I have good news and bad news, the countdown. Flying lessons

Mama and I decided that it was time to test the financial waters by applying for a loan to buy a truck; used, of course. We used the truck she and Grandpa had found in Amarillo to start the process. After I talked to the bank representative yesterday we found out how rotten Wells Fargo can be. I settled our loan with them on the house in New Jersey and they reported it as a write off, a discharged debt, to the credit reporting agencies. I will try to find out today how long that will remain on our record, but there is little I can do about it for now except find out why the report does not reflect “settled in full” as promised in a letter I received from them.


No word yet from the local bank on the truck purchase, but I told Mama if we cannot get the farm we do not need to buy the truck. So we will sit here debt free for a while and see how things work out. Not a bad position to be in.

Chase is counting the hours now. If you ask, he can recite the minutes and seconds remaining until he flies to New Jersey. With that amount of expectation, I hope he is not disappointed in the least way. Mama has been missing New Jersey badly also, so as Chase mentions the names of people he will be seeing this coming Sunday, she threatens to kick him off the flight and go in his place.

It will be nearly impossible to send Mama to New Jersey this year. With the trip to Florida coming up and another to the same destination for Maggie and Aaron’s wedding later in the year, it will be beyond our financial means to do so. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open just in case.

Last night a man in our church who is a licensed pilot preached the mid-week sermon. He likened our walk with the Lord to flying a small plane. His illustrations were profound but none grabbed me more than when he talked about turning the plane to the right or to the left. He said that the inexperienced or careless pilot will quickly loose altitude in a turn because more throttle (likened to personal devotions and prayer) is required in a turn to maintain altitude.

It gave me a clear picture of my life as well as other’s as I thought back to those times when I deviated a little to the right or to the left and soon came to realize that I had drifted a very long way from where I had been in my walk with God. While I though I was doing all the good, I was falling from a safe altitude and only when the Holy Spirit made me aware (conviction) of how perilously close I was to crashing into the ground, did I realize the desperation of my situation.

In every one of those moments, it took an enormous amount of effort on my part and an unbelievable amount of grace on Gods part to restore my life and my walk.

His message was much more than that thought, but it is the one that struck me.