Author: Paul Silcock

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The Hot Tip That Led To Disaster

The other day I discovered that a hot tip that leads to new adventure can also lead to great disaster.

I had just finished a mountain bike ride when a friend told me of a new side trail that runs along the lake. He said it was really amazing.

A couple of days later I decided to ride that trail and brought my go-pro camera along thinking that maybe I would get some cool shots. 

Oh, I got some cool shots alright!

This side trail my friend told me about was a side trail off of the main trail that we usually ride. It was easy to miss. I rode right by it, stopped and went back.

When I got to the part of the trail that went along the lake, it was different than I had imagined it when he had described it to me. 

I thought it was right down by the water and that I would have a clear view of the lake. 

Not so. 

This trail was built on the side of a steep hill. And when I say the trail was “built”, I literally mean it. They actually had to build the trail like a shelf, using rocks and earth and tree logs to level a 2 1/2 foot wide trail through this very steep, almost straight down embankment to the water. 

You could see the water – but only through the trees – and it was about 40 – 50 feet down from the trail to the water’s edge. 

It was beautiful, but you needed to stay alert because there was no room for error. If you slipped off the trail, you’d go straight down.

I decided to set my camera up and film myself riding past it. 

The only problem with this trail was that you needed good momentum to be able to stay on it. Stopping to set up my camera removed any momentum I had had. 

I thought I would get some great shots … and I did. In fact, I got one shot that I was not anticipating. 

I rode my bike past my camera, but didn’t have the speed I needed to maintain my balance. When I came to a tight spot, I started to wobble and slipped off the trail … heading straight down. 

I got one foot out of my pedals, but there was nothing to step down onto.

I went over the edge, flipping down the hill until I was stopped by a rotting log and some tree branches. 

It was tough to make my way up the slippery hill to my bike and then to the trail.

My bike computer had also gotten knocked off my bike. I later found it 30 feet below me in the lake, just off the shore. 

But I did capture the first part of my fall on video, and you can check it out by clicking here to watch it on my YouTube channel. 

I ended up with some scrapes on my face, arms and leg, but other than that, God really protected me.

As for my hot tip about a great bike trail? It was a great new adventure, but also a great disaster. 

Here’s the thing: In life we are enticed to experience great adventures – adventures, that when played out, will ultimately lead to disaster. God invites us to His great adventure, which will be full of its share of difficult sections, as well as amazing, breath-taking trails. God’s adventure, however, will not lead to disaster … which can’t be said about other hot tips you may be enticed by.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of an adventure are you on – one that leads to God or disaster? Leave your comments below.

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Managing Your Energy Levels

Lately I’ve been thinking about how to best assess and manage my energy levels. … I should have been looking into this before now, but I guess it’s better that I do some research now than not at all. 

We need energy to do anything. And it seems like today almost everything requires some kind of energy to be useful.

Now-a-days we have more and more things that require renewable energy rather than constant energy. 

… Just so we’re all on the same page, when I say “renewable energy”, I’m talking about battery powered items – items that require batteries that must be charged when they are depleted as opposed to something that must be plugged into a constant energy source to function.

We humans run on renewable energy. We need to rest, and when we‘ve had enough rest we are ready to go again.

The problem with renewable energy is knowing when we need to renew it before it runs out. Otherwise, we may find we go to use an item and it doesn’t have enough energy in it to do what we want it to do. 

My watch does that sometimes. It can be 9 pm yet it doesn’t have enough energy to keep working until I’m ready to go to bed. 

They ran into the same problem on the Star Trek TV show. Captain Kirk would call down to Scotty in the engine room for more power. Scotty would yell back, “I’m givin’ her all she’s got. We don’t have enough energy to go into warp speed.” 

Sometimes it can be a quick fix when an item’s energy is low – you just slap in a new battery. 

I have several tools that all work with the same batteries. And since I have several batteries, I never worry if I’m using my grass trimmer and the battery dies. I just slap in one of my other batteries and keep on going. 

Some batteries come with indicators to how much energy is left in them – that’s helpful. 

I remember Duracell once had battery indicators on their double A batteries. You would press on two points with your fingers. There was a yellow line that would grow along the side of the battery. How long the line would end up was depending on how much energy was left in the battery. 

