Maths is a subject specifically designed for tormenting children with... Adults too sometimes...
But there are some things even maths won't work out...
1 + 1 = 2, right?
Well, it does, sometimes... But 1 + 1 can also be 3.
About 2 months ago, my dear wife and I, one bright and sunny morning, discovered that 1 (her), and 1 (me), was soon going to = 3. That's right. She is busy working on a new member for our little family. Life is great, right?! :). So it is. She was shocked, I was excited. From memory, I believe I even went so far as to jump up and down... Very undignified I am sure, but at moments like that, who cares!!?
Cherith had been feeling just a tad nauseous that morning, and in a fit of cheekiness, I suggested that it may be more that a disagreeable breakfast. Her response was to take a test, and lo and behold, my snap suggestion as to what might be happening turned out spot on. So it's a baby. And seeing as the only options are boys and girls, I guess we are having a boy... Or a girl........
So that's it. Sometime near the end of November or the beginning of December our little family will be experiencing a population boom.
Last week we had the pleasure of hearing the little rascal's heartbeat, still very quiet, but definitely ticking away steadily. It was a strange moment, in the doctor's office, listening for that faintest beat. Somehow, it brought to mind the awesomeness of the thing. The baby was at the time approx 2 inches long! Imagine the size of it's heart?? That is one tiny ticker. But there it was.
It made me wonder how many people who want an abortion would still have one after hearing their own baby's heartbeat for half a minute... I don't know, but I think a few would change their mind. The heartbeat makes it real, alive, palpable. It is no longer an ignorable fact, but a living being. It makes it seem so much more like killing, because at some stage during an abortion, that little tiny heart stops.
Of course, many people have miscarriages, many unavoidable (at least seemingly). That too is a death. Hearing that heartbeat made me think of how traumatic that would be. I had never before understood why it was such a horrible experience, emotionally, for someone to have a miscarriage. But there's that heartbeat, ticking away... Living.... Only waiting to be born......
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Keeping out the cold.
Growing up my family had a woodfire in the lounge room, and as my bedroom was at the opposite end of the house, it meant that in the mornings there was quite an incentive to race to the fireplace (which my mum would fire up at about 5AM every day in winter), and warm ourselves around it. It was one of those situations were things had to get worse to get better. I'd have to leave my moderately warm bed, race up the freezing cold hallway, through the dining room, and into the lounge room, for a nice toasty morning! Now I get to be the one who stokes up the fire in the morning, and get the house nice and warm for my wife! :).
Just remembering that, made me think about the saying 'things sometimes have to get worse before they can get better'. Very few people start life with everything in their favor. It takes hard work, and the proverbial 'blood, sweat, and tears' to make improvements in life. Just the same way a person has to brave the cold morning in order to start the fire, a person who wants to get somewhere in life has to start with step 1. You can't jump to the ending when life is all rosy and easy, smooth and comfortable. Life is generally tough to begin with. But that's no reason to dodge the tough streak. The key is to work through the tough spots in life, and keep your focus on the things that are important, and not let yourself get depressed by whatever difficulties you may be facing. Life is good. And it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of your life circumstances. The key is that you are happy with where your life is going, and are prepared to weather storms in order to be able to enjoy smoother sailing that so often follows a difficult time.
Friday, 6 April 2012
Dad.....
06/07/1946 - 06/04/2012
Ernst Robert Dammasch
Born and brought up in post war Germany, my Dad came to Australia permanently as a young man. By the time he left Germany, he had completed an apprenticeship as fitter and turner. Here in Australia he met and married my Mum. That was a little over 36 years ago.
I only turned up on the scene much later. By the time I was born, they had celebrated their eleventh wedding anniversary. And I was the fourth, in a family of five. By the time I was ten, Dad was working very long hours as a truck driver, trying to make ends meet, and support his family. But there are definitely a few happy memories with my dad from those days...
