It Pays To Read The Fine Print!

Monday, I read fine print all day.

Reading fine print played an important role in three fun areas of life for Ginny and me — in April’s Webalizer stats for my website, in a 16^th Century Puritan diary, and in our spending a fortune to buy a new car.

By reading the fine print in the Webalizer counter software, I see that as of yesterday this website has attracted 18,810 readers from 111 different countries ranging from India to Iceland to Iraq during the month of April.

Wow!

Doesn’t anybody read the newspaper any more?

Thank you all for visiting my site.

I’m honored by your attention.

I pray you find the stuff you read here is worthwhile and makes your life easier.

Yesterday, I started correcting the proof pages of the diary of Richard Rogers, a Puritan minister during the reign of Queen Elizabeth — the original one. You know, the one with the hair.

Talk about fine print!

Here’s a photocopy of a page from one of Rogers’ sermons:

Actually the printer’s proof copy of the book turned out beautiful!

And much, much easier to read.

I’m so pleased with the look and feel of this book.

It needs fewer corrections than any of my previous books. After 30 years as a writer I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it.

God willing, I hope to have this work published on line by the end of this week — unless those massive forest fires in Georgia burn this far south. Already the fire covers 128 square miles to the north of us and a fine drift of ash powders Jacksonville while smoky haze obscures the skyline. In our 16-Month drought, even the Florida sand feels like talcum powder, my garden plants droop, and the whole area is a tender box.

The third area where fine print defined my day — Beauty and I finally bought that new car I’ve been writing about since April 17^th.

My diary entries around that time tell how we prayed for God’s guidance in this project.

A lady in Australia helped us in buying this car. Val, a retired down-under librarian, gave me some advice in the comment section for my blog posts for April 21^st and 22^nd, and we followed her advice.

Glad we did!.

Through our credit union we contacted Matt, an auto advisor. His help proved invaluable in locating the car that met all the criteria Ginny and I had agreed on at a price we can almost afford — assuming of course that someone will buy one or two of our children first.

We went to Duval Honda where the sales team of Justine, Bill, Irma and Eric acted disgustingly youthful and enthusiastic about cars. These people act as though they really love cars; they act as though they’d stand around talking about cars even if they were not selling them. And they treated us like royalty. You’d think we were the most important customers ever to walk onto their lot.

And patient!

You can’t believe how patient these people were with Beauty and me who are definitely not car people. I mean, it goes; it stops, it hauls things — that’s about the extent of our car knowledge. But these young folks spent hours explaining everything to us. Eric and Justine even took off the spare tire and showed me how to change it.

Then came the fine print.

Remember that photocopy of Richard Rogers’ 16^th Century sermon I showed you above? Actually that’s not a sermon — it’s an automobile contract from the year 1615.

Must be.

It looks just like one of the 20 or 30 pieces of paper Beauty and I signed at the Honda dealership yesterday. The only difference was that the print on yesterday’s papers was smaller.

Now, we owe more on this car than we do on our house mortgage.

And look what I found on someone’s desk at the dealership:

No, that’s not a real million dollar bill.

I can tell.

The paper feels stiffer than the ones I carry in my wallet.

I asked if that money was the monthly payment some previous buyer had left on the desk — but it wasn’t.

I asked if I could handle it.

It was mine to keep.

And when I looked at the verso — I found even more fine print to read:

Can’t read the fine print around the edges?

Here’s a transcript:

The Million Dollar Question: Will you go to Heaven? Here’s a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God’s name in vain? Jesus said, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things, God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adultery-at-heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That’s not God’s will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus took your punishment upon Himself: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life…”

How about that?

I think this odd little tract proves that it always pays to read the fine print.