Author: Paul Silcock

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Isolation Is Good For Something; Not Sure What That Is

This Isolation is wreaking havoc on my efficiency and making me less productive. 

Isolation is good for something; not sure what that is

Probably most people and businesses in general are running at a lower efficiency than they normally do. I was talking with someone recently who said he thinks he’s operating at 70%.

It’s understandable. We are finding our way through a new set of rules and measures. Life is not what it was a few months ago before coronavirus.

I am in the same boat as most people, although, if anything, I should be more productive and working at a high efficiency. You see, I work best when it is quiet, and boy is it quiet at work!

I hear of people working from home and being on Zoom meetings where their three-year-old makes an appearance several times during the meeting … and the kid isn’t updating their dad or mom on the latest sales projection numbers.

I know some people are going nuts trying to get work done at home. 

I’m the opposite. I still go into the office, and I’m the only one there. It’s really quiet which should be perfect for me. 

I once had an assistant who loved to play music when he worked. He often would play it Friday mornings when I was trying to write my sermon. He would keep the sound low but he had a subwoofer in his office and all I would hear was boom .. boom . . . . . . . boom . . boom . . boom echoing through the wall between our offices.

I couldn’t concentrate at all.

It’s probably because of my ADD that I need quiet to focus, but the quiet isn’t even working these days. Anything can take my attention away from what I’m working on.  

In fact, the other day I stopped working on my sermon to pray. After a moment or two of prayer, I realized I had spotted a black squiggle mark on my desk and my mind went to some cleaner in the kitchen I had seen earlier. I almost stopped praying to go get that cleaner when I realized what I was doing and got back to praying. 

Maybe it is too quiet here at the church. Maybe I need a couple of three-year-olds messing with my mind and my patience. 

Wait … I’ve been there before, and no thanks; I’m not going back.  

But maybe it’s not my ADD. Maybe I’ve been going for too long without a break and I’m running out of steam. 

Come to think of it, it’s often around now that I remember my summer vacation is coming up and I start thinking that it can’t come fast enough. 

Maybe it’s that I would normally be a little more active by now. I would be mountain biking and golfing. I haven’t done any of that and I haven’t really been working out in my home gym either. 

It’s possible that it’s all these factors and the isolation has just created the perfect storm for them all to be working against me. 

Here’s the thing: This isolation can get you off your game with your time with God. Your schedule has changed; you don’t have the same routines as normal. You may have different demands placed on you. All these things can create that perfect storm that makes spending time with God more difficult. Let me encourage you to find some calm in that storm. Eke out some quiet waters where you can listen to the Lord for direction and guidance through a turbulent time. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How efficient have you found yourself to be in this isolation? Leave your comments and questions below. Hit the “like” button if this has been helpful and subscribe if you want these posts to come to your inbox.

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My Eyes Need A Fine-Tune Adjustment

I don’t think my eyes are as finely tuned as some other people’s.

My eyes need a fine-tune adjustment

Lately I’ve been working on some projects using saws, drills, screws and what not. 

I built a teleprompter using an old picture frame, plywood and an aluminum strip. I just made a rig for my teleprompter and camera to fit on a tripod stand. 

I also got the parts to make a jig for my router. I need to cut a groove in some 2x4s for the top of my fence. 

Now you need to know a few things about me. Woodworking and making things with my hands have never been things I am proficient at. In fact, there was a time when I was banned from using anything sharp … well, I was allowed to use a knife to cut my food. 

You see, I had had a couple of accidents. 

First, I was cutting off the bottom of a door. I did a few things wrong: I used the wrong saw and, instead of cutting the door while on a flat surface, I held it up with my hand. The saw slipped off the wood and the very toothy saw blade ripped into the base of my index finger. 

… Let’s just say we had to replace a few ceiling tiles that had red stains from when I flung my hand up. 

That was a trip to the hospital. Fortunately, I missed a tendon and still have full use of my finger.

About three months later, I was using a utility knife to cut a strip off some hard board. The knife slipped and sliced the same finger, only this time near the tip.  

That was another trip to emerg in order to stop the leakage.

Besides my issues of cutting myself with sharp objects, for some reason I can’t seem to get anything straight. My eyes are just a little off. I can get things close, but not perfect. 

