The Devil Doesn’t Want You to Visit Me

It’s surprising how much work is involved in leaving this earth. I always look forward to leaving my obligations behind, but it’s a mess for the survivors.

God has blessed me by streamlining things extremely well, so taking care of my dad’s final arrangements isn’t as bad as it could be.

I donated all of his clothes to the Salvation Army. I got him cremated. I deposited his will and a death certificate with the court. I arranged for him to be buried. I deleted his Facebook account.

I looked up the rules of probate court, so now I have some idea how I should handle things.

I wanted to have a gathering tomorrow for friends here at the house. Things are not going well for the people I intended to invite. My friend Mike had a toe amputated over the weekend, two days before my dad died, and now he’s penned up in live-in rehab for 11 days. My friend Amanda got the flu or something like it, and two days ago, her temperature was 102.4.

My friends Leah and Scott decided to come and stay Saturday night. She just texted. She has been in a wreck, and she is getting an x-ray.

Something doesn’t want people to hear my dad’s testimony. I would appreciate it if people who read this would pray for the opposing spirit to be defeated.

It doesn’t matter, because Satan can’t come up with a roadblock God didn’t know about in advance. However things shake out, Satan will be disappointed.

It appears that my dad’s car is the only thing that will have to go through probate. Today I read the applicable laws, and it turns out the law exempts two vehicles per decedent. I’m not sure what “exempts” means. I assume I’ll still have to tell the judge the car exists, but there must be some benefit. Maybe the court will give me a letter authorizing me to have the title changed.

Anyway, I intend to keep driving it. It appears that the intent of the law is to avoid confiscating cars from people and forcing them to buy new ones during probate.

One surprising thing is that I feel love flowing through me more freely than I did before my dad changed. I have been praying for this for years. He used to be a bit like a porcupine. When people tried to love him, he provoked and upset them, so it was a challenge. That changed when he changed.

Since he moved out in January, I have developed the habit of talking to the birds just to have noise in the house. I talk about how much I love my dad and what a wonderful father he was. The more I do it, the more the love flows. I’m so glad he didn’t die while there was tension between us. I’m hoping the flow of love will continue. Christians need to love God and other people. It’s not a pleasant luxury. It’s a need.

Unequal yokings can make it hard for love to pass through. You have to be very careful who you get close to.

I feel a little better every day, and I slept all night last night. God is faithful to heal and help.