At the time, dad used to ride a motorbike to work and back, and usually only came home on weekends (He often worked 60+ hours a week, and we lived a long way out in the country). Every Friday afternoon, we (My younger brother Henry and I), used to run outside at the sound of his bike coming up our street, racing each other to make it to the gate first. It was hardly a fair race, because I was 6 years older than Henry, and at least 12 inches taller, but it was unusual for Dad to get to the gate before we did. Why that was so special, I don't even know, but it is.
Then occasionally I would get to go for a ride with him in the truck. Sometimes he would even drive up our street. Somehow it made me proud to see the big semi trailer parked there. Maybe it was just because I was a little kid, and big trucks were impressive, but in any case, I was proud of that truck. I even remember the number plate of the truck! (He usually drove the same prime mover, and they just hooked different trailers on it depending on what he was delivering)... Usually he delivered for Woolworths. Sometimes I went with him for long rides. On Sundays he would often go from Brisbane to Kingaroy, several hours drive, and I'd love going with him. He'd tell me about his work, about the problems of driving a truck, of some of the impossibly difficult places he'd had to reverse a truck into, etc. I was with him when his front passenger side tire got a puncture. To this day I can remember the sound. A brief rattle as whatever did the damage got flung out of the tire again, and then the sound of a tire going quickly flat. We sat on the side of the road for an hour waiting for a repair truck. One day we arrived at the destination to find a badly stacked pallet had collapsed. Whoever had done it, had stacked heavy things on top of tissue paper rolls and delicate things, and it just collapsed.
One weekend, Dad and I went camping together. Just the two of us. We went to Gympie, saw the big pineapple, and camped next a lake there. I remember riding up there with him on his bike (A big touring bike). We put our drinks in the lake to chill them, and warmed up our food over a campfire.
When I was in my late teens, Dad had to stop trucking for a living for health reasons. He had done over ten years of full time truck driving for Linfox. Ten years of work in which he occasionally would have worked less than 50 hours a week. A year or two later he worked on the farm with me for a few months.
Anyway, if I was going to keep reciting, I could keep going forever. There were unhappy times too, but why bother with those? I'll always remember the good times. Happy times.
There are regrets too. But they are pointless now. Sometimes I wish I had gotten to spend more time with him. Then I wish I had called him more often in the last year or so while I have been away from home. I guess you don't really miss someone till they are really gone.
So this is goodbye to my Dad. I hope to see him soon.
Ernst Robert Dammasch
Born and brought up in post war Germany, my Dad came to Australia permanently as a young man. By the time he left Germany, he had completed an apprenticeship as fitter and turner. Here in Australia he met and married my Mum. That was a little over 36 years ago.
I only turned up on the scene much later. By the time I was born, they had celebrated their eleventh wedding anniversary. And I was the fourth, in a family of five. By the time I was ten, Dad was working very long hours as a truck driver, trying to make ends meet, and support his family. But there are definitely a few happy memories with my dad from those days...At the time, dad used to ride a motorbike to work and back, and usually only came home on weekends (He often worked 60+ hours a week, and we lived a long way out in the country). Every Friday afternoon, we (My younger brother Henry and I), used to run outside at the sound of his bike coming up our street, racing each other to make it to the gate first. It was hardly a fair race, because I was 6 years older than Henry, and at least 12 inches taller, but it was unusual for Dad to get to the gate before we did. Why that was so special, I don't even know, but it is.
 |
| Dad drove a truck almost identical to this one for ten years... |
One weekend, Dad and I went camping together. Just the two of us. We went to Gympie, saw the big pineapple, and camped next a lake there. I remember riding up there with him on his bike (A big touring bike). We put our drinks in the lake to chill them, and warmed up our food over a campfire.
When I was in my late teens, Dad had to stop trucking for a living for health reasons. He had done over ten years of full time truck driving for Linfox. Ten years of work in which he occasionally would have worked less than 50 hours a week. A year or two later he worked on the farm with me for a few months.
