Author: Paul Silcock

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I’m Having Trouble Connecting Right Now

I’ve been having trouble lately connecting to some of my devices. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the weather, but I am completely in the dark as to why I can’t connect.

Years ago when you said you were not connecting, it was easy to find the problem. Usually someone forgot to hang up his phone, or was on the phone talking to someone else. 

There was no mystery as to why you were not connecting. You just needed to wait until the phone was back on the hook. 

You could also fail to connect to someone in person. That meant that the person you were having a face-to-face conversation with was not understanding what you were trying to communicate.

As frustrating as that might have been, it was still easy to understand. We would chalk it up to the other person being thick in the head and move on.

Probably the most common reason for not connecting was with electricity. You were not connected because the cord was not plugged into the outlet … or you had blown a fuse.

Now with technology, however, when we are not connecting there are a myriad of possible reasons why. Many of them we don’t even understand … now we are the ones who are thick in the head! 

One of the things I do each morning is jump on the scale. But for the last few days, I’ve had trouble when weighing myself.

I have a smart scale – at least that’s what it’s called. Right now, however, it’s not acting all that smart.

Normally when I step on the scale, my weight is automatically recorded in an app on my phone. Lately it isn’t connecting. 

And there is no apparent reason why it’s not connecting. There is nothing to plug in and no one else is using it when I weigh myself.

The scale just won’t connect to my app.

I’ve scoured the internet and still haven’t found a solution. All it says is “the certificate is invalid”. 

I didn’t know the scale had a certificate. I don’t even know what the scale’s certificate is in. Is it possible there is a school for scales and my scale fraudulently got a certificate in hygiene and body maintenance?

I really don’t know what to do. 

My scale works. It shows me what I weigh each day, but it won’t record it on my phone. 

My connection trouble with this device is typical with many electronics. It’s never as simple as, “Hey look, we didn’t plug it in!”

No, you need tech support to solve these connection issues. You need someone who has a certificate in IT to diagnose the problem. … You just hope that the IT guy doesn’t have an invalid certificate, because then you would really be in a mess.

I don’t know what the solution is to my connection problem, but I sure hope I can figure it out soon.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes you might find that you are not connecting with God. Everyone experiences that from time to time. Though it’s not as easy to diagnose as telephone connection problems, there are some common reasons why you might not be connecting to God: Is there sin in your life? Have you failed to forgive someone? Are you only listening for what you want to hear? There are other possible reasons why but these are the basic ones. And all these connection problems are on your end. God is waiting for us to clear our connection problems because He wants to connect with us.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you doing to ensure you don’t have a connection problem with God?  Leave your comments below.

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How To Clean Things Up In No Time

Creating the visual of clean can be as satisfying as actually doing the hard work of cleaning.

For example, your living room is cluttered with things and someone is on his way over to your home for a visit or a meeting. You don’t have the time to clean the living room from top to bottom so you take the clutter and you stash it.

You put those items behind things, underneath things, out of sight. 

Then, just before the visitor arrives, you stand back and admire how neat and tidy everything looks.

You get the same satisfaction you would have if you had taken an hour to put everything away in its proper place. 

I do this with my office. Over the course of a few weeks, paper will start to gather on my desk. 

I don’t know how it happens. It’s a little like how snow starts to fall from the sky. At first it melts quickly and you don’t see it on the ground. But as the snow persists, it starts to accumulate. 

It begins to pile up.  

That’s what happens on my desk. Dealing with all that paper that has accumulated takes a lot of time – sometimes hours. Who has hours for filing and sorting and what not?! 

The downside is that I can’t work with the piles of paper; I keep looking at them. So, from time to time, I simply gather up all the papers and put them on a table in one neat pile.  

Then my office desk looks neat and clean and I can work. It’s fantastic. And I don’t have to spend all that time dealing with each individual piece of paper to give me that feeling. 

Today I cut the grass. At this time of year the dandelions are in full bloom … and we definitely have our fair share of them. 

No, that’s not correct. We have way more than our fair share! 

Curiously, most of those dandelions are on our side of the street. The houses on the other side of the street must have some kind of deal with a weed company. You don’t see the weed guy coming around spraying their lawns but none of them have these lovely spring flowers … certainly not like us!

This morning when I cut the grass, I cut the heads off of every dandelion on our lawn. It was a major killing spree. Then I stood back and looked at how green and even our grass looked. 

I was proud of myself. 

