Winter 2012. Three brief dustings of snow. No accumulation that lasted for any duration. No measurable snow. Cold, yes we’ve had many cold days. But, NO snow. I feel ripped off. No snow days. No make up days from having a snow day with no school.
Poop. I feel ripped off. But, Spring is coming.
Have a great day!
Today, 2-4-2012, at about 2:50 a.m. west coast time, my grandpa Rudolph Scholl flew away from this earth and is now in the presence of His Lord Jesus. I am glad he is suffering no more and perfectly healed forever more. I love you grandpa and hold you tight in my memories always…. Until I see you again….so long!
Dealing with this loss, it reminds me of a story I heard of a man who was born in the year 1915, son of Austrian immigrants (if memory serves me right). Life was hard and the days were long living in a 16 bedroom farm-house. Nothing was just given to you and the meaning of a hard days work was drilled in and passed on for the next three generations. As a young boy, he loved taking walks in the woods by himself. This they say is where he pondered and thought about life.
When he grew up, he became owner of his own gas station, repair garage, this son of proud parents carved his own niche in a little New England town. Serving the town where he lived, he established his own home with his wife and two boys. The boys worked at the garage when they were old enough to do so, picked corn as a summer job at the local farm and one even opened up his own gas station years later as an adult.
Later in the mid nineteen sixties, he became the police chief for a few years exacting justice and peace in the small town they called home. He was an honest man, full of integrity, a man of his word. I am sure the people of that small town were glad to have such a man on duty. It may have been around this time that they became involved in and became avid archery fanatics in their earlier years. Photos of them in their home show the shelves full of trophies to prove it.
They were also avid fanatics of their grand kids…. a total of four I am told. Years later, not so many though, once the boys had grown and moved out on their own, he and his wife moved to the West Coast and became managers of a trailer park. After his time there was complete, he and his wife bought a 42′ fishing boat and fished the waters off Alaska for many years. The stories and fish were always a topic of wonderful conversation. His wife had believed that God was real and was the creator of the heavens and the earth, however, attending church and being part of a church home was not something that took place till later in life. It is my understanding that he was pretty neutral in the things and belief of God.
However, one story in particular, that would vividly impact both their lives and change them forever. Loosely paraphrased, the story goes as follows… It was a stormy day off the coast of Alaska and the weather service had issued a warning and all boats were called in early from a day of fishing. Last to come in was the native New Englander and his wife. As they made their way back to dock, a sand bar blocked their way. The waves had become tall pillars like redwoods towering over the inhabitants of the northern California beautiful forests. Filling up the boat like a tub with the drain plug closed, the boat filled with water at an alarming rate.
The captain was hard at work attempting to bail out the water, his wife was in the wheel house on her knees praying for a miracle. Realizing his attempts were futile, the captain joined his wife in the wheel house. Out of options and desperate for something to happen that will spare their lives, the captain prays aloud to God and says “if you are real… please show me now and help us.” ….. to be continued in my next posting! Not….. Taking a quote from scripture, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…” he said it happened so fast it literally stunned him. Upon opening his eyes immediately following his prayer…. the boat was docked, the boat hadn’t sunk and they were alive and breathing, shocked and trying to make sense of what had just taken place. A by stander, and there were many watching to see that all the boats made it back in safely was quoted as saying “it was if the hand of God picked them up and placed the boat in its slip.” And that was the beginning of the rest of their lives as born-again believers in God, His power, His mercy and how important a relationship with Him is.
All that sort of brings back memories of my Grandpa. He and my grandma moved around a bit and loved us grand kids an awful lot to say the least. Throughout my life, we moved away from the east coast to the state of Washington. After three or four years there, our family moved to moved to four more states with the last being California where we landed just before the start of the school year of 1976. Throughout my childhood, my grandparents would come around a few times a year, mainly Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas. I have many short, vivid memories of them being with us, showing off my slow motion football plays, eating the peanut shaped, orange marsh mellow things and the smell of my grandpa’s pipe.
