The Gross Blog

Author: Steven Gross

  • Day 7 – The Muffler (Throw)

    Day 7 – The Muffler (Throw)

    Picture by Dats (age 9)

    OK.  This is truly embarassing.  I haven’t really set any rules for myself with this whole daily Throw, Give or Sell thing, but I do know I can’t just pick up a used kleenex that one of the rug rats left on the living room floor and call it my Throw for the day.  BUT if some large, rusty hunk of metal has been on the ground beside the house for … oh, let’s say three months … THEN, I think it definitely qualifies as a genuine Throw.  The muffler rotted off my car three months ago.  It had been dangling for at least half a year.  (My car has actually been quieter since it fell completely off.)  I know it has been three months because it was before the school year started.  I know it was before the school year started (August 14) because I had just picked up a fellow teacher whose classroom is right next to mine and we were on our way to school to put in a few hours of classroom preparation when it happened.  For the sake of my ego, I try to avoid having non-family passengers in my car if at all possible, so this was the first time my colleague had ridden with me.  As he hopped in, to cover my embarassment, I jokingly asked if his tetanus shots were current.  I told him the windows had to stay down since the air conditioner blows hot air.  And that we were lucky to be driving in the daylight since the dashboard lights don’t work.  And that I hadn’t gotten around to replacing the passenger side mirror since it fell off last winter and went bouncing down the road.  And that I was the only one who ever drove the car since the electric seat adjuster had long ago frozen with the driver’s seat all the way back in the far position – perfect for me but too far for Melissa’s foot to reach the gas pedal.  As we started out to school, I realized there was something I had forgotten at home, so I swung back by my house for a quick stop.  As I pulled into the drive, there was this terrible scraping noise.  I hopped out, looked under the car, loosened the last tendon holding the muffler to the underbelly and popped back up holding my muffler like a prize large mouth bass.  My passenger was quite impressed. So this leaves the question: why did the muffler lay beside the house for three months?  You got me.

  • Day 6 – Another Book (Give)

    Tonight I gave Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny” to Steve, our small group leader.  Steve’s a political animal, so I know he’ll appreciate the book.  That book was not hard to give away (and, Steve, I’m sure I’ll find something more meaningful to give to you and Keri at some point here!  We’ve got a long way to go!) and not because I didn’t like it.  It was easy to give away, it seems to me now, because that’s exactly what I should do with the majority of the books I read.  Why buy a book, read it, and then stash it away on some bookshelf somewhere?  Now sure, I always dreamed of a future house in which I would have my own little “study” where I could display all my books on numerous shelves covering three of the four walls (the other wall being reserved for the bay window that looks out over the lake!).  And I would invite guests into my study for the sole purpose of giving them the opportunity to admire my collection of books.  OK, so I’ve just admitted to myself and you that there is definitely an element of pride in my desire to accumulate books and for that reason alone, it is a good idea for me to give some away. 

    Lately, when the kids have asked for some new toy or such, Melissa and I have told them, “We’re needing to get rid of things, not add to them.”  It’s true, but I can’t promise that in the midst of giving away books that I won’t go and buy a few more.  I heard of one today that I’d like to get – Andrew Klavan’s “Identity Man”.  I’ve never read anything by Klavan, but I’m curious.  That would be light reading… it’s a thriller.

    A heavier book that I am currently reading for a second time (it’s short) and Melissa is reading for the first is “Radical” by David Platt.  The subtitle is “Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.”  It is a challenging book. I borrowed Storly’s copy as we were on the plane returning to Indiana from Haiti and then bought my own copy a few days later.  Platt writes:  With the best of intentions, we have actually turned away from Jesus. We have in many areas blindly and unknowingly embraced values and ideas that are common in our culture but are antithetical to the gospel he taught.   I find myself more and more convinced that the reason we don’t see God’s power more frequently evidenced in the American church is because we have settled for a comfortable existence and for doing only what can be accomplished in our own power with our own resources.  Agree or disagree?

