the guests were late, including Val Prieto, who still has not arrived. When we tried to leave the dock, the starter on the port engine refused to work. Lazaro and Pat fooled around, trying an old trick I had not heard of. They hit it with a hammer. It didn’t work, but once they told me where the starter was, I realized I had no excuse for not looking at it. I climbed into the engine room and went around behind the engine, on the port side, and started looking. While I was down there, someone pressed the starter button, and one of the electrical connections got red hot for a second.

I realized what was going on. I got people to pass me tools while I fixed it. One of the power connections on the starter was rusty. It’s probably supposed to have brass hardware on it, but it had a steel washer, and there was rust. When big DC connections get corroded, they heat up. Must be the increased resistance. I took two thick cables off, cleaned everything with a wire brush and a sheet of sandpaper, and put it all back together. And the motor started, and off we went. Being a Christian, I could not help praying for help with it, and I got what I asked for. I think sometimes we overestimate the amount of faith we need to get prayers answered. I’ve gotten good results on occasions when I found my own faith levels disappointing.

I believe God answers prayers about trivial things. Here’s an example that’s so reliable, it’s almost annoying. “Please help me find my hey there it is.” Happens several times a week. Exactly like that.

The part I liked best was when I was still down there, with the engine and two air conditioning units going, and everyone in the salon was talking about how great it was that the motor was running. Like it wasn’t particularly important if I ever got out. I yelled until they started reaching for tools, and I climbed out over a by-now-hot AC condenser, and we went fishing.

All we caught was a big barracuda. There was very little weed, and the dolphin were nowhere in sight. Even the barracuda got off before we could boat it. Which is good, because all we wanted was to get the hook back. You have to be brave to eat a big barracuda from the Atlantic Ocean. Look up “ciguatera.”

I had fun using my GPS. The boat has a huge one, but it needs repair. I took my handheld out, and it helped us avoid wandering around the ocean and wasting time and fuel.

Two members of the crew got somewhat seasick, and the fish were uncooperative, so we eventually gave up. Still, it’s always a privilege to get out there.

I guess atheists will ask why I didn’t pray for fish. Okay, I did. Happy? I still have a good batting average. And I don’t annoy people by filing lawsuits to keep them from praying before high school football games.

I highly recommend Banana Boat sunblock for kids. It’s not the only sunblock I’ve seen that features a claim that it won’t sting your eyes, but it’s the only one I know of that makes good on the promise. With other sunblocks, after about three hours, I start to feel like I’ve been tear-gassed. The sweat makes the stinging stuff in the sunblock run into my eyes, and once it’s there, only a shower and the passage of an entire day puts an end to it.

The GPS predicted the outcome today. It has a feature called “Hunting/Fishing,” and when you push the button, it tells you how it expects you to do on a given day. Today it predicted “Poor Day.” I don’t know that I want this feature. It’s almost insulting. And how does it know? It’s just an overgrown calculator with a satellite receiver. And what if it says “Excellent Day” and you still catch nothing? What a loser you are on THAT day!

This is like knowing your baby’s sex before it’s born. Some things should remain a mystery.

Imagine the disciples with a GPS.

5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.

6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.

7 And Simon Peter rebuked him, saying, Not so Lord, for verily, the Garmin hath pronounced a curse.

I wonder what features GPS will have five years from now. “Husband Income Predictor.” “SAT Prognosticator.” “Press to See if Your Child Will Grow up to be a Failure.” “First Year Wife Weight Gain.”

Just tell me where the next waypoint is. I can’t handle any more power than that.

Next time, there will be fish. But no loaves. And no, I will not hedge my bets by offering lambs to the GPS.

“I Meant to Do That”

First up, an important message from former KISPer TC. He sent out an email requesting prayer for a fallen soldier:

Mark’s a good friend. He’s in Landstuhl Army Hospital after being shot in the head in Afghanistan.

Two other Georgia Guardsmen were killed on Monday, bringing the total to 7 KIA so far.

This has been a very costly deployment for the 48th Brigade so far, and it’s only a couple months into their 1 year tour.

Now, to less serious things.

Tyler Youngblood, proprietor of Projectsinmetal.com, noticed my post about the hammer I failed to make using his online plans. He took a moment to write a helpful comment, which I will repost here:

Hi Steve,

I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the soft faced hammer plans, but if it makes you feel any better, I scrapped the project twice before I got it right.

If I may make a few suggestions, maybe I can help. First, 304 stainless is far less forgiving than aluminum, which is what I made my hammer out of. It’s not as durable as stainless, but the hammer could be made fully functional by putting a pin into the head (the threaded head of my aluminum hammer comes loose with vigorous use). Locktite might also be an option. But I’m happy with the aluminum version for “light” hammering, which is what a soft faced hammer is good for anyway.

I didn’t turn the project between centers, but I had the benefit of a taper attachment, so that’s how I got the taper to work. If your compound slide has enough travel, you can definitely use that to put in your taper. Or you can buy/make a lathe dog for use with a proper face plate and do it that way. The only issue there is you mess with the alignment of the tailstock, which I try to avoid.

I’d suggest trying to use your compound to cut the taper. If you only have 2? of travel, change the taper to 2?. It would look different, but that’s fine, its your hammer.

Also, if you try to cut a taper using your compound, make sure to take light cuts. It sounds like you started cutting at the wide end of the taper, and by the time you got to the narrow end of the taper (3? later, up by the threads) you were cutting too much material. Instead, do it the other way. Start 1/4 inch back from the end of the taper and cut 1/4 inch in the direction of the threads, toward the radius. Your cut should gradually get a bit deeper, but since you’re only going 1/4? (and not 3?), the increased depth of cut shouldn’t be an issue. Once you have made that first pass, the rest of the cuts will be parallel to that first pass (thus no gradual increase to your depth of cut). After you’ve made that first pass of 1/4? or so, back your compound away from the part, then back along the axis of the taper you just cut. Your next pass should be 3/8? or so, then 1/2, …. all the way until your last pass takes a finish cut along the entire 3? taper.

It’s hard to explain. I really should make a video because it’s much easier if you see it done. As far as the radius goes, I used a tool with the proper radius to cut the taper, so when the taper was finished, the radius was already present. The radius on the end of the hammer was done with a file while the part was turning (make sure to hold the file backwards, with the tang facing away from you and cut from underneath the part, not on top – that way if the part rips the file out of your hand it will be pulled away from you). And of course, use a file with a handle whenever possible. No handle? Find an old golf ball, drill, and attach to the end of the tang. Tangs are sharp and dangerous.

You’ll need a mill to bore and tap the head of the hammer (where the handle attaches). You could do it on the lathe, but holding the part would require some significant workholding via the faceplate (I wouldn’t try it in a 4-jaw chuck, and a 3-jaw wouldn’t work at all). The threaded portions of the head where the faces attach are drilled on the lathe, but tapped after the larger hole is drilled, bored, and tapped on the mill.

