A Slower Pace

“He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.”

Psalm 112:7

This Scripture has been very applicable to me in the recent weeks. And with falling helicopters (God be with the military families mourning the loss of their sons, husbands and fathers), falling stock markets, falling credit ratings, and falling accountability, this Scripture is all the more applicable in today’s world.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Last night after service I blogged about Ben Koier and the tragedy affecting his family that was transformed by our merciful God into a powerful change in other people’s life. Well, I promised another story about our Father taking broken pieces and pain and creating beauty and glory from them.

Rachel Beckwith turned 9 years old back in June. For her birthday, instead of the normal presents and celebration, she asked her friends and relatives to donate to a charity for clean drinking water for developing nations. Her goal was $300.

Her birthday came and went and she fell short of that goal only raising about $220 or $230.

Rachel and her family were involved in a large car wreck in Bellevue, WA and she died as a result on Saturday, July 24. As in Ben’s story, this could be the end and the worldly perspective blankets the future with pain, sorrow and grief. And Rachel’s family was thrown into that picture. However, her small dream was used by God to bring about more than any of us could ever have imagined. Her pastor communicated her dream to her church which made it’s way onto Facebook which went viral which was picked up by media outlets.

When I first heard about it on KLOVE, it was the Monday or Tuesday after her death and the amount raised by this small child’s compassionate heart was at $56,000! I was blown away! Her small goal of $300 was multiplied many times over. The following day I heard an update that it was at $82,000. It was amazing to see how many folks felt compassion for her family and wanted her memory and wish to be kept alive.

Now fast forward to last week. I had traveled for business and forgotten about the story even though I had intended to blog about it. But God wasn’t done with the story. When I heard a following update on KLOVE, the charity total was over 1/2 a million dollars!!!!! I was moved as was my son. Looking at her charity water fundraising site, my son and I saw that it wasn’t corporations or rich folks that were giving hundreds or thousands of dollars to her vision. It was many, many normal folks who were giving 9 dollars at a time — in memory of her 9th birthday wish. My son wanted to donate and brought down 9 one dollar bills he had earned from mowing. I matched his gift and we logged on to join her cause. At that time it was at $526,000!!!!! How merciful and mighty is our God! And while her family is definitely still grieving and experiencing pain of her loss, they can be comforted in the hope that so many people who do not have clean drinking water will benefit by Rachel’s vision.

Go check it our yourself. As of this blog post, Rachel’s clean charity water is just over $810,000!!!!! Go here to see where Rachel’s donation efforts are now — and also give to her cause.

Will you be the one that helps her get to over a million dollars.

Here also is a news link to an early article on the tragedy.

But in the pain and broken pieces, God is faithful.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

In the last few weeks, I have encountered some very painful stories where God has taken broken and painful pieces and used them to glorify Him and create other stories of beauty.

Last night this was most evident in our family movie night with Soul Surfer — the movie about teen surfer Bethany Hamilton whose left arm was bitten off by a shark (the painful pieces part) but then, through her faith and God’s mercy, she was able to persevere and inspire others while becoming a pro surfer.

I have another story which I will blog about tomorrow. But today’s story is about Ben Koier. Now I don’t know Ben, but I do pass his roadsite cross memorial every day now. You see, on June 26, 2011 this 19 year old was hit by a drunk lady and killed. For me, the story could have ended there. I saw the story in the paper and you see roadside crosses at many crash sites. However, Ben was different. His faith in Christ shined inside him so brightly that it spilled over into his life and onto others. Today would have been his 20th birthday.

Such a sad story you say. And it is. The family is in obvious pain dealing with the loss of their beloved one so early in his life. But Ben, in heaven with his Savior, received one of the greatest presents he could get — factual evidence of his positive impact on others’ lives. He brought people to Jesus and today many of those folks accepted Christ into their lives and were baptized at tonight’s 5pm service in honor of Ben’s birthday. His brother, his sister, his girlfriend, his best friend, his best friend’s dad, other family friends. The list was amazing. And there were over 100 people in that section that overlooked the baptistry that I hope will also follow Ben’s lead in the days and weeks to come. You see, in Ben’s death and the painful, broken pieces God was able to use them for His glory and bring other’s closer to Him.

Our temporary, time-bound, worldly vision views this with such pain and bitterness. But in the eternal vision and love of Christ, this is such a marvelous victory.

God bless the Koier family.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

We are nearing 3+ weeks of scorching hot weather this summer. Usually we get a breather here and there during the summer. But not this year — we have had triple digit heat indexes (temp + factored in humidity) for a while now…..with no relief in sight. Our pool is now a tepid body of water that doesn’t cool you off until you get out and let the breeze hit you. Thank God we have A/C and also a basement.