Anyway, if I was going to keep reciting, I could keep going forever. There were unhappy times too, but why bother with those? I'll always remember the good times. Happy times.
There are regrets too. But they are pointless now. Sometimes I wish I had gotten to spend more time with him. Then I wish I had called him more often in the last year or so while I have been away from home. I guess you don't really miss someone till they are really gone.
So this is goodbye to my Dad. I hope to see him soon.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
It's quiet.... Too quiet.....
It's 9:30 in the evening, and the house is empty, except for myself, a few mice, a spider or two, and just possibly a rat in the laundry. My wife is on her way to visit family for 2 days, and as the saying goes, you only know what you had when it is gone.... Who would have thought that in a few hours I could miss her so much?
I'm getting tired... I should go to bed, but it just doesn't seem right. There's a 5' 1", clue eyed, curly brown haired person missing! And what's worse, I love her, so I'm going to miss her something awful. Maybe I'm just being silly...? Maybe I shouldn't miss her? Well, I can't help it. I love my wife, and revel in her company.
And when she gets back, I 'm going to give her a very big hug, and tell her how much I missed her, but words can't really express it. "I miss her".... Three simple words... But I have missed other things in the past, and it just doesn't compare with missing my wife. It's not even in the same scale.
So I just need to survive the next few days... That might be harder than you think... I have to make my own meals, :D....
It's 9:30 in the evening, and the house is empty, except for myself, a few mice, a spider or two, and just possibly a rat in the laundry. My wife is on her way to visit family for 2 days, and as the saying goes, you only know what you had when it is gone.... Who would have thought that in a few hours I could miss her so much?
I'm getting tired... I should go to bed, but it just doesn't seem right. There's a 5' 1", clue eyed, curly brown haired person missing! And what's worse, I love her, so I'm going to miss her something awful. Maybe I'm just being silly...? Maybe I shouldn't miss her? Well, I can't help it. I love my wife, and revel in her company.
And when she gets back, I 'm going to give her a very big hug, and tell her how much I missed her, but words can't really express it. "I miss her".... Three simple words... But I have missed other things in the past, and it just doesn't compare with missing my wife. It's not even in the same scale.
So I just need to survive the next few days... That might be harder than you think... I have to make my own meals, :D....
Monday, 27 February 2012
Everything that glitters, is not gold....
Have you ever heard the saying, "Not everything that glitters is gold"? Well, funnily enough, it's true. In almost every aspect of life, things appear to have a varnish, but in most cases that varnish is scarcely 'skin deep'.
Buy a used car with a shiny paint job, and you may get a very practical demonstration of this principle. Own it for a few months, and it may just fall apart on you, while another car which didn't look so flash, keeps ticking over.
They say that when the Cullinan diamond was discovered, the worker who found thought that he had found a chunk of glass, and only made a closer examination as an afterthought. The result was the largest diamond ever found on earth. But it wasn't discovered as a shimmering piece of diamond, ready cut and waiting to be sold. It looked like an ugly lump of glass, hardly worth looking at. What power transforms a lump of glass into a piece of incredible value like the 'Cullinan'? In the case of the 'Cullinan', it was a man named Asscher, one of the most famous gem cutters ever to have lived, who, after days of examination, cleaved the stone, removed the impurities, and brought to the world a masterpiece of unrivaled excellence. But until the impurities were cut out, the stone would reflect no more light that a lump of coal.
Some people are like a diamond. Not much to impress at first, but with incredible value, often invisible to those around them, until something shows the diamond for what it is. Others are no more than fools gold. They make an exciting impression, seeming to charm all in their wake, but of little value to those around them otherwise. They may be entertaining company, but when the heat is on, they don't prove to be the real thing.
