Ugh. I now have what everyone else has had. Thanks a bunch. At noon today I felt fine. By 4 o'clock I felt like someone had whipped the you-know-what out of me with an I-don't-know-what. The kicker is that I was off all last week so I can't, in good conscience, take off tomorrow. I would appreciate a little shout-out for me in your prayer time. Wednesday could be long and taxing.
Enough whining. On with the story.
Howard M. Carver was my grandfather (the "M" stands for McDoyle, good thing they named me after his first name). He was a mathematical genius. Seriously. He good do long calculations in his head and on paper that I still can't do on a computer. It was amazing, people.
Grandad worked for around forty years at Robertshaw-Fulton as a shop foreman. R-F was the big white factory on Cumberland, on the left just before you go under Alcoa Hwy. They tore it down last year. He was well-liked and I still get people who, upon hearing my last name, ask if I'm "kin to Haird." Doug Hayes is one of these people. He worked with G-dad years ago.
I think he was so good at math because he was responsible for keeping the books in his department in the days before calculators and computers. All you accountants and numbers-crunchers imagine doing your jobs that way. You'd slit your wrists after half a day.
When I was in school, many moons ago, I would ask Grandad for help with math. I did, and still do, suck at math. I remember one time he was helping me with long division. I was just learning it and it was tough, man.
I had worked a problem on paper that was about twenty-four lines long and, yeah, you guessed it. Wrong answer. I was crushed because I felt completely stupid and was dreading re-doing the problem. I will never forget what Grandad said, even though at the time it fell on deaf ears.
"When you get down there and where your at is wrong, just back-track a little to the place it was last right and start from there. "
Jesus met his disciples at the Sea of Galilee. Right where He found them to begin with. Possibly, they had decided that their time as disciples had ended with Jesus' death and now they were just going to live out the retired life doing what they did best. But when they reach the shore and sit down to eat with Jesus, He approaches Peter and gives him the opportunity of a lifetime. Peter gets three chances to profess his love for the Lord, just like he had three chances to deny his love for the Lord. John Ortberg writes about how the fire is specifically noted as a charcoal fire, just like when Peter denied Christ around the fire-barrel. It must have really reminded Peter of that night when he turned his back on Jesus. But this time, Peter is back where he needs to be. He is where he can be found. Square one.
The result is that Jesus gives Peter his misson, his calling. Peter went back to where it began and came out with a new life.
Sometimes we just need to back up to where we were last right with God and start from there. Restoration for Jonah began in the fish when it was just him and God. The Bible says that after three days Jonah prayed. What went on for three days in a fish's gut? Fish burps and God-talk. Jonah had time to get back to God. He was a prophet, and needed to be reminded of it. I would wager that a fair amount of internal speaking and listening went on in that fish.
When Prof. Dr. Rev. Cross was talking about this, and his own personal story, Friday night, I, of course, was thinking about my own "life-crash." My last year or so has been one of demolition and restoration. It took me a while to understand that where I needed to take myself was the place where my life was last in tune with God. And God met me there. He is now more real to me than ever before, He now has more of me than ever before, and His voice is clearer to me than ever before. Like Peter and Jonah, and countless others, I got my mission from the Lord when my own mission was stripped away. One word: Hallelujah.
Thanks to Senator Cross for the inspiration. Thanks to Grandad for the life lesson. Actually, he's in Heaven and couldn't care less about what's going on with me because he gets to look at Jesus all day. I'm okay with that.