For practice I single pointed the threads on the handle, but they can be cut with much less effort using a die. One of the scrapped handles was due to a mistake I made while cutting the threads.

Let me know if you’d be interested in me making a video of the process. I don’t really need another hammer, but I’d be happy to make a video if you think it would help (and if I can find the time).

Drop me a comment if you run into any other problems. I’d be happy to help in any way I can. I’m still learning too, so I remember how frustrating those first few projects were to master. But once you learn how to do all the steps in the hammer (turn down the dia, turn a taper, file a radius, knurl, single point (or tap/die) threads) you’ve got a very strong foundation and a good understanding of how the lathe works. That’s why the hammer, although difficult, is a great first project.

I’ve got another beginner project (a plumb bob) that uses hex stock, so if you’re interested in that (instead of the screw jack), let me know. Although the plumb bob is meant to be turned out of brass, not stainless. But stainless would work too.

Good luck!

Tyler Youngblood
ProjectsInMetal.com
Seattle, WA

That’s what I call service. I also got some good advice on the Chaski forum.

My biggest problem was trying to make the 3″ taper on the hammer handle. After I posted my whining, it occurred to me that I was probably cutting from the wrong end, and people have since confirmed this. When using a compound to cut a taper, start at the end where you have to remove the most metal. This way, the cuts are deepest as they begin, and they get shallower as you go. That will prevent problems with the cuts getting so deep the lathe throws up or whatever.

I learned a few other things. When trying to make a smooth transition from a straight piece into a taper which is thinner than the straight part, cut from the straight side. Say you have a taper that goes from half an inch to one inch, and you need a straight part one inch thick beyond the taper. You make the straight part too thick, and then you make the taper, and then you cut the straight part down, with cuts beginning at the end of the straight part which is farthest from the taper. The tool will cut off the excess metal from the straight part and then go into empty space as it hits the taper, leaving a smooth transition. At least, it worked that way for me.

I was told to use a file to make the small radii on the tool handle. That sure beats trying to grind a radius tool and then get it to make a perfect cut.

I blew the knurling. I am too lazy to get out my videos and see how it’s done, so I just winged it. No amount of skill can overcome true laziness. I know the knurls have to be perpendicular to the part, and the part has to be centered between the knurls. But I don’t know how to make them go into the same marks over and over as the part turns. I ended up with a surface that isn’t slippery, yet which would never be confused with real knurling.

I may dump this thing and use it for threading practice. It’s still a big piece of metal. There are lots of things I can make from it.

Here’s a photo of what I have. I put Dykem on it to help me line up the knurls.

It’s not good, but I learned a great deal while working on it. And I ran the tool post into the work, and I also ran the carriage into the chuck. No pain, no gain. I just wish I had realized the carriage was blocking the chuck before I took the housing off the lathe to find out what was wrong with it.

Here is the latest news about the milling machine:

Hi Steve,
Sorry, Mark said that he did answer me, I think maybe there was an email problem.
It did ship last week, the driver should be calling soon, he will get the information for me later today, he was not in the office right now.
Thanks again!

Mark is the importer. Man, this is exciting.

I emailed Og for advice about turning parts to specified dimensions. He sent photos of his latest project.

Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be doing this kind of stuff real soon. Notably, he used a crappy board for a base plate. I guess you never get too big for half-assed desperation jigs. I should start photographing the beauties I come up with.

Think I’ll take one of the bikes out and see if the wind blows the swarf out of my clothes. Sometimes I make splinters. Today I made several bona fide Slinkys.

Dow Creeps Toward 8000

I’m checking the stock market. Looks like it’s still headed down.

My gut tells me this is bad news. We took a big hit when the housing hysteria fizzled, and then Bush and Obama gave us a painkiller, in the form of bailouts and socialist “stimulus” spending. That calmed us down for a while. But there was no reason to expect it to work in the long term. We were spending money we didn’t have, and which we were obligated to repay to hostile nations, from future earnings, which we had no reason to expect. How can that be a good plan? If you lose your job, you can have a couple of great months anyway, just by maxing out your credit cards. But the third month…that’s when reality will set in. And you’ll be worse off than you would have been, had you done nothing. If you’re going to borrow, you should either have the money in hand before you take the loan (which is an odd thing to do), or you should be very sure you will earn enough in the future to cover it. We’re not sure at all. In fact, even Obama says the worst is still ahead.

I am reminded of a story about a Ferrari. Someone I knew bought a car when he was living on student loans. It
was not an expensive car. But his friends called it “the Ferrari.” Why did they call it that? Because of the interest. In the end, he was going to pay enough to buy a fancy luxury car. Maybe not a Ferrari, but certainly, something a lot nicer than what he got.

I won’t claim to be smarter than he was. I’ve bought stupid things, including nice stereo speakers, with loan money. But his story serves to illustrate the inadvisability of going into debt when it’s not necessary.

The stock market and the economy run largely on optimism. When the government started slapping Band-Aids on our problems, it made people feel good, and I’m sure that fueled the recent rally. But what’s going to happen when the placebo effect wears out? If Obama gives us a false sense of security by passing out money, and then we have another downturn, isn’t it safe to assume that passing out money will not have the same effect in the future?

If that’s true, where are the brakes now? The only answer is true productivity. Something Obama-style government smothers.

Unemployment is high. People claim this is a lagging indicator, meaning it tells you what has already happened, not what will happen in the future. But can that really be true? Wealth comes from work; there is no other source.

If there is less work, how can there be more wealth? I’m no economist, but it seems to me that unemployment figures have to be powerful omens, barring an unforeseen change that creates jobs.

I put my hope in God. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do. I still think our country’s current problems stem from rebellion, and I am going to be surprised if we ever resume our spot at the top.

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

I think that if you lead a godless life and you believe you succeed because of your own strength, you are buying a Ford at Ferrari prices. Like Esau, you’re selling your future to pay for the present. This has to be why the Bible calls that kind of life “vanity” and “leasing.” All these things are stripped away from you at death; none of it follows you. It’s like a rented apartment. You don’t own it, so you will eventually have to get out. But the good things you do follow you into the next life. The Bible says that; I can’t recall where. I read it yesterday. I do recall the phrase about storing up riches in heaven, which amounts to the same thing.

You have to find out what lasts and then invest in it. That’s how I see it these days. I hope I can find something useful to do, which will meet my needs and help me to meet the needs of others.

Over the Side is Best

I got up today and wrote a big long piece about how things are going between me and God, and my PC locked up and killed it. What a bummer.

After that, I left and fixed a toilet on my dad’s boat. Needless to say, I have showered twice today.