There is a reason that God 'looks on the heart' to judge people. If He looked on the outward appearance, He'd be fooled most of the time! But He isn't. People see the outward appearance (and I don't mean looks here, it can be anything from personality to beauty...), but they cannot judge the impulse of the heart. The person who acts charming in public, often has a very different manner when behind closed doors. There is only one thing that can motivate a person through every act of life, to be true gold. And that is love.
When Jesus came to earth, He was nothing special to look at. The Bible says He had no spot or blemish, but He didn't stand out of the crowd in appearance. People crowded to Him because He loved them. He longed to bring hope into their lives. And He loved them still, when they were nailing him to the cross.
Do you glitter only when things go well, or does even the heat of difficulties show you to be the true metal? It is your choice, but it isn't something you can change on your own. You need to have someone come into your life and cleave out the impurities in your life. And Jesus is the greatest 'gemcutter' in the universe. He can turn anyone into an incredible diamond, if only that person surrenders everything in their life to Him.
Try being a diamond. It is a lot more valuable than fool's gold....
Buy a used car with a shiny paint job, and you may get a very practical demonstration of this principle. Own it for a few months, and it may just fall apart on you, while another car which didn't look so flash, keeps ticking over.
They say that when the Cullinan diamond was discovered, the worker who found thought that he had found a chunk of glass, and only made a closer examination as an afterthought. The result was the largest diamond ever found on earth. But it wasn't discovered as a shimmering piece of diamond, ready cut and waiting to be sold. It looked like an ugly lump of glass, hardly worth looking at. What power transforms a lump of glass into a piece of incredible value like the 'Cullinan'? In the case of the 'Cullinan', it was a man named Asscher, one of the most famous gem cutters ever to have lived, who, after days of examination, cleaved the stone, removed the impurities, and brought to the world a masterpiece of unrivaled excellence. But until the impurities were cut out, the stone would reflect no more light that a lump of coal.
 |
| The uncut Cullinan. Not much to look at... |
Some people are like a diamond. Not much to impress at first, but with incredible value, often invisible to those around them, until something shows the diamond for what it is. Others are no more than fools gold. They make an exciting impression, seeming to charm all in their wake, but of little value to those around them otherwise. They may be entertaining company, but when the heat is on, they don't prove to be the real thing.
There is a reason that God 'looks on the heart' to judge people. If He looked on the outward appearance, He'd be fooled most of the time! But He isn't. People see the outward appearance (and I don't mean looks here, it can be anything from personality to beauty...), but they cannot judge the impulse of the heart. The person who acts charming in public, often has a very different manner when behind closed doors. There is only one thing that can motivate a person through every act of life, to be true gold. And that is love.
When Jesus came to earth, He was nothing special to look at. The Bible says He had no spot or blemish, but He didn't stand out of the crowd in appearance. People crowded to Him because He loved them. He longed to bring hope into their lives. And He loved them still, when they were nailing him to the cross.
Do you glitter only when things go well, or does even the heat of difficulties show you to be the true metal? It is your choice, but it isn't something you can change on your own. You need to have someone come into your life and cleave out the impurities in your life. And Jesus is the greatest 'gemcutter' in the universe. He can turn anyone into an incredible diamond, if only that person surrenders everything in their life to Him.
Try being a diamond. It is a lot more valuable than fool's gold....
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Finally...
Here it is... The good news that we have been waiting for.
We are going to be payed out for our car. It has been assessed as a write off, and finally we can seriously start planning to buy a car.
To fill in, on the 22nd of Dec, our car died, after driving through about 20cm of water and flooding the engine... It broke a conrod in the engine, which for those who don't follow, means the engine is not worth repairing, and needs to be replaced. Additionally, we had about 2 inches of water inside the car... I put in a claim to my insurance company, and promptly we began the long wait, what with the madness of Christmas holidays being what they are.
A week later the car was towed away to the nearest repairer, who told us it was certain to be a write off, as it would not be worth replacing the engine, given what the car was valued. The insurance had other ideas.
