There’s more to this story than I will tell here; but that’s because I want to retain some of the particulars as my own personal details which is the catalyst and posture for the increase in my faith. “For those that have ears to hear”, this is one of the keys with which progress and an increase in faith and a relationship with Heavenly Father can be maintained – by retaining sacredness of a miraculous event, even by keeping most or or all the parts of it personal.

Only under the conditions as dictated by the spirit should a story, or event certain parts of it be told. I will tell you this story under those conditions, that hopefully will help others with the appreciation from a gospel perspective of the good works of a person and if at the least from a worldly sense, a greater appreciation for a Mac product. So this is not a sales pitch for Mac, but a personal story about my appreciation for my Mac, and at best, others can see that living righteously with best intentions does amount to something. So long as it’s recognized and directed towards the right Being.

Thus the story… (which took place on Aug 6, 2008)

Preface

As you know from reading other posts in my blog that I am currently the Scoutmaster in my Ward. It has been one of the more challenging assignments I have had. Youth 12-14 years of age, teaching scouting skills, going on camp-outs to practice those skills, and then rewarding for the efforts. Well, 12-14 year olds really have a mind of their own let alone the “natural” inclination to figure out how society expects them to behave. It must come from adult training, learning, and experience by example.

This experience was also one of my tests. A test to see if I would “go off my rocker”, swear, or demonstrate a poor way of handling a bad situation in front of the boys. What example would that set if I react poorly. Well, in my opinion, the outcome of this situation is a direct reflection on how I handled the situation. This can be said for most outcomes, whether they are good or bad. They reflect how we’re living and how we test during the trial.

I’m telling this story because the outcome here was favorable, if not, again, miraculous. A story can be told that was not favorable, and yield a positive learning experience, but fortunately, this one was not one of those. Maybe it is, depends on how you look at it, I guess.

The Activity

In order to receive their Swimming merit badge, the boys wanted to plan an outing to visit my parents house, who have a swimming pool. They wanted to go there because there are great toys, a slide, diving board, and it’s all around better than a public pool. I took my Mac, that has my scouting software installed on it so I could make updates to their rankings and activities.

We had a great time and they did manage to get their merit badge. Although some of them about drown =). Not really, they had a ton of fun.

Heading Home

We gathered up all our belongings and the assistant scout master prepared to take off with a few boys to get them home. I had the rest of the boys and I put my things in the trunk of my 2004 Pontiac GTP Supercharged.

I started up the car, backed out of the driveway, and started down the road. The driveway is on the downslope of a slight hill which then forks at the bottom which goes to the left or to the right just 50 yards from the driveway. It levels out after the turns, I needed to turn right. I turned and then heard thumping on the roof of the car. I saw something slide off the roof on to the ground. A scary feeling came to my stomach remembering that I rested my laptop on the top of the car while I was loading everything else. I looked in the rear-view mirrors and saw my laptop on the ground.

Ouch! I quickly stopped the car and backed up – careful to not run over my laptop, but to protect it from other cars that could come around the bend behind or in front of me. I got out, noticed it was laying on it’s bottom side so the top was up and I didn’t see a scratch on it. After picking it up, I examined the entire case. There were scratch marks all along the entire bottom, and a few abrasions on the edges and corners. Miraculously nothing that seemed drastic.

You know that empty, troubling feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when something really bad has happened. That’s what I felt. My photos, my scout stuff, journal items, lots and lots of documents. I have backups, but it was still something I didn’t want to have to be paying to replace or get fixed. You know how it is.

During this whole event, I didn’t overreact or swear, or say anything except the following, “Ah, shoot, there went my laptop off the car.” The boys said, almost in unison, “Are you serious?”. When I got back in the car, I said, “Oh, this is not good, I need to see if it will turn on.” They were all in shock at the event and awaiting my answer. I opened the lid, pushed the Power button and waited. The resounding Mac tune started and came to my login screen. I typed in the name and password, and it was working. “Holy cow!”, I said among the “Wow’s and Ahs” from the boys.