Now I’m just tired.

96

Is there anything more wonderful than being up on a Saturday morning, chock full of McDonald’s food, with 96 brownies chilling in anticipation of later use? I think not.

I don’t know what McDonald’s puts in this stuff to elevate my mood like this, but I wish I could buy a pallet of it.

My diet is going well. I’m losing slowly but continuously, and it’s not a strain. I shouldn’t call it a diet. I’m planning to live like this forever. It’s the plan I was on before Mike and the cookbook ruined me, except that I upped the calories. I used to eat 1500 per day, with unlimited Saturdays. Now it’s 1800, which is more realistic over the long term.

Mike really destroyed my life. He showed me how to make pizza. I made it worse by making it fast and easy. Controlling myself was just not an option. I could still eat pizza for two meals every day and never get bored.

As noted yesterday, I decided to make brownies for church. They’re putting on a feed after the service tonight, and I figured this was a good way to be helpful. Maybe people will start to realize I’m there. I just sneak in and out.

It was tough making all those brownies on a diet day. I didn’t cheat, although I did have some batter and include it in my daily allotment. When I woke up this morning, I had brownies on the brain. I could almost hear them giggling at me.

I’m not really a brownie freak. Having made so many of them, I have managed to blunt my enthusiasm. Still, when you’re dieting and you have maybe twenty pounds of them on hand, it’s a little hard to stay on the path.

I decided to update my surprisingly old Garmin handheld GPS. I still think of it as new, and it looks new, but it’s three years old, so it’s an antique. I got my map software running on this computer (I used to have it only on the laptop, because the laptop can be taken on the boat), and I got the updates going, and it turns out you can now put your tracks on Google Earth.

Hmm…the tracks don’t show up, but the waypoints and so on do.

HA! Mike knew I was blogging about him. He interrupted my writing with a long phone call.

I better take a look at one of those brownies. QC is what I’m all about.

Many, Many Brownies

As much as I would like to be dodging hot strips of 304 stainless, I am up to something else today. Making brownies for church. Tomorrow they’re having some kind of feed after the service, and they solicited food from the congregation. I was hoping Mike would come down so we could do ribs, but he’s been delayed. So it’s all me. That means something easier than ribs.

I just plopped two trays of brownies in the oven. The full boat recipe. Nuts, chips, and coconut. I’m resting while they cook. I can’t fix the next bunch until these come out of the pans.

I tried to save time by making two batches at once, but it doesn’t work all that well. I’m going to have to face the fact that the recipe is a little light on batter. If you put coconut in the middle, you have to reserve half the batter to put on top of it, and if you’ve done this, you know how hard it is to spread. The oven’s heat helps, but it’s still a pain. And if you’ve mixed two batches at once, it’s worse, because you are likely to screw up and put too much batter in the bottom layer. If you do that, fixing the top layer is nearly impossible.

My solution: extra batter on the side. Hope it doesn’t mess up the cooking time.

Nonstick foil is a gift straight from heaven. I used to bake these in wax paper, and I always ended up peeling parts of it off with a knife. Now I line the pan with foil and lift the brownies out. Once they’re cold, the foil almost falls off.

It’s a real pleasure, being able to give something back, apart from dry monetary contributions. I hope people enjoy these. I can’t really recommend they buy the book, but the food is spiritually harmless, if taken in moderation.

Here, Have a Piece

My area is enjoying 93% humidity right now, according to Weather Underground. Is that a typo? Let’s see. It’s 87°, and the heat index is 111°. I think that means it feels like 111.

I suppose there are some whiny people who would have the temerity to call this weather unpleasant.

This is one of those days when, as soon as you go outside, you feel like you’re swimming. That’s how thick the air is. You could fashion it into a club and hit someone with it. This is what like would be like, if the world were a bowl of warm oatmeal.

The bugs are overjoyed. They’re partying. If there’s one thing I really enjoy, it’s setting a heavy saw up in the driveway, putting a heavier piece of metal on it, putting on earmuffs and glasses, turning the saw on and running it with one hand, and having a dozen mosquitoes buzz up and attack me in some area (like inside the glasses) I can’t reach with the free hand. While sweat begins to puddle in the glasses and obscure my vision.

That’s living, my friends. It’s the kind of adventure you will never see on a commercial featuring the World’s Most Interesting Man, because it is the opposite of interesting.

By the way, rumor has it this man saved Chuck Norris’s life with a partial beard transplant.

It’s kind of fitting that this guy hawks beer, because when you drink enough beer, you become convinced that you, yourself, are the Most Interesting Guy in the World. Or at least the most interesting guy on the floor of the bar.

“I always drink beer. And when I do, I prefer what’s on sale.”

Not funny unless you watch beer commercials. They were the only thing I ever enjoyed about watching pro football. I haven’t seen a game in forever. A few months ago, I learned that the World’s Most Interesting Man was still on the air, and it amazed me. That’s how out of touch I am, with important stuff everyone else knows about.

I am sorely tempted to get a horizontal band saw. A guy in my area is selling a good one at a reasonable price. I don’t know too much about these things, but I know enough to suspect that I was an idiot to buy a dry cut saw instead. A horizontal bandsaw is like a miter saw with a band blade. Apparently, you raise it, stick the metal in, turn on the saw, drop the handle, and go eat cookies while it cuts. When it goes through the metal, it shuts off. And you’re in front of the TV, and you’ve had cookies.

I am told that I could cut my 4″ bar of 1018 steel with one of these things in around 15 minutes. SOLD! Especially if I don’t have to be there when it happens.

I’m not sure what I’ll use the dry cut saw for if I get this thing. It gives gorgeous cuts, but if you have a mill and a lathe, you should be able to clean up any cut a band saw makes.

The dry cut saw might turn out to be my first idiot tool buy. My sliding miter saw may be the second; I rarely use it. Oh well. I got great prices on both of them. If you’re going to buy something you don’t need, you should at least get a bargain.

Weird things keep happening to me. It seems like I had a rough spot in my life for a few weeks, and now it’s over. Things were going great, but not as great as the weeks preceding this time. I took care of a few obligations that I felt might be holding me back, and now I feel like I’m on top again.

Last night I saw Perry Stone on David Cerullo’s show. I flopped on the couch because I was tired, and I turned the tube on, and there it was. It turned out to be very helpful to me. This has happened three times this week. Twice I turned on the tube, not knowing what was on, and found myself watching a show produced by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which is one of my favorite organizations. I am highly suspicious of many ministries and programs, but I like Perry Stone and the IFCJ a lot. I don’t know of any problems with David Cerullo. People complain that he makes too much money, but that’s not sufficient to upset me.

