Part Five: Veggie Lessons

During this whole time, some of the most profound lessons Alex and I have learned came through animated vegetables. Seriously, Veggie Tales has taught me a lot in the last few years. Buried in the silly acting of Bible stories, there are some profound sermons. I suppose this should not come as a huge surprise, given that the basis for these videos is the Bible. However, it came as a surprise to me.

At the time, and I give God the credit for this, Micah's favorite videos were "Gideon: Tuba Warrior," and "Josh and the Big Wall."

Now Gideon is my favorite. Gideon receives a ridiculous command from the Lord, and tests it to see that it is really God. He never seems to worry about what God is saying, only that it is in fact God. Once this is established, he sets out to take a tiny army against the enormous army of Midianites. Then, God tells him to cut down his army. He cuts it down, then God tells him to cut it down again. Left without enough men to even put up a fight, Gideon takes his men with horns and torches, and manages to confuse the Midianite army into fighting each other. Gideon stepped out, looking absolutely ridiculous, having faith that God would show up and back him up. So many times, I have felt that, by following God's voice, I've put all my dignity on the line, believing that God will back me up. Actually, this is one of those times, as I am taking this story as public as I know how, and at this moment that I am writing, it looks like God left me hanging high and dry.

Anyway, in the Veggie Tales telling of Gideon, my favorite part is when the angel says to Gideon, "It's not your job to defeat them, it's God's. Your job is to believe that he will do what he says." Now, Micah watched this video several times a week. And it usually came on days that I needed to hear that particular line.

The next video was "Josh and the Big Wall." This tells the story of Joshua and the Israelites, after they wandered in the desert 40 years and reached the promised land, and they found the land occupied. On finding this, they had many different plans of how to fix things themselves, and many of them wanted to just go back to slavery. God, however, had other plans. He instructed them to march around the city of Jericho once every day for 7 days, and on the 7th day to blow trumpets while they marched, then when they finished, to give one long blast, and the walls of the city would collapse. Can you imagine how embarrassing? And to top it off, the French peas stand at the top of the wall hurling insults and grape slushies at them.

My favorite part of this story is when the Israelites basically say, "Heck, no!" And Junior Asparagus runs out from narrating and yells at them all. He recounts all the things God has done in the past that did not make sense at the time, but proves that God has always come through and done what he said.

So, next time your faith needs a boost, I highly recommend a little Veggie Tales.

Part Four: The Wilderness/Holding God's Hand

The time that has followed God changing our plans, Alex and I have been able to relate to almost every major Bible story. Every story in which a person is following a promise from God, we plug ourselves into it, and the story comes alive to us.

My favorite passage in the Bible is Deuteronomy 8, where God explains the Israelites' time wandering in the desert. I've been in this place so many times. It is the story of a loving God, who rather than letting his people choose their own plan, brought them out into the desert to wait. I believe God has a story for each of his people to be a part of. And I'm thankful, that in my case, as with the Israelites, he did not bless my plans but made me wander until I sought out his plan.

This little snippet from Deut. 8:3, sums up my whole relationship with God, "...causing you to hunger, and then feeding you..." I don't know about everyone else, but I don't look for God until I'm hungry for something. And I'm so glad he holds back and waits for me to keep getting hungry, instead of moving on without me, letting me continue going in the wrong direction.

As soon as Alex knew God wanted him to teach full time at Owens, he did what we all do, he tried to figure out how to make it happen. At the time, a bachelor's degree was necessary (even though there is no bachelor's in welding), and Alex had never even finished his Associates. He had state certifications, which were what really mattered for getting a job in a trade. So, Alex made a plan to pursue a 4 year degree. The plan was that he would work 2 jobs and go to school for the next 10 years. Then, he would wait until there was an opening, which there hadn't been in 20 years.

I did NOT like this plan. I did not feel that Alex missing his kids' childhood and not being a present father could ever be what God was asking him to do. I begged Alex to really seek God on this. I said that if God had really called him to teach full time, then God (not Alex) would make it happen in a way that did not destroy his family in the process.

Alex started to pray more than he ever had before, seeking directions from God. And he heard God say very clearly, "If you are holding my hand, you don't need directions." When he told me this, I thought of our small son, Micah. Micah would hold my hand everywhere we went. He never worried about where we were going, but I would tell him where we were going so that he could get excited about it. Alex and I had the profound revelation that God tells us things, not so we can make them happen, but so we can anticipate them, and see that it is him when they do happen.

Part Three: Fire, Metal and Faulty Lungs

Alex's first welding class was taught by the most inspiring man he has ever met, and he fell in love with the process. Alex seems to have an unexplained God-given gift for welding. I keep hearing that he is the best welder anyone has ever seen. It has not been uncommon for something to come easily to Alex, but this was uncanny. Through welding, Alex discovered a passion for the basic process of things. Now, in addition to doing all his own home and car repairs, he presses cider, hunts, makes soap, you name it. The man can make, fix or build anything.

Alex and I plunged into adulthood head first. In less than a year, I graduated from college, launched my photography business, got married, bought a house, and got pregnant. Life was fun and exciting, and after dating for 7 years, we loved living a life of constant change. We had big plans. I was going to build up the photography business until it was profitable enough for Alex to quit welding and work at home with me. We were going to have a ton of kids, live in the country, working together and schooling our kids together.

Then, at the beginning of my third trimester, Alex's lung collapsed while he was sitting down at work. It was a shock, but after a short, pleasant hospitalization and the draining of our savings, we went back to life as normal. A month later, it happened again. Now he needed lung surgery, a longer more miserable hospital stay, and two months off of work, no pay. I was 7 months pregnant, and it was a very difficult experience, one you do not prepare for in your first year of marriage.