So this morning, I was chatting with a guy at work and in short conversation asked if I was “staying cool”. I remarked that thermally I was keeping the heat away but, as the father of two teenage girls, I would never be cool.

Sad but true.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I came across this quote today and it has a lot of relevance and logic. Therefore I am sharing it.

“With hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, brush fires, mud slides, and severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of swine flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

So as I wrote in my previous post, I had some business to do in New Jersey today. Luckily, everything went smoothly and I was able to get out of there and into NYC around 4:30pm. Having never been there, I quickly realized with the New Jersey and NYC traffic that I had to channel my previous LA driving persona just to survive. Plus, it was a rental.

No sooner had I popped out of the Holland Tunnel and made my way down to Battery Park to see my girlfriend, Lady Liberty, then I ended up turned around trying to find parking and wound up on the Brooklyn Bridge going away from the city. Luckily, I was able to maneuver back 180 degrees and return. My whole ordeal of hitting Manhattan and then going away and then coming back and finding parking wasted about an hour. When I was finally able to park and walk to Battery Park, there were no more tickets or ferries going out to the statue so I had to relegate myself to gaze at her from afar. Her is my iPhone picture attempt at capturing her beauty and what she means to me and this special country of ours.

Soon enough I wandered over to Wall Street to see the NYSE. On the way there, I stumbled across that big bull statue and snapped a picture. Interestingly, the NYSE had a Norwegian flag flying in solidarity with those in Norway affected by extremist violence. Being full Norwegian, this was special and a sight I will probably never see again.

I also enjoyed the WWII memorial in Battery Park with all the names in stone and a very cool eagle statue. I also stumbled upon the Irish Potato Famine Memorial on the west side by the water. And finally spent some time praying around Ground Zero and all the building they are doing there. I look forward to coming back once the 9-11 memorial and museum are finished.

And finally after all that I had built up a hunger and needed some good New York deli grub so I went to a friend’s recommendation at Katz’s Deli. Now I had not heard of it but he clued me in that it was the deli they used in THE scene in “When Harry Met Sally”. The pastrami sandwich was out of this world! Thanks for the suggestions Mr. James!

Well, that was my whirlwind afternoon tour of NYC. I know I missed so much and hope to come back some day to pick up where I left off.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I have been slacking lately blogging. And I have some good posts in my head but have been sidetracked for one reason or another. And I have a quick trip tomorrow and am gonna try to hit NYC in the evening. I have never been and hope to see my 2nd favorite lady (the Statue of Liberty….. get your mind out of the gutter) as well as Ground Zero. It all depends if I can get what I need to get done in NJ and make it over to NYC.

But in the meantime, across the country in the other corner this weekend, my sister sang one of my favorite songs, our National Anthem, at a local fly in. She rocked it and the timing is perfect at the end — the roar of the F-18 flying over drowned out her last note just like it should be. The people at NASCAR should take note. And Christina Aguilara….. the one who slaughtered our Anthem at the Superbowl….. take note as well.

Sis, I am so proud of you!!!!!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I think the sign above only begins to tell the story.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I don’t spend much time blogging at work — mostly because I am way too busy. But right now I was hit with a thought so much that I had to make it my Facebook status as well as a blog post.

“As my friend or reader of this blog, if there is anything in me you like, it is Jesus shining in my life. If there is anything you don’t like, it is me smothering that light.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Thank God the scorching hot weather finally broke. A storm came through on Tuesday evening that was pretty spectacular to watch. The wind gusted up to 50-60mph and the wispy clouds would no sooner appear and then disappear on the opposite horizon. At 4:30pm the parking lot lights at work came on because it was so dark. And torrents of rain came down and took the day from 98F degrees to 74F degrees in a couple of hours. So now we just have “normal” summer weather instead of unbearable equatorial humid heat.

Today was actually very nice. This evening I sat out on the back patio with all my ladies — the wife and daughters until I finally figured out we were wasting some of the evening away. So my wife and I took our normal 2 mile walk down our back country road. It was nice because it wasn’t too hot or too cold — a perfect evening for a walk with my wife. And my son tagged along.

When we returned home, we could see the girls sitting on the hammock in the front yard talking, which, as a parent, is so nice to see. With R going away to college in September, it is good that they are enjoying each other now before things change.

My wife yelled up to them “Who wants to go to Graeter’s?!?!?!?”

They almost dumped each other over on the hammock trying to get out while yelling “We DOOOO!!!!”.

So soon enough we were all in my wife’s truck with the windows down cruising along our back country road to get some ice cream. The air was comfortable, the kids behaved, the sun was setting, the full moon was peeking over the trees, and all was right in the world.

I had a double scoop of chocolate coconut almond fudge on a waffle cone. Yum!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net