But sometimes I wasn’t sure it was measuring the energy in the battery or the energy I was employing to get that little line to reach the other side. My fingers were always sore after those tests.

Sometimes you can tell when your own energy is getting low. You feel it; you get tired and don’t function at your best. Measuring and knowing your energy level is pretty important when you are dealing with renewable energy. 

And as we get older, our energy levels are going to change. My energy is not going to last as long in my 60’s as it did when I was in my 40’s. 

So knowing how to assess and manage my energy levels is  something I need to investigate …before I run out of energy to do it! 

Here’s the thing: God never runs out of energy; He is a constant source of energy. When you are low, no matter in what area of your life, you can plug into God and find a power source to get recharged. Have you ever considered spending time with God for this purpose, that your time with Him recharges you? It does when you fully engage. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you manage your energy levels? Leave a comment below.

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My Old Tech Became New Tech Again

The other day I had to use old tech to get my new tech to do what I wanted it to do.

… After writing that sentence I realize it sounds a little hypnotizing. You might be wondering what exactly I mean.

I have a relatively new laptop that is 6 or 7 years newer than my previous one. So my new laptop has technology built into it that was not around when my old laptop was made. 

Tech changes so quickly – like with cell phones. They come out with new ones every year that have great new features. When your two-year contract is up, you are dying to get a new phone because it’s so advanced.

My new laptop has all new input ports so I needed a conversion cord to connect my old devices like external hard drives, external monitors, and even thumb drives.

It was a big jump. 

But there were some changes that, in my opinion, were a step back in time.

And one of those areas I discovered recently.  

Sometimes I have to record a sermon from cassette tape to my computer. This happens when something goes wrong with our normal recording from our sound board at church. 

For years I just put the cassette in a tape player, plugged the cord into the tape player and plugged the other end into the microphone port of my laptop.

My new laptop doesn’t have a microphone port. 

That was surprising … and very disappointing to say the least!

For some reason, the manufacturer decided that we don’t need to record sound that way any more … much like the way Apple decided that we don’t need to plug headphones into our phones any more; we just go wireless.

I guess we are just supposed to throw out all of our wired headphones. 

But before you do that, it might not be a bad idea to tuck them away for later. They just might come in handy.

With my new laptop, I found a way to get sound into it.  But I had to use old tech to do it. 

I scrounged around in a draw and found a headset device that I used years ago – I’m thinking close to 10 years. I used it for a dictation program I had with my computer. I stopped using it because they came up with a wireless headset.

I disconnected the headset part and MacGyver’d it together between my tape deck and computer.

Oh, but before I did that I had to get out my USB dongle to even be able to plug it into my computer.  

It worked. 

I used ten year old technology to get my new computer to do something that was standard a few years ago. 

The moral of the story is save our landfill sites. Don’t throw out your old, obsolete technology; it just might become like new technology all over again.

Here’s the thing: In life we learn and become proficient at things we once needed help with. There may be things in your life that you used to seek God’s help for but now seem to be easy for you to handle so that you don’t feel you need His help with them any more. You may find you depend more on yourself than God now that you’ve progressed in your faith – almost like God has become a little obsolete in that area. Don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t need Him as much. A growing faith will never make your daily need to seek God obsolete or outdated.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you stopped seeking God for? Leave your comments below.

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The Middle Ground Is Not The Best Ground

Taking that middle ground may be good for keeping the peace but it might also be holding you back.

It’s comfortable being in the middle: in an argument you have friends on both sides; in a hostile environment you have safety on either side of you. 

You are insulated being in the middle. You don’t have to stick up for yourself. 

But in a relationship, being in the middle actually holds you back. 

When I do counselling for couples who are getting married, I have them complete an inventory of their relationship. There are about 150 questions and five responses to choose from for each question. 

The middle response – number three – is indecision. I tell a couple before they do the inventory to try not to pick the middle answer because it’s really a non-answer. I tell them to think about the question and have an opinion. 

The middle is wishy-washy; it’s the lukewarm position … and we know what the Bible says about being lukewarm: Jesus tells a church that they are lukewarm and he is about to spit them out of his mouth (Rev 3:14-20).

Being in the middle in a relationship is not much more than indifference, and it shows you are not really committed.