God provided for all our bills to the dollar. Things did not happen the way we expected. People we expected to help us were nowhere to be found. But God was so faithful. Random acquaintances of ours reached out and did great things for us. We got checks in the mail from the oddest places.

We came out of it with all our household bills paid and our needs met. However, there were medical debts, our savings account was liquidated, and we were about to have a baby. We needed to come up with more money than we were making. Alex's great inspiring welding instructor called and said he wanted Alex to come and try teaching a class. It turned out that he could teach just 2 nights a week and add 50% to our income. It was great!

Alex came home from his first class glowing. He looked at me and said, "Ali, this is what God made me for. I know I am supposed to teach full time."

I was ticked. That ruined all my plans. I'd been working my tail off to build a business for us, so that we could work together at home. That was our dream! But I knew Alex well enough to know that when he is sure of something, it is right. If Alex knew God had another plan for us, then I was sure it would be good. I didn't like it, but I believed I would.

Up until that point, I had great plans for everything I was going to do with my life to glorify God. And I thought that because I planned it for him, he would bless it. I never asked him if they were his plans for me. And when the thought occurred to me, I shrunk back in fear. I was attached to all my plans and did not want God to take them away. Even though experience had taught me that God has only ever taken something from me so that he could give me something better in its place.

Part Two: Enter Alex

Continuing with the back story, Alex and I met in 5th grade. He came with his friend Joey to my church for Pioneer Clubs. I was the one girl in a class of 13 boys, and less than affectionately dubbed "the endangered species." I hated that class. I was a shy kid, and while I appreciated my fair share of attention, all eyes on me was my worst nightmare. I was tormented and teased constantly by these boys. The adults told me that they all just had crushes on me, but I knew they were just trying to make me feel better about the miserable truth that no one could change. It turns out, looking at old photos, I was a pretty cute kid, and they may have been right. I distinctly remember Alex from those days, because he did not pay much attention to me, and the attention he did give me was friendly. Somehow, Alex's parents succeeded in what so many other parents could never do. They raised boys who were nice to girls. Alex had no sisters, but had younger girl cousins. Playing with girls was considered a privilege, for which you had to behave yourself.

Jumping ahead, my family moved on from that church, and Alex continued attending occasionally with his friend. In 7th grade, he gave his life to Christ and became more passionate about God than anyone I had met my age. At that same time, I began attending the youth group of my former church with my-now-sister-in-law Natalie. We made good friends with Alex and his brother Aaron, never dreaming we would marry them.

I distinctly remember the first time I felt any attraction for Alex. He had fairy wings on his back, and the youth pastor's toddler on his shoulders, tearing around the church yelling, "We're on fire!!! We're on fire!!!" The little boy was laughing as only a toddler can. All the other jr. high boys were insecurely trying to be cool. Alex was just fun.

Shortly after that, Alex developed a crush on me. He was very open and enthusiastic about his feelings for me... It was so embarrassing. I liked someone else, someone not half as nice as Alex. I remember pouring my heart out to my mom like the immature teenager I was, saying how I felt so bad that I didn't like him, because he was so nice. After a few weeks of this, she finally lost patience, and said, "Well then why don't you like him? Nice wears well over time!" Which was funny, considering I was supposedly not allowed to date anyway. Shortly after that, I went with him to his 8th grade graduation dance, and my parents stopped saying I was not allowed to date. I remember my mom saying something to the effect of, "They hang out together at church, he loves her and she loves him. We can put restrictions on what name we give it, but if it looks like a duck and quacks, you might as well call it a duck."

Anyway, long story short, Alex became the most incredible friend I ever had. And after he grew a foot and lost the round face, round glasses and little boy haircut, every girl I knew wished they could be with him. He and I never broke up. We dated through high school. Then we went to college together for photography, but realized that growing our own business into something profitable would take longer than we wanted to wait to get married. So, Alex flipped through the Owens class catalogue, came to the welding page, said, "Fire... Metal... Sounds cool!" And that begins this story...

Part One: The Most Important Ounce of Welch's Ever!

In order to start this story, I will begin with a little background. As this story is really about hearing God's voice, I will start with the first time I did. It was a Sunday, communion Sunday to be precise, and I was 5 years old. Now in our church, it was considered sinning against Jesus' body for anyone to take communion who had not accepted Jesus into their hearts as Lord and Savior. As I was 5 years old, and our church services were very long, I had gotten very hungry, and quite parched. Whatching those tiny grape juices being passed around was more than I could take. So, I told my mom that I was ready to accept Jesus into my heart. It was maybe the worst reason ever for getting saved. But my mom was very excited, not knowing that really it was discomfort in my stomach, not my spirit that lead me to commit my soul to God. She lead me into the lobby, and we sat in a quiet corner under the coat hangers. She lead me through a prayer to accept Jesus into my heart. That was September 16th, 1990, and my mom has celebrated the day every year since.

You want to know the cool think about that day? I don't remember drinking that grape juice. I do, however, remember on the way home, sitting in the back of our car (this hideous gold woody wagon boat of a car) full in my spirit, listening to God's voice. My mom remembers it because she asked me what I was thinking, and I told her God was speaking to me. She thought I was pretending and asked me what he was saying. I told her that he was telling me how much he loved me, and then told her I was going to go listen some more. I don't know about you, but I do not remember a lot about being five. But this memory is clear. It is the day that I knew God's character, not the one I was taught about for the next several years, but the One who I love and who still speaks to me now.