Years later, I worked at Yes FM in Toledo.  It was a good experience, but I got busted for talking too long between songs.

After that, I tried podcasting but realized that content is pretty important and that good content takes work and focus.

Enter Home.FM.

We moved to Jackson county in 2006 to work at Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church.  I knew about Home.FM and what they were all about, and I thought “I would love to work there, maybe on the weekends or something.”  A year later, Carl Fletcher asked me to fill in during his vacation.  It wasn’t long after that I was sitting in the mornings chair — temporarily.  “Can you just fill in for a few months?”  That was about 5 years ago.

Marla was there with me in the early days, showing me how it all worked.  It wasn’t long that she had enough and ended up getting a real job, which always seemed like a loss to radio because she came by it so naturally.

Malachi Crane asked me if I knew anyone who could join me on Mornings at Home.  I suggested he contact a gentleman named Ben Barnes.  They met with him and it went well, but my favorite part was when Ben was introduced to me on his way out of the interview.  Funny — because we’ve known each other for years.

Mornings at Home with Adam and Ben might’ve started in 2008, but the show as we know it actually began in 1999 when Ben and I traveled in a music group: commentary about this and that, an occasional song, and food.  What was broadcast across south central Michigan was the continuation of our bizarre conversations that started during the summer of our freshman year.

That show ends today.  Shelby will be here.  Tonya, too.  Ben Barnes will guide the ship.  And I’ll be in Portage, part laughing and part sad.

If you think about it, it really isn’t that big of a deal.  Of course it’s gross.  But it was an accident.  The finger chunk was in someone’s mouth!  But it was an accident.  Accidents happen at work all the time, like when I got the forklift stuck, or the time I accidentally put on a body harness and hooked on to the bay crane and defied gravity.  Well… that may not have been an accident.  Had I gotten caught, it would have been my last non-accident.  Dumb idea.  I don’t do that kind of stuff, now.

This relates to you and I. Accident or not, image is powerful.  Accidents still make statements which aren’t easy for people to forget, especially if they are the kind that inspire one of Letterman’s top ten lists.   I am charged with overseeing certain parts of the church.  This is why I am panicked about anything we hang above people’s heads (speakers, lights, etc).  I don’t want anyone to get hurt.  I don’t want anyone to stay away because of an accident.  I don’t like to think about it.  This is why we’ve got backup rigging and make it a practice to tighten bolts.  Check twice, then 3 more times.

Arbygate should be a warning to those who oversee.  Please, please, please be careful.  One smidge too close and the place will empty out, even when protocol was (pretty much) followed.

Okay, I’ve meddled enough.  Now… pass that delicious Horsey sauce.

This posed a problem.

We’re in Ann Arbor.  And the voltmeter was on L, which doesn’t mean “Look, everything is okay!”  L means “Look for the nearest Ford Dealer!”

And that’s when I turned around and called Dad.  He gladly threw a few things on (thanks for that) and met Emily and I at the nearest Ford Dealer ($).  He took us home.  But first… dinner.  He likes Qudoba.  He would’ve loved it if they had been more generous with the ground beef, but, as Emily and I said, it’s been better.

Thanks, Padre.  You saved the day.  Now, just tell your dealer pals not to try and upsell me on blinker fluid or muffler bearings… because I already got them changed last week*.

———–

*this is a joke.  I realize there are no muffler bearings. **

** or blinker fluid.

Hi-Dry was a favorite, especially in the early 80′s.

Viva took over when the Hi-Dry corporation went, well, high and dry.

Brawny certainly had a place in her paper towel shelf.

Bounty was her brand of choice most of the time.

Grandma would make us climb the shelves of the supermarket to find her Bounty with teal printing on the paper towel roll itself.  This was because her kitchen counter was teal, and these must match. A visit to the grocery store (A&P, later Farmer Jack) was triggered by the paper towel level in the closet dropping to dangerous levels.  She would panic when there were only 15 rolls.

“Grandma, what happens if you run out of paper towel?”

The answer didn’t matter.  Maybe my sister can remember how she answered that question, but I don’t.  It didn’t matter. We were going to the store and I was going to climb the shelves.

For Grandma, paper towel was a currency to pay the bills — the bills of spilled milk, dirty walls, wet dishes, and crummy counter tops.  She was rich, like some kind of wealthy land owner on a very messy island.

This is what I grew up with.  It seemed normal until Emily showed me different.