To be hot or cold you have to commit.  

Mid July is when I first really go into the water by our cottage. We are on Lake Huron and the water is always cold. Even in mid August it is cold – refreshing when it is hot outside, but still cold. 

I rarely run into the water. I always walk slowly into the water until it is over my waist. I go slow to try to acclimatize my body to the water’s temperature. 

But you can’t do it forever. At some point you have to make a decision: Am I going to dive under or go back out? You have to commit one way or the other. 

And in going all in, it is clear you have made a choice; you have some passion. 

It’s also true with hot water. One time I was to do a baptism at church and somehow the hot water heater was left on too long and when I put my foot in the water it was scalding hot. 

From behind the curtain I could hear my senior pastor speaking to the congregation, preparing them for what was to take place in just a few moments.

I had a decision to make. I couldn’t tell the pastor to call it off from where I was. I knew that the water was going to burn and the high school student I was going to baptize was going to have to go all the way under the water. 

I had to make a decision. I couldn’t be lukewarm about it. It was yes or no, do or die. 

Let me just say that I was beat red from my feet to my chest for the next five hours. Poor guy I had to dunk.

Here’s the thing: We can stay in the middle with God, be lukewarm with Him, but that is just taking Him a little bit – just enough of Him for what you need, but not enough to involve Him in much of your life. It’s really indifference to Him so that your life is not totally affected or impacted by God. Being in the middle will hold you back in your relationship with God because you will be indifferent to what He wants for you. God would much rather you be hot or cold with Him. Have some passion, commit yourself to Him and dive into a deep, fulfilling relationship. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you indifferent about right now and how will you change that? Leave your comments below.

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My Train Got Derailed

Your day can easily get derailed and it can happen so slowly that you don’t realize it until you are well off the tracks.

That’s what happened to my day last Monday … and it unfolded like that story of how to cook a frog. 

If you put a frog in a pot of water and slowly heat up the water, the frog won’t jump out. He will willingly let himself be cooked to death. 

The frog is comfortable in water and, if the temperature rises slowly enough, his body will adjust to the temperature until it’s too late and he’s frogs legs on someone’s plate.

Early last Monday morning, I was looking at a brand new day with all its opportunities yet to be discovered. I had thought about doing a few things but had no real plan for the day.

My wife, Lily, and I were at our cottage; it was my day off and I was relaxed – maybe too relaxed because I should have had a more specific plan.

Sadly, Lily and I never got to the place of carving out a plan. 

Instead, at 10 am we remembered that the NBA World champion Toronto Raptors’ parade would be starting. We turned on the TV and, sure enough, the party was all over the screen.

Commentators were commentating and people had arrived at the main stage and were gathering all along the parade route. There were millions of people – literally millions! Some estimated that 2,000,000 plus flooded downtown Toronto for this spectacle.

The video from the helicopters was amazing. The crowds looked like bees gathering on a honeycomb.

Soon the players arrived at the open top, double decker busses to get the show on the road. Fans overwhelmed the streets and the police from keeping the route clear for the procession. 

It was 12:30 before we realized we hadn’t had lunch and the busses had barely exited the Princess gates of the EX where they were starting. 

All that time there were interviews with the players, celebrities, sports experts and fans – all happy and delirious.

Like all the crowds of people, we were anticipating something special. We didn’t know what, but it was something we didn’t want to miss.

By then we’d given hours to this parade. We wanted to do something else but we’d invested so much time watching that we couldn’t just walk away before we saw the big culmination to this momentous event.

When all the players and dignitaries finally got to the stage, the people right up front had been there for ten hours … some had camped there all night!. 

There had been talk about a mini concert with Drake performing, but when it was all done there were only a few speeches, greetings from several of the players and that was it.

There had been so much build-up and promise of something that would be remembered for years and years. It was all anti-climactic compared to the frenzy along the way. 

Lil and I had invested a good portion of our day watching something that we had hoped would be inspiring, but instead left us feeling like we’d wasted several hours and missed out on the good things we could have done. 

We got cooked.

