When complete strangers say, "I wouldn't go in there ... we're guys and we won't even use it", it wasn't a real comfort to my wife who was in desperate need of a restroom.  We were on our way home from Spirit West Coast Monterey, stuck in traffic with very few options when I spotted a gas station.  The joy of finding a place to stop was quickly tempered when we learned the gas station had no public restrooms, but instead had two port-a-potties - one of which was locked and the other one came with the disclaimer from the two strangers.  But then someone else told us, "hey, they are not that bad - they were just hosed down".  Not cleaned, mind you - "hosed down"!  Somehow that didn't make my wife feel better.

God bless my father-in-law, who was also traveling with us, because he did his best to strategically place those brown paper towels to make the bathroom in a box a bit more useable.  Meanwhile, I'm snapping pictures and twittering them.  Thankfully my wife has an amazing sense of humor and was able to laugh at the craziness of the situation.  I think she was also just thankful that we found somewhere to stop, too. 

Being thankful for little things like finding a bathroom and the ability to laugh at having to use a grotesque port-a-pottie, are small perspective builders and remind us that things could be a whole lot worse.  You see, not 10 minutes later, the car my wife was driving was rear-ended by a driver not paying attention, causing a three-car crash.  Thank God no one was seriously hurt.  As we analyzed all aspects of the accident, we realized a few small things here or there could have made the accident much worse.  Scary bad. Makes having to use a nasty bathroom not seem like such a big deal.

I wasn't sure how to take it at first.  It was definitely a nice gesture - a book on my desk with a note from my boss saying, "Thought you might like reading this".  The book was on fear.  "Do I exhibit a fearful demeanor?  Is there something I should be afraid of?"  I didn't think I was showing fear, but my boss must think so ... now I'm kind of fearful!  The book is called "Fearless" by Max Lucado.  I just got the book, so I haven't had a chance to read it, but reading the synopsis of the book I now get it.  Max writes:

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, when you could trust more and fear less.
Can you imagine your life without fear?

Lately, my wife and I have had some conversations on some fairly big decisions we need to make as a family.  This whole idea of not just doing what is safe, comfortable, known has come up a lot.  When it comes to big, sometimes, life-changing decisions it's often easier to revert to what is safe.  Fear plays a big part in that - stepping out into something new, different and unknown can be risky ... it can be scary.  It requires giving up control, too.  Giving it to God.  It takes faith. 

I definitely don't have it all figured out and I wish I could say I always exhibit faith instead of fear when it comes to making the various decisions in my life.  I guess I need to read that book.

In the news today was the story of Kelly Hildebrandt marrying Kelly Hildebrandt.  The pair - the male Kelly and the female Kelly - found each other via Facebook.  Got us thinking about "how many people with my name" are there in the U.S.? We were tipped off on the website www.HowManyofMe.com.  In case you are curious, when it comes to the K-LOVE Morning Show here's how many there of us:

News Guy Dan Dillard - 17

News Gal Amy Baumann - 36

Producer David Fountain - 257

Eric Allen - 1,661

Lisa Williams - 6,145 (and here we thought she was one in a million!?)