My grandma had a pretty good sense of humor and what grandparent can’t help tease their grandchild once in a while. One time while we were all camping at the lake (I believe it was Agate Beach) my mom asked me to go to grandma’s trailer and find out what date it was for a letter she was writing. So I went over, asked her what date is was. She looked up at me, smiled with a pure smile and said “it’s the tooth.” Okay grandma said it, I believe it. Just as I was about to walk out she stopped me and told me she was fooling and it really was the 2nd! Ha…. Good one. Grandma always had a funny way of saying certain words with her Bostonian accent. Like potato. She pronounced it ” Puh-day-da.” Her and grandpa always were very encouraging and grandpa always had these great one liners that summed up an entire sit down “come to Jesus meeting.” No other words were necessary at all. You knew what he was saying and that was the end of the conversation. Though I can talk with the best of them…. OMG… maybe that’s where I get my ability to, at times and not real often, use very few words to say what I am thinking, how I am feeling or to put in my two cents on a given topic! I have many memories of grandpa,
65th Ann. & the Family Scholl
but the one that stands out the most, is thought of most often and I believed saved me from making a big mistake when it comes to girls was this statement: “You know, one moment of pleasure isn’t worth all the heart ache and responsibility at your age.” Again, loose paraphrase as it happened when I was sixteen. For you slower processors…. “Don’t go getting your girlfriend pregnant.” That statement sunk deep. Thought I didn’t save myself for marriage, I can proudly say that out of ALL my friends and acquaintances, I was way older than the rest before I went all the way around the bases. Thanks grandpa….holding back the tears now…. Pushing forward to 2012. It’s been so great having grandparents who loved my brother and I sooooooo much all our lives. The man in the beginning of the story, as you may have guessed is my grandpa…. Rudolph Scholl... Rudy to his close friends. Their final destination on earth was Pismo Beach, California. They lived there for many years and grandpa still lives there.
Grandma went home to be with Jesus back in 2001 or 2… can’t remember…Sorry! While they were there I and my family, Sue my wife and our kids Tabitha and Joshua would visit and the memories I will never forget. Like the bluejay grandpa trained to come inside the trailer, sit on his knee and eat out of his hand. He survived a stroke back in 1999 and six months later in October, he drove down with my grandma to our wedding. Wow. What a trooper. When our third child Elijah was born in 2007, my grandpa got to come out and see Elijah as a baby
Lil' Elijah & Great Grandpa Rudy
when he was I believe under 1.5 years of age. That was a great time. We have a picture of him, Elijah, myself, my dad and oldest son Joshua at church showing four generations of Scholl men. It is now February 2012 and they say after this stroke, it will soon be time for him to fly away and be with Jesus and my grandma.I called him yesterday and said my goodbye…. it was SO HARD! and again, in his inevitable style, he ended our conversation with another one liner…. “keep your nose clean.” I then told him I loved him and was passed back to my dad who thanked me for calling. That call meant a lot to all of us.
In ending this blog post, I want to say to you grandpa…. I will see you in heaven when my time here on earth is finished. I can’t wait. I will miss you so much. Thank you for always loving and supporting me even though you always tried to bribe me with money to cut my hair in my mid to late teens! So to all of you who have a grandpa with still with you…. cherish every moment you can and heed his words of wisdom because you never know which of those one liners he tells you will have the most impact and give you a memory of “a life not soon forgotten.”
Generations of Scholl Men
Peace, love and good happiness stuff in Jesus….. I am out!
P.S. Some time, date and references may be a bit off as it is all from my memory over many a year!
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Imagine that! You’re all cozy up in heaven, anything you want at your fingertips, could wipe out any oposition at will or zap anything or anyone so that you have no drama or issues to deal with or any selfish humans to deal with regarding any of their petty issues of give me this, I want that, what are you going to do about this or so and so…… Not here…not this day…not on His watch!
God, who loved the whole world (everyone who’s lived and will ever live), came to earth as a baby, taught the leaders in the synagogue as a child, performed miracles and then at age 33 was nailed to a cross, took all the sin of everyone who lived before him and all that will ever live after that upon himself and finally died on that cross that we might receive His offer of eternal life with Him if we would simply believe upon Him, who He is, how He loves us and that He is the only one who can set us free, forever, from the power of sin and death!
He came to set us all free. It is a gift you must receive. You can’t buy it. You can’t make yourself a better person to make Him think better about you. You can’t change your heart and do nicer things and be a more kind individual to help bring you closer to His perfect, sinless life…. NOTHING you or I can do will make us good enough, nothing we can say or do that would gain us entry in heaven when we die!
It is the simple belief upon Christ and His death on the cross for ALL of us, in our hearts, understanding we deserved death and that He took our place….A, B, C…. 1, 2, 3…. it’s not rocket science people.
