The Empty Room

The room across the hall was empty last night. It will be empty more than it is occupied from now on. Yesterday we helped Jenna move in to her dorm room at Trevecca Nazarene University. It was a good day.

I have thought about this day for a long, long time—all of Jenna’s life, really. I remember holding her in my arms when she was a newborn baby wondering who she would grow up to be and what she would grow up to do. I was scared to death actually. Did God really know what He was doing to allow me to father a child? What if I get this wrong? What if I break her? But as I held her a calm assurance came over me. Yes, God knew exactly what He was doing in my life, Vicki’s life, and Jenna’s. No, you won’t break her. And yes, you will get some things wrong, but if you learn from your mistakes it will be okay. And then…

Enjoy this precious girl. Enjoy every moment. It seems a long way off, but she will grow up fast. You are privileged to be part of her growing up. You, out of all the men in all of history, are chosen to be her father. The father-daughter relationship is yours to enjoy for all time, but raising her is for a very short season. You are raising her to leave!

This was not one of those times in life where I will say God spoke directly to me in an audible way (though I do feel He has done so on three occasions), but I have no doubt His Spirit was speaking softly to me to comfort my fears. I have carried these words with me for 18 years now. They are the foundational principle for how I approach fatherhood for all three of my children. This principle made yesterday a joyous occasion.

Vicki and I were tired when we got home some time after 10:00 last night. The whole day had been devoted to making Jenna a cozy home on the third floor of Georgia Hall. Fortunately, Trevecca had assigned their athletes to be on hand to move anything that was labeled to a room (and I would say those fellows slept very well last night). By suppertime Jenna’s room was starting to look like a home. We enjoyed meeting her roommate, Macy, and her family, as well as one of the two girls next door with whom they share a bathroom.

Vicki and I had a little time to kill as all the freshmen had an event to attend before they were reunited with us for a worship and prayer service to end the day. As we talked, then and on our way home later, we both felt so good about this being right. Jenna is ready. She has worked hard and earned this, and we feel God’s hand has been on her to bring her to this place to help her spread her wings and soar.

Jenna is an Intercultural Studies major. She plans to double major (or declare several minors) but has not yet decided what her additional studies will be. We know her path of study will take her far beyond the borders of our nation and send her out into the wide world. There are two courses that will take her abroad for extended periods time to do mission work in remote areas. This is her time to fly.

Vicki and I parted company with Jenna after the worship service ended. Our spirits were full to bursting as we watched her and Macy head off with the rest of the freshmen for a welcome to Trevecca party.

The room across the hall was empty last night. It will be empty more than it is occupied from now on. I praise my King for giving me the foresight to be able to feel a joy I could not have comprehended 18 years ago because this is good and this is right.

Joe

Fifty Laps around the Sun

As of yesterday I have completed 50 laps around the sun. Actually, as my Chinese and Korean students would politely point out, I accomplished this feat some time back in November, but since I am a product of Western culture I will count my birthday.

CELEBRATING 50
You may wonder what I did to celebrate my fifth decade. I worked. I have mentioned before that I have been the scorekeeper for the Fairest of the Fair. This year marks the 20th year I have done that job that the contest just so happened to fall on my birthday this year. The funny thing about it all is that Michele Graves, one of the 2nd grade teachers at East Robertson, has helped me do this job for several years. She shares this birthday with me. When she texted to see if I was willing to work the contest on our birthday I said, “Sure. Just tell them to have a big cake with 50 blue candles and 49 pink candles.” The Fair Board did give us a cake, but after thinking over 99 candles they put blue “5” and “0” candles on my half of the cake and pink “4” and “9” candles on Michele’s half.

It is actually just as well that I worked this as Jenna went to Kentucky Kingdom yesterday with several friends from high school. They wanted to get together one last time before heading off to college. Ben was at the Back-to-School retreat for DA high school students and returned yesterday afternoon. With half of us out of pocket we celebrated my birthday with dinner after church at Mom’s house followed by a trip to the movies to see Star Trek Beyond.