Here’s the thing: There are people who spend their whole lives looking for the next thing that will be exciting, bring a thrill or inspire them to do more. But much of that is just heating up the water in your pot. When you look back, it wasn’t really worth it. Every day seek Christ for a plan and give yourself to that plan, because that will inspire you. In the end, when you look back, you will be thrilled with the treasure you’ve stored up in heaven.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you wasting your time doing today? Leave your comments below.

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I Choose To Believe it

We believe what we want to believe, and if we can’t prove it we make it up.

We look for some small truth in the thing we want to believe and exploit it or exaggerate it into something that seems significant.

This week, at the women’s world cup of soccer, the USA woman’s team beat Thailand 13 to zero. 

That doesn’t even sound like a soccer score. That would be a high score for a hockey game. Baseball scores sometimes get up that high. 

For soccer this is extremely rare. In fact, I’d watch soccer more if they scored like that every game. 

In the first round of the tournament, out of 11 games, the average score was only 1.7 goals per game. And the US scored 13 all by themselves.

As a result, there was a furious rage against the USA for this game, with all kinds of bad press all over the world against them. How could they run up the score on a team like that? 

Now, the bad press directed towards the US was not as much about the score as it was about their celebrations after they scored each goal.

They cele’d hard, acting like they were playing in the world cup title match – BIG celebrations! … players holding up the number of fingers of how many goals they had personally scored … group hugs after goals. 

Thirteen times they did this! 

The USA took a beating by the press on the world stage.

Later in the week, I was listening to a Christian radio station that is based in the States. The announcers were talking about the game and the reactions by other media. 

They defended the USA team, saying it was good for the Thai team to get beat, because it will make them better. 

“I love it” one announcer said. “When my kids get beat in soccer, I cheer it. I think it’s great, because it calls them to learn and improve their skills …”

“… So way to go, USA. You did the other team a favour.”

I was steamed at this point! What bugged everyone was that the US team didn’t just beat up on the Thai team, they humiliated them. 

These announcers chose to ignore the truth and make something up that they could believe … because that’s what they wanted to believe. 

They made up a fanciful story to go with their belief.

I would love to see that announcer comfort her son or daughter the next time he or she gets trounced. I bet she doesn’t go off on her kid, saying, “This was great, Johnny! You learned so much today. You are a better player now.” 

The truth is, if the USA players had have gone out and played their game and not whooped it up, not tried to humiliate the Thai team, but just did their work, there would have been far less criticism from the press. 

… And the whole story would have slipped by those radio announcers unnoticed.  

Here’s the thing: We all have a propensity to believe what we want to believe and so we bend or mould truth to fit our beliefs. With your faith, be sure that you are not making up a story to support what you want to believe. Study God’s word so that what you choose to believe is based on what God says is true and not just what you want to be true.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When have you bent the truth to fit your beliefs? Leave your comments below.

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Enough With The Regulations!

Regulations can protect, help and ensure quality, but we can also take them too far. And the government of Canada has gone overboard with this one … 

For the past two years, I’ve owned drones. I started out with one that I flew in my basement. From there I progressed to two outdoor drones that were not very expensive … and also not very good.  

Then last summer I bought a drone that would change droning for me. This drone could take great quality video and was a dream to fly compared to my other ones. 

I was in.

Since then I’ve been making drone videos and posting them on YouTube. (You can check them out here.) 

In January, however, our government announced that they would change the regulations for drone operations in Canada as of June 1st. 

They made two mandatory rules: First, you have to register your drone with the government, and second, you have to pass a test to obtain a license to fly it. 

There are two license categories: basic and advanced. 

It doesn’t cost much to register your drone or take the test to get your license, but to pass the test they recommend you take ground school … and that will run you between $200 and $400! 

I was able to pass my basic license test without taking ground school, but let me tell you, it took a lot of work and research to get all the information I needed to be equipped to write the exam.

But we are only a dozen days into the new regulations and I already realize this license I have is not good enough. 

I really need to get the advanced license, and for that I think I will have to take ground school. 

I remember back when I was a kid that fireworks were a big family thing during the Victoria Day weekend. In fact, on the Monday night of the holiday weekend, there were fireworks displays at the end of every driveway on the street. 

And it was the kids who were setting them off! – every kid did it.  

Fire crackers were awesome – they prepared young people for throwing grenades in the army. The Canadian military would automatically enlist a new recruit if he had two or more years’ experience throwing these little hand grenades … just kidding!