The insurance assessor for the area rang Cherith, and proceeded to explain to her that they do not cover mechanical failure, and that we would be liable to pay 75% of a new engine (which would come to about $2000, on top of the fairly hefty claim excess), or we could opt to put a second hand engine, which would cost me about $1000, and would be payable by me entirely, or, option number three, which was to accept a payout of what they estimated the car was worth without an engine, which would leave me seriously out of pocket as a result. We prayed. All of those options would really leave us stuck. Especially as me live 70km from the nearest town... We needed a car. It had been 2 weeks since we had been able to go shopping. Thankfully, we had done a hefty shopping trip just before the car died, but we still relied on a little 'top-up' shopping by Cherith's dad, who worked in town.
So I rang the insurance assessor. I rangled with him for half an hour, and seemed to get nowhere. Until I mentioned the water inside the car. His smooth talking stalled. Apparently no one had told him about that (He hadn't been to see the car in person yet), and he said he would have to check it out and would get back to us.
Then on Friday, we got the call. The insurance company said that the car had been assessed as a write off, because the inside had gone mouldy. Hardly surprising considering the amount of water that had been locked in there for two weeks! But praise God!
Don't get me wrong. I am very sorry to see the car go. It has been a faithful little car since I bought it, and well worth the money I paid for it. But it was in need of some repairs already, which I couldn't afford, and the car was highly impractical for us in our situation here (Living and working on a dirt road, a small front wheel drive vehicle is not the best option... It's not the worst either, it had worked through some awful weather for 8 months, but it was time for change).
So God has answered our prayers. And he used a hefty dose of humble mold to do it! He has a thousand ways to provide the answers to our prayers, and sometimes it is astonishing how He does it.
We are going to be payed out for our car. It has been assessed as a write off, and finally we can seriously start planning to buy a car.
To fill in, on the 22nd of Dec, our car died, after driving through about 20cm of water and flooding the engine... It broke a conrod in the engine, which for those who don't follow, means the engine is not worth repairing, and needs to be replaced. Additionally, we had about 2 inches of water inside the car... I put in a claim to my insurance company, and promptly we began the long wait, what with the madness of Christmas holidays being what they are.
A week later the car was towed away to the nearest repairer, who told us it was certain to be a write off, as it would not be worth replacing the engine, given what the car was valued. The insurance had other ideas.
The insurance assessor for the area rang Cherith, and proceeded to explain to her that they do not cover mechanical failure, and that we would be liable to pay 75% of a new engine (which would come to about $2000, on top of the fairly hefty claim excess), or we could opt to put a second hand engine, which would cost me about $1000, and would be payable by me entirely, or, option number three, which was to accept a payout of what they estimated the car was worth without an engine, which would leave me seriously out of pocket as a result. We prayed. All of those options would really leave us stuck. Especially as me live 70km from the nearest town... We needed a car. It had been 2 weeks since we had been able to go shopping. Thankfully, we had done a hefty shopping trip just before the car died, but we still relied on a little 'top-up' shopping by Cherith's dad, who worked in town.
So I rang the insurance assessor. I rangled with him for half an hour, and seemed to get nowhere. Until I mentioned the water inside the car. His smooth talking stalled. Apparently no one had told him about that (He hadn't been to see the car in person yet), and he said he would have to check it out and would get back to us.
Then on Friday, we got the call. The insurance company said that the car had been assessed as a write off, because the inside had gone mouldy. Hardly surprising considering the amount of water that had been locked in there for two weeks! But praise God!
Don't get me wrong. I am very sorry to see the car go. It has been a faithful little car since I bought it, and well worth the money I paid for it. But it was in need of some repairs already, which I couldn't afford, and the car was highly impractical for us in our situation here (Living and working on a dirt road, a small front wheel drive vehicle is not the best option... It's not the worst either, it had worked through some awful weather for 8 months, but it was time for change).So God has answered our prayers. And he used a hefty dose of humble mold to do it! He has a thousand ways to provide the answers to our prayers, and sometimes it is astonishing how He does it.