Stone was talking about Joshua. He led the Hebrews into the Promised Land after the death of Moses. I had forgotten the details. He had the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan, and the waters stopped and stood up like a wall until the Hebrews all got across. Stone believes this (like the flood) is symbolic of Christian baptism. He also suspects this is the place where Jesus was baptized.

He pointed out some things I had not heard before. He said the Jewish priesthood in Herod’s time was not fully legitimate, because it was no longer hereditary. The Romans chose the high priests and forced them on the Jews. John the Baptist was the son of a real priest. Stone believes he therefore had the authority to baptize Jesus and initiate a change from one type of priesthood to another. It’s a long story. You can find out about it in Stone’s DVDs. He also thinks Caiphus, the Roman-approved high priest, may have been aware of the significance of the crucifixion, and that he may have been a sort of silent co-conspirator. Every reasonable, informed Christian knows that blaming the Jewish people for the crucifixion is evil and stupid (It was God’s idea, not man’s), but it may be that even the Jewish leaders many of us routinely criticize were not what anti-Semites portray them to be.

Stone is going to be on Cerullo’s show again tonight.

Many Old Testament stories prefigure New Testament events. For example, the Passover prefigures the crucifixion. Shavuot is a shadow of Pentecost. If I understand Stone correctly, Joshua’s leadership in Israel prefigures Jesus’s leadership in the lives of individuals who live in the kingdom of God while here on earth. Joshua and Jesus even had the same first name; it was just translated differently in different books. And if you see what Zechariah says about “Joshua,” you will see that the connection is even stronger. It’s not even clear that he has the earthly Joshua in mind.

I used to wonder exactly what God was trying to tell us with the stories about the cities Joshua destroyed. It wasn’t done purely by human force. For example, Joshua had the people march around Jericho once a day for seven days, with seven priests blowing seven horns. At the end, the walls fell without human effort.

I think I have an inkling what this is all about. Seven is the number of the Holy Spirit; it’s in the Bible over and over, notably in the structure of the menorah, which has seven lamps fueled by olive oil, which is also symbolic of the Holy Spirit. I think the story of Jericho symbolizes what believers are now expected to do. We are supposed to fight our battles primarily with God’s strength, not our own. Even after we find our way into God’s kingdom, there will be strongholds (like Jericho) we have to get rid of, if we want true dominance. We don’t just flail at them with our puny human tools. We use faith and prayer and so on. And God honors that by moving them for us.

I decided to read Joshua last night, and I found a very startling piece of information in it that relates to my own life. Lately I’ve been asking God to set my family’s feet on the throats of those who try to harm us. Not so we can destroy them, but so we will have the power to resolve things properly. I thought I had come up with this metaphor on my own. But when I read Joshua, I found it there! Look at Joshua 10:24:

And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.

You can imagine how I felt, seeing that. My life is like that of the Hebrews. I’m trying to walk in the kingdom, but there are things I have to conquer through faith and obedience, just as they conquered their enemies through faith and obedience. And in prayer, I happened to choose the image of an action that Joshua and the Hebrews actually performed while living out events presaging the challenges I (and other Christians) would face.

Too strange. But very welcome. It’s hard to ask for a faith-builder any stronger than that.

Christians can’t fight unbelievers on their own terms, because unbelievers have no rules. They will do or say anything to defeat us. They cheat. And our rules are very restrictive; we are encouraged to avoid tactics the rest of the world considers legal and morally right. We have to get connected to God’s power in order to turn back those who attack us. That’s how Jesus got away from the mob in Nazareth. It’s what destroyed Jericho.

This is the difference between merely being saved and living in the kingdom of God. I think so, anyway. So I am working on improving. Sure seems to be paying off.

The Bible does make sense. The problem is that it is being explained to us very slowly, over centuries. We have to believe that the parts we don’t understand yet will eventually be made clear to us.

I think I’ll throw some brownies together for the Fourth of July thing at church tomorrow. I was planning to do some machining, but three or four batches of brownies would be a more profitable product at this time.

A Form Shall be an Abomination to Thee; Neither Shalt Thou Fill in Bubbles

If I ever get in real trouble in this life, it will probably be because of a form. I am allergic to forms. I cannot fill them out. They lie about me after I send them in. They never have the right blanks for me to say what I need to say. And it gives me ulcers just to look at them.

Today I had to deal with forms. I have some loose ends in my life that I want to clean up. Debts and so on. Nothing big, but I want a clean slate, for spiritual reasons.

The reason I let things go is not that I don’t recognize an obligation to pay. I just hate the forms. So there have been times when I’ve let minor obligations rot, much longer than I should have.

Today I caught up with a tax return I was supposed to file in another state. I thought I was going to have a big bill to pay. I didn’t know if I had the information to fill the forms out correctly. I was tense. I was filled with dread. I wished I could be anywhere else, doing anything but this. I worked on this stuff for almost three hours.

I owed one dollar.

I’m not kidding. It’s less than the postage for the return. I have no idea what the revenue people will think when that check comes in. I hope they don’t think I’m making fun of them. The debt came out to one dollar, and I figured it was better to pay than to let it go.

This reminds me of the times I’ve received bills for $0.00 and similar sums. I never question them. Do what I do. Write a check for $0.00 and send it off. Don’t bother the bureaucrats. They can’t fix it, and you just embarrass them.

Bureaucrats are always hard to figure. Life is full of petty bureaucrat-managed obligations that can end up causing you real grief. Sometimes being honest can cause problems. You know what they say about letting sleeping dogs lie. It is possible to ruin your life by letting a bureaucrat know you owe fifty cents. The followup can be unbearable, and even the bureaucrat may wish you had left it alone. On the other hand, if you leave things to fester, you may eventually discover that a horrible bureaucratic nightmare was secretly gestating the whole time. Like, you’ll try to buy a house, and when you apply for a loan, they find out you forgot to return a library book in 1968, so your assets get frozen and your car gets impounded. Or you get sterilized or something.

I am clearing these niggling items out of the back of my life’s sock drawer. I only have one or two more to attend to.

Okay, I tried to find a great Bible verse about this, but when I searched, this is what I came up with:

12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

Who doesn’t lament for the teats? I sure do. Whatever that means. But that’s not what I was looking for. That’s Isaiah 32:12. I was looking for Isaiah 32:17:

17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

I saw that this morning in a book published by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

It’s true; the better you behave, the better you’ll feel. And the more God will do for you. I don’t just mean your acts; faith is a behavior.

There is nothing like peace. It is the best thing you can get. When you have peace (and you’re not crazy or on drugs or sadly deceived), it means your life is as it should be. I only know of one place to get that feeling.

You know what? There are no forms in heaven. I’m sure of it. I can’t prove it. But how could it be heaven if there were forms there?

I can provide useful input on a lot of this stuff, but you’re on your own with the teats.