However, I really didn’t do anything to the dandelions. The roots are still there; the leafs are still there … and they will grow right back in their place again. 

But today – right now – looking out my front window, I don’t have any of those little flowery devils.

The one downside to all this is that, although I have immediate satisfaction with my lawn looking so clean, in reality I still have a mess on my hands that will have to be dealt with at some point … which sucks!

Here’s the thing: You can clean up your life in a very superficial way and it will look good to you and to all those around you. But unless you do a deep hard clean, you will always be looking for places to stash things. A deep clean can only be accomplished by dealing with the junk in your life – that is confessing it to God and doing the necessary work to keep it from coming back.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life do you need to do a serious clean of? Post your comments and questions below.

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The Waiting Is Killing Me

I may be waiting to exercise for a while because I overdid it this weekend. 

Elton John once recorded a song called, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word”. “Sorry” is a hard word, but I have another contender for the hardest word … waiting.

No, you’re not waiting for me to say the hardest word, “waiting” is the hardest word. 

There is no spring in this spring, there is no jump in this spring’s step. I think I’ve noticed that the leaves on the trees that had started to come out are now shrinking back a little.

We all want to get outside and do things, but the weather is not letting that happen. 

And we are all waiting – waiting for some sunny, warmer weather to come along. 

At this point it doesn’t even have to be that sunny or that warm, just not raining and windy.

I’ve been known to be able to wait for things to happen, but I’m really getting to the limit of my waitability. … I don’t think that’s a word, but you know what I’m saying. My ability to wait is seriously being taxed to the limit.

The other day I played hockey and the following day my knee was a little sore. That’s not unusual. I have a torn ACL and I’ve found that, as I’ve gotten older, I need to rest it after an hour and a half of hockey.

It was sore the following day as well. 

But since it wasn’t that bad, and I did have hockey that morning, I played.

After the game, my knee was a little sorer than it had been the previous few days … but I didn’t think much about it.

We’d had some rain and the forecast showed more rain to come; but it was momentarily nice out. So though I’d already played hockey on Saturday morning, I thought I’d better get out and get a mountain bike ride in. 

I’ve only been out twice so far this year.  

I had a good ride but afterwards I noticed my knee was a little swollen. … That’s never a good sign.

I’ve lived with a wonky knee for years so often I just keep going. 

Late that afternoon I thought maybe I should cut the lawn. It didn’t really need it, but with rain in the forecast, I figured I needed to cut it while I could.

By the time I finished the lawn, I was really feeling my knee and walking like a cross between Frankenstein and a guy who just had a hip replaced.

It wasn’t pretty … and I was a little late in realizing I should give my knee a rest.

… Even though all this was caused by the weather we’re having and my inability to wait any longer. 

For everyone else out there, this might be a good thing. With me on the sideline for a little while, I’m sure the weather is going to be just fine now! 

Here’s the thing: Our inability to wait on God causes us to do things that either take us in the wrong direction or make things worse. The Bible is filled with examples of people who tried to help out God, or hurry Him along (Sarah, Saul, Peter). It never went well. The best we can do is be patient, and increase our waitability. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to wait for just a little longer? Leave your comments below.

The Challenge Just Presented Itself
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The Challenge Just Presented Itself

Sometimes a challenge simply appears before us, tempting us to go for it.

There are lots of challenges in life – with many, we have no choice but to take them on. 

For instance, if you have a health challenge, there is nothing you can do to avoid it. You have to take it on as best as you can.

Work can provide challenges in the form of a goal or a milestone for you to reach. Those challenges often come with a great reward if you can accomplish them. 

But then there are challenges that, in many respects, are meaningless, provide no benefit to you if you succeed, but are satisfying just the same if you take on the challenge and beat it. 

This morning I was playing hockey and having a rather lacklustre game. 

I had been up really late the night before finishing some work, so though it was 7 am, I was really only operating on a few hours of sleep.

Twice I had breakaways and simply over-skated the puck – no pressure from anyone, no attempt at making some kind of move. I just over-skated the puck. 

I felt tired and had little energy on the ice. Maybe my focus was lacking as well. 

At the end of the game I had a puck and was going to fire it into the net but one of the guys moved the net out of the way for the Zamboni.  

I just wanted to take a couple of shots before getting off the ice, so I decided to just fire the puck against the boards. 

That’s when I looked up and saw my challenge.

My water bottle was sitting by itself, all lonely like on top of the boards by the players’ bench. What was I to do? I had a puck and no net to shoot on. Why not take the challenge staring me right in the face.

