Living Hazzardously

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Captain’s Log

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Captain’s Log: August 26, 2026

I was leading a group the other day at Sam’s Place. The topic was “gratitude and positive thinking,” and then I was tested…. Oh boy, was I tested. I tried really hard to practice what I preach, but I am pretty sure I failed hard! Let’s set the stage for the few weeks leading up to Wednesday, August 26.

Captain’s Log: Star Date June 29, 2026

The Great White Van had been drifting in space for over a week. The Sam’s Place van is back on line? The new month is coming, and the guys always have spending money on the first of the month. It burns holes in their pockets and makes grown men shake with unbridled excitement. Chris, Tiffain, and CJ are coming this weekend, and we want the Great White Van online to take them places as one big group.

I got a new fuel pump after a long, painful process of determining the right part—which should be easy, but wasn’t. The pump arrives, but a tab is broken. I’m in a crunch for time, so I zip-tie it and away we go! Pressing the tank off my chest, holding it with one hand and starting the bolts with the other, all goes well. Next, I drop five gallons of gas back in—after a day of tasting gasoline from the primitive siphoning I did the day before—and it’s a wrap.

Crank… no start. Try to bleed the line, crank… no start. Bleed and bleed, nothing is coming. I can hear the pump, but there is no gas. Troubleshooting proves the pump makes noise but won’t actually pump. Drop the tank, order a new pump, wait another week for it to arrive, and start over. Press the tank off my chest, hold with one hand, screw with the other, and it’s done in no time. Crank… no start. Bleed it out, crank… and it starts up! Good to go. Feeling thankful, I move on to the next problematic miracle I need to perform!

Captain’s Log: Star Date July 5, 2026

After a fierce fight with the Great White Van, Scotty was able to repair the warp drive, and everything is peaceful and calm. Jessica, our first mate, will be taking the Great White Van to Deer River VBS from time to time. I will be taking the guys to doctor appointments, and Tuesday we will be taking a group to a Tuesday matinee… In the Great White Van!!!

Captain’s Log: Star Date July 10, 2026

The first day of VBS, and the Great White Van blows out a spark plug. I (the Captain) am on an important mission of survival and call for a nearby repair shop to tow it back to dry dock for investigation. After a long day of digging, Scotty discovered the reactor core had blown out the maximum number of times allowed before a new head must be installed. Funny, I don’t remember being told that when I bought this $9,000 paperweight! A Great White Van with new tires now needs a head replacement. I am trying to sell the Great White Van for only $2,500, maybe get back a bit of my initial investment, but it’s not going well.

Captain’s Log: Star Date July 16, 2026

The ship is limping, but we have been able to keep it together for the week of VBS. Now we need to evaluate the situation. We are taking a trip to the Deep South to visit grandbabies and will continue to evaluate options. Steady as she goes!

Captain’s Log: Star Date July 24, 2026

It’s the birthday of our youngest. We called and saw her smile yet again. Make ready the mainsail, lads! We have a long week but a strong wind. If all goes well, we should be in port by the weekend.

Captain’s Log: Star Date August 26, 2026 – 1:27 PM

The first mate came down ill today, so the Captain took charge of the helm. No worries, mate. Stay home, enjoy a quiet birthday, and just know: I got this! I will take my work truck into town for one of the guys’ appointments and pick up some parts on the way.

Then, disaster strikes. Captain has been stuck, I am listing on the port side and taking on a great deal of water. The work truck is dead. The brakes are stuck on and smoking. I’m not sure if I will make it back to shore, but I will never give up. I know the sea never gives up her dead, so we fight.

So, back to being grateful… I was grumping and not in a good mood. My wife’s birthday (August 26 that I had mentioned at the beginning) was now my bane. I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t plan this, and you certainly deserved that coffee I was planning on getting you, as well as a couple of other small items. “WHY ME?” I cried out in a loud voice.

My Savior’s reply was sweet and kind: “My grace is sufficient for you both.”

I spent the rest of today getting most of my gear into the “box truck”. I am grateful I have a backup truck to slip into. I’m still working on that whole “positive thinking” part, I trust that too, will come in time. 

Humbled and satisfied in the grace of our God.

— C.

The ambush at Sam’s Place!

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I had this verse come across my feed today and I have really been thinking about it:

PROVERB 24:16 For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.

A righteous man? Who is this righteous man? What makes him righteous? Who is this wicked man and what makes him wicked? 

I believe the mystery of this verse is revealed from within this verse, let’s look around and find out, the verse previous seems to be the contrasting verse and also appears to be the verse that sets the scene for verse 16

15: Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;

16: For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.

The warning to a “malicious” person to not go against the “good” person, because the good guy won’t quit, he never gives up, he keeps going! But the bad person is happy with not getting up… Happy in the wreckage he has made of his life. 

The term “7 times” is used many times and it can be translated as “The righteous person may fall all his life, but he always gets back up”

The wicked man also stumbles but he is happy in this fallen condition and doesn’t bother to even try to fix his life again…. 

A modern “Sam’s Place” translation might sound like this: Even though the guys at Sam’s Place may fall a thousand times, they keep working on “Getting life back on track”, they never quit. But every so often a guy with a seared conscience will make it into Sam’s Place and that man will try to get every other man to fail… Our guys don’t quit that easy, they keep trying and finding new ways to get life back on track… 

The last few months were brutal, we had a wicked man like that. He worked overtime to make everyone fail. Although he got some guys to “fall” for a short time, they haven’t failed.  Sam’s Place worked extra hard and we finally succeeded at the cure. 

