A Day of Friendship, Laughter and Car Trouble

This is the story of the events of this past Tuesday September 23, 2008. It was a long and emotional day.

In the morning I drove my wife to the Midas auto repair shop to pick up her 97 Oldsmobile. She then drove it to work. After months of not driving it because of its need for repairs we finally got it fixed; or so we thought.

I had some errands to do in town but it was too early to do any of them. I decided to go visit my best friend, Brent. The time of my visit was unusual for us. Normally I go to see and talk with him sometime during the afternoon. Nevertheless he was more than welcoming to me when I called and suggested I come over. He had just put on a fresh pot of coffee. Not being a coffee drinker I got my own source of caffeine (a 32 oz cup of diet Dr. Pepper) and some breakfast from a local fast food place.

While sitting at his kitchen table talking with him I got a phone call from my wife. As it turned out the Oldsmobile was still not running the way it should. The turn signals didn’t work at all and the engine was running rough. Paula was rather upset. I assured her that things would turn out alright. I told her she shouldn’t worry about how we were going to get another car and afford the payment. The problems with the Oldsmobile could be fixed. We decided that at lunch time we would take it back to Midas.

I spent another couple of hours talking with my friend. We always have a good time talking to each other about what God is doing in our lives, theology, politics, cultural issues and lots of other stuff. On this day our discussion took a turn into areas that ended up challenging us both. The details of our discussion are much too detailed for this post. Just let me say that I am certain both of us will look back to today as the starting point of something that makes a difference in our service to The Lord.

After I left my friend’s house I did some grocery shopping. At noon time I followed Paula as she drove the Olds back to the garage. We left it there making sure they knew that it wasn’t fixed the way we had expected it to be. The whole situation had stressed us both. She was a little closer to “the edge” than I was because of some other issues she had to deal with at work.

We picked up lunch, came home, ate and then my wife drove the Saturn, which she has been driving over the last few months, back to work to finish her day.

I’d like to tell you the end of our troubles with the Olds but as I write this on the evening of Thursday September 25 they have not yet been resolved. Once things are taken care of I’ll let you know how they turned out.

At 5 o’clock that afternoon my friend, Brent; a fellow deacon from my church, and I left for Nashville. Our destination was Zanies comedy club. On this night the club presented a show called “Bleep Free” comedy. Three of my favorite Christian stand up comedians were going to be on stage: Ken Davis, Jeff Allen, and Brad Stein.

Just before we left his house, Brent gave me the birthday present he had gotten me two weeks earlier. It was a DVD entitled “The Apostles of Comedy.” Ironically two of the comedians we were going to see are on the DVD.

We got to sit up front in the show room right next to the stage. Now I’ve been to over half a dozen shows at Zanies over the last 6 years or so but I enjoyed this one the most. I was rather familiar with a lot of the material from hearing it on the Comedy Channel on XM radio. Nevertheless I laughed hard and loud the majority of the night.

As a matter of fact there was one time I was the only one in the room who laughed. On stage at the time, Brad Stein pointed me out and compared me to a woman from the back of the room who had laughed loudly earlier in his set.

He also pointed me out a second time during his act because of the horizontal stripes on my shirt. Taken out of context the jokes he made about my shirt and about me could be misunderstood so I won’t try to explain them here. If you want the details let me know and I’ll tell you the story. Otherwise let me just say I was okay with what he said and laughed the same way everyone else did.

Ken Davis was a very funny story teller. His style of delivery kind of reminded me of a cross between Bill Cosby and Lewis Black. His stories about the birth of his children and going through airport security were hilarious.

Jeff Allen was funny but he didn’t do a lot of the material I had expected him to do. He was a lot less edgy than I have heard him in the past. He used having attention deficit disorder as part of his act and it didn’t suit him well.

All in all I enjoyed the show very much and so did my two friends. On the way out of the club I shook hands with Jeff Allen and Ken Davis. Davis even thanked me for being a good sport about getting picked on during the show.

The day ended with a drive home that included discussions about getting speeding tickets and a mission trip to Russia. During the ride down and back I realized from the conversation just what a strong friendship Brent and I have built up over the past 2 years.

As I write about Tuesday for this blog post I am thankful to God for the bond of love between my wife and I that helped us both at least cope with the stress of our car troubles. The resilience of our marriage always comes through in the tough times. I am so blessed to have Paula in my life. She is the Love of my life. The best gift God has ever given me.

I am trying my best to be thankful for the on-going car troubles with the understanding that God allows everything to happen in our lives for a reason. The Bible tells us to rejoice in our trials. I’m trying to put my faith in God’s divine sovereignty a little more every day.

Finally I am thankful for having a great friend like Brent in my life. There have been times over the course of our friendship when he’s been the only person I could tell certain things. He has helped me to learn so much. Some times I take that for granted. But then God allows me to have days like today when He opens my eyes once again to the blessings of my marriage and the friendships He has given me in my life. Thank You Lord.