Chapter 15: What's In A Year?

         This morning, as I walked out of the gym, I was hit with a pleasantly cool spring breeze. Here in Las Vegas it’s a beautiful sixty-five degrees, the sun is shining, and the wind felt blessedly cool against my sweat-soaked skin. I couldn’t help but pause in the middle of the parking lot, lift my face to the sun and close my eyes. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” was still blasting in my ears, and the endorphins from my workout were still raging high beneath my skin.
         It’s been awhile since I’ve sat down to write a new chapter for this blog. There’s two main reasons for this: 1) I’ve been super busy with the two full time jobs, and 2) I just simply haven’t had much to say.
            It’s that second reason that’s the more important one. There was a lot happening with me in the first quarter of 2021. But, in the last few weeks, my life – both within and without – has calmed down greatly. For starters, the Lord answered my prayer in which I had been requesting for awhile now to be able to go back to just one job. Here in Nevada, as more people are vaccinated, and as our COVID numbers continue to drop, our governor FINALLY rolled our state forward to stage 3 recovery. (Insert the eye-roll emoji here.) As of the last week of April, restaurants have been allowed to operate at 50% capacity, and larger venues like churches and superstores could increase the amount of people that could be inside at once. (How nice of our government to return to us basic rights and freedoms that we the people should never have given up in the first place.) And, as of this past Thursday, our almighty and gracious government FINALLY decided that everyone who’s been vaccinated is now free to go out and about without a mask. (Insert multiple eye-roll emojis here.)
            As great as the fallout of the bureaucratic idiocy surrounding this “pandemic” has been, the one good thing about these recent relaxations of statewide shutdowns is that more and more businesses are either finally re-opening or getting back to normal operations. Here in Las Vegas, that means that the casinos and other related businesses on the strip are extending their hours and re-hiring most of their furloughed or laid-off employees. And that is the main reason that my primary, full time job is also starting to finally get back to normal. That means that more and more overtime is becoming available as various stores now need coverage for employees who are either going on vacation or were fired (or needing to take sudden sick day because of the vaccine) or the stores’ daily operating hours have been extended to what they were before the pandemic.
            As of Friday, May 7th, I’m no longer working at Walmart. Last week I was able to pick up four OT shifts, and I clocked out the week at seventy-one hours! This week, I picked up three extra shifts. Saturday mornings are no longer the only days I get to sleep in! I have more free time now to do the activities that I used to enjoy in my pre-pandemic life, such as going to the gym. Thanks to the new CDC allowance, no one at Planet Fitness hassled me this morning when I went in maskless. I spent almost two hours there, and it was damn good! (I was disappointed, though, to see almost everyone else there in some kind of mask. I feel so sorry for them.)
            This blog entry is more of a general update than a dramatic chapter in my new life as a Christian. While it’s nice – and a great relief – to settle into a new and stable routine, it also means that there’s simply not much to report. I took another look today at my new year’s resolutions, and I felt a pleasant sense of satisfaction at the fact that I’ve accomplished all of them! (Well, almost all. I still haven’t found a boyfriend, but that’s moot now. I erased that one from a list awhile back. And no, I couldn’t change the word ‘boyfriend’ to ‘girlfriend’. God hasn’t granted that particular prayer request yet.) But everything else on that list – daily Bible reading/prayer, changing my introverted and uncaring attitude towards the people that cross my path every day, being more social and outgoing, and joining a solid, Bible-believing, Baptist church  - check, check, and check! I’ve succeeded at keeping to this list, with only minor slip-ups here and there. (There were some days when all the coffee in the world couldn’t change the fact that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was severely annoyed by everyone and everything around me.)
            That last resolution, especially, has been the source of greatest joy and contentment in my new daily routine. In chapter twelve, I detailed my adventure in finding a local church where I could set up camp among fellow believers that would encourage me, accept me, and challenge me in my new walk with God. I thought I had found that in True Light Baptist Church (referred to in that entry as Church #1). But after only a month, the Holy Spirit led me to seek again, and this time I found Bible Baptist Church (referred to in that chapter as Church #2.)
            Back in February, during one of my counseling sessions with Pastor Sjostrom, I was lamenting that I might not find a small, local church like the one I grew up in. All that seemed to be available in a metropolis like Las Vegas – according to Google anyway – was churches with congregations of five hundred to a thousand, or more. A couple of them did identify as Baptist, while the others seemed to be either non-denominational or one of the mainstream categories such as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.
         “Neal, you’re not going to find a church like Grace Baptist down there,” Mark said, and I unhappily agreed.
          God, thankfully, didn’t.
       Bible Baptist Church is nestled in a quiet, homely neighborhood in North Las Vegas, and it looks exactly like the type of building you would expect to find on the corner of Main and Second Avenue in some small town in the American Midwest of yesterday. Its appearance is that of a traditional church – complete with a steeple over the main doors that houses a working bell – and, inside, is an auditorium that houses a congregation of no more than about two hundred. There’s an adjacent hall that leads to classrooms and a general meeting room, and out back is a good sized courtyard that serves as a playground for the kids. Behind the auditorium is a fellowship hall and kitchen, and a breakfast buffet — usually fruit, muffins and juice — is spread every Sunday morning. The fridge is almost always stocked with leftovers of some kind, free to anyone to wishes to raid it before or after services. (The photo at the top of this entry was taken by me on a recent Sunday evening as I stood in the parking lot after the service.)