A TED talk reminded me.  These memories came into my mind like a thick fog that couldn’t be wiped up. The TED talk suggested that we use too much paper towel and suggested the “shake and fold” method for using less paper towel.  On one hand, I’m glad we’re working to conserve.  On the other hand, I’m glad that Grandma isn’t around to see such blasphemy.

It’s because of her that I get eerily uncomfortable when the paper towel is out.  Ask Emily.  It just doesn’t feel right to use Taco Bell napkins.  It seems strange to use a dish towel.  Wiping my hands off on my pants only works on days when I’m not going to the office.

Then again, let’s save the environment.

God says “I am the vinedresser.”

You and I say “I will abide in Jesus.”

Have you ever wrestled with discovering the will of the Lord for your life?  Read John 15:1-8.  In this short passage, we get a clear picture of what God expects.  We see the key players and get a powerful image of the great story of God’s redemption.  A foundational expectation is established for the follower of Christ, which leads to a growing, thriving relationship with Him and others.

We know that Jesus is the vine and that God the Father is the vinedreser (one who takes care of vines).   As the vinedresser, God is always cutting away something.  If a branch doesn’t bear fruit, He chops.  If a branch does bear fruit, He’s still cutting, only this time He prunes away the undesirable parts of us.

Pruning leads to good fruit.  The vine nourishes and provides.  God desires healthy, shiny, robust, delicious, and desirable fruit in our lives.

But what are we to do?  Squint really hard until the fruit is ripe?  That sounds disgusting.  The point is this: our job is not to make fruit.  We get this mixed up all the time.  I need to try being more __________!  Noticing a deficiency and working toward a solution is one thing, but that’s not what we’re told to do in John 15.

The instruction: abide in Christ.

To abide is to remain in a relationship, to stick around, to be in.  This calls for:

1) Time (in prayer, in scripture, in community)

2) Intention (God, I want what you want for me)

3) Openness to discomfort and even pain (Cut away as you see fit)

4) Simplicity (I’m just a vine!  My job is to abide in Him).

So… do it.

I held her the day she was born,  my 6-year old arms more than strong enough to cradle her but clumsy enough to clunk her baby head on the metal arm rest of the hospital chair.

Our parents let me share in the duty* of changing her diapers and filling her bottles.  Mom once said “I hope you’re not jealous of your baby sister.”  Not ever.  I loved her.  Still do.

I vividly remember watching her first day of kindergarten from my concerned big brother eyes.  She seemed far too excited about going to school, as if it was about more than just tater tots.

She almost went to Wayne State but ended up at Spring Arbor.  I would have been thrilled for her either way, but the fact that she will always be a Cougar serves as an effective conversation starter.

I stood there, in shock, watching Paco walk down the aisle toward her soon to be husband.  How wonderful and strange.

I sat there yesterday and listened to a wandering commencement speech about prosthetic legs and involvement with government.  Her name was called.  We cheered as she crossed the stage and shook hands with someone wearing what looked like judges pajamas.

Consider the mysterious stack of events that make a life.  I clunked her head and changed her diapers.  I warned her about the rusty playground swings at Douglas Elementary.  I helped with the marriage ceremony. And now she’s a master social worker. My little sister — my Don Paco — is all MSW’d.  Of course she’s in social work.  I’m her brother.

She did good. I’m proud.

—–

(endnotes)

*ha!

The idea is nothing new. Efforts to pass legislation to form a new state reportedly failed by a single vote in 1975.

Can anyone confirm this?  Does anyone remember that the UP was only one vote away from becoming its own state?  Had I known that, I would not have said all that stuff at the Denny’s in Marquette.

I distinctly remember being in the UP with my friend Brian one summer and thinking “this is most certainly Canada.”  I thought the same thing when Emily and I took a trip up there a few years back.  I thought “this is most certainly Canada.”  As it turns out, we were indeed in Canada.  That was a confusing vacation.

But my favorite line in the article is:

“The likelihood of it happening? I don’t know. But I think, privately, a lot of private citizens say, ‘Yay team. Let’s do this. It’s long overdue.’”

They already have a slogan!  “Yay team.  Let’s do this.  It’s long overdue.”  I don’t mind pointing out that this is only a few multisyllabic prepositions from becoming the new state motto.

What do we call it?  North Michigan?  South Canada?  Alaska II?  Hawaii Peninsula?   Minnesota Handle? Does the lower peninsula then become South Michigan?  Does that mean that we will now be in the south?  I have one friend that would be very upset by this, since he was from the deep south (Columbus, OH) and went to school in Michigan.

If nothing else, this would ease the tension of representing the Upper Peninsula with the “map” of our left hand, which is awkward at best.