When I am cutting things with a circular saw, my cuts go straight for the first part but end up veering slightly to the left or right. When I’m drilling a hole, I can’t seem to make a hole that isn’t on a slight angle. When I screw two pieces of wood together, they might not come together perfectly inline.

I’m not saying that my measuring is off. I think I just need my eyes adjusted. I’m usually close, but close isn’t good enough. 

It’s like my eyes need to be tuned a bit, brought into sharper focus. 

I’ve been watching YouTube videos, getting tips on making these projects and they look great on the screen. The carpenters seem so precise. They do it with ease. 

But when I go to make something, I’m off just a bit. My end result is not quite like the example. 

Now I’m about to make a jig, and I am going to have to drill about 32 holes, evenly spaced, around an 8×10 piece of plexiglass. What are the chances I will actually be able to drill in the middle of each of my markings? 

Here’s hoping. 

Here’s the thing: At times in your life, things don’t come together the way you would like them to. Even with all your trying, you can’t make it work out right. You are just not seeing the situation correctly and you need an eye adjustment. God will be your expert help to fine-tune what you don’t see correctly. Don’t live with something that isn’t quite right. Seek God for what you don’t see and let Him adjust your eyes to see clearly. 

That’s Life!

Paul 

Question: What do you have trouble seeing clearly? Leave your comments and questions below. Hit the like button if you found this helpful, and subscribe to keep these posts coming.

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Hesitation Can Lead You To Disaster

They say that caution is a friend, but I just saw how hesitation can lead to great disaster.

Hesitation can lead you to disaster

Sometimes you miss out when you hesitate … 

When you get a hot tip regarding the stock market, if you snooze, you lose.

When a store has a one day sale on something you have really wanted, but you question whether it is the right time for you to purchase it, that little hesitation could cost you getting in on that sale. 

I’ve noticed when you want to walk across certain traffic intersections, if you don’t start walking right away, an orange hand sign starts flashing. Your hesitation on the walk sign could mean you spend the better part of a day just trying to get across the street. 

The other day my wife, Lily, and I were in our car heading down the street to an appointment. 

Up ahead a squirrel dashed out to cross the road as we kept moving towards it. The little rodent stopped about half way across the road and looked back at us. He could see our car was bearing down on him. 

He continued to cross but then hesitated and stopped. He started to dash back the way he came when we were almost upon him. He stopped again, then ran for the other side. 

It was such a close call that I looked in the rearview mirror to see if there was a dark splat on the road. 

Somehow – and to be honest, I don’t know how – he didn’t get run over. 

So the play-by-play went something like this: “Look a squirrel is running across the street; wait now he’s stopped. Okay, he’s going to keep going. No, he’s stopped again. Now he’s going back; but wait, he’s stopped again. He’s going to cross the street. Did we get him? I don’t see any marks.” 

I am sure, in that one afternoon, that squirrel went from being a young squirrel to being an old senior who no longer crosses the road without help. Years were taken off that wild little critter’s life in a flash. 

Both Lily and I could not believe we didn’t run him over. We must have missed him by inches, maybe even just a fraction of an inch. 

He would not have had any issues getting across the street if he had have just gone straight across. It was his hesitation that got him into trouble. 

And even his first hesitation may not have been that scary, but three times he stopped moving and considered going the other way. … The fast moving tires and the evil grin of the car’s grill probably had him in a complete panic. 

That squirrel was not the only one of his kind to find himself in that kind of a situation. Squirrels are notorious for their hesitation. 

That is why many of them live on the edge of disaster all the time. 

Here’s the thing: Hesitation is not our friend when we face temptation. When confronted with something that is enticing us into a poor decision, a sin of some kind, hesitation causes us to flirt with disaster. When temptation comes, don’t hesitate. Know the right course of action and take it immediately to avoid potential disaster.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: In what area(s) of your life do you tend to hesitate? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I’ve Just Witnessed A Modern-Day Miracle

The other day, right in my kitchen, I witnessed a miracle take place.

witnessed a modern-day miracle

I can’t say that I saw the transformation happen before my eyes but, without a doubt, a complete recovery took place that no one could deny.

It was a tulip that had died. I didn’t check its vital signs, but you could tell. It had been drooping for a day. I had actually tried to prop it up a bit so it matched the other tulip in the vase that was standing up straight. 

But by the next morning, the petals were curled and the stem was bent over the vase like a dead cowboy slumped over the back of a horse. It was kind of like a scene you’d see in an old western movie. 