Read it and Then Do It

I spent part of the day doing what I felt to be spiritual battle. I have found that some things I’ve done, while moral and legal and ethical by ordinary standards, seem to be lacking by Christian standards. I felt a sudden and powerful compulsion to get on top of one of these things today.

The Bible says we perish for lack of knowledge. I think that is true (“Good IDEA, O Lord!”). We accept salvation, and then many of us let it go at that. Meanwhile, the enemy is not so lazy. He takes advantage of our ignorance and leads us into behavior that seems okay, but actually leads to defeat and stress and loss of power over our lives. For example, maybe you think it’s a good idea to stand up to your parents and fight with them when you disagree with them. Or maybe you’re a wife who thinks it’s okay to improve your husband by lecturing him and refusing to let him lead. When you do things that are against God’s way, you are planting landmines in your future. Going to heaven and living in power are two different things. If you want things to work out while you’re here, you have to learn how to think and behave.

This is what I have come to believe. The Bible makes much more sense when you realize that sins forgiven in heaven can still cause you a terrible problems on earth. Life isn’t supposed to be perfect, but it’s supposed to be good. And you have to mature in order to know what “good” means. Paul was flogged and stoned, but he was also thrilled with what God did with him. Meanwhile, Michael Jackson had fame, extreme wealth, and adoration, but he was so miserable he practically lived on antidepressants and sleep medications.

The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. If that is true, then once in a while, if you’ve ever done anything wrong, you should expect your mind to vomit up a landmine you need to clear. You should expect God to show things about yourself that you need to fix, in order to stay close to him and be protected and taken care of. As any parent can tell you, correction is a big part of guidance.

Today has been a great day, but it has not been a fun day. I’m going to go relax. I feel so much better now. I’m getting the garbage out of my life.

Before I close, let me add something I just received in a comment:

Steve.
This was mailed to me by our church administrative assistant. It was written by Natalie, a former church member. I figured she wouldn’t mind if I passed it along:

My two year old niece, Morgan Thomas, is in the Seattle children’s hospital. She had a sore ankle, a fever, and was vomiting. My sister took her into the emergency room yesterday where they spent all evening just to find out they needed to take her to the children’s hospital. The doctors performed several tests and found out that she had a staff infection that settled in her joints. Early this morning they could not stabilize her blood pressure or her fever and they moved her into ICU. I spoke with my mom and she said that they won’t have the culture results back for two days but the doctor started Morgan on antibiotics hoping that this is the right medicine. My brother in law just accepted the Lord last week and my family believes it is a spiritual attack on my sister’s family. The other large problem was their insurance is not going into effect until tomorrow. There are several serious things that need prayer right now…

The first one being Morgan’s life. This is a life or death matter and we want prayer for the doctor’s wisdom in which medicines to use. Please pray that God will reign and that the enemy will not prevail in this situation. It has taken years of praying and interceding for my brother-in-law and now that he is a christian, his family is being spiritually attacked in many ways. Please pray for peace and strength for my family as well as the healing of Morgan. I would also like prayer that the financial situation will get worked out and that the insurance company may be willing to work with my family.
–Brad

If doing evil plants bombs in your path, then doing good plants a crop of good things you will harvest later. If that is the case, Brad’s comment is a present to everyone who reads it.

Cancer Progresses

More news RE Dan Howell’s sister Mary Ellen. A while back, her family was requesting prayer. She has advanced cancer. This is a real person, not an Internet fiction. Here’s a new message from Dan; it was relayed to me this morning:

Mel had a rough day today, Pray that God will give her a restful sleep. I will be leaving to go home on Wed, it will be hard to leave my sister. I know that her work here is done, and I am so Blessed to see the fruit that she is bearing. Thanks to all who have lifted my sister up for the 3 years.

Mel had asked to see the new home that she and Mike just bought last week. The new paint and the way that it is arranged..So if the Good Lord will see fit, in the morning, Hospice House has arranged transportation to the house. Lets just Pray that she will be up to the trip. It will be rough on Mike, so please hold him high in your Prayers.. the reality is finally setting in with him. The Dreams that they shared are slowly dying out and he has come to finally realize that. He is hurting bad now. All I can do is hold him and cry with him. I just wish that more of you could have met Mike.. AWESOME is all that I can say.

His frame of mind is mature and exemplary and right. Still, I’ll keep praying for a miracle. I don’t pray for people to go easily. I pray for healing, and that if anything in their or their family’s history has caused the problem, they will be made aware of it and helped to repent and have the condition undone. I remember the story of David, when his son was ill. He prayed for healing, and he fasted and repented and asked for mercy, until the boy died.

I’m all for praying for people’s suffering to be eased, but that’s not really the same thing as giving up and asking for a pleasant passing. Your suffering can be eased, regardless of whether you get a healing.

People don’t always get their threescore and ten, even with prayer. But I see no harm in praying for healing as long as there is hope. I have experienced miraculous healings of minor problems (I’ve never had a major problem), and I know I’m not the only one God cares enough about to help.

Googling around, I see the courts are getting steamed up about “faith healing.” I wish people would quit using that phrase. It sounds like “snake oil” or “time shares” or “pyramid clubs” or any number of other shady phenomena. The issue seems to be whether parents have the right to deprive their kids of medical care while relying on prayer.

I don’t think this conflict should exist. If the courts say your kid should have treatment, and that treatment is not somehow inherently sinful, why not give in? You can pray in a hospital. Besides, medicine often works. You can pray for food while driving around looking for an open drive-thru, can’t you? Maybe by avoiding provoking the courts, you are giving unto Caesar. Nothing wrong with that.

I can understand resisting if a doctor wants to cure your child using parts from an aborted baby. And you shouldn’t buy a kidney taken from a prisoner or a slumdweller in India. You should not let an unhealthy attachment to earthly life–which is fleeting, anyway–drive you to harm others in order to stick around a little longer. Presumably, if you’re a believer, you expect the hereafter to be an improvement, and it’s where you expect to spend the bulk of your existence. You shouldn’t cling to this life as though it were the most important thing in the world. It’s not. But I don’t think things like antibiotics, surgery, and chemotherapy are evil.

Twice in my life, I have been convinced I was going to die. Well, three times, if you count a strange experience I had, which probably fit the description of an anxiety attach. Twice I dreamed I had driven off an elevated roadway, and I looked through the windshield at the ground coming up at me, and I was positive it was over. There was no way out.

It wasn’t terrifying. I wasn’t exactly pleased, but I didn’t lose my composure. I had a very solemn feeling, realizing this was a very serious moment. One phase of my life was over–there was no point in continuing to think about the concerns of that phase–and I was about to start the next. I was curious, and I was nervous, because I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Part of me was relieved that I was about to leave a somewhat putrid world behind and enter a world where everything was right. I looked forward to seeing the change. I was not so alarmed that I would have harmed someone else or done something evil in order to be spared. I knew that what was happening to me was normal and good.