I did rack up one interesting birthday present. The kids noticed that after all the walking and hiking we did in California I headed to the hotel hot tub each night to stick my feet in the water. I now have a small, bubbling, foot bath!

THE COVETED DRIVER’S LICENSE
Ben celebrated his 16th birthday a week ago last Tuesday (the 3rd). The first thing he did was to take his driving skills test. Upon passing that he and Vicki went to take care of his insurance and then open a checking account. Jenna met them in town with Ben’s Jeep so he could have his own vehicle to drive. They ate breakfast at Larry’s before Ben headed to Vicki’s office to talk with Ralph about taking over the office cleaning job that Jenna will be vacating in a couple of weeks. After that he headed over to the YMCA because Kenny had hired him to do some trimming. We celebrated with dinner and cake at Mom’s house that evening followed by the final revival service at church. All in all, a big day for our 6’ 3” boy.

REVIVAL
Mt. Carmel’s revival began on the Sunday before Ben’s birthday (the 31st). Brent Freeland was our evangelist and did a remarkable job. In his case, the prophet was warmly welcomed in his hometown. Brent, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you.

BACK TO SCHOOL
School is back in session. We returned to classes on Thursday; however, most of the high school students went on the Back-to-School retreat as I mentioned above so Ben will hit the books hard on Monday, while Nate has already been in class for two days.

Nate would like to change his schedule, but as of now he is taking Theater, History, Algebra I, Music Appreciation, Physical Science, Bible, and English. He is not a huge fan of Music Appreciation.

Ben has an aggressive schedule this year with Algebra II Honors, English II Honors, Geometry Honors, Spanish II, Health, And Chemistry Honors. He will swap Health for Government after Christmas.

I am teaching the 8th grade STEAM class. STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. I am designing this class to tackle a series of projects which must be accomplished using the engineering design process. Nate’s Bible course will end at Christmas and he will have me in the spring. I am also teaching an Intro to Programming course this fall and Web Development and Design in the spring.

While I am on the subject of school, Jenna went to Trevecca on Friday to take a Humanities CLEP test. She passed and is now exempt from taking fine arts and world literature. With this and her dual enrollment credit from high school she now has 24 hours of credit on her transcript before even moving into her dorm room.

THE CAR SAGA
As promised last time, I need to update the tale on our new to us cars as I left off with the vehicles being left with a mechanic there in Gainesville, Georgia, to take care of some minor repairs. Vicki, Jenna, and I left after church two Sunday’s ago (the 31st, which was when our revival began) and headed down to Marietta where we spent the night at Daryle and Ann Beth’s home. We enjoyed going out to eat with them and then returned to their house for conversation and a game of Spades.

While we were gone the boys stayed with Mom and took her to the Denning reunion, Will Ed Osborne’s 75th birthday party, and the evening revival service. I think Mom wore them out.

The next morning we took off to get the cars which were ready to go when we got there. I took Ben’s Jeep for the first leg of our journey home. Vicki drove the Buick, and Jenna took our van. We had decided to stop at the Tennessee Welcome Center so Vicki and I could trade out and have equal opportunity to drive both of the new vehicles. She got out of the Buick saying, “My back is KILLING me!” For my leg of the trip I didn’t suffer pain like Vicki, but it isn’t the most comfortable seat.

To make a long story short, Ben’s Jeep has been a real find. We’ve had to replace one of the air vents and one of the off road lights is broken, but it runs well and is perfect for him. He is pleased. The discomfort of the Buick has given Vicki a bad case of buyer’s remorse. Every time she drives it, even short trips, her back is screaming with pain. It takes about three days of not getting in it at all for her back to feel fine again.

We have thought through a lot of options and talked to several people over the last couple of weeks. The only strike against the car for us is its comfort. The experts have come to the conclusion that the previous owner must have been a large person and the seat simply wore out prematurely as a result. This sort of damage would not be readily apparent. We have new seat padding on order and are waiting hopefully to see if this restores the comfort level of the Enclave and alleviates the pit in Vicki’s stomach. While we are in limbo we are a five car family with four drivers. And now that the school bus is back in the driveway we are running out of places to park here.

Joe