Sea Of Tranquility

The best days of my life are the most difficult to write about.

Saturday Ginny and I took our coffee into the backyard, sat in lounge chairs and resumed the same running conversation we’ve been enjoying for the past 40 years. We chatted about yard work that needs doing, but we didn’t life a finger to do any of it.

We talked about lizards and birds and flowers and sex and news stories and friends and children and books. We anticipated our upcoming vacation and remembered ones from years past.

That’s it.

We spent the whole day sipping coffee and chatting about pleasant things.

Sunday our conversation turned to decision making in three areas: installing the new air conditioning system, life insurance, and our role in Porky flu inoculations.

All of this is so complicated, you can see why we seek the Lord’s guidance in such mundane decisions. Anything more high-tech than an on/off light switch loses me.

Decision making and seeking God’s will makes me long for the good old days of Urim and Thummin.

Having gone through the process of deciding about A/C companies, I find the idea of examining the entrails of a goat (or preferably a salesman) and reading the caul of the liver appealing.

It’s a shame we can’t do that anymore.

Druids had it easy.

I’m working on a book about finding and doing the will of God, So it may help me to explain the process Ginny and I are going through in the A/C matter:

The only Scripture that occurs to me remotely related to A/C home improvements is the one about the guy who started to build a tower but had to quit because he didn’t have the cash to finish the job and everybody mocked him.

Earlier this summer, Ginny sent our a blanket e-mail to everyone in her office asking about their experiences good or bad with A/C contractors. The replies warned us away from some companies and inclined us toward some others.

Having prayed for guidance beforehand, over the past week I’ve gathered information from five A/C companies. One company we eliminated out of hand because their estimator showed up at our house three hours after he said he’d be here; if that company proves so unreliable on first contact, we want nothing to do with them.

Another company offered a brand of machinery we’d never heard of, and another company appeared to be misrepresenting their services. We checked online with the Better Business Bureau, The sated Consumer Affairs Division, Complaints.Com, and Rip-Off Reports. All the companies we considered came through with clean bills of health. But we eliminated one because their pricing seemed hazy.

We finally chose one company that felt right even though they cost more than the others. Now, with a $4,000 variance between high and low bids of the different companies, we are looking about how to finance and we prayed as we discussed options in that area. One option we briefly considered is a home equity loan…

No, we do not want to gamble on any chance of losing our home.

That decision was confirmed when on Sunday afternoon, our little sea of tranquility rippled.

I had not checked my e-mail for several days and when I did I found a note from my two older sons who live up in Maryland. The bank foreclosed on their home, a home where they have lived for over 45 years. The guys lost their home and have had to move to an apartment.

That news makes me heartsick.

I knew they had refinanced a while back and had had a bout with unemployment for a while, but I thought they found new jobs and were doing fine.

I’m so sorry for them.

Funny, one of the things Ginny and I discussed Saturday was whether or not God, who is complete in Himself, ever got frustrated. She cited the time when Jesus wept over Jerusalem. “I would have gathered you like chicks under my wings. But you would not”. And I cited the case of the Rich Young Ruler; when he walked away, Jesus gazed after him sorrowing.

Incredible, that puny human beings can frustrate Almighty God!

Yet, somehow, I think He will manage.

Our choice of weekend movies to edify our souls were Frankenstein’s Daughter, Batchelor Pad, and a DVD disc of The Sopranos.