I hope that when my time comes, I react the same way I did in the dream. I hope I’m mature enough to accept death as part of life. I hope I am true to my belief that it’s a birth into a different and better world. I don’t want to go screaming and begging, like an addict who won’t go to rehab. If you’re a Christian, you have to believe that you can’t grow unless you die. This life is like a diaper; you mess it up, and then you mature, and you go on without it. It’s like a beater car you buy a teenager, so he’ll know what he’s doing by the time he gets something better. You can’t hang onto it in an irrational unwillingness to grow up. That’s what death is, for a Christian. Growing up. The earth is a playpen. The real world lies in front of us. Why would you want to stay here too long? I want a few more years, but I don’t want to be a hundred and fifty years old, hooked up to tubes, full of implants and transplants, barely aware of what’s going on. Not when I could be healthy and well and active in God’s presence. Insisting on remaining here would be like being a 50-year-old high school student.

One of the sad things about having no faith is that you are likely to think this short, corrupted, pain-filled life is all there is. You might consider yourself entitled to do absolutely anything in order to stay here. That’s a dangerous mindset. Soon, in societies where God is considered a fantasy, we’re going to see doomed babies conceived solely for the purpose of providing parts. I’m sure there are places where you can buy parts taken from the living, under circumstances amounting to coercion. We already think it’s okay to kill an unborn baby simply because raising it is an inconvenience, so the devaluation will continue, and the rationalizations will probably gain the force of law. People in such societies will be like the Canaanites, who killed their firstborn sons, pickled them in jars, and put them in the walls of their houses to insure good fortune.

You’re going to cross over some day. It won’t be long before it happens. Whether you’re two or ninety, it will be sooner than you think. Your body is deteriorating all the time. It never stops, and it gets faster as you age. Sooner or later, this life will cease to be rewarding. You should try to determine what comes after, and you should limit the things you are willing to do to postpone the inevitable. That’s what I think.

I admire Dan’s attitude. He is having a very painful experience, yet he will not abandon God or accuse God of doing his sister wrong. It’s easy to talk about the way you should act in a crisis. He’s teaching by walking the walk, which is much harder. In the past, I’ve had the temerity to be angry with God, and it was never over something this serious. I was an idiot and an ingrate. I am grateful for Dan’s example.

As for me, I find myself in the enviable yet not always pleasant state of one who suffers as the result of answered prayer. I’ve been asking to be made aware of the things I do wrong, and the things my family has done wrong before me, and over the last few days, I’ve had some surprising revelations. I’m amazed to realize how badly I’ve acted while trying to do what was right. I asked for this, and I am thankful for it, but I can’t say I enjoy it.

I believe you have to let God clean you up in order to experience his protection, blessings, and guidance. The Bible makes that clear. And I want a better life. I want less anxiety and guilt, and I want protection from evil, and I want guidance and success. I want some good deeds in my account when I leave this life. But the cleansing can be a little like the scene in Rambo, where they bathed Sylvester Stallone with a fire hose.

Hopefully the sensation tapers off after a while.

Plus Impending Mike Visit

I guess I say this every week, but church was fantastic today.

For the last four weeks, the subject was Philippians 4:8, which says we should try to think about things that are Pure, Praiseworthy, Lovely, Admirable, Noble, True, Excellent, and Right (my mnemonic again: PPLANTER). I’ve been keeping it in mind, but it wasn’t all that easy to apply.Try it. Think about something good for a minute. A couple of minutes later, you may be thinking about something horrendous.

Today, we got a clearer idea how to put it to work. Pastor Wilkerson listed three things that oppose the Philippians 4:8 attitude: contrariness, covetousness, and cynicism.

I’m sure glad no one has ever seen those things on THIS blog.

Shut up.

I guess I don’t have to explain contrariness. It means you have to be a pain in the butt all the time, instead of going with the flow. Here’s a clue that you are contrary. People call you “a pill.”

Obviously, you shouldn’t go along with people when you have a good reason to object, but that’s not what he was talking about. Some people have to be an obstacle all the time, just to look smart or feel important. I have heard wild rumors that sometimes people who post blog comments act this way. I have heard–don’t quote me on this–that if you Google some commenter’s names, you will find an endless number of argumentative and smug yet worthless and fundamentally wrong comments on other people’s blogs.

That’s probably just an Internet legend. No one would really do that. I certainly couldn’t name five such people off the top of my head. No, I could not do that. Don’t even ask.

Covetousness means you’re never happy with what you have. But you’re pretty sure you’d be happy with what other people have. I suppose it makes sense to say it contradicts the spirit of Philippians 4:8, because you can’t be thinking positively about the things God has put in your life, if you’re sure they stink compared to the things he gave your neighbor.

Cynicism–I am so glad I’ve never been guilty of this one–means you are suspicious of other people and have a negative attitude.

The notes we were given say, “He is a champion of innuendos, double meanings, and put-downs.” I may know someone that description fits. But it also says a cynic turns people against a person who tries to “think best.” That’s not me.

I know I’ve gone overboard a lot. On the other hand, I don’t consider myself a true cynic. A true cynic is a kind of bigot. You never get a fair shot from someone like that. I’ve been critical of people I thought were con artists and bloviators, but I don’t question the existence of good people. I don’t automatically assume people are lying when they claim good motives (unless they’re emailing me from Nigeria). But I could do better.

The message I took away from this is that I should quit being negative just for the joy of it. And I should work harder to see the good in people and things. I was working on that already, although it may be far from obvious.

On the way home, I heard some guy on the radio talking about our duty to submit to government. I thought that was interesting. I see two main goals in Christianity. First, you want to get eternal life, and that’s easy, because it’s a matter of asking and believing. Second, you want to live in the kingdom of God here on earth. Not so easy. You have to behave and pray and worship and study, etcetera. It’s like being an Orthodox Jew, only with better food.

This guy pointed out that you can’t be lawless and live in the kingdom of God. You have to submit to government. Here’s a depressing extrapolation that occurred to me: we should probably pay tax on Internet sales.

I realize the states themselves are responsible for the Internet tax problem. They choose not to provide a convenient method of paying, and enforcement is nonexistent, and in actuality, they are complicit in the whole business. Legislators routinely shout down efforts to reform the system, because they know everyone will hate it. You could make a very good argument that we are not obligated to care more about this than the states are. It’s like illegal immigration. The law says “do this,” and our lawmakers say “but we won’t help, and if you don’t do it, we won’t do anything.”

Still, the better choice is to look up the silly forms and pay. At least on big items. Arrgh. I would rather have God’s power flowing in my life than save 6%. I want my prayers answered. I don’t want to bring shame on the church. I want growth. I guess I can cough up 6% in order to keep from screwing that up.

