sometimes you've just gotta shake your head

A span of about twenty minutes yesterday was in many ways a testament to how stupid and absent minded I can be sometimes. I debate the pros and cons of describing exactly why I had a flat tire but there are times you have to just throw pride and dignity out the window.

At church I decided to park out on the street by Jesse after driving through the parking lot. When exiting the lot I decided being careful was a fairly low priority so I just turned sharply right because the spot was right there. As was my intention I was close to the curb - a bit too close, however. My front right tire sort of bumped into it. Then scraped along it. I backed up. Scraped the tire a bit more. I got it the tire away from the curb, exited the car, and walked into church, hoping nobody had seen what just happened. Every now and then the curb will make a fool of you and if you're lucky nobody will see it. Here I am describing it to the general public.

You do know the general public reads this don't you?

After church a number of us decided to pay a visit to Ye Olde Olive Garden for dinner. I pulled out in my car and immediately knew something was wrong with my front right tire. Almost afraid to look, I stopped and got out - sure enough, flat front right tire. At first I was afraid to admit, even to myself, that I had a flat tire because I hit a curb. As Jesse and Mike helped me change the tire it became apparent, however, that I had in fact received a flat by running into the curb. Either that or we have some real mutant cats around these parts.

Towards the beginning of the tire-changing venture we were rummaging through my trunk (rummaging being the only appropriate word considering the state of disrepair I somehow allowed my trunk to reach) and I found a small black case. In this case were the glasses I was sure I had lost a couple weeks ago. The glasses I just paid 200 bucks to replace.

At least I won't have to buy a new pair next time I lose my glasses. If I really do lose 'em. Like I said, sometimes you just have to shake your head, even if it is in disbelief at yourself.

I was called on Friday to see if I'd preach at First Baptist Church of Newark this morning. I accepted with no small amount of trepidation. This is a traditional congregation - I am going to wear a tie when I'm up there speaking. Thankfully I at least had an expository sermon that I could use. I just had to go through and re-write it a bit, changing all the instances of "guy" to "man" and "crap" to, well, something else. I won't know a soul in this congregation either. My worst fear is that I'll get up there and start to preach, then realize about ten minutes in that I am totally not connecting with them.

Well no, I suppose my worst fear is that giant alien spiders will attack and devour me slowly, after many excruciating nights of torturous probing, but that really doesn't apply here.

So I'm off to go get all groomed so I can go to this Baptist church and try to preach to 'em. Hopefully they'll take kindly to a 22 year old kid with spiky hair and a trendy goatee teaching them about the Bible. Joking aside, the good thing is that God is the one who will really touch the hearts and not me, so I'm trying to put the onus on Him. We'll see if He wants me to learn from this in a good way, or if He wants me to learn through adversity. I'm hoping in the former.