Do Less with Les

    For many years I have both patronized and referred friends to, Les Schwab for tire issues. Frequently, they will repair a tire for free and just tell you to remember them the next time you buy tires. No charge. No pressure. But because of what happened to a friend of mine last week, I am planning to do less with Les. A longtime friend went to the Evergreen Les Schwab for a leaky tire. We have been providing vehicles, maintenance and tires for her for decades because, for many years Tracy found and fixed up inexpensive older cars for her, she worked hard but had low income, and because she has such a timid personality that she is often taken advantage of. Predatory salesmen can sense this like a shark smells blood in the water. The tire tech said her tire was unrepairable because she drove on it flat. (That may be true, this is the same friend who added antifreeze to the oil in her last vehicle--twice.) By the time she thought to call us, he had already sold her four 50k mile tires to replace the 50k mile tires we bought her two years ago, he recommended siping, and of course, they charged her a disposal fee for tires that only had 11,000 miles of use. Total $580. She finally texted when he also tried to sell her wheels, and she realized $900 might be close to what we paid for the car in the first place. Frankly, I expected more of Les.

    Reed told her to ask for her/(our) tires back. They told her they would look for them, but of course, didn't actually look until Reed showed up the next morning. By that time, they said the unrepairable tire and one other had, by amazing coincidence, been put in the trailer that had already been taken away, so there was no way to check their actual condition. But two of the four tires were in a trailer that was still there, and they managed to locate them. The salesman assured Reed he had offered my friend alternatives, but the power of persuasion is usually more about the way than the words. 

    Since Reed and I, of necessity, drove for many years on used, mismatched tires, I asked Tracy how important it was that tires match. He said it's very important--for race cars--but for the way most people drive, mismatched tires won't harm the transmission. And since my friend's car was a 1999 Subaru with 196,000 miles on it, the transmission was probably about as broken/broken in as it could be. The odd thing about the siping they talked her into, at $18 per tire, is that one of the sources AI cited explaining why it is not always helpful and may actually shorten the lifespan of the tire, was the Les Schwab website. Reed's experience with siping, except on winter tires, which we already bought her, supports that conclusion.

     When Reed picked up the two remaining tires, he "suggested" they refund the disposal fee. The manager said they would also refund the siping charges. I tried to send a complaint email to Les Schwab but, oddly enough, when I clicked Submit, it said something went wrong and deleted all the information I had spent 20 minutes including. I know my friend would like to let it drop, she is embarrassed about the whole incident. And since the email address of Les Schwab Corporate is harder to find than an honest politician, I will have to be satisfied with poison pen posting here. But I hate to see anyone taken advantage of, the age and condition of her car were ample evidence of her limited income, and there are many more like her in that part of Kalispell. I hope the upseller got upbraided by the manager, and for future friends with tire troubles, I'll suggest they do less with Les. 

 

False Despair

     Christians should not give anyone false hope about salvation, the world does that already. Those who believe the Bible know all paths do not lead to God, hell is not just for murderers, and no one gets to heaven by their good deeds outweighing the bad. But sometimes I wonder if, through a misunderstanding of the nature of salvation, we give ourselves and each other false despair. Only God knows whether an individual's faith in Christ was genuine or contrived, if their response was heart felt or pretense. And producing spiritual fruit that displays our new life in Christ is not optional, anyone who claims to belong to Jesus yet is content living in habitual sin, invites God's judgment. From our human standpoint trusting Jesus is a decision that can be made or unmade, but from God's perspective salvation is not some transient religious experience. The reason God's gift of eternal life cannot be returned is that it does not depend on us, it rests on RIBS.

    We have been learning about the Holy Spirit in our Sunday morning services and I think knowing the Spirit's role in salvation could be a great comfort for those watching prodigals drift away, and especially for those whose prodigals have died. RIBS is an acronym for the Holy Spirit's work in our permanent, positional relationship with God. Our ability to live out the practical realities of these spiritual truths requires our cooperation with God's Spirit, but in the RIBS of the Spirit, we play a passive role. The only condition required is that we have put our faith in Jesus. "R" stands for regeneration. All of us are born spiritually dead, regeneration is the unchangeable act of God by which we are made spiritually alive. "I" is for indwelling. At salvation the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, permanently. Our disobedience can make our life an unpleasant place for Him to dwell, but we cannot evict Him, even if we are foolish enough to want to. "B" is for baptism. This is not water baptism, but the one and done work in which the Spirit places us within the body of Christ. "S" stands for sealing, the Holy Spirit marks us as belonging to God and offers Himself as the down payment guaranteeing our complete redemption. RIBS--not just for dinner, for always.

