The real me...

I wanted everyone to see an image of the other George.
The George who's not always so happy and upbeat.
The George who says things under his breath that he shouldn't say.
That's him pictured up above.

Robin calls me Saturday night. I'm trying to catch a little free time from the kids to go over my message for Sunday morning. She tells me she's about to go through a car wash because of the 2 inch thick layer of salt corroding our van from the bottom up, when, after punching in her code, the window would not close. You can read about it at her blog, http://robinsaylor.blogspot.com/2009/01/at-car-wash.html

My first thought I'm not proud of- "What on earth can I do for you at home?" Now I'm upset, worried and can't really do a thing to help you. (It really bugs most guys when we can't help.)

Second shameful thought- "If it was me, I could probably get the window to work because I'm a man and I understand mechanical things and you probably just have the window lock button on." (I told you, this is about the other George, the one that even I don't like.)

Anyways, Robin comes home. The window is still down. We have a laugh. And sure enough, the window is dead.

I want nothing more than to get ready for Sunday, but because I'm a man, I can't let this go. If the window isn't fixed, it messes up Sunday's plans, and more, it means we can't drive to go skiing with the kids like we always do on Monday's.
So basically, my whole life is over if I can't fix the window.
This is now a tragedy worse than anything the world has ever known.

My first approach- prayer.
No really, I laid hands on the door and prayed.
Nothing.
I prayed again, promising God He'd get all the glory.
Nothing.
I prayed again, this time promising that I'd go and be a missionary in some God-forsaken land where no one else wants to serve... like London Ontario in the winter.
Oops, already had to fulfill that promise due to a prayer back in 2006.
Be careful what you pray for.
Doesn't matter, the window still didn't work.

Then I say to myself, "Then I'm going to fix this and I'm taking all the credit- you had your chance God!" (Incidentally, I don't advocate levying ultimatums on God.)

2 hours later I have the window fixed. But really, I have no idea what I'm doing. I took the door panel off, which was really fun. I got to the window motor. I whacked it with a hammer (it's worked for my starter), I cleaned all the connections, I re-attached it to the battery, and somehow it started working again.

We went to church, as planned.
Had an amazing Connection Group meeting to kickoff our winter semester (28 people, dag!)
We went skiing as planned and once again had an amazing day as a family.
My kids own those slopes!

And know that I have a little more perspective on the whole series of events...
To God be the credit.
I had to totally depend on Him for the message.
I have no idea how the window really got working again.
And I love skiing. I really, really do love skiing. I have a passionate, almost Eros-like love of skiing.

And that's the real me the past two days.