Wings and prayers and prayers and wings...

For those that do not know, I have a crashed airplane in my hangar right now, waiting to be sold to a junk dealer.

If you have followed the local news for Grand Rapids Michigan today, you would know that there was an incident involving a medical helicopter on the hospital roof.

I would be willing to guess that there have been an increase in aviation prayers emanating from West Michigan this past month.

That and it's probably not a good time to talk to my wife about resuming flight school...

I was just in the hangar again today, and I just had to walk around the wrecked airplane again. It's probably a weekly occurance for me, just to walk around the wreckage and marvel at the design, and how it operated during the crash. It really is fascinating how aircraft are designed.

Obviously, they're not designed primarily for getting into crashes, but like race cars, there is a fair amount of consideration in the design allowing for the stresses of a crash.

As I walk around the aircraft, I see things that I didn't see before. I can see that the propeller blades are all bent backwards, meaning that the propeller was spinning when the aircraft hit the ground. But two of them are bent more than the third, telling me that the engine was not producing power at the time of impact.

The huge, gaping hole in the side of the aircraft is from the wing ripping off and tearing a hole in it. I then look at the wing itself, and see where impacted a tree. You can see from the way the metal is ripped that it probably stayed in the tree, and that's why it ripped off the rest of the aircraft. It must have been a pretty formidable tree too, because the damage to the wing is probably two feet across.

I can see that both landing gear are bent outwards, indicating that the plane hit with a fair amount of force. Landing gear are designed to absorb much of the impact of a normal landing, and then some, so for them to be bent out is something rather impressive.

I can also see a buckle in the airframe directly forward of the tail, telling me that when the airplane hit, the weight of the tail actually bent the body of the airplane.

I look towards the front of the airplane, and I can see where the nose gear was. It collapsed in the crash, and that's why the propeller blades are bent. I can also see that the metal framework that holds the front of the airplane together and holds the engine in place is bent as well.

I can see that the cargo pods slung underneath the airplane are crushed, and full of grass and mud. The mud is quite far up the body of the airplane, telling me that wherever it came down, the ground was pretty soft, soft enough that a car or truck probably would have gotten stuck.

This aircraft experienced a massive amount of force when it hit, that much is obvious.

When we take all these clues and put them together, the crash becomes more and more violent than might be suggested otherwise. It was a brutal, metal-twisting, ground-plowing, whiplash-inducing moment.

But small details tell me that this pilot, and this airplane, both performed flawlessly considering the circumstances.

For instance, in emergency training classes, pilots are taught, somewhat counterintuitively, that in the event of a crash landing, you aim for obstacles. Not how you would think though. This does not mean aim right at the biggest tree you see in front of you. The idea is that if you can aim the aircraft to hit some obstacles, then the energy will be dissipated into the obstacle, and not into you, or the passengers. For example, if you can manage to rip a wing off the airframe, that will slow you down enough that the ultimate impact will be less traumatic. Studies have shown that in the event of a serious crash landing, if the aircraft comes to a complete stop in less than seven feet, then the forces exerted on any humans in the aircraft will be so great as to cause usually fatal internal injuries.

But if the pilot can dissipate that energy over a longer stretch of ground, then the crash will most likely be survivable. This pilot hit a tree right dead center in the middle of the wing, and ripped it off the rest of the airplane. That means that a lot of energy was absorbed by the wing and the tree, and not the pilot.

Another small detail about the airplane is the seats. Aviation seats in most aircraft are designed to absorb some of the force of the impact in the event of a crash landing. The idea is the same, the dissipation of energy before it gets translated into the human occupant. In this particular aircraft, the seats are designed with a curved, "C" shape support bar. In the event of a crash landing, this support bar, with the rest of the seat structure, will collapse slightly, absorbing the energy so that the pilot's spine doesn't have to.

Here's the awesome part: The seats weren't damaged.

That means that the pilot was skilled enough to pick a spot that would give him a relatively safe landing, taking all these factors into account, and it also means that the aircraft's design allowed the energy of the crash to be absorbed by key parts of the airframe, instead of the cockpit area, and by extension, the pilot. All this heap of crumpled metal means that the force of the impact was dissipated in ways that were not ultimately harmful to the human occupant.