Some might say it still had life in it, but I could tell this tulip was a goner. 

At very best it was only “mostly dead” … I picked that up from the movie, “The Princess Bride” where the hero was killed by the villain. His friends took him to Miracle Max to see if there was anything that could revive him. Miracle Max said there was one thing in his favour, that he was only mostly dead. 

But even Miracle Max didn’t think there was much hope for the hero. He sent them off with a pill and, as they waved goodbye to the hero’s friends, his wife asked him if he though it would work. Miracle Max simply said, “It would take a miracle.”

Well, that is what I witnessed in this tulip this morning. 

You could call it “all the way dead” or just “mostly dead” but this poor little purple tulip did not have a chance to revive outside of a miracle.

It was mid-morning when we noticed that the flower had gone the way of the flowers in the field – it was blown away. 

… That sounds like another reference to the old western gunslinger movies. 

There was nothing more we could do for this delicate, limp tulip. 

But then my wife recalled something. She had heard that if you put a penny in the water, the flower would come back to life. 

I didn’t believe this for a minute. I would have bet more than a penny on it not working. And unlike most people, I still have pennies … in a big container I use to collect coins in. 

Pennies themselves have been wiped off the face of the Canadian landscape. I may be the last bastion for them.

I went to my stash and got two pennies … because I didn’t think there was enough healing power in just one of the cheaply made little coins that have been discontinued. 

To our surprise, by lunch time that tulip was standing up straight as an arrow, and the shape of its petals looked remarkably like it was smiling at us. 

There you have it – it’s a miracle! 

Here’s the thing: The real miracle happens when a person, who has lived his life for himself, discovers that God loves him and sent His son, Jesus, to die for his sins. For that person to receive Jesus as his Saviour and then see the change in how he thinks, how he treats others, what he put his energy into and what he holds as important is an absolute miracle. No one could do that – only God, the great miracle worker. God has a miracle for you if you want it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What miraculous thing have you witnessed? Leave your comments and questions below.

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It Was The Longest Walk Of My Life

A couple of weeks ago I made the longest walk of my life, even though I didn’t break any distance records making it.

It was the longest walk of my life

It was still a long walk.

It was a walk that had greater meaning than pretty much any other walk I have ever taken.

… I remember after having a heart attack eight years ago, I went for walks with my wife, Lily. Those were important walks because I needed to exercise my heart without putting undue stress on it. During those walks I had to keep reminding Lily to slow down. She was always trying to pick up the pace.

When I play golf, I still like to stretch my legs on the golf course rather than ride in a cart. There is something about walking that is more meditative and relaxing. When you walk the course you take in more of the beauty and grandeur of the nature around you.

I’ve taken walks that were hurried because I needed to get somewhere fast and couldn’t run. 

And there were walks that have been filled with stress, knowing that at the end of my steps I had to do something or say something that was important.

But this walk – this longest walk – was longer and different than any of those other walks. 

I walked my daughter, Karlie, down the aisle of my church for her wedding. 

It was just a couple of weeks ago, and I think I’ve finally recovered. 

The walk itself started in the gym of the church and went through the foyer to the threshold of the sanctuary and then down the rows of pews to the front … where a young man and a pastor waited with smiling faces.

But that walk represented all the times I paced in our home, trying to rock my baby girl to sleep, and the walk with her in my arms as we quickly rushed to the hospital. 

That walk echoed the times I attended her plays and events, walked up and down a soccer field, walked into her public school, high school and university graduations.

As we made that march towards the altar, it was like this little baby in a bassinet grew with every stride to become this beautiful bride standing next to me at the end of our walk.

Our path to the front was filled with memories that have taken almost thirty-one years to walk. 

Mind you, I had to whisper, “slow down” to Karlie a few times. She takes after her mother in her walking. 

Even still, the walk back up the aisle at the end of the service was much quicker. It was a hurried walk as if to say, “let’s get going with the rest of our lives”. 

I’m convinced they make that father-daughter walk down the aisle extra slow so that at least the father can gather up all those years and treasure them in the moments before the biggest event of his daughter’s life … moments that this father will treasure forever.

Here’s the thing: There are many times when I want to rush through my time with God. I’d like to get on with my day. There are things that I need to attend to. I have pressures, interests and concerns that hurry my soul and urge me to keep it light and brief with the Lord. But God is like that father walking his daughter down the aisle, whispering, “Slow down. I have much to treasure and share with you. Let’s walk a little longer.”

