Chapter 93

     Some of the funds went to buy Lori and I a new mustang.  We called it our early midlife crisis car.  I drove it to Springfield on a trip to go see Shirley and on my return decided to drive up National and go by the University (Missouri State University, formerly Southwest Missouri State University). 

     A University Sorority was holding a car wash at the gas station at the corner of National and Grand, which was half a block away from 920 S. National, where I used to live.  I pulled in to get my mustang washed by the sorority girls. 

     While they washed the car, I looked over at my old apartment (at 920 S. National) and saw that it was being worked on.  I walked over to take a peek and was soon talking to the manager.  I asked him if they were remodeling the whole house, but he stated they were only doing this one apartment. 

     He then informed me that someone had driven a motorcycle into my old apartment.  It had caught on fire and burned out the apartment.  He let me go in and see.  The only thing that was the same was the bathroom, as the door was closed, and it didn’t catch on fire. 

     I was nineteen years old when I had the dream and moved out, which was nineteen years prior.  I walked away shaking my head saying to myself, “ShareValue better work.”

     A friend of mine called and invited me to join him on his boat and enter a fishing tournament on Table Rock Lake that weekend and I accepted.  We decided that we would leave for the lake at 4:00 a.m.  So, I decided I would get to his house by midnight, sleep in my clothes, and be ready to go the next morning. 

     That afternoon I got dressed in my fishing clothes but was thinking I should take an extra “just-in-case” set of clothes.  I was looking in my closet when the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “Go as you are.”  Clearly meaning to me I didn’t need extra clothes.  It took only a second before I was questioning myself thinking I must be nuts thinking God cared about what clothes I took.  So, I grabbed an extra set of clothes and took off on my fishing trip. 

     It was about fifteen minutes down the road when the second heaven opened up and Jesus appeared in the passenger seat of my truck.  I had put my extra clothes there and He was sitting on them.  Now the last time I had seen Him, I came to realize that He never really joked or anything like that, and I had decided the next time I saw Him I was going to jest Him to see His response. 

     Even though He was in the Spirit, not the flesh, I asked Him if my clothes were in His way and would He like me to move them.  My dry humor.  He looked at me, smiled and said, “Yes, they are in my way, but I can deal with it.”

     We rode the next hundred miles in silence.