            My first visit was Sunday evening, February 28th, and the moment I stepped in the door I was greeted by no less than six different guys, one of them being the pastor. Mitch Serviss (yes that’s really his last name) is a fellow transplant from Idaho, and he and I chatted about Boise and the BSU Broncos. After the service, there was an ice cream social in the fellowship hall, and I had the opportunity to continue getting to know the same guys that had greeted me before the service. They all talked to me as if I’d been attending their church for years, not just a few hours. I was also happy to see that the congregation was a good mix of generations – some older than me, some from my age group, and then plenty of younger ones with lots of kids running about underfoot. I pulled out of the parking lot that night feeling as if I had just sampled a taste of home – the home from my youth in Twin Falls that I had been longing for for almost two months.
            It’s only gotten better in the last ten weeks. The more that I’ve attended this church, the more I’ve gotten to know several members of its congregation, the more happiness and contentment I’ve felt in my daily life. Everything – and I do mean everything! – that I remember from the Grace Baptist Church of my childhood I have found here. All the old hymns that I knew by heart  - and still do – are sung here at every service. The Wednesday night service concludes with everyone putting forth prayer requests and then splitting into small groups to kneel together and pray. The preaching from the pulpit is doctrinally sound and comes straight out of the Bible, with no embellishments or radical interpretations by the pastor. The only instruments that accompany the congregational singing is the piano, organ, and a quartet of stringed instruments that certain members will sometimes play, usually on Sunday mornings. For the kids there’s the usual Sunday school and junior church, as well as something called “Master Club” on Wednesday nights which, as best I can tell, is something equivalent to the old Cubbies, Sparks and Awana programs that I used to be in.
            The third week of April was a special week of revival. There were two visiting evangelists and a service every night except Saturday. A potluck was served in the fellowship hall every night an hour before the service. These week long events I remember especially well because I hated them when I was a teenager. Now, I was very heartbroken that I could only make it to two of the services because of my work schedule.
            Throughout the year, on certain Monday nights, there’s a potluck at 5:30 and that’s it. Just food and socializing. No service, no agenda, just plain and simple fellowship. They call these events “Family Nights”. I was able to arrange my work schedule last week so that I could attend my first family night, and I wasn’t disappointed. (My contribution was a pot of tator tot casserole. And yes, I made it myself.) I had a great time chatting with a bunch of the guys – and a few of the ladies as well – while the kids tore around outside, creating a pleasant background hum of laughter, shouting and general merriment.
            Two weeks from today I will be turning 43 and I will be baptized in this church that same weekend. My family is coming down for the occasion, and I can’t wait for them to meet these people and see this church for themselves!
           Proverbs 30: 7-9 says, “Two things I request of You (deprive me not before I die): remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.” As you know from my previous chapters, I have been working my way through the Old Testament since the beginning of the year, and, thus far, I have found the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to be the most spiritually fulfilling and deeply engrossing. Those three verses from Proverbs 30 seem especially fitting for my life just now.
        As my 43rd birthday draws closer, I keep thinking back to where I was just one year ago. The world had only started to go off the rails with the statewide, economic shutdowns due to the start of the “pandemic”. George Floyd wasn’t yet a household name. Major U.S. cities like Portland, Chicago and Minneapolis were still relatively quiet and peaceful. Our government was still a reasonably normal, sane, good one, and there was hope that Trump just might be able to win the election. Here in my backyard, I was bored, just returning from an spontaneous, two-week vacation back home to Idaho, and I decided to put up a personals ad on Tinder. I hadn’t yet landed the second job at Walmart, I had way too much time on my hands, and I was watching way too much TV. The first glimmers of soul searching had just barely begun, and I had no clue about what my immediate future would hold.
        Now, looking back, I can only shake my head in wonder, amazement, and immense humility at how God guided, protected and supplied for me this past year. While there were many that were forced out of work and had no immediate relief from unemployment, God saw to it that I was taken care of. Even when I hadn’t yet accepted Him, when I was still living in my sin and trying to pretend that everything was fine, that I could make it on my own as I always had, God was patiently waiting for that day when I was finally ready to admit my weakness and just accept Him and Him alone.
          As I approach year 43, I don’t feel 43. I feel 23. I feel as if every day since September 17th, 2020 has been a fresh re-start; as if my whole life is ahead of me again, and the possibilities are endless. The crisis that brought me back into the Great Shepherd’s fold wasn’t – thankfully – a car accident, or a diagnosis of cancer, or a sudden, complete loss of income and housing. It was, instead, the old, traditional existential kind. Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What have I accomplished thus far in my life that is worth anything? What will I leave behind? And, most importantly, when the world around me goes absolutely mad, to what – or whom – will I turn for security and peace?
          I found the answers I sought in God’s Word and in His arms that are far bigger than me and my life. In many ways, 2021 has been an even worse year than 2020. Our nation – and the world at large – continues to go off the rails. In fact, we left the rails a long time ago and this train is now rapidly chugging across Hell’s desert landscape at full speed towards the Grand Canyon. If we are not living the prologue to chapter 1 of the book of Revelation, then we are most definitely getting close. But you know something funny? Here in my own backyard, when I lower my gaze from the world beyond the fence and look around at my simple, little life here in Las Vegas, Nevada, I can only smile and praise God as I count the numerous blessings He has bestowed on me. As those verses from Proverbs 30 state, God has given me exactly what I need – no more, no less. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The world outside is falling apart day by day, yet I sleep at night in absolute peace and wake up each morning filled with immeasurable joy and purpose.
            I don’t know yet exactly what God has planned for me. But I do know my best years are yet to come, and I am deliriously happy abiding within Him and His will. No matter what comes, I will always delight myself in the Law of the Lord, as David says in Psalm 1, and fear Him alone.
           Year 43 is going to be my best one yet! Soli Deo Gloria!