My attitude about taxes is as follows. I have never hated paying taxes. What I have hated is saving receipts and filling out forms. I complain about high taxes all the time, because they wreak havoc on the economy and punish productivity and make for creeping totalitarianism. But I don’t get upset when I have to pay. Maybe I should, but I’m always so happy to know what I owe, I hardly care what the number is. I just want to get the check written and kiss the IRS goodbye for another year.

Next week the church is having a July 4 barbecue thing after church lets out. “Coincidentally,” Mike may be in town. I let him know. We started talking about how we needed to take some food. Mike came up with an argument proving it was our Christian duty to humiliate everyone else with our ribs, in order to keep them from having unrealistically high opinions of themselves. I guess there may be some flaws in his theory, but I think ribs would be a good idea. Not sure how many racks I can get in the Hoginator. I talked to one of the pastors today, and he confirmed that they were soliciting food. I might make four or five batches of brownies, since they can be made several days in advance. Cheesecake would be too decadent, and besides, people would get in fights over it.

I’d like to take some food, because I haven’t gotten involved with the church, beyond showing up. I feel like I keep taking without giving anything. Of course, I provide a little financial support, but there is more to supporting a church than writing an occasional check.

Is it okay to smoke ribs over a pan of beer and then take them to church? We may find out.

I hope Mike makes it down here. My diet is going well, so I think I can survive a visit.

Pushed Aside by Mere PVC

I did not get to use the toilet knob I machined yesterday. Very sad. My dad’s boat guy had claimed the heads were so old it was dangerous to take the old valves off, but while I worked on one of them today, I decided to see what the story was, and the old valve screwed right out. Good, because it meant I could install a new valve. Bad, because the new aluminum knob was no longer needed.

And I just put a set screw in it! This is the first tapping I’ve ever done. I was all excited about fastening the knob onto the old stem, using my home-tapped set screw.

The toilets on the boat will be greatly improved by the new PVC valves I’m installing. Only a guy who installs toilets for a living would choose to put a frequently handled valve at the base of the bowl. Plumbing is a fine and honorable trade, but plumbers tend to be unbelievably dirty. A plumber will eat a sandwich with one hand while fixing your toilet with the other. Since I’m redoing it all, I can put the new valves above the bowl. Not optimal, but considerably less exposed to…whatever.

We got the generator running, with the aid of the guy who installed it. This is the boat’s third generator. You can’t kill Detroit Diesel boat engines, but the little motors that run generators have all sorts of problems that stop them in a hurry. The first Onan we had was balky when starting, and if it didn’t feel like cranking up right away, it was easy to burn up the starter. It also had a very expensive circuit board which could (and did) quit working for no reason at all. The second Onan was no better. Now we have a Westerbeke. Supposedly it’s much simpler, and it has no silly circuit board to blow up. Mating internal combustion engines with complicated electronics has caused a world of expensive problems ordinary people can’t correct, and I don’t think any of the problems it has solved could not be fixed by simple maintenance and common sense. As I understand it, a lot of the improvements in car longevity are due to improved metallurgy and lubricants; I doubt integrated chips helped a lot. Think of all the old slant sixes that ran for eons.

This generator has three fuel filters that I have become aware of so far. First, the Racor. This is a big aftermarket filter which is really more part of the boat than the generator. Then the spool-sized filter on the way into the motor. Then an inline filter farther downstream. I accidentally shut off a fuel valve, starving the engine until it quit, and I assumed getting fuel back into it would fix the problem. I also changed the spool-sized filter, simply because my dad wanted it done. We still couldn’t get the generator to stay on. The generator guy showed us the third filter, which–coincidentally–happened to be plugged up the same week I shut off the fuel by accident.

This is how boats are. You find a problem. You find the obvious cause. You fix the obvious cause. Then it turns out another cause has popped up at the same time, defying odds in a manner that would shame Susan Boyle.

I had to put off church until tomorrow. I didn’t want to leave my dad holding the bag. I’m trying to get this family running right, the same way I’d try to get a generator going, and I believe you have to treat your parents correctly in order to get the blessings going in your life. As the eldest (only) son, I think I have a special responsibility. I am supposed to be second in authority, now that my mother is gone. Feminism isn’t Biblical; neither is the idea that all siblings are the same. I don’t buy that modern nonsense. I think the eldest son still has added privileges and duties, so I am trying to do what I think is right. Running off to church with the generator problem still plaguing my father would be the wrong move. Sometimes you can offend God by trying to fulfill your obligations to him in the wrong way.

I’ve been told that this is the true meaning of the story of the Good Samaritan. I think Perry Stone said that. The two men who passed by on the other side and refrained to help were religious Jews, and they were headed toward Jerusalem. That suggests they were ritually pure and therefore afraid to touch someone who might be dead. They could become unclean and lose the right to participate in whatever was going on at the temple. The Samaritan was motivated by compassion, not his religious routine, and that was a good thing, because believers were expected to know that in an emergency, God valued compassion more than empty observance.

I wish that when I was young, I had understood more about the way people were intended to live. I’m glad some of it is becoming clear to me. It’s sad that I have no one to pass it on to, but if I had had kids at the usual time of life, I suppose I would have had little of value to impart to them.

We had a bad drought for the first few months of this year, but it started raining a month or so ago, and everything greened up fast. Looking around now, you would see no evidence of the problems we were having a while back. I hope life can be like that. I know it can. God can change things so fast, and so unexpectedly; I keep my eyes open all the time. Most of the good changes that happen to me are gradual, but I wouldn’t mind a few quick ones, given my age.

Contain Your Amazement

I suppose everyone is writing about Michael Jackson today. Not me. All I can say is, I hope we were all wrong about him. I think he was a very sad figure. The world gave him everything he wanted–instead of what he needed–and it destroyed him. Something for me to think about if I ever feel life has cheated me. The only thing worse than suffering adversity is failing to profit from it. If you profit from it, to a certain extent, it ceases to be adversity. If you just sit around feeling cheated, you allow yourself to be defeated twice.

That’s actually worth remembering. Someone smarter than me must have whispered it in my ear while I was praying for more tools or something.

People love to say “God told me this” and “God told me that.” Me, I am rarely confident enough to make that statement. I could attribute something stupid or wrong to God; I would not be the first. On the other hand, I could end up taking credit for something he told me. What do you do? Search me. I suppose the best course is to consider what Gamaliel said. If a thing is from God, it should become obvious eventually.

I have the garage air conditioner running already. I am bound and determined to make a handle for the valve on the starboard head. I’m going to run over to the boat, apply bleach to anything in the head I might conceivably touch or even come near, and try to determine exactly what I have to make.