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What causes you to hurry your devotional time with God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Flew For The First Time In Five Months

It’s been five months since I’ve been up in the air, but I finally flew the other day. Last year I flew right through the winter, but it’s more difficult to fly now. 

I flew for the first time in five months

… Oh no, I’m not talking about COVID-19 restrictions; I’m talking about flying my drone. 

A year ago I could take my drone up with few restrictions on the airspace I could fly in. Not this year. The restrictions are plenty, so choosing a place to fly my drone is difficult and requires going a good distance out of the city.

Along with all the restrictions, there are weather factors to consider in winter. The temperature can’t be too cold or the battery might freeze and my drone might fall out of the sky … not to mention my fingers might freeze off while holding the controller. 

I have experience with freezing fingers … playing pond hockey way past the time hypothermia starts to kick in. 

… Or being in the thick of a snowball fight, when the snow is really wet and your gloves have soaked through. You can’t stop or you will get pelted, but in those temperatures your hands become one with the snowball – frozen! 

But earlier this week I finally managed to take my drone out. It was perfect for a flight – well, somewhat. 

It had been a great day on the Saturday, but I wasn’t able to get out. Then Sunday it rained all day. The forecast for Monday was the same but turned out to be nice. So late in the day I decided to get out there. 

What I didn’t know was they had lifted the ban on using trails and walking paths. When I got to the spot I had planned for my flight, the parking lot was full of cars. 

The spot was an old railway line that has been converted into a walking, jogging, hiking, biking trail. I’ve been there before with maybe a car or two. Not this day. There were more cars than the parking area could hold.

I tried another spot farther up the trail. Same thing. It was like everyone decided, “Let’s go walking and biking today.” 

I did eventually find a place to park and I got my drone in the air. 

I wasn’t really interested in filming anything, and believe me there wasn’t much that was interesting to film at this spot. 

Everything is still brown; there is no colour. Other than evergreen trees, there aren’t even leaves on the trees.

I just wanted to get flying again, and practise some techniques so that when I get a chance to film something interesting I will be able to pull off the shot in a cool way only drones can capture.

Five months off of flying is a long time but, much like riding a bike, you don’t forget how to do it. 

I hope now that spring has sprung, it won’t be so long in between flights.

Here’s the thing: When was the last time you spent time with God or spent more than two minutes reading your Bible? How long has it been since you’ve been to church? Well, all it takes is some desire and inspiration to do it. Plan a time to meet with God; pick up your Bible and read; stream a church service … I know of a good one (Kingston Alliance Church on YouTube.com).

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: You have more free time right now – what are you doing with it? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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How Fanatical Are You About Coffee?

Somebody, remind me why people are so fanatical about their coffee! I just don’t get it. 

How Fanatical are you about coffee

I can get passionate about a lot of things. I even watched a hockey game the other night from 2007. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen it or didn’t know the outcome; I watched simply because I had a hankering for some hockey … and because right now we’d be in the thick of the playoffs – two games a night on TV.

So I do understand getting a hankering for something. 

And I do know coffee drinkers love a hot cup of joe first thing in the morning. … My daughter has a sign in her kitchen that reads, “… but first, coffee”. 

Some people go to extreme lengths to make a cup of coffee just down right difficult. 

I remember the days of the coffee maker. You put the water in the reservoir and could almost immediately see the same stream of H2O come right back out, now steaming hot and with that dark roasted lustre to it. … People like me would say it looks closer to the colour of mud but, as you can tell, I’m not a coffee drinker. I never have been.  

What I don’t get is the extremes coffee drinkers go to to get their coffee – whether it is standing over a chemistry lab-style carafe with a filter shoved in the spout, pouring small amounts of water over the coffee grinds, or whether it’s standing in line at a Starbucks for your special blend.

During the pandemic, Starbucks says they have mobile service. The only thing they have correct in that statement is “mobile”, as in you stay in your autoMOBILE. 

There is no service to what they do, even on a normal day when operating at full capacity. 

As one comedian put it, “you need a cup of coffee to be able to stand in line that long to order a coffee at Starbucks”. 

Well, the other day, my wife, Lily, had a free coffee voucher for Starbucks (for her birthday). She placed the order on her phone through an app. 