I looked at the bottle and took a wrist shot to knock it off. 

I missed … by about an inch.

That stirred the interest of two other guys still on the ice and soon they arrived with pucks and each took a shot. 

I took another shot a little high and wide.

We were going to do this until one of us knocked it off.

The other guys each took another shot.

And then I took a good look at the bottle and nailed it with a wrist shot. I knocked it clear to the back wall behind the players’ bench; water squirted all over. 

My shot hit with enough force that I shattered the bottle top, leaving the bottle pretty much useless. 

Some people might think that sums up a poor game of hockey for me, but I look at it as the best part of the game. 

I’m not sad I broke the bottle. I’m glad I hit it and not the other guys. 

Whoever put my water bottle on top of the boards, thanks! It provided a needed challenge.

Here’s the thing: There are challenges we will face in life where our trust in God will be required. But there are other challenges that God gives us as a gift to take on. When those fun, enjoyable challenges present themselves, don’t do them in your own strength. Trust them to God as well. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is a challenge before you now that you can trust God with? Leave your comments below.

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The Answer To An Age-Old Automobile Controversy

This post is from 2014. From time to time II like to republish posts I’ve written in the past.  I hope you enjoy it.

I believe I’ve uncovered the mystery to a controversy that has baffled mankind of a long time … at least since the passenger car was invented.

In fact, I feel a little like Banting and Best when they discovered insulin, or when a scientist discovers some kind of breakthrough that will lead to possibly finding a partial cure for a certain strain of a multifaceted disease that continues to develop into different strains.

Whoa, I got a little dizzy just writing that.  

Back to my discovery. I got in the car the other day and when I turned a corner the sun shining through the windshield almost blinded me. All I could see was a big red ball of light, so I quickly pulled down the sun visor to block it out.

When I did that, I stumbled onto something that could be a key to changing driving habits, all the way to changing insurance rates. 

When I pulled down that visor, I almost scared myself into the next lane of traffic. The shield covering the visor mirror was gone. I went from looking into the centre of the sun to looking at two eyes staring at me and it freaked me out.

Fortunately, I controlled myself and stayed in my lane. But not everyone is as composed as I am when they drive. And here’s my discovery …

The mirror in the visor is a driving hazard and the ones who are guilty of using it are mostly women. Because of it, they are causing untold numbers of accidents. 

Every time I look behind the visor, if my wife has been sitting in the seat before me, that mirror is visible. Imagine how many men have jerked the steering wheel to the left, when they’ve suddenly seen a pair eyes about six inches from their face. 

Or how about the light that reflects off a woman’s bleached white teeth, hits the mirror and like a laser pointer temporarily blinds some poor unsuspecting driver behind her.  Another accident.

Or what about the woman who’s putting on her makeup and drifts a little, causing the car beside her to swerve and careen into a light pole on the side of the road.

You see what I’m saying?  

Statistics says that “80% of collisions and 65% of near crashes have some form of driver inattention as contributing factors” (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2010).

I’m not saying women cause more fatal accidents. No, men are best at doing that. But statistics say that women are in more fender benders than men.

It’s that distraction factor, and a little piece of the solution could have something to do with the mirror that is on the back of sun visors. 

This is still an early discovery. Now I just have to figure out how to get Lily to place the cover back over the mirror when she’s done.

Here’s the thing: God is trying to teach us all the time, but often we are distracted by other things. Being attentive to little things can lead you to discover something amazing about God that you haven’t noticed before. You can learn much about God from life around you. Don’t be so distracted by something that’s right in your face that you miss learning about God’s character and how that relates to you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What discovery have you made recently about God? I’d love to hear from you; you can leave your comment below.

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My Complaint Was Unjustified

I was a little too hasty with my complaint.

Spring is here and I should be writing about mountain biking, hockey playoffs or maybe baseball. 

… Or how about those Raptors and Kawhi Leonard’s four bouncer, rim shot, buzzer beater to send Toronto to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals?

But I can’t write about those things. I’m still trying to get my head around my latest bill from Bell Canada.

At the beginning of April I got a shock when our TV/Internet bill increased by $79 from the previous month. (I wrote about it here.)

I got a double shocker this month when my latest bill appeared to be devoid of any adjustments.

After the big increase a month ago, I had called Bell and complained. … I’ll make this short by saying they gave me a $40 reduction on my bill plus faster internet service. To get that, I was on the phone for way longer than an hour with more than one customer service rep.

