Not always a bad thing

As soon as my most-hated summer class ended a few weeks ago, I got the heck out of town to go camp in the Arizona wilderness with my oldest friend Rachel. It was a little weird at first to have ZERO cell phone reception but after about five days I hated coming back to it. It was so nice to just zone out and not worry about checking for missed calls, what time of day it was, NOTHING... just sit by the campfire, bike through the rain, and enjoy the pine. It was heaven packed into one little weekend.

Heaven also had a hand in saving my life.

The day I came home home dawned bright and HOT (gotta love mid-August in Mesa). Rachel was helping me pack up my car, and then we headed back into the house to get the last of the stuff. Wouldn't you know it... LOCKED OUT. There was no spare key stashed outside, no way to get a hold of Rachel's roommates; temperature was rapidly approaching meltdown level, and I had a ten hour drive ahead of me. So what did we do?

PRAYED, of course!! For a way to get in the house, for someone to come that could help, something.

We proceeded to pry off window screens, rattle door knobs, etc. to no avail. Rachel decided to try fetching a neighbor for assistance and I tried the kitchen door one more time. There was a small window set in the top half of the door frame, and I tried pushing up on this hoping to spring the window lock and reach through to unlock the doorknob. I was thinking in my mind, "This HAS to work... it's the easiest way into the house, I need to get on the road, I know we can get in w/o having to pay a locksmith," etc. After a few minutes of pushing UP on the WINDOW...

the DOOR just popped open... BUT THE KNOB WAS STILL LOCKED. I tried to re-create the scenario a few minutes later, but try as I might could not get it to happen again.

CUE SPOOKY MUSIC!!

So we were able to get back in the house with a little help from above. I got on the road and started back to Utah. An hour later, I came across a ton of cops setting up a roadblock at the entrance to the canyon I needed to take. Turns out there was a massive landslide in the canyon that wouldn't be cleared for hours. Luckily, there was an alt route available that I could take home. About 30 mins along this road I thought to myself, "Wow, good thing we were locked out this morning, or I probably would have been driving through the canyon when that happened."


As I thought this, a vision opened up in my mind: My little car (and myself) getting smashed to pieces in the landslide. I got the impression more clearly than ever that the incident of that morning was a test: to see how I would react to the disappointment/frustration of being locked out/delayed, Who I would turn to with the problem, and if I would recognize the situation and give thanks back to Whom it was due.

I was delayed departing just long enough to avoid the accident -- no more, no less. I drove on my detoured route for the next 12 hours with no music, no radio, just my own thoughts and prayers that can't seem to comprehend God's love for his children, and how he sends instruction and warns of us danger all the time if we would just listen.

Getting locked out is not always a bad thing.

Hoist with my own petard!!

I've been remiss!! I'm always like, "Hey everyone else, you need to update your blog" when I haven't posted in MONTHS!! Bonny called me on it last week and it was totally deserved ;) So here's the latest!


My summer was completely sucked away by the world's most heinous English 2010 class EVER. It felt worse than all the other times I'd tried taking it put together (well... almost). All I wanted was a passing grade (which i GOT!!!) and now I will never have to look at it again. I guess one good thing came out of it: I finally watched "An Inconvenient Truth" and no longer harbor an unfounded abominable hatred for Al Gore's voice/face. He's Ok, I guess.