I was talking to a mechanic that was helping with the investigation, and he said that the pilot didn't even have a sore spot or bruise from his shoulder harness.

That is impressive.


wingnut

Memorial Memories

It's been a week....that's not like me lately. I've been writing a lot, just not here.

Anyway, last weekend was a beautiful weekend. The extra day made all the difference in the world. It was the kind of weekend where you really do hate to go back to work afterwards.

So what did we do? Well, I'll tell you.

We grilled hamburgers.
We grilled hot dogs, cheddar smokies, and brats.
We had people over.
We slept in.
We took naps.
We went to a bonfire.
We went to the park.
We went to the zoo.
We walked barefoot through the woods.
I think I sprained my toe playing hide and seek.
We kept getting free cable.
I played darts.
We visited my sister's new house, which just happens to be my old house.

How can work compete with that list?


wingnut

The fruit of the web browser is news, news, news.

Dateline, Jenison Michigan. 5/21/08

Elijah Jason is not oozing snot all over. Mommy isn't stuffed up anymore. And Daddy, once again, somehow escaped the ravages of the cold virus.

There's a neat-o crashed airplane in my hangar right now. You can read the story here. It's not going to fly again, either. The news pictures don't do it justice. I'd post some I've taken, but I'm not sure of the legality of that. But, it's still less expensive to replace an airplane than it is to replace a pilot, so it was a good crash landing. I heard that he didn't even get a bruise from the shoulder harness. He did better than I would have, I think.

While I was searching for that story, I found this story. That's literally right at the end of our street. I'm not quite sure how fireworks would be mistaken for a hot air balloon, but I wasn't there I guess. Incidentally, it's not a good area to land a hot air balloon. Or crash one, for that matter.

I found this today online, and it made me want to play softball again. And convinced me that the world is still a relatively decent place.

Sorry there's no substance today, but I hope you enjoy the fruits of my browsing!


wingnut

What are we waiting for??

"Where would we be today if Abraham had carefully weighed the pros and cons of God's invitation and decided that he'd rather hang on to his medical benefits, three weeks paid vacation and retirement plan in Ur? What would have happened if Moses had listened to his mother's advice to "never play with matches" and lived a careful, cautious life steering clear of all burning bushes? You wouldn't have the gospel if Paul had concluded that the life of a Pharisee, while not everyting a man dreams for, was at least predictable and certainly more stable than following a voice he heard on the Damascus road. After all, people hear voices all the time and who really knows whether it's God or just one's imagination. Where would be be if Jesus was not fierce and wild and romantic to the core? Come to think of it, we wouldn't be at all if God hadn't taken that enormous risk of us in the first place."


-John Eldredge, Wild at Heart pg. 202-03


So awesome, I had to share it.


wingnut

The Continuation of Hell Week

This weekend, Shan and I were all geared up to celebrate our first "real" Mother's Day. I say "real" because Shan and I have walked together through two miscarriages, and although we never did get to meet our babies, they were still our babies. We are still their parents. So Eli makes our celebration all the more real, but we still look back on previous Mother's Days and recognize that we have been parents for a while now.

Anyway, in the continuation of our awful week last week, Shan came down with a nasty cold, and spent the whole weekend on the couch, trying to avoid much close contact with Eli. Who now has the sniffles anyway.

So she spent the weekend miserable and sick, and I spent the weekend trying to wish her and my son back into health.

The zoo trip on Saturday got cancelled, and the weather on Sunday cancelled everything else. Here's another awful thing: Because Shan was sick, and I had to watch Eli, Shan ended up going to the store (on Mother's Day), and then had to cook her own Mother's Day dinner (on Mother's Day).

I know, I know...I'm a horrible Dad and Husband. You'd think after five years I would have mastered the art of doing five things at once, and feeding my son and cooking dinner and taking care of a sick wife all at the same time. But no, I am not SuperDad.

We have rescheduled for this weekend. Which means I'll be the sick one.