This is where Chinese measuring tools come in handy. There is no way I’d take my Mitutoyo or Helios calipers and clamp them to a toilet part. But Chinese…hey, that’s what they’re made for!

I should break down and get a Harbor Freight digital. Seven bucks won’t kill me. Most of my measurements will be right on target if they’re within ten thousandths, so most of the time, I am not going to need a really good instrument. And besides, whenever I mention calipers and accuracy, wise guys pipe up and tell me real men use micrometers.

I can’t decide whether to use brass or aluminum. I think either will be strong enough. Brass will turn green, and aluminum will look like…aluminum. Neither will corrode enough to matter.

Whatever. I can make both.

Not sure how I’ll slice the brass off. I bought a 36″ rod (a drop at a very good price), and it’s 1 1/2″ wide. I think that’s the exact size of my spindle hole. I doubt I can cram it in there for parting. I can always fire up the dry cut saw.

I hate to cut the brass. It’s so pretty, just the way it is.

The smartest thing would be to use stainless. All I have is 304, so it will rust a little, but it shouldn’t gall up against the valve’s stainless screw the way the old handle did. And I think electrolysis may be what destroyed that handle. It will be less of a problem with a stainless handle.

It looks like I may eventually “need” a hydraulic press. If anyone can tell me what size is good for piddling around in the garage, I would appreciate it. I don’t think I’ll be using this a whole lot, so it may be okay to go small and save space.

Later today my presence will be required for a sea trial, to see if the boat’s starboard engine still runs hot. Should be fun.

We Should all be as Heartless as Dick Cheney

One of the things that irks me about perceptions of conservatives is that we are somehow considered less compassionate and less generous than liberals. Of course, these things are not true. In fact, the opposite is true. We give more to charity. We are more likely to offer our lives on the battlefield. We support churches with more generosity.

Here’s some information from Charity Navigator, which is not a political organization:

Who gives the most in America: conservatives or liberals?

A. There is a persistent stereotype about charitable giving in politically progressive regions of America: while people on the political right may be hardworking and family-oriented, they tend not to be very charitable toward the less fortunate. In contrast, those on the political left care about vulnerable members of society, and are thus the charitable ones. Understanding “charity” in terms of voluntary gifts of money (instead of government income redistribution), this stereotype is wrong.

The fact is that self-described “conservatives” in America are more likely to give—and give more money—than self-described “liberals.” In the year 2000, households headed by a conservative gave, on average, 30 percent more dollars to charity than households headed by a liberal. And this discrepancy in monetary donations is not simply an artifact of income differences. On the contrary, liberal families in these data earned an average of 6 percent more per year than conservative families.

These differences go beyond money. Take blood donations, for example. In 2002, conservative Americans were more likely to donate blood each year, and did so more often, than liberals. People who said they were “conservative” or “extremely conservative” made up less than one-fifth of the population, but donated more than a quarter of the blood. To put this in perspective, if political liberals and moderates gave blood like conservatives do, the blood supply in the United States would surge by nearly half.

One major explanation for the giving discrepancy between conservatives and liberals is religion. In 2004, conservatives were more than twice as likely as liberals to attend a house of worship weekly, whereas liberals were twice as likely as conservatives to attend seldom or never. There are indeed religious liberals in America, but they are currently outnumbered by religious conservatives by about four to one.

It’s bizarre. We are taken to task repeatedly, simply because we don’t support mindless, incompetent, counterproductive giving that is the result of governmental coercion. The fact that we give freely, on our own initiative, receives no press. And journalists don’t like to point out that a big percentage of the “generous” liberals who vote for government handouts are likely recipients of the money in question. How is it generous to vote for the government to take someone else’s money and give it to you?

Still, I wonder if we do enough. My impression is that Satan steps in wherever he can find a moral fault with believers. Marxism, which is unquestionably Satanic, got a foothold because the lives of the lower classes were so wretched. They weren’t getting an even break. Had the upper classes treated workers better, it would have been harder to motivate them to generate social turmoil by fomenting revolution. Like Fred Smith (founder of Fedex) once said, no company gets a union unless it deserves one. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but maybe the principle is correct.

I wonder if private giving is everything it should be. I tend to doubt it. For example, I’m fairly sure tithing is uncommon. If it were the rule and not the exception, a substantial percentage of American incomes–maybe five percent–would be going to churches. And they wouldn’t know what to do with the money; they’d spend much more of it on social organizations. Charities would be swollen with capital.

I wonder about this because we have a political crisis on our hands. People who have no idea how economics works are blindly electing leftists who will eventually ruin us with their false generosity. And maybe we could reverse this trend if the needy were being served better by private organizations.

On the other hand, much of what is characterized as “need” is actually greed. It may be that perceived need always increases with the availability of handouts. Maybe increasing our giving will increase demand. But there’s a difference between private and governmental handouts: private handouts can be distributed with competence. The government doesn’t care if you deserve money. They only care if you vote. Private charities consider themselves stewards. Like Hebrew National, they answer to a higher authority.

Interesting question.

Whatever the answer is, I think we should all hope to be as lucky as the much-maligned Dick Cheney, who has given millions to charity. Not only did he and his wife make huge donations; they made donations that were huge in proportion to their total income. I would love to approach the Pearly Gates with something like that on my resume. It must be wonderful to find yourself in a position where you’re able to do that much good.

The odd thing about all this is that conservatives are doing a pretty good job of giving, and liberals are not, yet the political fortunes of liberals are waxing while ours wane. And one diabolical result of the move from private to governmental charity is that the givers are losing their blessings. The Bible makes it clear that we are not to give out of coercion. It apparently pleases God very, very little when a government forces people to do charity. So we are still losing the money, but we are not getting the full benefit of giving.

Another problem is that people feel entitled to government money. It therefore corrupts them. They become spoiled and ungrateful. When you have to go to a private entity or an individual for help, you know you’re getting a favor. You realize help is not certain. That has to be less corrupting.

I am not generous by nature. I had to be taught. Here (again) is a helpful passage from the Psalms; I had it printed on a Cafepress mug so I would have it in front of me:

1 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

2 The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

I consider that a set of promises, and I cling to it. I don’t believe God would put things like that in scripture, yet would not be willing to back it up. God does not give lip service. The Bible also says that when you give to the poor, you lend to God. And God always pays interest. You get something in return, and it appears that the best way to characterize it is to call it God’s favor. It’s not just a monetary transaction. You may be blessed with money, but the only thing you can be sure of is that he will take notice of you and watch out for you, as he did in the case of Cornelius the generous centurion. That’s how I see it at this time.

I don’t know if generosity can save conservatives from political failure, but I am sure it can save individual Christians from the curses that hit us as a nation. I suppose we are reaching the point where that will have to suffice.