Fire crackers were eventually deemed too dangerous. But even though I set off my fair share of them, squeezing the end really hard and having them explode in my fingers, I still have all my digits.

The government first set age limits for buying fire crackers. Then the age limits kept getting higher and higher until they stopped selling fire crackers all together. 

My kids don’t even know what a fire cracker is, let alone what it does. They would never pass hand grenade training in the military.

My fear is the government is going to do the same thing with drones. The regulations will become so restrictive and complicated that they will just stop selling drones in Canada. 

Here’s the thing: Maybe it’s human nature to add regulations and make things more complicated. God, on the other hand, made having a relationship with Him so uncomplicated and easy – it’s easy if you will humble yourself and place your faith in Christ Jesus. Many people try to complicate this relationship with God. But really, God has made it so that we talk, listen, and follow His lead – it really is that simple. If you find yourself getting complicated with God, it’s you, not Him. Cut out the regulations and simply relate to Him as you would your closest friend or parent. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you put too many regulations on? Leave your comments below.

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I’ll Be Smarter This Time

I’m going to be smarter this time. I’m not going to start back to playing sports until I’m fully healed.

Someone mentioned to me recently that I should act my age. I thought I was … but maybe when it comes to sports I still think like I did when I was in my 40’s.

I shouldn’t be treating my body that way. 

Zedano Chara, of the Boston Bruins, is playing in the NHL playoffs with a broken jaw. But, hey, he’s only 42. I did that kind of stuff when I was 42 as well. But I shouldn’t be thinking I can still do that stuff now at my age. 

I have lived with a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in my left knee for about 35 years.  

I still play sports because I have a custom-made brace that has worked amazingly for me. In fact, I’m on my second brace. I had my knee scoped 27 years ago and have had my second brace about as long as my first one. 

It may need to be replaced soon. … I’ve been thinking more about that since my knee has been bothering me this last month. 

I’ve notice over the last few years that after a game of hockey my knee feels a little unstable. So now I don’t play two days in a row. 

It got sore several weeks ago and I’ve kind of been both resting it and playing through it – going mountain biking.

Soon afterwards I was going over my sermon before I preached and noticed that, after standing still, my knee wouldn’t bend easily. I was walking on the platform like Frankenstein. 

To not scare any of my congregants away, I drove home and put on my brace. My knee felt more secure and I moved better. I did that for two weeks. 

This past Sunday I didn’t need my brace. I thought my knee was pretty much better and it was … not 100% but mostly better. 

Well, I played hockey on Tuesday and the next day was wearing my brace to work. The knee was swollen and sore again. 

Back in my 40’s I could have gotten away with playing. But I can’t any more. 

I need to be a little smarter and, for me, that means I need to be a little more patient and wait until it feels completely better – not just mostly.

When we were kids and would scrape our knees, our mom would give our knees a kiss and say, “It’s all better now.” 

Somehow, though there was still some pain, and the red lines of the scrape were still visible, we believed our mom. Her words were comforting enough to get us out playing again. 

But for me, now, I need to be smarter with my body and give the healing process a little more time. 

Here’s the thing: Sometimes I think that God must wonder if I will ever get smarter with Him. I go to Him with the same confessions, same requests, same needs. It’s like I’m not getting any smarter. I fall to the same temptations, the same inner pressures, when what I should be doing at this stage in my life is depending on the Holy Spirit’s power more. That’s what being smarter with God is all about.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How could you depend on the Holy Spirit more this week? Leave your comments below.

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I Was Prevented From Being Fined

The other day I was prevented from doing something that could have resulted in a big fine.

At the time I was a little frustrated, but now I’m glad the situation stopped me. A fine could have been thousands of dollars.

I’ve experienced this kind of unwanted, unsolicited restraint in the past and, to be honest, it can be downright maddening … until you discover what you’ve been saved from.

It happened when I was driving, speeding on the highway, passing cars. 

I consider it sacrificial driving because all the cars behind me could up their speed a bit, knowing that I would be the target of any radar up ahead. 

As I was cruising along, a truck pulled out into my lane. I had to slow way down, to probably about 15-20 km’s slower than I was going. 