New year's resolutions, late....
Ok, so I know it is rather late, but better late than never... And I think I have some really good ones. New year's resolutions that is.
Without further ado, here they are... Oh, and because the Bible says it best, I'll quote it! Yep, they aren't even originally mine, lol... I'm just borrowing these, but I know a good thing when I see it...
Resolution Number 1. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:8
This one has always been a favorite of mine, because this has been the point that so many Christians seem to miss, especially conservative Christians... This one actually contains three things.
"Do justly" Do the right thing. Act justly and fairly towards your fellow men (and women :D).
"Love mercy" Be merciful to those around you. Know why these two are in the same verse? When people start to focus on "Doing justly", they start to get the idea that they need to "help/coerce" everyone else to do as they are doing. But that isn't the idea. It says "love mercy". Be kind to those around you, even if they don't live according to what you believe to be right. Don't judge their motives, don't jump to conclusions about their actions. Just live and let live. Encourage those around you. Try to be a little ray of sunshine, instead of being a little thundercloud!
"Walk humbly with your God" Be humble. Even if you are doing justly and loving mercy, being humble isn't always the easiest thing. It is easy to look down on others. STOP! That isn't Christianity. That is hypocrisy. But this isn't a sermon. These are my resolutions. And this text has been a favorite of mine for 6 or 7 years.
Resolution Number 2 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13
Another big favorite text. This one goes with the previous one. After all, what does it mean to "do justly"? This text has the answer. And what is more, it is the whole duty of man. Our duty is to keep God's commandments. Period.
And then, the biggest, and best one of all.
Resolution Number 3. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him..." Job 13:15
God has been good to us. Life hasn't always been smooth and easy, but that would be boring anyway. But I really need to trust God more. Regardless of what happens. Because He knows best. And He promises that everything works out for the good of those that love and trust him. So I'm going to trust Him, no matter what circumstance we face.
So those are my new year's resolutions, albeit two weeks late. But better late than never.
Without further ado, here they are... Oh, and because the Bible says it best, I'll quote it! Yep, they aren't even originally mine, lol... I'm just borrowing these, but I know a good thing when I see it...
Resolution Number 1. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:8
This one has always been a favorite of mine, because this has been the point that so many Christians seem to miss, especially conservative Christians... This one actually contains three things.
"Do justly" Do the right thing. Act justly and fairly towards your fellow men (and women :D).
"Love mercy" Be merciful to those around you. Know why these two are in the same verse? When people start to focus on "Doing justly", they start to get the idea that they need to "help/coerce" everyone else to do as they are doing. But that isn't the idea. It says "love mercy". Be kind to those around you, even if they don't live according to what you believe to be right. Don't judge their motives, don't jump to conclusions about their actions. Just live and let live. Encourage those around you. Try to be a little ray of sunshine, instead of being a little thundercloud!
"Walk humbly with your God" Be humble. Even if you are doing justly and loving mercy, being humble isn't always the easiest thing. It is easy to look down on others. STOP! That isn't Christianity. That is hypocrisy. But this isn't a sermon. These are my resolutions. And this text has been a favorite of mine for 6 or 7 years.
Resolution Number 2 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13
Another big favorite text. This one goes with the previous one. After all, what does it mean to "do justly"? This text has the answer. And what is more, it is the whole duty of man. Our duty is to keep God's commandments. Period.
And then, the biggest, and best one of all.
Resolution Number 3. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him..." Job 13:15
God has been good to us. Life hasn't always been smooth and easy, but that would be boring anyway. But I really need to trust God more. Regardless of what happens. Because He knows best. And He promises that everything works out for the good of those that love and trust him. So I'm going to trust Him, no matter what circumstance we face.
So those are my new year's resolutions, albeit two weeks late. But better late than never.
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