Lost and found: A heartwarming story of The Chariot

Meet The Chariot 

This little beauty has been transporting missionaries in Arvada, Colorado for quite some time now, and had a long career as a Toyota Corolla since 1983. Recently an unknown individual decided to abscond with this faithful little champ and had the audacity to only drive it a few miles away to park it in a nearby apartment complex. Justice was served! The apartment complex had it towed and I had to pay $305 to get it back. Yeah, I know, melodramatic ending. The truth is it would be easy to only think about how much I would like to slap the silly kids who did it, but I would rather dig a little deeper into what I did. I put down $305 for a car that until recently I wasn't even sure I wanted to keep on the road. The engine is great, starts on the first try every time, but it needs an alignment, new tires, and a substantial amount of TLC. It was not worth putting $100 into a month ago, then I suddenly decide to get money out of savings to go and rescue The Chariot when noone else would stand by it (not that they should, I'm just being dramatic). Oddly enough, it reminds me of what took place to rescue me. There's not a lot about me that would make someone sacrifice so much to go out of their way to set me free (I'm sure some of you see where I'm going with this) in a lot of ways I'm just a normal guy. But just as The Chariot is special to me for reasons immaterial, and even hard to point out, I have immeasurable worth in the eyes of my Creator. He broke open heaven, came to earth, suffered and died so that I might be free. But do you know what happened when he did that? Suddenly he ascribed worth to me that I would have to earn somehow otherwise. I can't talk about The Chariot like I don't care about it or I don't need it now that I shelled out that much money to get it back. Likewise I can't go back to being what I was before. God has singled me out and brought me back to life, and for that I am very thankful. Jesus paid such a high price I will never be able to comprehend it, but I know why he did it, and I know how much I must mean to him. The great thing is, we were all like a The Chariot stuck in a yard, fenced in, with no way out, headed to the crusher. Jesus didn't pay for just one of us to get out, he tore down the fence and set us all free, we just need to know that we're his now, which is actually what we were designed for. I am glad I'm back with him, where I belong, and I am glad I get to roll around Arvada in my faithful steed once more. So to you, unknown car thieves, I thank you, for giving me a chance to count my blessings, and to draw a little closer to the one who loves me a heck of a lot more than I love the Chariot.

Peace.

What’s new with me

Other than trying to get better at making my life a little easier to follow for my friends, I’ve been busy trying to make YWAM Denver’s information system as efficient and robust as I can. I haven’t been trained in managing a domain, server, etc. But I am willing to learn. It is an interesting tool though. Having been on full time staff here for 6 years I’ve found a way that I can uniquely contribute to the day-to-day operations here. While it is somewhat overwhelming at times I am deeply fulfilled in being able to solve problems that many find insurmountable. I suffer from being a “jack of all trades” so I apply my hand to many areas, some I’m confident in and others I know nothing about but still feel confident in, yet I tend to move on to something else when I hit a certain plateau of proficiency.


This is mostly due to the fact that to get better after that point would require a lot of time and practice, which means I can’t do the other things I am good at, but not excellent in either. I’ve mostly decided that this is a gift, and that if I am okay with allowing people who have mastered an area to take it over when they have the opportunity, then I can keep tinkering in lots of different areas as I see fit. This blog may never become a masterpiece of web-design and scripting, but it will be something that I can tinker with. I am pretty much okay with that I think. It will keep me freed up to got places and try things, and as long as I actually do that I don’t think I’m wasting my talent or creativity.
PS I finished the shelving that the trim from one of my previous posts was for.
Thanks for reading, I hope you are well and enjoying the summer.
-Michael