  • Day 5 – the Crib (Sell)

    Day 5 – the Crib (Sell)

    I put our crib set on craigslist tonight.  Our “baby” turns FOUR in January!  This is another one of those deals where something has been sitting around the house for months and I just haven’t acted on it.  The Princess moved into a big bed probably a year ago.  The crib was dismantled and stored in the shed along with the rocker.  The dressing table sat in the corner of the Princess’ room for months.  Then, a few weeks back, we hauled the whole set to a community garage sale, set the crib up one last time, and … took it all back home afterwards!  At least I was smart enough to snap a few pictures while it was all set up.  Hopefully the pictures will help it sell on craigslist. I have to admit that it will hurt my heart a bit when that furniture finally goes out the door.  It will be a stark reminder that our kids are growing up … and so fast.  But an extra $350 in my pocket would help sooth the pain. In a related note: as we’ve started sharing our plans to move our family to Haiti, one of the most common responses has been, “How can you do that to your kids?”  Our kids are sturdy and flexible.  They will flourish wherever they are.  Our oldest, “Dats” (his sister’s nickname for him), is all excited about learning Creole words and phrases – he has been checking out the kids’ page on the OMS website with his younger sister, the Drama Queen.  While I was in Haiti, I kept thinking how much fun our kids would have climbing trees and chasing lizards.  But much more importantly, Melissa and I have decided that the safest and best place for our entire family is wherever God calls us.  I know that Melissa and I are hoping to teach at the missionary school, but I will be anxious to see what sort of ministry the Lord has in mind for each of our kids in Haiti.

  • Day 4 – TV (Give)

    Day 4 – TV (Give)

         Kate and Storly came over tonight for dinner along with their two sweet little girls.  Melissa made a pork roast with pineapple salsa, beer bread and corn casserole.  Kate brought the ice cream and cherry pie filling as a topping.  (Must be a Welsh thing.)       In conversation tonight we figured out that we first met Kate and Storly exactly two years ago.  It was through them that God first began to call us to Haiti.  We got to know them when they started to attend our small group on Friday nights.  More recently, Kate led the mission trip when Melissa went in June and Storly led when I went in October.  I learned then that Storly is a celebrity in Haiti.  He has done programs on Radio 4VEH for years and every Haitian seemed to know him, his name and/or his voice.  To say that they are a unique and talented couple is an understatement.  (And I will leave it at that since I suspect they will read this blog at some point and I wouldn’t want their incredible humility to be compromised!)       There’s more I could say but I’m getting rather sleepy and I have to report still on the give away of the day:  a TV set.  A couple of months ago my mom got a new flat screen TV.  Her old TV sat in her living room for weeks until I finally got around to loading it into our minivan to bring home with us.  We replaced one of our old TVs with mom’s old TV which meant that it was now our old TV’s turn to sit on the living room floor for another several weeks.  Kate and Storly had been wanting to get a TV for their girls to watch in the basement but had decided they couldn’t justify purchasing a second TV (they’re not Americans, you see).  So, they took our old TV … problem solved for both of us.  Win, win!

         Kate suggested I could build the readership for my blog if I would start announcing in advance what I planned to give away.  She’s so clever….

  • Day 3 – Simpsons Trivia Game (Give)

    (Tuesday, November 9, 2010)

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         I made it easy on myself today.  I gave away a game I have never once played.  It’s a Simpsons trivia game in a tin container that Melissa gave me one year as one of those goofy little “extra” gifts that you throw in with the “real” gift at Christmas time.  I like the Simpsons.  I just don’t like games.  And so it had been relegated to the garage where it rested on a counter top for … literally … years. 

         So this morning I was in the garage to get an extension cord because I planned to go to my mom’s house after school today to blow her leaves away from her house.  I saw that pathetic tin box and decided to set the Simpson’s free from the garage.  I say I gave it away, but technically what I did was put it on the shelf in my classroom which houses a stack of straggly board games.  It will finally get used.  The 7th and 8th graders get to play games sometimes on Fridays for the last 20 minutes or so of class.  The Simpsons will get attention if for no other reason than it is novel and has all its pieces!  And when I pack up my room a year and a half from now (God willing), I will leave the Simpsons trivia game on that shelf.  And that will virtually guarantee that it will NEVER be thrown away!      If I had the money back from all the unused items around this house that I or Melissa or one of the kids spent money on, I’d be a rich man.       I can’t leave this post without at least mentioning my all-time favorite Simpsons episode … and it was my favorite even before I began to consider the possibility that I might become a missionary.  It’s the episode from a few years back called “Missionary: Impossible.”  Homer is watching PBS and he gets impatient with all the phonathon fundraising interrupting his program so he calls in a pledge of ten thousand dollars to get them to shut up and return to the show.  Of course he has no intention of paying up and he’s surprised when folks from PBS hunt him down.  Reverend Lovejoy helps Homer escape by putting him on a plane for “Microasia” where Homer replaces some departing missionaries.  Instead of finishing the half-built chapel, Homer decides to erect a casino.  When the morals of the island collapse, Homer reluctantly finishes building the chapel.  The best line of the whole episode (in my humble opinion) is when Homer steps back from the church building and admires his handiwork:  “Well, I may not know much about God, but I have to say we built a pretty nice cage for Him.”