Within a day or two I noticed some results. They kept their promise of adding three free stations and removing one station, but the internet service didn’t seem any faster. 

Then this month’s bill showed the free stations, but no mention of the upgraded internet, and the same price for TV and Internet as the month before. 

Back to the phones I went! … If nothing else the phone company is ensuring we are still using their services because we have to call them all the time to complain! 

This time the conversation was more disturbing and discouraging than the previous month. 

I talked to two customer service reps who didn’t want to budge. They basically dismissed what I had been told a month earlier. They said that the notes for that complaint didn’t say anything about the credits and changes we had agreed upon. 

In the end, the rep said that she would have her manager call me.  

So I have to wait for the manager’s call … which also means there may be a follow up to this post some time in the future.

Then this morning, as I reviewed my bill again, I noticed something I had missed before. All the itemized charges are the same as the previous month, but there is an amount in an adjustments box with no explanation.

That adjustment is a credit. It only shows up on the remittance page, but it brings my bill to what was promised me the month before.

So I didn’t get faster internet and there doesn’t seem to be any record of or reason given for the credit, but I got one. 

The question I still have is, “Will this credit show up every month?” There is no record of what it is for, so it would be easy to just drop it.

As it stands now, when the manager calls, the only thing I can say to him is … in the words of Saturday Night Live’s Emily Litella, “Never Mind”.

Here’s the thing: I’m distrustful about what my tech company has given me. They might take it away as fast as I received it; it only shows up as a mystery item on my bill. How many times do we treat God that way when He gives us something? We treat Him as though He might take it away at any moment, or we are suspicious of whether it was God who gave it to us in the first place. You might not be able to trust your tech company, but you can trust God. Give Him the credit and praise He deserves.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has God provided for you that you didn’t really thank Him for? Leave your comment below.

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Our Stuff Doesn’t Last As Long Anymore

Things don’t last as long as they once did. We also don’t try as hard to make them last.

This is particularly true with clothes … and many other things.

When I was a kid, I remember my mom would sew my ripped jeans at the knee. Sure, I had a stitch line that looked like a crease going across my knee, but I would get more time in those jeans.  

Mom also had some iron-on patches and sometimes, if the rip or the hole was too big to sew together, she would iron on a patch. 

The patch usually was a close, but not exact, match. It was really noticeable that I had a hole in those pants. But, hey, at least my skin wasn’t showing through. 

Nowadays we extend the life of jeans by just wearing the ripped skin-showing hole or holes in the knee. … Some pants already come that way. 

Years back there was a progression with pants. They would get sewn, then patched. When the patch started to lose its grip and begin to flap, Mom would cut those jeans off above the knee and you’d have a pair of shorts to wear. 

You really could get a lot of wear out of a pair of pants back then.  

Not so much now. 

My favourite jeans have a hole in them. I just noticed it. It’s going to get bigger too, so time is running out on these good ol’ pants of mine.

They seem to be coming to an end far too quickly, and the rip isn’t even in the knee. 

The hole in my pants is developing in my back pocket. It’s where I keep my wallet. 

It’s not that I carry huge amounts of cash in my wallet or that I have three inches of credit cards and identification back there either. It’s just that I have a hard case for my credit cards and a billfold with pointy edges. 

That combo creates extensive friction against my pants pocket and, though from the front the pants look fine, my right back pocket is starting to look like a real mess. 

It’s not fashionable yet, and I can’t cut them off at the pocket either. Sewing and patches? Well, I don’t think that style is ever coming back. It’s time to start looking for new jeans. 

I’m looking forward to the day when I won’t have to carry credit cards or cash with me. I do make many purchases electronically from my watch, but if we went cashless, if that became more fashionable, my pockets wouldn’t wear out and I could wear my favourite jeans for years. 

There is one thing that might save my jeans: it’s called darning. Some of you have never heard of the word … because nobody does it any more. 

When I was a kid, if you got a hole in your socks, your mom would say, “ah darn”, and then she would take needle and wool and close up the hole. 

My back pocket hole is darn-able; it’s not that big. I even said “darn” the first time I discovered it. Maybe I’ll bring back darning. 

… Not the word, just the fixing hole part. 

Here’s the thing: When it comes to relationships, we often don’t put effort into keeping relationships that are in need of repair. We just move on. Even with the Lord, we can be guilty of not trying hard to keep up our relationship. All relationships are worth it – especially your relationship with Christ. So do what you need to do to preserve, repair or fix your relationship with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What relationship needs repair in your life? Leave your comments below.

