The drive home was long, but a little easier this time. I got a new deck for my car that connects to my ipod, so I was able to listen to some podcasts and some an audiobook on the way home. I bought The Shack from audible.com. It was a long 8.5 hours to listen to the book, but I really liked it. I know there is a lot of hype about the book and some controversy, but if you are reading with an open heart and able to look past a few shady details, it really has a great message. Any thoughts on the book that you have would be appreciated.
It is crazy not to have my Dad around anymore. Several times I have reached for my phone to call my Dad to chat, only to realize that I can’t do that anymore. It was tough to remove my Dad from my speed dial on my phone. That will be hard to get used to.
I am back to work tomorrow. That will be a huge change of pace. I am so thankful for all the time I was able to take off. I know I will never regret the time I was able to spend up in Calgary during the last couple months. I was able to have almost 2 months off! What a blessing!
Now that things are going to be sorta “back to normal” I will be back on the blog more often and back to my twitter too.
Today my Dad died at 12:45pm. I was there in the room with him with my two sisters and my mom. It was such a peaceful thing. Way different than I thought. I am so happy to know that he is free from pain, but so sad that I will not see him again this side of heaven. I love him more than I could ever write on this blog. I will miss him more than anything. Today I lost my Dad and also my best friend. Thank you all for the prayers that were prayed for me, my Dad, and our family.
I have been reading Hosea lately, and I cam just LOVING it! I have read it before, but for some reason this time it is just sinking in so deep. Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute named Homer — but I just call her “Prosty the Snowman” because it has more or a ring to it. Anyway, even after Hosea marries her, she is completely unfaithful and continues to screw around with any and every guy she can get her hands on. And that is how God chose to illustrate His relationship with His people. WOW! What a slap in the face. When I read that I realized how I go every day living my life totally self-centered and whoring around with the world. I am not faithful to God.
So here I sit in the midst of feeling like a little tramp that is not worthy of any love or forgiveness and then I read this:
“But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her there.
I will return her vineyards to her
and transform the Valley of Trouble into a Gateway of Hope.
She will give herself to me there,
as she did long ago when she was young…”
I can’t even take that in enough! God is saying (in my own words) “Even though you have been living like a whore, I will seduce you once again to love me with all of your heart”. That was such a huge verse for me. I spent a good chunk of the night just thinking about it and begging God to seduce me back to loving Him “as I did long ago when I was young”. That is what I want. I want to be in LOVE with God again!
I am back in Calgary now. I drove about a hundred million miles in the last month. I am tired as heck and I feel like I could literally die. Aside from that, here is an update on my Dad…
When he was first diagnosed they were able to put a stent in his bile duct to relieve some of the pain that was caused by a tumor blocking his bile duct. This resulted in his bile spilling into his blood and making him very uncomfortable and jaundiced. That worked great for a while, but now the stent is blocked and the doctors opted not to take any further action. What this means is that he will get real sick now and probably go into a coma. Then he should die shortly after that.
Dad is still able to talk to us and make jokes. He has had lots of visitors and someone has been at the hospital at all times. He is starting to get a little delirious because of all the medication he is taking. But we are all just trying to soak up the last days that we have with him.
Today he broke down crying and told us how important it is that we “grab hold of Jesus”. What a great way to go! He loves God so much and he is going to go be with Him soon.
Please pray for all of us. I get the feeling like this is going to be much harder on us that it is on him.
I have become very aware of a particular struggle of mine this last week. What I notice is that I compartmentalize my life SO much. If my life were represented in circles, I feel like I have one circle for friends, one for family, one for music, one for work, one for my faith, one for etc etc etc. I really don’t like that. Especially since when life gets busy (which it ALWAYS does) my faith is the one that always gets put on the back burner. I want my life to be encompassed with my faith whether it be in my work, family, church, or any other aspect of my life.
I really don’t think God wants people who will devote an hour or two to him and then put him aside for the rest of the day.
It is either very late or very early. I can’t tell. My Dad went into the hospital today because of some bad pains. He is getting all sorts of tests done today. Pray for him because he is very uncomfortable. Just sitting up in his bed takes his breath away. The Docs are putting him on even more meds here than he was on at home. We just hope he can come home soon.
I have been here since about 5pm yesterday — I am VERY tired. But at least I got some work done.
It has been a while since my last post, but I have been VERY busy. We took another 21 hour road trip up to Canada to visit my Dad. We are up here now, and will leave on Friday. Cohen was absolutely perfect in the car. She slept for 7 or 8 hours, and was such a good girl while she was awake. I don’t think she cried a single time. That is amazing! I hope the ride home is as good.
It is really hard to see my Dad declining. Even today was noticably worse than yesterday. Today was Candadian Thanksgiving and we had all the family over. Dad spent most of the time sleeping. I am very thankful to be here with him right now.
Hope everyone is having a great Canadian Thanksgiving. Use it as an opportunity to tell someone you love that you are thankful for them!
So my website was hacked today! Any site that was hosted on my account was plastered with the following webpage along with some creepy east indian music…
So I know I have been a little bit of slacker in the blog realm lately. But I have a good excuse! There have been a couple additions to my social media repetoire that I have been able to explore. Let me tell you all about it…
Twitter
I signed up for a twitter account about 6 months back, but nobody wanted to jump on the bandwagon with me (which is no fun) so I sorta neglected it. Then many of you started to use twitter, so I rejoined the crew. Twitter helps you keep in contacting with others with a simple 140 character or less post. It is really cool, and if you have it — add me to your twitter. And if you don’t — sign up!
Facebook
I posted about this a few days ago, so I won’t overdo it. But I have found facebook has connected me with people that I wouldn’t have thought to keep in contact with otherwise. So again — add me to your facebook!
LinkedIn
Good resource for professional networking. Sort of like an online resume. Add me to your linkedin.
That’s about it that I can think of. But for those of you who lie awake at night praying that I will write a new blog post — don’t worry! My blog will remain the central hub for my online presence. Maybe the next redesign can even incorporate some of the services I use.
I will leave you with this funny video from Nick Thune…
My name is Vin Thomas. I am a 27 year old web designer living in Salem, OR. I have a wonderful wife, and a beautiful little girl. This blog has been a staple in my life for the last few years, and I try to keep it updated with my thoughts on random things.
