Okay, I admit it, I just made-up the word divindipitous.I stand and am mesmerized at the turn of events in my family's life and mine over the last two years. As I have turned the my efforts and zeal towards God. God has blessed us abundantly even though I have lost my job of ten years at Mack Trucks, Inc. as an engineer (quality, application). My wife has started a consulting business that is currently keeping us afloat. When money was needed for seminary it "arrived". When I thought I would be short, I was told to fill out a special circumstances sheet and a Pell Grant is put against my account to pay off the difference loans and cash could not pay off.
The acts of providence by God go deeper though, much deeper. I live next to neighbors I have failed to talk to or even associate with in ten years. Two years ago I begin to talk to him after my conversion and I find out he attended the college I eventually chose to go but he went twenty years previous. I find out he also attended Westminster in Philly. I find out he is (for all intensive purposes) a Greek scholar. He is now unofficially my tutor. It doesn't become official until he says so. The wonder of all this does not end here.
Along with my wife...it is decided that I will abandon a career in the engineering field after 22 years. I will go back to school. To learn everything man can teach me about my God. I go back to learn a new language (Greek). I go back to school to learn how to reach others. To defend my faith. Many reasons continue to come to mind but the one that shapes where this blog will focus is learning the Greek language.
I have two sons. The oldest is Seth and he is learning sight words/ word families: cat, hat, mat, sat, etc. He worked on all these words last year and throughout the summer. His first grade started last week and he is now using that repertoire of word power to construct sentences. This is where the wonder of it all staggers me. The timing of this is absolutely parallel to my learning of Greek vocabulary sight words and...parsing the Greek. Parsing is essentially breaking the Greek down into its rudimentary grammatical structure and meaning. I then, based on the parsing, can reconstruct sentences. As a newbie to Greek it is painstakingly slow, one word at a time. One verb, one noun, direct objects, indirect objects, indefinite article, definite article. This continues until I have an coherent English sentence...just like my son nearly 35 years apart. The only difference is I have technical terminologies for what I am doing. Additionally, my younger son Bryce is just beginning to learn his numbers and alphabet for preschool just like daddy finished doing for the Greek alphabet. What is even more amazing is that when I have problems I now speak to a neighbor that I treated like junk for a decade and we lived 300 ft apart. Just like my boys can talk to me.
Since it is brutally obvious that it is no accident all this is taking place according to His will not "mine" or "ours". I begin to pray and to contemplate this and ask God what I am to take away from this. As I lay with my son to try and help him shutdown and fall asleep after a long afternoon of building sentences (both he and I) he begins to speak with me and says, "I made my own sentences today daddy, just like you." Yes, just like me. The wonder of it all.
God took away a job and a former life and gave me back double what I had, perhaps more. I have a wife who has increased her economic viably/saleability in the IT (Information Technology) field through her online consulting work for Sharon Pierson Database Consulting (a shameless plug for my wife's business for all you Christian IT people out there). I have a children that are running parallel paths to their father, just as the father is trying to run a parallel path to Our Father. I think about Seth's tenacious and diligent work to perfect his vocabulary. His love for words. His love of meanings. His desire to to be exact in his usage of his words.
It then dawns on me that there will be help from God but based on what I have seen from my son my takeaway is this. I will need to work diligently like a laborer at his work. I will need to "put my back into it" to get out of Greek what I will need to be a good teacher or pastor. Just because things are as wonderful as they will ever got doesn't mean things will be easy. God put us on this earth to do things, to work and through our actions we glorify Him. There is no greater feeling than the feeling of having accomplished something for God knowing you toiled over it to brin it to fruition. Toiling adds a greater gravity to what has been accomplished. Toiling instills a deep appreciation.
There is beauty in all of this that I am just now beginning to grasp and appreciate as my schedule often puts me in a state of intellectual overburden. As I stopped tonight to take it all in... I felt compelled to tell you all one thing. God is truly amazing and He can do bigger things than you can even imagine. Please don't hem Him and limit what you think God can do. Take his yoke. It will be to your benefit. My family is a living example. A living sacrifice to Christ.
"At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:25-30
Have things been perfect? I believe the future is now and it will never get any better than it is now. Along the way my faith is solidifying like rock. With all these turns of events, how could it not. Even those outside these events look in and are struck by the storyline. It use to be that I did not believe in the fantastical and the whimsical but this is as close to idyllic as I have ever seen in this life and it is hard to believe it is happening to my family and those associated with us. God truly rewards those that are faithful, obedient to His statutes.
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For humor's sake I have added a list of what is expected of a 1st grader (ironically overlaps with my requirements).
Reading & Writing
Recognize and write all of the letters of the alphabet
Identify sounds corresponding to vowels and consonants
Uses initial consonant sounds/patterns to read words (ex: fat,cat,mat)
Read several sight words
Retell a story including details
Put events of a story in order
Write simple sentences using sight words and phonics skills
Recognize single and plural forms of nouns
Write in complete sentences
It also says Seth's homework should only take about 20 minutes...I wish that was the case for me. If I get clocked in at under 2 hours I am lucky.
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