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Name: Steve Brown
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Big Bad Dad?

Posted by Steve Brown on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 11:47:10 PM
 

I always hated telling my Dad that I had done something wrong when I was a kid. I remember an event that happened when I was five or six years old. I simply couldn't bring myself to go straight home after school. There was always an invitation to go to my friend Kipper's house to play, and the canyon nearby always held infinite irresistible promises of fun and adventure. After being told time and again that I had better get home before sunset, one evening as I was walking up to our front door it dawned on me that I was in trouble... it was dark! On top of that, I was covered head to toe in dirt from the great outdoors. I stopped in my tracks. I could hear the family having dinner in the house. If I went inside my father would be angry, so I sat down on the brick planter just outside the front door to think through my options. I sat and thought about things long enough to realize that dinner had ended and it had become even darker than when I first got to the front door. I was one forlorn little boy and I started to cry. After a little while my Dad heard me, came out to get me, laughed at how ridiculous I looked, then he sent me to get a bath and had dinner on the table for me when I was clean.

One day not nearly as long ago I realized that God used that memory to teach me a lesson about His love. He is the Father who deserves respect and a healthy fear, but He's not unloving, and doesn't want us to be driven away from Him in terror. This also made me wonder about the world that is rejecting Him. How many people are there in the world who are going through the same thing I did as a child? Knowing that they will have to answer to God, yet not knowing Him well enough to realize that God wants them at His table with His other children? How many are close enough to the kingdom to hear the joy and laughter, yet afraid of the scolding they think they'll get if they walk in the door? I suspect the numbers are huge, and that it breaks God's heart. It isn't easy to come to God and admit you sinned. Sitting outside His kingdom seems easier for a while, but it doesn't make anything better. There is room at the table. The feast is ready, come and eat.

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Stop Chopping

Posted by Steve Brown on Monday, November 20, 2006 11:57:09 PM
My friend Richard encourages the people in our Bible study to find and memorize "life verses" as they read through the Bible. A life verse is one that has in impact on your life. When you find one, it usually is easy to commit to memory because it speaks to you in a very personal way. You're going to want to have it at hand because you're sure to refer back to it often. 
One of my life verses is Eccl.10:10. "If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success." That's the NASB version. The Living Bible puts it even more simply "A dull axe requires great strength; be wise and sharpen the blade".
When God first caused this scripture to come to my attention I had read through the Bible at least twice before. This time though I was in the middle of struggling with a relationship that wasn't going the way I wanted. I suddenly saw myself as the man with the dull axe trying to swing harder and harder till this pitiful tool felt more like a hammer than an axe.
It was time to stop destructively bashing away at the problem. It was the right tool, but it (I) needed to be sharpened. You have to stop chopping in order to sharpen the edge. Even a good axe needs resharpening when it is being used. God's word and the godly friends in my help me to stay sharp. I hope I don;t ever take that sharpness for granted.
Steve
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Christmas may not be the only season for miracles

Posted by Steve Brown on Monday, November 13, 2006 8:23:32 PM
 

I used to think Christmas was the season of miracles but the monopoly seems to have been broken. On Halloween morning as I was headed to work I stopped at a red light (as usual), waited about 30 seconds or so, then got rear-ended. Not hard enough to be hurt, but too hard for my car to just shrug it off. The guy who hit me could have made things so much nicer if he had bumped me directly from behind, but in his mind the logical thing to do was to split between the two lanes and scrape along the side of my car so as to do far more damage. Maybe he was actually trying to hit two cars; I didn't ask so I cannot say for sure. As it is, his black, rubber, partially biodegraded bumper left a kind of skid mark (with bent metal and plastic) which started at the corner of my rear bumper and wrapped around to just behind the rear wheel on the driver's side of my car. I guess it's possible that this may have involved some highly skilled driving, I'm just the wrong demographic to appreciate the payoff for the hours of practice it must have taken.

The only other explanation I can come up with is that guy who hit me must have some tragic form of reverse color blindness that renders all white objects invisible. Not just any white, that trademark Toyota Arctic White we see on roughly 70% of the world's Corollas. On a sunny day, I suspect I'm visible from the MIR space station, he should have seen me.