  • Day 2 – The Year of Living Biblically (Give)

    Day 2 (November 8, 2010):      Today I gave away a book.  “The Year of Living Biblically” by A.J. Jacobs.  It’s a truly funny and fascinating book. Jacobs writes for Esquire magazine and he likes to experiment on his own life and then write about the results.  (Perhaps my decision to throw, give and sell stuff each day and to document the process was subconsciously inspired by Jacobs!)  Jacobs, who started his experiment thoroughly secular (“I’m officially Jewish but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant”), does his best to live a year of his life taking the Bible literally.  He even stones an adulterer – a septuagenarian adulterer – in Central Park… using pebbles.      Bringing myself to give away this book was harder than I thought it would be.  You have to understand: I’m the type who really doesn’t even like to loan out books.  They rarely come back!  And I love my books.  I underline little passages for which I’m just certain some day I’ll have a great need.  But they take up a lot of space, they’re heavy and, when we leave for the mission field, I am not going to pay to store a half ton of paper somewhere, no matter what’s written on it.       So I grabbed one book off my shelf this morning before I left for school.  Sure, I could have taken it to Half Price Books and gotten a buck fifty for it, but it’s such a good book that I wanted to pass it on personally.  I intended to give it to the 11th grade English teacher next door to me, but I got busy and forgot about it throughout the day.  After school a former student stopped in my room.  She’s something else – my nickname for her is “Satan”.  But it’s a term of endearment.  She’s made it clear that she does not care one bit for the church … I’m not real certain where she stands on the subject of God Almighty Himself, though.  I offered her the book.  She seemed suspicious, but she took it.  I assured her it was not an explicitly “religious” book.  (But I didn’t mention how Jacobs ends his year long experiment as what I would call a seeker – one who even attends Jewish services on a regular basis and finds solace in prayer!)  I think she’ll read it.  I hope we get to have a conversation about it some day…

  • Throw Away, Give Away or Sell

    Throw Away, Give Away or Sell

    It’s been just over two weeks since I got back from a mission trip to Haiti and just over five hours since my family and I returned from a weekend retreat with OMS (One Mission Society) in Greenwood, Indiana.  With mounds of school work to do (I STILL have not completely caught up on grading after missing a full week for my Haiti trip) and the bed calling, what am I doing?  Setting up a blog.  I am in the habit of reading various blogs on a regular basis, but I have never written one myself.  This is all one big experiment. So why a blog for the Gross family and why now?  Because life has been turned upside down and I need to write to make sense of it.  And it would help me to be disciplined in writing if I had an audience.  It doesn’t matter if I have a real audience or not … with an honest-to-goodness blog of my own, I can pretend I have an audience and that will be enough for me to write. (Maybe!) The title of my first entry here is my goal over the next several months: to find something each day around the house to throw away (good idea!), to give away (even better!) or to sell (ideal!).  We need to lighten our load.  The wife and I are having serious talks about selling the house in the next few months, paying down our debts and heading to Haiti as teachers by August 2012 (although we are open to God’s timetable being longer or shorter, of course!). 

    Day 1 (Sunday, November 7, 2010):  After we returned from Greenwood, I went out to the garage and tackled several 8 foot tall cardboard pillars that I had used in my classroom over a year ago when we studied Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”.  They’ve slowly rotted in the center of our garage ever since, serving as nesting grounds for crickets and makeshift sponges for rain water.  I loaded them into the back of the van and drove around town looking for a place to recycle them.  Every recycle dumpster I found emphasized “No Cardboard!”  Well, I tried to keep Al Gore happy….  I had to bring them home.  I thoroughly enjoyed stomping them flat and forcing them into a garbage can.  They are gone.