random thoughts... My name is Aaron, sometimes called Max because it's my middle name. I recently married a beautiful woman who just so happens to be the love of my life.

I know how we all LOVE forwarded e-mails. Especially the Christian ones that “convict” us into sending it onto our victims, I mean, friends and family if we “really love Jesus.” I DO NOT send them out. If I do, I take off the last section about needing to send it to 15 people for a miracle to happen in their lives.

That being said, I like reading them. They’re kind of cool. I like the fictional stories. Do I believe they’re ALL real, of course not. Do I think they could possibly have happened? Yes, but probably not. Sorry to burst your bubble of “it’s in an e-mail so it MUST be true.” Jesus still loves me.

So today, my office-mate, Prof, sent me just such an e-mail. Don’t worry, he’s not a perpetuator of Spiritual Spam. I asked him to send it to me. This is how the story goes: Dr. Christianson (real original name, by the way) is in charge of a mandatory, freshmen level, Christian class. Basically, all freshmen in this small “Western United States college” (How can you tell me none of this is made up??? Anyways…) are forced to take this class.

Although Dr. Christianson, who is a Christian himself, does his best to make the class interesting and insightful, most of the students who attend only do so out of obligation. One year, Dr. Christianson gets a single person who WANTS to be in the class, a young man named Steve.

Sensing the opportunity of a Christian collaboration, Dr. Christianson speaks to Steve about a little demonstration he’d like to do in class. Steve agrees and it’s set. They work out the particulars, and everything’s ready.

The day comes and Steve is ready to go. Dr. Christianson has purchased a few dozen delicious donuts and is offering them to the entire class. The only hitch is that Steve must do 10 sit-ups before they receive the donut. Each student gets a donut, regardless of the fact if they want one or not, and Steve does 10 push-ups for each donut/person.

By the end of the demonstration people are upset at the Dr., crying because they can’t help, and Steve is laying on the floor exhausted. Dr. Christianson then turns to his class, and the extra people who happened to wander in for free donuts, and says that this demonstration was done to give them a picture of the sacrifice Jesus made for the world. Some people accepted their donuts as the gift they were while others left their donuts untouched on their desks. Whether or not they choose to accept the gift, the price has been paid. Class dismissed.

While this story is most assuredly made up, it serves as a demonstration in and of itself. The actions taken by the people reflect the actions taken by God and Jesus. They came together and decided on a ransom for our very souls.

I used to be upset about Jesus dying on the cross. I never really understood why, though. I just knew that, when a pastor would speak about the Crucifixion, I would cry bitter tears and there would be this dark, stormy cloud of turmoil spinning around in my head and heart. I could visually imagine Jesus nailed to the cross for me. I could see His hurt and know that I couldn’t do anything about it. By why would it upset me?

After I read that forward, I realized something. Some of the students in the class offered to do their own push-ups for their donuts, but the Dr. wouldn’t let them. He said only Steve could. And, in reality, only Jesus could lay down His life for us because no one else has the power to. I would sit there, years ago, and pray that Jesus wouldn’t be tortured for my sake. Only now do I understand, as I read of the many students who rejected their donuts, that I KNEW Jesus’ sacrifice, the price He paid, the pain He went through, yet I also KNEW that I was going to leave that room and live my life the way I wanted to. I KNEW I was going to sin. I was already making plans to sin before I even got to church. And that killed me. The price had been paid and I knew that I was rejecting it before I could even appreciate it.

Life is different for me now. I do my best to really be the person God wants me to be, instead of just paying lip service and continuing on with “my life.” When I think of Jesus’ sacrifice for me now, tears still come to my eyes, but they’re no longer bitter. Although there are millions of people in the world who daily reject Him, I know that I accept AND, more importantly, appreciate His gift.

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” Jude 1:24-25

I love donuts and I love salvation, especially with chocolate on top…of the donut, of course :oD

As a RANDOM happening, today seems to be the National Donut Day! Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts are giving away a free donut with the purchase of any beverage (limit one per customer). Go, enjoy a cup of coffee and donut, and maybe think about the other free gifts in our lives that are sitting on our proverbial desks.