This Christmas season, it is my prayer for everyone who doesn’t have a relationship with the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, that today, tomorrow…. sometime really soon in your life, that you would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and that you would become part of God’s family, an heir to the throne, His child!
I write this sound of mind, sure of who Christ is in my life and hopeful for the many of you who will come to the realization that He is Lord of Lord and King of Kings and worthy of our praise and surrender to Him in our lives!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and blessings to you and all your family…..
Peace, love and good happiness stuff in God our Savior….. Kevin
P.S. the pic in the header above is myself, my bride, Brian Head Welch, J.R. Bareis (left of my bride) and the rest of the band “Head” backstage at a gig in Paragould, AR. last April! Thanks again Brian and J.R. for the passes. Great to catch up with J.R. and nice meeting you Brian… and the rest of the band!
Hello everybody. I wanted to take a minute and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! As well as a Happy New Year! It is my earnest prayer that all of you have an amazing time with whoever you’ll be spending time with this Christmas season.
To ALL my friends and family, thank you for loving me for who I am, how I am and the way I am. I am grateful that I can call you friends and that you call me your friend! Sue, Eli and I send our love to all of you and all your families this year.
To those who have difficulty this time of year due to many differing reasons, I hope and pray that you will be able to, for the first time in many maybe…. find a way to rise above your down days and see the shining sun on your day and that the rest of your days would be filled with more joy and great times. Never to look back again, never to say never, ever!
In keeping it short, I’ve said what I’ve had to say and really do wish your Christmas season is living changing for us all…
Blessings to you and your families and friends…. Kevin ….
I am trying to figure out and see if I can load a song on here for you all to check out. I am wanting feedback and so here we go to see if this works… Have a great week….
Kevin
Well…so I chose the file, it began to load and then said “this type of file is not allowed due to security issues.” What? Really?
Help….
Happy Sunday and a belated “Happy Thanksgiving” to everyone. This year brought a new dimension to Thanksgiving for this family… a slow 5 days. Yup! Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Five days, two the regular weekend days off plus an additional three days off during the week. All that culminating to what made for a GREAT Thanksgiving for the three of us.
Our main prayer was that the time off wouldn’t fly by or literally escape us like the Millennium Falcon leaving the the Republic battle cruisers in the dust once the hyper drive is repaired. Many times a weekend or extended period of time off goes by so fast you can’t remember what you did during that time off. However, this time, time went by slow, each day was filled with numerous events and happenings that added to the length of that day and the first three days off seemed more like four or five…. and here I am on Sunday evening, explaining all this to you and am so thankful for answered prayer and the timeliness of it over the last five days.
We spent our day at church this morning, came home and munched on some grundage (food…munchy food), football, playing bass to some classic songs off my iPod, worked on some music (some of my songs can be found at: www.christianrocker.com/kevin ), leftover Chinese food, some good snacks, two loads of laundry, logs burning, were burned, consumed…. uhhhhhh, burned out in the fireplace and an entry to my blog.
Denver wins in overtime… 37 yard field goal after Tim Tebow leads the Bronco’s down field, after San Diego’s kicker missed a 53 yard attempt. The first one was blocked, but Bronco’s had called time out just before the snap giving the kicker a second chance…. uhhhh, but….No! He missed the second attempt. Wow. Sorry guys!
Oh, we went to the movies Friday… Elijah’s first time at the theater. Kids his age don’t know how to blink enough or at all at his age and the first look at him when I asked how he was liking it made it seem like he was in tears. Eyes full of that watery-like substance and fills the lids and makes the surface of one’s eye very glossy. What did we see you say? “Arthur Christmas”…. it was a really good movie and my favorite part was at the end when……Ha! I would never do that. Cardinal sin #223 states: “thou shalt not divulge any ending or critical part of any motion picture when it is unknown if anyone who hasn’t viewed said movie is within ear-shot of your voice!”
So there you have it… have what? Ummmmm…. my take on our time off, Thanksgiving stuff, a snippet on football and last, but certainly not least….Answered prayer. Thank you Lord!!!
Until next time…. Peace, love and good happiness stuff in Jesus….. Kevin
P.S. Spell check is giving me error after error… I’ve checked, might have missed some, so if I’ve miss-spelled any words… I apologize.
*** I would also like to give a Huge “Thanks” to my followers. I am honored and would ask that you tell a friend or even more if you like what I write.