It can take about $5000.00 and three months of time to remedy this. It’s painful, makes me want to just QUIT, but Jess and I know God’s plan is greater. I am sharpening my vetting skills, becoming better at the process. Learning how to separate the tares from the wheat… (Matthew 13:24–30). 

It’s infuriating  to have to do “evictions” but it becomes part of the program. When it is necessary, it gets expensive and time consuming… When I take a chance, “give a guy a break” because I felt sorry for him and missed the fact he is just a  malicious man hiding behind a disability. 

In the end, God is always good and we know we serve the guys with struggles in life, it can and does get messy. 

One day I will write about this ordeal. How broken the system really is. How it protects a very wicked man that is destroying the lives of vulnerable adults. How he manipulated guys that are easily influenced. How I need to pay thousands of dollars to get my rights enforced. How he is “protected from me” while he steals, cheats and destroys the lives around him. How difficult it is to “kick a guy out” after he violates my rights. How the law enforcement agency won’t enforce the law because the county attorney won’t prosecute. How I am forced by the “law” to feed this man, provide for this man, cloth this man, care for this man, as he slowly and intentionally steals, curses me, and violates my rights. How I need to install furnaces, boilers and do service calls just to pay for this man to live at my expense. How my vacation was destroyed. How my wife cried. 

But today I just wanted to write about “NOT GIVING UP” . I don’t really think of myself as a righteous man but according to the Proverb I listed above. If resilience is the mark of a righteous person, then I am absolutely a righteous man. I am not giving up! We will continue to do good and help these men at Sam’s Place to get life back on track… 

Please consider helping us. If you are a Godly man that loves to mentor struggling men, if you are a prayer worrier that loves to spend time in your inner room, if you are rich beyond your wildest dreams, we covet your attention and consideration. 

With a spirit of service to the KING of KINGS, C.

The Haze

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I am sitting looking out the window at a wall of white, it’s not smoke this time but rather a wall of haze that fills the air. The humidity is “rainforest like”. I search my weather app and look at where my kids and grandbabies are…. Jacob is the worst off of all and Alex has it the best. But not far behind the worst is Chris. 

This got me thinking about how we live our lives, in a haze… ya, we are so blessed in the USA, I think of my many friends and readers in China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong, Belgium, Oman, UAE, Israel, Brazil, Peru, France, UK, Canada and about 50 more. I wonder how they find my blog, what they think when they read it and how a world of HAZE can still show the light. The truth and honesty of a God that loves us so much he gave the ultimate gift so that he may spend eternity with us…. We are all going to be somewhere for eternity, I’m glad I know I will be with a good, loving GOD. 

The haze is so thick, I can’t see across the field today. I wonder what is beyond the edge of the haze… is it a bear looking for some rotten smelly snack? Is there a fox trying to sneak up on one of our hens? Is there a skunk that is wandering the woods looking for a big juicy grub? 

I think of my life, I wandered so long, looking for significance, value and meaning… I see our Guys at Sam’s Place, looking for the same thing I was in search of… wanding around looking for something to fill our cravings, never finding the food that satisfies forever, but finding a quick grub or skinny chicken, or a forgotten road kill… never satisfied for more than a day, and back at it, on the search again…

I see the growth of some of our guys and the desire of others to destroy the lives of themselves and anyone around them. I was once that rotten soul, bringing anyone around me down with me. I sold drugs and I supplied enough “ill-repute” to destroy many folks that struggled… but I was not the first, this chain of destruction that ended with me came from a long line of people “hell bent” on destruction. 

We get guys like that every so often, perhaps a lie from them or perhaps the facility where they currently reside in.. They want him gone so badly that they are willing to “leave out certain information” in order to get them out of their care and make this guy “someone else’s problem”… But the truth be told? We have a fantastic group of guys now! Believe it or not, the influence is not from within Sam’s Place but from outside Sam’s Place. Just because we have a zero tolerance for alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, this doesn’t mean our guys are strong enough to resist the forces that are lurking in the back yard. 

As soon as we get one “source” dried up and secured, there comes another. It’s almost like the world wants our guys challenged daily, tempted always and I cant even tell you how many outside of Sam’s Place remind us “BUT ITS LEGAL” … legal does not mean healthy, safe or good…. When you are in the battle for mental health, one joint can mean the difference between getting a job or getting a bed in Anoka state hospital. There is no safe level of substance use. Only zero!

The haze might make it hard to see the truth but listening to God’s voice is never skewed by the Haze. Don’t get me wrong, you can be “tricked” to thinking what you hear is truth. But if you listen long enough, intently enough and don’t believe the lies, it gets easier every day to hear the truth of God. For some of us, it’s just harder. We have listened to so many voices and so many lies that it becomes hard to know the truth from the one in the next bedroom that is tempting you every minute, every day and every way… “Hey man, I see you are having a bad day, I can help, take a hit!”

To know the truth is to love the truth, to listen to a lie is to live life in a haze. In the haze it’s harder to know what is really going on. The smokey haze of life is like the smokey haze of substance use.

We all have a haze in our life, some is from the drugs we use and some is from the life we choose.

Today? Surrender to truth, but HOW?? Well, if you don’t know Jesus, ask him in the quiet of your heart for him to reveal the truth to you. He is there and he is GOOD. Why are you fighting his goodness? And if you “know” Jesus, what are you doing for the guy living in the haze? Have you done everything you can to help another person? Does that other person know who Jesus is? Go for a walk, beyond the limits of this hazy world and find another that is alone in that haze and help them hear the truth of God’s Love. 

In service of the one that clears the haze, C.