She was notified that it would be ready in 6 minutes. Now that’s fast for Starbucks! I was impressed; we hurried there. 

When we go close, we found that there was a lineup of cars that weaved through the parking lot, all of them trying to go through the drive-thru. 

… Nineteen cars ahead of us by the time we got to the back of the line! 

We hadn’t calculated that in our timing. Lily’s coffee was to be ready in 3 minutes. 

It took another 20 minutes to actually get the coffee passed to us through the drive-thru window. 

… That means Lily’s coffee sat on some counter for 17 minutes, and not under one of those heat lamps either. 

Why someone would want to go through all that just to get a taste of their favourite poison, I don’t know. 

Anyway, it’s a good gig. If you order ahead you either stay in line or you lose your week’s pay on that overpriced drink that’s already been charged to your credit card. 

Here’s the thing: When you truly love something, you will go to incredible lengths for that love – to the point where others who don’t share that same love think you are a little crazy or foolish. Well, let me ask you, how much do you love God? Would people who don’t love God think you are crazy for the lengths you go to to demonstrate your love for Him? Think on that.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you show your love for God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Curbside Service Is Not As Simple As It Appears

Today I’m trying out curbside pick-up and it’s not as simple as it is made out to be.

Curbside Service Is Not As Simple As It Appears

It sounds simple – you order something, drive up to the store and someone hands you your ordered product.

It’s sort of like A&W back in the 50’s and 60’s. You would drive up to a stall, order your food through an intercom and then an employee would run out or roller skate out to your car with your food order. 

It was pretty easy, but everything you ordered was known to you. Everyone knows what a french fry looks like and, though different restaurants sell them in different sizes or shapes, each restaurant only has one size for them.

The other day I needed to order some hardware products – one item was a threaded rod. 

It sounds simple, but I needed to choose the size of the threading and the online pictures of the different rods were all the same picture! 

I couldn’t tell which was larger and which was smaller. And the sizing was weird – M5 32×24. I’m not a handyman so these numbers didn’t help me at all. 

I didn’t know if a M5 was thinner than a M6. … I do know that with electric wire, the sizes go in the opposite direction: the higher the number the thinner the gauge of wire.

Who does that anyway? The electricians guild long ago must have thought it would be funny to mess with people’s minds and make 10 a really thick gauge, while making 18 a really thin gauge of wire. 

My problem was I didn’t know if people did that with threaded rods too. And since the pictures were all the same, I couldn’t tell.

If I could have gone into the store, I could have picked up each size, compared them and chosen the one I wanted. But with having to order online, I first needed to take a course in hardware management … and I needed to take the course quickly, so I could finish my order and get going on my project. 

Before long I had about three or four windows open on my internet browser, scrolling back and forth. 

What I discovered is the “M” stands for metric, and the number next to it stands for the diameter in millimetres. The next number is the pitch or the thread count. We are not talking about cotton sheets here either. The last number is the length … that one I figured out on my own. 

By the time I sort of knew what I wanted to order, I could have driven to Home Depot and back two times! 

… The lengthy process was just preparing me for when I pick up my purchase, realize I need a different size and have to do it all over again … plus have to learn how to do a return via curbside drop off. 

Here’s the thing: During this time of isolation there are lots of church curbside services available to us. We can tune in and pick up a message, a talk, or a devotional here and there. But unless you open up your own Bible, you can’t really compare what you are hearing with what God is really saying. Make sure you show up online with a Bible; don’t take someone’s word for it. Compare what the Bible says to what the online service is offering and get the right message with no returns. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Have you been engaging online with your Bible or without it? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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My Tinnitus Just Got Diagnosed Today

It’s been so quiet around here that I discovered I have tinnitus.

My Tinnitus Just God Diagnosed

I shouldn’t be surprised … and it makes perfect sense that I would have it. I’ve certainly been exposed to my share of loud noises. 

But, until this Covid isolation, I really hadn’t noticed it at all. That might say something about how infrequently I am in silence. 

If anyone should have tinnitus, it should be my daughter, Karlie. When she was weeks old, she was in a gym, filled with high school students kicking basketballs and volleyballs and yelling at the top of their lungs. Somehow she slept right through all the noise, but you’d think that maybe it would have brought on some tinnitus effects. 

So far nothing for her.   