Humble Adoration

I turned off the computer and started to give a silent prayer that was extremely sincere (you know how sometimes some prayers are more sincere than others when we all know from Sunday School that all our prayers should be just as sincere). Well this was a moment, humbly speaking, that was a little more sincere the some of my others. I didn’t mind. It felt good to give thanks to get that feeling out of the pit of my stomach. I had nothing to lose to thank Heavenly Father for taking care of the laptop. This again, is a key.

Gratitude Where it Belongs

Gratitude always belongs directed towards our supreme being. I didn’t do anything different. I wasn’t being punished. I wasn’t what made the situation favorable. I’m sure I was being tested to see if I would act according to the example I was premeditated to do. There is nothing but gratitude for the outcome, remembering, with nothing else to lose, that my Heavenly Father was the executor and I am the benefactor.

If anything is learned from this lesson (and others I’ve had, thus the reason I know how this works and the keys and steps to increased development) is that we’re 1) prepared and obedient, 2) remain calm and in good form during the test/trial, 3) recognize God from whom we get everything regardless of the outcome, 4) recommit ourselves to increased faith and adoration to Him because of the event and outcome, 5) help others to know of God through the experience (or not if the spirit dictates), 6) continue to be obedient.

If this helps you to have a better day, or learn to have better days, then it was worth telling. If at the least, I love my Mac, it’s a durable beast, now called Tiny Might Mac; to go along with my childhood moniker Tiny Might Moe

P.S. One additional key – which I’m writing after this is all done, is that after reading this story for myself, I read it and laughed out loud. It was pretty much a second draft writing and went so well … that this is an indicator that the spirit is good with the outcome and what’s represented. Hope you enjoy.

We arrived yesterday (8/1/2008) at about 4:45 PM and set-up camp. The tents, the coolers, and laid everything out. Then we sought after the river. After dawning our swimsuits we got in the river (Weber River) and after about 30 seconds hopped out and found that our feet were burning up. It was so cold that we could stand being in there for very long.

After a while, we realized that wading and walking around in the river was best done with our reef-walkers. The rocks were not sharp, but slippery and caused the cold to deepen in the feet. Once we had those on, it was nice. Some actually dunked their heads, my assistant went for the gusto and dipped himself in completely in the middle of the river. He’s always crazy daring like that.

I quickly got out my fishing tackle and began searching for a good fishing spot. We went out on to a little marsh island that had obviously become attainable since the drop in the river. It made for getting out to the middle of the river much easier. Up the stream, down the stream. Nothing was biting, except the cold to our toes. No luck, new plan.

I crossed the river at the top of the river, under the causeway from the dam. I saw some fish surfacing close to this spot when I first arrived and wanted to get over there. But as I said before, the river was freezing and I was reluctant to go across it because I was afraid I’d get halfway, have to slow down because of the increase in volume of the river, and then not be able to go all the way, or then have to come back and my legs would be like popsicles by then.

Unfortunately, no one else caught any fish the whole trip. I cleaned the fish that night and taught the scouts how to do it. For some this was their first fishing trip and first time seeing and touching a live fish from the river. They were thrilled.

We played games around the camp-fire. A fun game called Psychiatrist. The kids always love playing that one cause it’s fun and simple. We played for about an hour.

We went to bed, some of us laying out under the stars. It was definately one of the clearest nights I have seen for as long as I can remember. The stars were numberous, the Milky Way cloudy, and the constelations were definite.

Morning came a lot sooner than I thought. That means I slept through the night soundly on the hard ground. That hardly happens, so I didn’t complain that it was morning. I got up and started preparing to go to the lake for our morning fishing trip. I awoke the scouts, broke camp, and started off.

We stopped at the first inlet we came to so we could get down to the lake and have a long day fishing. All to often do we will spend time trying to find the perfect spot and realize that we can only spend very little time at the spot. Feeling like the day’s been wasted. Not this time, we got out quick, fished, swam, fished, ate, fished.

That’s about how fast and furious that morning was. Not much to tell. It was warm, sunny, breezy … oh and I caught another Largemouth Bass. This one was no more than 7 inches, so I analyzed the fish to see that it wasn’t stressed, no “deep-hooking”, or bleeding and released him.

We started off for home about 11:15 AM and almost everyone slept on the way home. Didn’t I tell you it was a great trip.