April 2013 Archives
A “pretty shameful day for Washington”? No. Our founders would be proud.
This is the way Washington was designed to work. The Executive branch shouldn’t get its way just because it wants it. Instead, the system of checks and balances ensures that the will of the elected one doesn’t override the will of the elected many.
So go stomp your feet, cry, throw a temper-tantrum, and vow to defeat the Constitution using some end-around play, but this is the way it’s supposed to be.
We will mourn the dead—the two who have died. An innocent child. A bystander.
It’s sad for all of us.
We will not, however, mourn the 40 people who were murdered during the last 24 hours. We will not, however, mourn the 90 people who died in auto accidents in the last 24 hours.
And we certainly will not hear of the 3,000+ abortions provided yesterday.
What has this country come to that the deaths of 3,130 people is mundane? Why are we not remembering these deaths as a tragedy as well? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the gut-wrenching reaction of our media over these deaths, the same media who are ignoring the outrageous tragedy of Kermit Gosnell’s war on life?
I don’t discount the tragic nature of these two deaths. Their deaths are truly tragic. Every life is precious and worth being sorrowful for the loss thereof. But so, too, are the deaths of the other 3,130.
Let’s mourn them all, shall we?
If you haven’t read of the horrors of Kermit Gosnell, an unlicensed doctor performing late-term baby-killing abortions, then don’t be surprised. The liberal media has determined that you don’t need to know about it. Don’t click if you have a weak stomach.
“But Bill!” you say. “I thought late-term baby-killing abortions are illegal! Why did he perform them?”
To which I reply, “This is the same mentality that gun control advocates have. ‘If we ban scary weapons, they won’t exist and kids will be safer!’”
As my friend Darren would say, Good luck with that.
I’ve been reading through 1 Samuel recently on my year-long adventure through the Bible, and I am amazed at the intimacy God has with His people through these ancient days. They pray, He listens, and He responds. It’s a very close relationship, and one I want to experience as well. Last Saturday night, I was blessed to experience a level of intimacy with Him which I’d not yet encountered, and for reasons you’ll know in a minute, it’s my responsibility to share it with you.
It begins with a car, a 2004 Mercedes-Benz E320 4Matic (W211)1 which has recently begun to refuse to start. The conditions are kinda’ odd: it’ll start right up if I try immediately after I arrive somewhere, but after 15, 30, 45 minutes it won’t start. A bit later (maybe an hour after I turn off the engine?), it will start just fine. Weird, huh?
The story continues with a bottle of vodka or, rather, a nearly-empty bottle of vodka. I was in the mood for a martini last Saturday night, not a martiny, so I headed down to Village Sprits where I found Rick to be out of the vodka I prefer. (Why it matters I don’t know, because I make mine dirty and the olive brine masks just about any subtle flavors of the vodka.) “No problem. We’ll have a case for you on Tuesday.” (Er, Rick? I only need one bottle…) So I left.
Except that I didn’t go anywhere. The car, parked between Papa T’s and VSOP, refused to start, pulling its usual cranking without ignition problem. Now, the last time this happened and I was out somewhere, I hypothesized that the fuel filter is a bit clogged (I’m sure it is) and that pointing the car downhill would solve the problem. On that occasion, I coasted around a bit, the nose of the car was pointed downhill, and it started right up.
This time, not so much. And worse, I was blocking two parking spaces. My only option was to continue coasting into a space in front of The Electric Blue, Tolland’s infamous topless bar.
And that’s where I sat in the glare of the parking lot lights wondering just how it would look when my car was seen there on Sunday morning with the stickers on the back which identify it very much as mine (an Apple apple, a bicycle, a Felt logo, a palmetto and crescent, and my—ahem—Christian fish). “Huh. Bill got drunk at The Blue. At least he had the sense to have someone else drive him home.” Yeah… that’s going to go over well in town politics…
So I did something I don’t see fit to do very often: I asked God directly for help. They did it all the time in the Old Testament, so why not now? But as I did so, I wondered to myself exactly why He’d help me. After all, if I turned the key and it started up, I’d go home and say, “Guess what I did? I got my car going. I figured it out. I did it!” instead of giving God the glory for helping me out of that situation. I guess I figured that this time would have to be different. So I turned the key.
And it didn’t start.
Hmm. I decided that God must have a purpose in this, and that I’d try turning the key every five minutes because I’d noticed that the temperature gage was falling an appreciable amount and I hoped it was temperature related. In the meantime, I Googled “E320 W211 won’t start hot” and there are a lot of posts about how the crankshaft position sensor (CPS) fails to work when it’s warm, but works when it’s cool or hot and how there was a code P0335 on the computer when that happens. Huh. This was new information to me.
Another five minutes elapsed and as the car tried to crank for its usual five seconds, it started after 4-one-thou… seconds of cranking!
I drove home, thankful and thanking God for delivering me from the valley of the shadow of the Electric Blue (and Subway, to be fair). I got out my OBDII scanner and whaddaya know? Code P0335 was reported.
Let’s review: I prayed, God listened, and He responded. I’m going to take a guess at His purpose in this, too: I think He knows me well enough to know that I’d go home and tell the story, giving God the glory He deserves. On top of that, He revealed to me the problem with my car and saved me much frustration, time and money.
And that’s why I’m writing this, not because I owe it to God, but because I want to let you know that He is alive and well, that He listens, and that He is not so busy dealing with the world-shaking stuff to pay attention to your problems. So, as the psalmist says, “Let everything that has Internet access and a blog host praise the Lord!”
…or something like that.
1 I’m not putting this in here to brag. I had initially just written “a 2004 model” and was going to leave it at that. But then I thought if I put in the specific model, others may find the answer to their problem, too, whether automotive or spiritual in nature.
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