     Now back to prodigals--if we are praying for a prodigal to repent, when what they really need is salvation, or vice versa, we can trust the Holy Spirit to sort that out. But what about the prodigal who dies, apparently unrepentant, and sometimes unreconciled with family? If the grieving family doesn't voluntarily share when their loved one came to know Christ, I will ask them about it. When they set their hope in their loved one's previous acceptance of Christ as Savior, despite the later years of doubt and wandering, it is not false hope. Although repentance is necessary in order to be saved, or we would not see our need for a Savior, the permanence of our salvation does not rest on our repentance, but on the reality of the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration, indwelling, baptism and sealing--RIBS. 

    Some Christians are so afraid of holding out false hope, they go to the opposite extreme. They tell me how their loved one came to know Jesus, but then dismiss it because their assurance of salvation is focused on the strength of their loved one's hold on the Lord, not the power of God's grasp on them. At a time when believers most need the Holy Spirit's peace, comfort, and the strength of the unseen reality of His RIBS, they may instead focus on false despair. I offer parents of prodigals the same verse God gave me when I needed assurance about my son, John 6:37 "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." That is our true hope.

      

The Actuality of Factuality

     Everything we read is written from a biased perspective, including this blog. The only way to write without bias is to leave your brain behind. Although that may explain my writing style, the perspective of the author cannot be completely eradicated, even when the information is gathered and composed by AI. But sometimes I long for a little honesty. All but the local articles in our newspaper are cut and pasted from the AP (Always Partisan) news service. I understand why this is necessary, small newspapers like ours cannot afford to send staff to cover national, much less international, events. Today I was trying to find out whether an earthquake, or an avalanche, caused the flash flood which has killed so many in Nepal. It was reported both ways. From what I can tell, the seismic activity recorded before the flood was caused by the massive chunk of glacier, mud, and rock that broke off high in the Himalayas. That would certainly ratchet up the Richter scale, even without an earthquake. As I told my husband, who leans toward the earthquake explanation, it doesn't require a tsunami to make waves when a fat person cannonballs into a swimming pool. 

    The Pour Over, which I recommend as a Christian perspective news source, says the reason for the slide is unknown. The AP (Advocating Progressives) not only says it was caused by global warming, but human caused global warming. As if, under the tons of rock, mud, and debris, they found a note assigning blame. Inserting "human caused", which cannot possibly be proven, compromises the factuality of whatever truth may have unintentionally remained in the rest of the article. One would think even a semi-competent editor would have noticed one of his writer's pants were on fire. And it is not as if the AP (Actively Prejudiced) never admits causes are unknown. For instance, if a Muslim looking man, with a Muslim sounding name, whose internet accounts reveal interest in terrorist causes, suddenly decides to kill random strangers, the AP might report that the reason for the violence is unknown. Perhaps they believe that makes up for endorsing assumptions like the one in the article about the flood. 

   I am not a fan of right biased news either. In a spiritual context, seeking spokesmen to tell us what we want to hear is called having itching ears. It is the opposite of listening to sound doctrine. As the political persuasion most likely to believe in objective truth, the right goal of the Right should be to report it. Truth can speak for itself and even benevolent bias muffles it. In actuality, there is little factuality from either side of the political spectrum, and that is the honest truth.

 

     

 

      

 

Reading and Writing

    I believe it is possible to read but never write (creatively, or in my case, recreationally), but I don't believe it is possible to write but never read. In order for a brain to spit something out (which explains my writing) it is necessary to first put something in. That is why my recent writer's block did not concern me, that happens fairly often. But I was very concerned that I was not reading. I downloaded books on Kindle as usual, read a few pages, found they did not hold my interest, and stopped reading. It is not like me to not finish a book, even when it is a bargain price through Book Bub. Time is precious, reading is a luxury, and I simply did not want to waste it on books I don't enjoy. I also did not want to waste time looking for a better book online.

   Finally Book Bub offered a sequel to "Anguished English", a humorous compilation of misspelled, mis-spoken, and misused phrases. "Bride of Anguished English" got me reading again and made me laugh, but I wondered how I would do with a novel. In this week's Book Bub there was one of Kathy Reich's Bone sequels. She is a very engaging author and even though it was more than I usually pay for a download, $2.99, I bought it. Reichs uses a lot of cliff hanger chapter endings which cause some author endorsements to describe her books as "unputdownable." However, I feel a professional writer, should be "authory" enough to use a genuine word, if only to discourage us amateur hacks from using made up words like authory. 

    So I am reading again and have begun blogging again. There is a vast difference between what my brain is taking in and what it is spitting out, but reading and writing go, if not hand in hand, at least hand in head. Awkward, but still somehow, getting somewhere. I'll settle for that.