So. We pull over, get out and etc... I've been hit by a 20something kid with Kenny G hair, a '91 Chevy Cavalier, who is moving soon(he says), and his only phone number is a cell out of St Louis Missouri. My guess is that I'm badly hosed on this one. Then I saw my first miracle that day... HE HAS INSURANCE! With a card and everything. The angels must have wept at the sight. I let him know I wasn't going to sue him, I just wanted my car fixed. He agreed it was his fault, but verbal means nothing and I don't expect a written confession. I went to work and began calling around to my and his insurance companies to get repairs started, worrying he may change his story and claim I rolled back into him... people try it.

Around mid-day I called my voice mail to check my messages and behold, my second miracle! There's a message from TGWHM (the guy who hit me -no need to share his name). The message = Hi, I'm TGWHY (the guy who hit you).. sorry (admission of guilt), and maybe I could just pay you and lets not talk to any insurance people. Oh well, too late for that. Besides, having dodged one serious hosing, why double down for a second one? What a relief. That message is a keeper. Still makes me laugh.

For now I'm driving a rental. A Suzuki Forenza... I'm not angry though. In fact, after my car is fixed, if he still has the same out of state cell number, I'll offer to send him a half pound of Kona coffee to let him know I appreciate his honesty.

-Steve
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more than a chrome fish

Posted by Steve Brown on Saturday, November 11, 2006 6:44:24 PM
 

A few weeks ago my sister and her son came to my place so we could have lunch together. As we walked to her car she apologized in advance for her new bumper sticker, adding that she was thinking of removing it since it seemed a little too angry. The sticker said "It takes more than a chrome fish pal". She knows I'm a Christian and that I'm not afraid to defend my beliefs so I think she was surprised when I told her that aside from the snarky sounding "pal" at the end, I really liked the sticker and thought they would probably sell to Christians as simply "It takes more than a chrome fish ".

I personally don't have a fish or any other stickers on my car that ID me as a Christian. The main reason is that I know that fish would be the only thing someone would see if I accidentally cut them off or was guilty of some other infraction, real or imagined. I don't want to cause someone to say "Learn to drive fundy" or launch into some profanity-laced tirade. There are more than enough people trying to pin a target on Jesus, I don't want to help them.

A cross around your neck doesn't make you a Christian, and a fish on your bumper doesn't mean you'll go driving through those Pearly Gates with the A-C on as St. Peter waves you through after checking your parking sticker(the chrome fish) with a smile. Real Christianity is not for the lazy. Good servants use their talents rather than burying them (check Matthew 25:14-30). Yes, it does take more than a chrome fish. Most Christians already know that.

What strikes me as at least a little ironic about the snarky version of the sticker is that it would probably be pretty tough to find anyone with that sticker on their car who would actually want to encourage spiritual growth in someone. The real message seems to be "people with fish on their cars are all jerks"... maybe because they're too judgemental?

I'm happy to say my sister isn't as angry as her bumper sticker. I don't think she's the demographic they had in mind. She's one of my best friends in the world and the things we don't completely agree on wont change that.

Steve

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Elephant races?

Posted by Steve Brown on Friday, November 10, 2006 12:49:01 PM
 

    Elephant races? That was how my father used to describe the sound of my three siblings and me thundering from room to room (upstairs) as kids. Born between September 1959 and January 1963, I see my siblings as one of the greatest gifts I've received in life. We were four smart kids who loved making each other laugh; usually at the expense of someone on the "idiot box". We picked up our senses of humor from dad (mom was sort of "missing" for quite a few of those years). As a single parent working full time, there must have been many times that we tried dad's patience. Sometimes when we were all doing our best to make each other hysterical my dad would come in (annoyed) and tell us it sounded like an idiot contest. Though I can't recall a single time I wasn't declared the winner, I decided to name the blog Elephant Races. I've won and defended the idiot crown many times, there's nothing left for me to prove there.

The blog will touch on my family a lot, I'm sure. The blog's basically about me, but I'll do my best not to get self indulgent. My sibs and family mean a lot to me. I'll express that, and (I hope) tell a good story and make some people laugh.

-Steve
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