The passing took an eternity and I was thinking all kinds of bad thoughts towards the truck driver in front of me. 

The longer it took, the more frustrated and furious I was with the hold up … that was until we passed a highway patrol car with radar pointing my way.

I would have been caught for sure; it would have been a big fine. 

That truck that was ticking me off saved me big time. 

Then the other day I took my drone to fly it around some locks on the Rideau waterway system. There are a number of locks around Kingston. 

I thought it would be picturesque to film above and around the locks and nearby rapids. 

The first lock I drove to was packed with people. There was some kind of art festival there, and it also looked like there was a wedding about to take place.

So I drove past and kept going to another lock up the river. This one was off the main road a bit and I thought maybe there would be no one there. 

But when I arrived there were five cars in the parking lot – enough people around that I couldn’t really fly my drone in a safe manner.

So I drove on, a little frustrated that I was prevented again from capturing what I thought would be some amazing footage. 

In both attempts it was the people who were present that prevented me from flying my drone – not that they said anything, but legally I can’t fly my drone within 30 meters of people. 

Later when I was mulling over a possible day or time when no one would be around, I started thinking about the symbol I saw on the sign there. I began to wonder who operated those locks. So I looked up the symbol and found that the locks are controlled by Parks Canada. 

… And the fine for flying a drone in a national park can be as high as $25,000!

All those people and events just saved me a good chunk of change. I would have flown my drone completely unaware that I could have been fined big time for doing it. 

My frustration is all gone. Thanks people!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes you may find yourself frustrated with God. You’ve asked Him, pleaded with Him, even begged Him, but the answer you are looking for is nowhere in sight. You can’t understand why God would not answer you. Just consider that your current frustration may be preventing something unwanted and unpleasant from occurring in your life. … Let your frustration with God go. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What frustration in your life might be a blessing in disguise? Leave your comments below.

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Unnoticeable In Plain Sight

There are times when things blend in so seamlessly that they are unnoticeable, even though they are in full view of everyone around them. 

In the animal world, they are called chameleons. These little creatures take on the colours of their surroundings. They look like they are part of the tree, leaf or rock they are standing on. 

When people blend in we call them wallflowers.

Objects can also blend in. Have you ever been looking for something, know you’ve seen it, but can’t locate it? It can be right in front of you, on the floor or table, but it takes you a long time to actually see it. 

Even though we know what we are looking for, and it is visible, for some reason – maybe distraction – we don’t see it right away.

It also happens when we are driving.

The other day I was driving home from Toronto (TO). It’s about a two and a half hour trip on the 401. For the first part of the journey there are lots of lanes and lots of cars. 

As you get farther away from TO, the road narrows to only three lanes of traffic in each direction.

At this point in my journey, I didn’t take much notice the 18 wheelers travelling in the same direction as I was. They have to drive in the far right lane and are allowed to pass other vehicles in the middle lane. 

Me, well, I was humming along in the middle and far left lanes, trying to make as good a time as I could without going too fast and drawing the attention of the police.

Eventually, however, about an hour and a half out of TO, the highway narrows again down to two lanes. … And all of a sudden I started to notice the trucks and how many of them there were on the road!

I noticed them because, with only two lanes, when they passed they had to move from the right lane to the left lane … where I was driving.

Normally, you pass a vehicle very quickly. But when a truck is involved, it takes forever to pass another vehicle!

You can find yourself stuck behind a truck for five minutes as it seesaws back and forth with the rig it is trying to get past. 

It is so frustrating. 

Before we narrowed to two lanes, the trucks were not noticeable; they were like chameleons in the lanes beside me. 

I never noticed just how many big rigs there were on the road. 

It is amazing how something that big – that long and massive – can become so unnoticeable with just one extra lane. 

Let’s make the 401 three lanes all the way to Montreal.

Here’s the thing: You can go a while and not notice your Bible sitting on your night stand. You can go day after day without paying any attention to the fact that you are not spending time with the Lord. But when you life narrows, when difficulties, health issues or family problems crop up, then you will notice you need to pay attention to God in your life. Learn to keep Him in your sights when your life lanes are plentiful and you will seamlessly notice God when life is hard.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Why has God become unnoticeable lately? Leave your comments below.