But then there is my wife. She spent much of her youth listening to quartet music … mostly because her dad sang in a quartet. It’s hardly the kind of music that you would think could produce tinnitus, but she has developed a rather pronounced case.

… Which leads me to think that my parents were upset at the wrong music when I was listening to my rock music at levels that were known to fry speakers.

I also went to concerts – a lot of them – in my late teens and early twenties.

It was not uncommon at those concerts to have difficulty hearing the person right beside you tell you he thought the band was great. You just guessed what he was saying by the huge smile on his face.

There was one concert I went to, however, that beat all other concerts for causing my potential hearing damage. 

It was an Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP) concert – and it was outdoors, no less. I was more that halfway back from the stage in the football stadium, but when the dust settled after the concert, I had ringing in my ears for three days!

I had never experienced that before.

My ears should have been ruined, but they weren’t. I still had great hearing and I think my hearing now is still pretty good for someone my age. 

I don’t have any trouble hearing most people, as opposed to my quartet-listening wife. 

In the midst of all this isolation, I find that I am alone more in my office. There is nothing happening outside my office either. All there is is silence. In that silence that surrounds me, I am starting to pick up some white noise in my ears.

Some people pay money to buy white noise recordings so they can calm down or get to sleep at night. I get my white noise for free.

I understand that what I have is nothing – it’s minor, not really even a bother. But I am wondering what else I will discover about myself as our isolation continues. 

… Well, I better turn up the iTunes on my computer so I don’t fall asleep with all this white noise in my ears. 

Here’s the thing: When our world is full of sound, sometimes it’s hard to hear what God might be saying to us. Our attention is on other things, turned to other sources. Right now, while we are experiencing more time to be quiet and think, while we encounter a season where we can actually hear what’s going on between our ears, take the time to try to hear God. He is saying things to you in nature, through other people, in your thoughts and, ultimately, through His Word the Bible. Let’s not miss this opportunity to tune Him in. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you been using silence to your advantage lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Time with Screens Needs To Increase

Experts say we look at screens too much, but I’m realizing I’m not looking at them enough.

my time with screens needs to increase

I know mothers have complained about this since the invention of the television, but we’ve been staring at screens ever since.

And it has only gotten worse. 

With all the technology built into phones, people can have their eyes glued to a screen anywhere and all the time. 

There have been studies that show this is not good for us – not good for our brain development, our attention span, our eyesight and then, depending on how close we get to the screen, our health for the risk of cancer. 

But none of that worries most of us. We gravitate back to the screen after the slightest break. 

Have you ever stood in line waiting for something? How long do you study the back of the shirt of the guy in front of you before you pull out your phone and check your email, or scroll through some Instagram photos? 

The other day we had a rare occasion to have both our kids for dinner at the same time.  Everyone pulled up to the table and just before we were about to say grace, both our kids had their phones out and were looking at them.

There were no words exchanged, just a look and the phones were put away.

I guess what I’m saying is that we are always looking at screens. And with the coronavirus, we are probably spending even more time gazing into screens: TV screens, computer screens and the rest. 

But for me, I don’t think I’m looking at screens as much as I should be. 

With our new isolation reality, I’ve been doing much more online work. I preach my sermons online, lead a Bible study online, and give a once-a-week devotional online now.

This is all new to me. It’s also forcing me to look at screens more often, and specifically to look into cameras more. 

And what I’m realizing is, I’m not doing it as much as I should be. 

You see, I have notes that I use when I speak, and I have to look at my notes when I’m talking to a camera or I would be staring at the camera … but just staring and doing nothing else. 

Even when I’m preaching and the camera is way at the back of the sanctuary, it is really noticeable when I look down at my notes or look to the corner for some direction from our camera operator. 

When I do my devotionals, even though my notes are right beside the screen, you can tell when I look away. When I do that, I lose connection with the people who are watching on their own screens.

So the other day I found a cheap – actually free to me – way of making a teleprompter. 

It’s crude and a little makeshift, but it works. I’m going to use it for some of my onscreen appearances because I can look right into the camera and see my notes in front of me.

I can’t wait to have more screen time. 

Here’s the thing: Let me encourage you, during this time of virus isolation 2020, to keep yourself looking straight ahead. It is easy right now to get looking away from God and onto other things. But now, more than ever, we need to be staying focused on Christ and His Word. That’s how we can make the greatest connection with Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How could you connect with God more during this time? Leave your comments and questions below.