I sat down on the exam table and told my story.  “It’s probably acute sinusitus, requiring a 10 day run of your favorite decongestant.  I’m sorry to say that any antibiotic that ends with “illin” won’t work.  I’ve responded well to Biaxin.”  I don’t want to come across as a know-it-all, Web MD reading, doctor wanna be, but I learned from my Mom that you can save a lot of time if you give your account right up front.  Every time I’ve done this in the past 10 years, the physician has said something along the lines of “okee dokee.”  Sometimes they push back with the Z-pak, but that doesn’t work with me, either.  I wish it did.  Such cool packaging.

After my Dx and suggested Rx, the Doctor looked at me, puzzled.  She said “Oh, I can’t give you Biaxin.  I was just down in New Orleans listening to new research concerning some pretty serious side effects.  That report will be out soon.”  I didn’t ask her at the time, but according to a google search later on, she may have saved me from any number of uh… events.

Praise God for chemistry and doctors who know what to do with it.

And how about that U of M?

Then I remembered the generator, what with its 1000 watts of pure power, readily capable to run the refrigerator.  If the power stays out through the evening, we will just open the door for light.  Seems wasteful, but generator power is free!

Free — in that I’m spending $3.75/gallon.  This reminds me — we need to get gas for the generator.  Where is it?  Citgo, whose pumps require electricity to run.

Oh, no.  The chicken.  The milk.  The precious and mysterious eggs.  How does one know if they’ve gone bad?

Nothing the ol’ Black & Decker power converter won’t fix.  Leave the engine running, plug it into the cigarette lighter socket, and run an extension cord out to the truck.  And when it runs out of gas…

Oh, right.

I’ll have to talk to my neighbors.  Oh no.  Not analog facebook.

I should have prepared for this.  I should have gotten lots of water.  They always tell you to get plenty of water.  Canned goods.  An easily-forgotten can opener.  Firewood. First aid kit.  Firearms.  Lead-plated walls.  Plastic and duct tape for the bio hazards and chemical warfare. I should have been more ready.  Why didn’t I get ready for the inevitable?

I can’t even complain about our sour milk via twitter!  What am I going to…

Power’s back.

Oh, good.  Ha!

That dog is making a funny face!  I will use it to create a new meme!

Plenty of miracles are recorded in the Old Testament.  Frogs and locusts.  Daniel in the lions den.  Shadrach and the miraculous spelling of names.  Jonah’s intestinal confession from the belly of a whale.  All are examples of God doing something that defies our common understanding of natural law.  But what we know as limitations aren’t even miniscule challenges for God.  In His great power, He simply does as He wills, according to His purpose.  What we call a miracle is just business as usual for God.

Fast forward now to the New Testament, specifically Acts 3.  A beggar whose legs don’t work ends up getting something better than the coins he had begged for.  God heals him through one of the disciples, who then has the honor of turning around and preaching a message of repentance.  A supernatural miracle is manifest in a guy who couldn’t walk.  Now he’s doing jumping jacks for everyone. The people are amazed.

Peter asks the people why they’re so surprised (?) and immediately calls people to faith in Christ.  A physical miracle leads to repentance and new life in Jesus, which is the greatest spiritual miracle of them all.  We can never take new life for granted.

Can we pray for a miracle?  Indeed, we can and should.  Rudolf Bultmann said “A modern man who turns on an electric light can’t possibly believe in a miracle.”  Our western answers have the double effect of both solving a problem and dismissing the unreasonable.  But God can do it.  The question is this: can we?  Do we have this level of faith?

Asbury Seminary Professor Greg Keener talks about his conversion from Atheism to Christianity coming about because of the miraculous: “As a young man I had a very dramatic conversion.  I had been demanding evidence in the form of an argument.  God gave me the evidence of his presence.  His presence was in the room.  He wouldn’t let me go.”

This is a miracle.  Though they are few and far between in many places, they still seem to become more manifest in majority world countries.  We have so much to learn, which will require us to step out of our comfort zones.  Do I believe in the miraculous?  Indeed I do.  God can heal.  God can restore.  God can “show up”.  God does this for His glory, as He sees fit.  The miracle benefits Him first and most.  That we have space to repent is simply by His grace.

What’s to be done with miracles today?  We hope and pray for them, anticipating God to move.  In these days under the New Covenant, we know that it’s all about “faith in His name”, as seen in Acts 3:16.   As God performs the miraculous, He gets our attention.  Like Peter, we immediately need to make the connection to the risen Lord and invite people to follow and believe.