Jesus and 10W-30

So I'm not a mechanically inclined person. At all. I can't hardly hook up a DVD player to the TV. I have to get help from one of my roommates to change the mode over from TV to AUX (or whatever that is) to play a movie! I've had the same computer going on 4 years and I probably don't use it to its full capacity. I have an iphone and it is a miracle I can function that.

So it goes without saying (or does it?) that my automotive abilities are less than ideal. I can, with confidence, say that I can change the oil, check all the fluids and change a flat tire/rotate tires quite well. I'm no car wizard. So when my beloved Rodeo started making a fierce noise a couple of weeks ago, I got a tab bit worried, but thought "it is probably just a leaf caught somewhere in the engine compartment". However the noise never ceased and only got worse. So bad, in fact, I would just turn up the music to drown it out. Ignorance is bliss, right?

My worry got the best of me, as it often does, and I've been thinking about it the last few days pretty heavily (like that will fix it!). Trying to figure out when I could take it in, how I could finagle a ride home and/or to work. What the possible problems could be. Tri-met, we meet again.

In my attempts at asking most of my male friends what they thought it could be, I was none closer to an answer or even a hunch. In hopes to ease my nerves more than actually fix the car, I prayed. Surely, God is bigger than a 2004 Isuzu Rodeo.

At church yesterday, we studied the cost of following Jesus as chronicled in Matthew 8:18-34. In the passage, a few men decide to follow Him and learn quickly how much they must give up. In their first sort of 'mission' they are told to cross to the other side of the lake (now I was envisioning a Trillium Lake, when in reality it was probably more like Lake Pontchartrain, which I confused with the ocean the first time I saw it). Immediately, a storm comes upon them rocking the boat and what does Jesus do? Sleeps. He sleeps through the whole thing, while they yell at Him to get up! And when He does get up, he calms the waves in an instant and asks "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"

The pastor made an illustration through this, saying that we are the disciples yelling at Jesus to get up in crisis. If you are following Jesus, He is going to test your faith, that is a given. How will it show up? In the crises, challenges, mundane tasks and other life situations. Realizing that he is purifying us, refining us through these things. It is in those moments that I look over and He is asleep. When He does not work according to my time line. Then what do I do besides worry? I try to fix it. I CAN'T fix it! This is His way of growing me in courage and confidence. In those trials, we can keep trying to fix it, frantically pray or yell at Him to wake up. What I need to do is to sleep like Him, surrender it. We need to embrace the storm, because He will redeem it.

What does this have to do with my Rodeo? Well, with my less than lack luster mechanical skills, no owners manual and a few quarts of oil. I searched the Internet, of which, didn't help ease my anxieties and only served to perpetuate them. I stood dumbly over the engine, under the hood with a flash light- wearing my nice jeans, jacket and heels. I did this for about 10 minutes when I had a sort of automotive epiphany. What if I jiggle that thing, and poke at this thingie? So in less than five minutes of manipulating parts I don't even know and a quart of oil later- I turned my car on. And what do you know it, the noise was GONE! I drove 25 miles home with not a peep from my little engine that could (and did)!

This really is nothing short of a miracle. A small one in light of all that s happening in the world, I'll admit, but a miracle.

It is in these types of moments that I feel so loved, so blessed. That He is bigger than dumb cars, and able to use ninnies like me for great things. Now I know this is no great feat in the wider spectrum, but it is no less powerful that He can and chooses to work in the details. It is a good reminder for me that when you come to faith, that is a gift.

When I finally quit yelling at Jesus to wake up, and decided to rest with Him. He calmed the storm.

Win the Day?

So the Ducks just lost their chances at the Championship game tonight. Being the OSU Beaver fan that I am, it was difficult because I didn't want to watch it (out of principle), I wanted the Ducks to lose and kind of wanted them to win (gasp!) all at the same time. It was exhausting, to say the least and I'm glad all the hype is over. At the very least, I won't have Ducks shouting they are #1 for the next FOREVER. I'm a bit sad because I really wanted a Pac-10 team to win a championship (before we are the Pac-12) and most importantly I wanted an Oregon team to get noticed and a little respect.

Well, none of the above happened.

I read a blog post earlier today by on of my favorite authors where he talked about the Oregon program, Chip Kelly, and Winning the Day. In it he states, "Kelly preaches a single message to his team, and it’s this: Win the day. Who cares about tomorrow, who cares about yesterday, all that is demanded of you is that you win the day. That means have an excellent practice, that means have an excellent day of rest, that means every hour of every day, be there, be present."

I wonder, not just, what would happen if I lived my life like that but if the collective 'we' lived our lives like that. What if we as a community, as Portland, or as a Nation or even as just a citizen of the world, lived like this? What would that change? What would the consequences be?

I'm amazed at how we (speaking to the western and industrialized world)have as much information at our fingertips on the condition of the world. The economic crisis, people losing homes, whole NATIONS going bankrupt, genocide and needless wars, sexual trafficking, women and children being abused, men being emasculated and the list could go on and on. It is amazing how we have all the statistics on what poverty, substance abuse and mental illness do to our neighbors, our brothers and sisters and we do what seems to be, nothing. There are a lot of bleeding hearts out there, and I, on most days could be considered one.
But what are we doing? How are we loving? Are we loving ourselves by buying big TV's and houses, filling our cupboards with food, and looking down on those that don't have a home? Doesn't it seem that the more we have the more we want, the more we get the lonelier we feel. So we go out and buy more (with the money most of us don't have) to fill that void up? What are we doing to Win the Day? Surly, this can't be it?

I don't think that working hard and having nice things is the problem. I just think part of it is that the massive amount of information that is at our finger tips has become like white noise. Something is is always going on around us, but something we never really pay attention to, unless it pertains directly to us. I understand that we can't all always feel and take in every world, national or even local event going on, but I think that Win the Day challenges us to become better people in what we do. Therefore, if we become better people by demanding excellence from ourselves, we can be better people for others. Better people for our friends, our children, our spouses, our co-workers, our neighbors and beyond.

Win the Day, to me, is about incremental change. I get very easily caught up in how big some of the worlds problems are, and easily overwhelmed.
It is easy to think it is to big and we can make any change. Little by little, when we challenge ourselves, we make change. That little change can culminate into big change.

This does not make me a Duck fan, not in the slightest, but I'd like to think that I can appreciate Chip Kelly's mantra. That it is bigger than just football. But don't tell the Ducks that.