 

Double Blessing

   We always thank God for the food before we eat a meal, but sometimes the dessert makes you want to double down and thank Him all over again. Tonight's dessert was coconut cream pie. Since I was making crust for quiche last week, I also made a pie shell. Reed requested coconut cream as the filling. Coconut was one of the things we got to add back into the menu after coconut "intolerant" (by choice) Tracy left home. Reed and I happen to like it.

    I thought about making a dessert Britten's family would enjoy since I knew they would probably be with us for dinner that evening. They had kindly offered to help Reed with the windows and sheeting for the west side of our ongoing home siding project, but they're not really pie people, so I made coconut cream anyway. It's not as if I didn't have other desserts. To (mis)quote Marie Antoinette--Let them eat cookies.    

   Thankfully tonight was the third, and final, appearance of the pie. When the kids lived at home, I had to make a 10 inch pie if I wanted any to survive past dinner. Now, with just two of us, finishing off a 9 inch pie comes with a serving of relief, as if we finally finished some sort of food marathon. My next project is making something out of the leftover egg whites. That is one of the wonders of the way God made eggs, the yolks can thicken a filling, the whites fluff and lighten another dessert. Isn't that just like the Lord to make even something as simple as eggs a double blessing?

     

 

Right Place, Right Time

    There are times it is obvious that the Lord crafts circumstances to puts us in the right place at the right time. That happened to me last week at Smith's grocery store. I prefer to do my shopping mid morning when it is less crowded, but for one reason or another, wound up not arriving at Smith's until after 11. I had barely begun shopping when I noticed a friend who had attended our church for a time. She and her husband live 30 miles from Kalispell, but their local church was having problems at the time, so they drove in to attend Central Bible. Gloria broke her shoulder skiing and had several unsuccessful surgeries to repair it during the time they attended our church, and I heard after they left that she had also broken her back. But what I noticed at the store, one gimp to another, was her limp. 

    So that day I became one of those annoying people who stop for a long grocery-cart, heart-to-heart in an inconvenient corner of a busy store. Gloria had been in town for a second opinion on an upcoming surgery for her torn Achilles tendon. The doctor she consulted was actually the partner of the one who did my ankle surgery in May. Between our shoulders and our feet we had a lot to talk about, but the reason for which the Lord put us together was that she would need a knee scooter for 5 weeks following surgery. However, not having had my morning coffee before heading out, I was telling her where to get one instead of offering her the one sitting idle in our guest room until she flat out asked if she could borrow it. Of course she was welcome to it, and I felt ridiculous for not having offered it myself. She will pick it up when she comes for her pre-op appointments at the end of the month.

     I am thankful God was able to use clueless (caffeine-less) Connie once again. I have had a couple other times recently when I got to the grocery store later than I wanted, but just in time for a basket full of newly discounted items to be put out, and finding good bargains excites me even more than scoring one of those coveted little grocery carts to shop with. I am trying to remember that God has a plan even in the small details of life. And if I would bother to pray about such things, I could relax and trust His timing instead of stewing because my schedule is disrupted. As in Jesus' earthly ministry, sometimes the Lord leads us into a crowd for one person, someone we can help just by letting Him put us in the right place, at the right time. 

The Only One of Their Kind

    We recently lost a family at our church. Not misplaced lost, left loss. They came to us, along with some other families, after the small church they were attending disbanded. I knew from the beginning that they would not stay. Not that they were unfriendly, thought we were, or disagreed with our doctrine, their family was just the only one of their kind. It is one of those families where the mother is perpetually pregnant, the wife and daughters have long hair and always wear dresses, the husband and sons wear vests and/or ties to church. Their sons are named for Bible characters, their daughters for Bible virtues. The kids had to stay in the auditorium when the other kids were dismissed for junior church. I knew someday the older children would start questioning why they had to do things the other church kids do not. And those questions are still going to come up. I am familiar with the church they are now attending and they are probably the only one of their kind there too.

    There is nothing wrong with the standards they hold to as a family, but there is nothing right about them either--biblically speaking. As a parent who has launched children into adulthood, I learned that everything families and churches add to the simple truth of the Bible is a liability. One preacher I heard called it inoculating our children against the gospel. Adding human requirements to biblical salvation by grace through faith diminishes both the authority of the Bible and the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice. Asking questions is part of the process of young adults making their family's faith their own. If the answer to why we practice Christianity the way we do is not found in the Bible, parents are left with nothing to say. I have seen three basic responses from these kids when they leave home: Some of them (daughters probably) will practice their faith the way they were raised, others will reject the family standards but keep the Savior, and sadly, some will decide neither the family standards nor the Bible matter and reject all of it.  

    They are a nice family. I hope it goes well for them at the new church they are attending, but I do not expect them to stay there long. The problem with setting the behavior bar "higher" than the Lord does, is that it is lonely at the top. No matter how loving and accepting a church body may be, it is hard for such families to feel supported when they are the only one of their kind.