Anyway, our weekend fell apart, just like the rest of the week did. On Friday, Shan asked me if I thought her getting sick was the Friday thing. Because something bad happened every day last week, and she started to feel sick on Friday. I said "Yep. Probably."

So then today, I watched Everything Is Spiritual, a DVD of a speaking tour my pastor did across the US. Incidentally, I find it rather comforting that when I hear my pastor teach, I can sometimes pick out what book he's talking about by what he's saying...at least someone reads the same kind of books I do!

Anyway, I'm watching this, and it hits me, as Pastor Rob is talking about the fact that humanity is unique in the fact that we have both a physical and a spiritual nature, that this spiritual nature allows us to be aware of the spiritual world. Pretty straight forward, I know.

But then I think, demons are spiritual creatures too. The Enemy does not have a physical presence. A point to ponder, as I re-examine this whole spiritual warfare thing. Why can I say, without a doubt, that humans are spiritual creatures, and believe it as sure as I believe that the earth is round, and yet be so skeptical of demonic powers?

Last night, I read a few pages farther in Wild at Heart. Eldredge was detailing how the Enemy attacks and works, upon men in particular, and upon people in general. He was telling the story of how his wife had dizzy spells for a number of years, and that how dizziness, and disorientation is related with demonic forces when concerning spiritual warfare. When they fought against the dizziness, it got worse for a time, then disappeared.

I felt like I got hit with a two by four when I read that.

Last Monday night, when I got home from work, Shan and I were "at odds". It was brutal. She was in the basement, ready to literally pull our cat's head off his body, cleaning poop off the floor. I came downstairs at just the wrong moment. I volunteered to take over, knowing that Shan had had a long day, and didn't need to be doing this right now. She needed to go to bed. But instead, it escalated. At one point, she asked me a question, and I replied, "I don't know." I grew up in a house where we thought about every possible answer before we answered. Shan grew up in a house where if you didn't have an answer right away, it was bad news for everyone.

Anyway, not to bore you with details, I went upstairs to cool off, and Shan went outside to cool off.

As I sat on my kitchen floor, wondering just what in the world had happened, the book spoke to me. Not in a literal way, but something of Eldredge's that I had just read smashed it's way into my mind, and I began to pray. I prayed that God would protect us, our home, our marriage, and our newly made covenant. I prayed that the Enemy would leave this house, and not come back. I prayed that the Enemy would leave our son alone, and leave us alone.

When I began to pray that, I got dizzy. Really dizzy, like I wasn't sure if I was leaning against the cupboards, or standing up, or laying down, or surfing. It was weird. And it was strong too. I've been dizzy before, and I've had a few dizzy spells, where you have to blink once or twice to convince yourself that you're okay, but not like this. Not this intense. I prayed through it, and it faded.

So now I have to keep going down this rabbit hole. I can't go back, because no victory is that easy. I haven't won, my family hasn't won. We need to continue this fight. I have spent a good long time not doing anything against the Enemy. But now I have suddenly found myself at the front lines, and I am coming to the realization that I have been there for a while, and just hadn't known it.


wingnut

One...hell...of a week.

Last Sunday, Shan and I dedicated our little Elijah to the LORD. I mentioned before how much time and thought went into what we were going to say in our covenant. We took (and take) it very seriously.

I believe that part of that process was thinking about it, seriously considering what to say, and how best to articulate what we mean when we are thinking about it. We also believe that when we ask God to enter into a covenant like we did on Sunday, it will happen. It's all part of the mystery how it actually happens, but we believe that God will hold us to the covenant. Not so much as in a stern parent waiting for us to mess it up, and then saying "I told you so", but more as in a concerned parent coming along side his children and helping them when they ask and need His help.

I recently have been reading Wild at Heart, by John Eldridge, and there is a chapter in the book about spiritual warfare. One of the best tactics of the Enemy, he says, is convincing us that we are not at war. That there isn't a battle raging around us and through us. He says that when we begin to understand our position, and our role in God's New Creation, that when we take spiritual warfare seriously, we should expect some opposition.

Well, given the week we just had, I would have to say that we are experiencing some opposition.