Ok, so the past few days have been kind of a bummer.

My back decided to flip out on me on Wednesday. Stupid thing. I don't think I feed it enough.

Well, anyways, so I saw my Chiropractor (ha, spelled it right my first try!) on Monday, got adjusted and everything seemed fine. I was a little tense after the visit, but everything was okay. Tuesday, my back was still tense. I'm pretty sure that's when I blogged last and asked for some prayer. Wednesday morning is when it hit the fan.

Ok, so I wake up and everything's peachy. I get out of bed with no complaints from my back. I use the restroom, and get down on my knees to wash my hands. Side Note: after my back started giving me problems, I found that it was easier and less painful to get on my knees to wash my hands instead of leaning forward to the ridiculously short sink in our restroom. I finish washing my hands, and guess what, I can't stand up...crap. Not only can I not stand up, but I'm in a whole lot of pain. I call my wife and she helps me limp to the bed, which is, luckily, only a few feet away (thank God we live in an apartment).

We call the church office to let them know I won't be in and that Leslie won't be in for long because she's going to head back and take me to the doctor's office. After much coersion and outbursts of pain, Leslie leaves for the office and I'm left alone to my agony. Seriously, I knew she had to take care of some things for me, but neither of us wanted her to leave me alone. I call the Chiropractor's office and let them know I'll be late and that I'm in a serious amount of pain.

Leslie comes back from the office and helps me get dressed, out of the apartment, and down the stairs (Why God? Why did we have to live on the second floor???). Let me just tell you now, if your back ever starts to spasm, get some serious meds in you, fast. I took a "cocktail," which is a mix of Advil and Tylenol. It didn't do much for me except appease my mind.

We get to the doctor's office and it was like half of my church decided to come in for an adjustment. There were at least 6 people from my church there that morning. They all opted to let me through before them; thanks ladies :)

Can I just give you one tip? When you're going to any doctor's office or hospital of any sort, DON'T WEAR SHORTS. I was not only in pain, I was also freezing!

After laying on a few contraptions that eased my back whilst also causing me more pain, (it was a very perplexing thing for me) my Dr. said that he wanted me to get some meds and an MRI. They scheduled an emergency apointment with a clinic down the road and I was off to find me some meds.

Our general practitioner, the doctor we usually see, wasn't in the office and they wanted us to come in and sit for another ungodly amount of time, so we called some friends to see if they had any leftover pain meds. I know, I know, it's totally wrong to do that. But I was in pain! You'd totally do the same thing, just wait.

We get to the MRI place and find out that they not only have to wait for authorization from my chiropractor, who just happened to leave for a 2 hour lunch, they also have to wait for my insurance to clear. The insurance is under my dad's name and there are all these prerequisites that have to be met, like faxed info from the doctor who saw me who, again, just so happend to step out for a long lunch....yeah.

Long story short, we ended up going to the general practitioner's office to get the meds. We also had to wait till the next day to get the MRI, but but than, thank God, I had my meds (a pain killer and a muscle relaxer).

Thank you God for muscle relaxers.

The next day, I had the MRI then headed over to my chiropractor to deliver the films. My stomach was NOT feeling good and, before we even park in the parking lot at the doc's office, I was out of the car and spewing whatever was in me on the side of the road. Lucky me.

Days later, I'm here in my house, where I've been for the past four days and haven't gone very many places other than the doc's office. Leslie leaves only when she has to, we'd both rather have her stay here. My back is okay. It's still spasming, but the meds help A LOT with the pain.

Leslie's been awesome. She's had to pick up the slack from everything I can't do: taking out the trash, refilling the 5 gallon water jug, lugging the groceries up the stairs, washing all the dishes, and acting as a human walker for me when I want to move from the bed/couch to the restroom. Yeah, she's been amazing.

Please be praying for us. The MRI results should be in Monday. We don't know if it's just my sacrum (spelling? any idea what the heck that is??), or if I have a herniated disc, or what. We'll see Monday. Pray for Leslie, who, like I said, is carrying a lot of extra responsibilities and emotions.

Hopefully it won't take me so long to update next time.