Now, I still do not know how I feel about this whole thing. If I am being honest, when I consider the idea of Satan, I find it hard to swallow. It seems to me that this particular doctrine, at least in my tradition, has been overused as an excuse for those who have messed up somehow. I haven't bought it all the way, and feel that the things I have been told and taught about Satan and Hell are simply stories to make us feel better about our issues, and to convince us that Christianity is better than the alternative.

Some may say that simply the fact that I think this is evidence enough that Satan exists, and is attempting to cloud himself in secrecy and disbelief to the detriment of my spiritual health.

Perhaps.

But I would say that I feel a strong compulsion to examine everything, test it, reason it, poke it, think it out. And I feel this is important, even necessary, in order to have a healthy spirituality.

I digress. This past week was difficult, for both my wife and I. Monday was the worst. It was brutal. Shan had an absolutely bone-crushing day at work. After such a busy weekend, she and I were low on our "Eli time", and really felt like we had not seen him in days.

When she came home, after running around after work and picking up Eli, bone tired, she went downstairs to find our basement full of cat poop. This is a problem we have been dealing with for quite some time, and it's now getting to the point where we are out of options. The medication is not working, and we can't seem to get him to stay in the litter box.

Tuesday we had some family issues, just another thing to worry about. Also we got word on our cat issue, and everyone else we've talked to is out of ideas, including our vet.

Yesterday, I ran into Meijer real quick on my way in to work, and someone backed into my Blazer. So now I have a fairly good sized gouge in the hood, along with an awesomely bad looking dent. I pushed some of it back out, but it's gonna need a bit of work.

And today, we talked further with our vet, and though she absolutely did not want to, said it might be in our (and our cat's) best interest to consider euthanasia.

All these things could be separate posts, but for now, suffice it to say that I am beginning to think that perhaps all this stuff happening right after we dedicated our family to God is no coincidence.


wingnut

Our Covenant with Elijah Jason

May 4, 2008

Mars Hill Bible Church

“For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me what asked of him, so now I give him to the LORD.” I Samuel 1:27-28

Our Little Elijah,

We have been waiting, hoping and praying for you for a long time. It is our great joy and honor to have you finally join us. Not a day goes by that we don’t thank God for the little miracle He has given us. As you begin to take little steps, with Mommy’s help, we as a family take a big step. Today we are dedicating you to God. We do not take this covenant lightly. God gave us a very big responsibility when He chose us to be your parents. We promise to demonstrate Christ’s unconditional love to you, and to each other.

We chose to name you Elijah because in Hebrew it means “Yahweh is my God”. After all of the struggles we have been through we knew there was no name more appropriate. God kept his promise with us. God has given you to us to teach you about His promises. We promise to raise you in a home that will teach you to trust God as your leader.

We want so many things for you Elijah. We have struggled writing this because there is a long list of things that we want for you, but this is not about what we want. It is about what God wants for you. God has created you a certain way and we promise to help you discover what you were created to do. We hope that you can learn to love God with all that you are, and we know that everything else will follow.

Elijah, Mommy promises to always love your Daddy. I promise to respect and honor him in my actions, my words and my thoughts. I will try my hardest to demonstrate to you the unconditional love that Christ has for you. My hope for you is that you will always rejoice God in the good times, turn to God in the hard times, listen to God in the silent times, and trust God all of the time. Mommy loves you so much.

Elijah, as your Daddy, I promise to love your Mommy until the day I die and then beyond. Jesus gave us the ultimate example of this love, and I promise to strive towards that example with Mommy, with you and with others. In this way, I promise to show you how to treat your wife. I promise to always take time out to play with you. I promise to help you grow both physically and spiritually. I promise to always look out for you and provide for you. Daddy loves you lots!

We promise to look to the future with hope, and look to the past and learn.

We promise to provide a home for you that is loving and safe, and that honors the Lord.

We promise to love you unconditionally, even when unconditional is hard to do.

We promise to learn from your innocence.

We promise to laugh often and not take life too seriously.

We promise to use Christ as our example in everything that we do.

We love you,

Daddy and Mommy