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People Are Too Delicate

I’m afraid that we, as humans, have become too delicate. We’re not tough enough; we’re soft.

We have great fears for our personal safety that motivate us to make laws and restrictions that prevent us from just enjoying life. 

When we are born we don’t come with warning tags tattooed to our bottoms that read, “Warning: this package is fragile”, but we kind of treat people like those tattoos exist. 

The other day I was in a hockey arena change room and, for some reason, began talking about some of the stunts I pulled as a youth pastor back in the 80’s and 90’s.  

They were fun stunts that had some risks attached to them … but no one ever got injured too badly.

Having said that, in every city we ever travelled to, someone from my youth group visited a hospital … and never to give them a tour of the place. It was always a concussion, broken collar bone, asthma, infection or stitches related necessity.

These former students are all fine now, in their forties and with families of their own.

One time I had some of my youth play a game of chubby bunnies. My intent, however, was to make it as gross as possible. 

At the time I couldn’t think of anything grosser than brussels sprouts so that’s what we used. 

You know how the game chubby bunnies goes – well, maybe you don’t because, according to one guy in the change room the other day, they have outlawed chubby bunnies!

I’m not sure how “they” would do that. I’m not sure the police would raid a youth group because of a rumour that a game of chubby bunnies was going down at Beulah Alliance Church. But maybe church boards and insurance companies would frown on the game.

The game is played with contestants who each put a marshmallow in their mouths and say the words “chubby bunny”. They continue to add one marshmallow at a time, saying “chubby bunny” until their mouths are packed so full of marshmallows that they cannot say the words “chubby bunny” anymore. 

It’s really funny to watch and hear them say “chubby bunny”. 

Using slightly warmed brussels sprouts gave the added effect of green slime oozing out their mouths and down their chins when they attempted to say “chubby bunny”.  

It was awesome and hard to look at all at the same time.

But I guess we couldn’t play that game now because someone once choked on the marshmallows and died. 

It’s incredibly sad that someone died, but it’s also hard to imagine just how many people played the game and lived to laugh and talk about it. 

Today we try hard to protect against fun that comes with risk. 

But life is not safe: You can get hit by a car, trip over the sidewalk and hit your head, or fall off your chair to devastating results. 

Thankfully, that’s not most of the time. We are not that fragile and we shouldn’t treat each other as if we are. 

We should enjoy life; live it to the full. 

Yes, there will be some risks involved; some hospital visits may follow. But keep in mind that with every injury, every trip to the hospital, there is a great story to tell. Let’s not deprive one another of those opportunities.

Here’s the thing: Living for Christ is not without risk. Don’t try to live as a Christian risk-free. If you do, you will miss out on much of what God has in store for you. Living life to the full will come with risks, but oh what powerful stories you will have if you risk for Christ.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you been living life a little too safely? Leave your comments below.

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My Injuries Keep Coming

I’m finding it more difficult to diagnose minor injuries than I used to. 

Years ago, when I had an ache or a pain, I could pinpoint the precise cause or incident of my injury. Now, when I find myself with a bit of discomfort, I’m not necessarily sure what happened to bring it on.

This is all new for me. For my wife, Lily, on the other hand, this is a phenomenon that has plagued her most of her life!

Throughout our marriage when Lily would say, “I’m sore”, and I would ask her what happened or what she had done, she would always say, “I don’t know. I’m just sore.” If she got a bruise, about 90 percent of the time she didn’t know how she got it. 

I’m kind of catching up to her in this regard, because lately I’ve had some sore spots on my body that are a little mysterious.

I wrote about my sore elbow back in the fall (read about it here), and although it is now slowly getting better, it’s been six months of pain. … I still have to be careful to warm up before I start taking shots on a goalie. 

It turned out to be a ligament problem and I’m still not completely sure how I got it … although possibly it was from excessive wrist shots in hockey.

The latest thing that has been bugging me is a sore thumb around the joint on my left hand. It’s been sore for a few weeks now. 

And I don’t have a clue how it happened!  

I wondered if I was getting a touch of arthritis when the knuckle at the base of my index finger of my right hand got swollen and very painful.

I didn’t have any explanation for my knuckle either, and it has been swollen now for close to two weeks. … It doesn’t help that I sometimes move it the wrong way or that people shake my hand with a little pressure. 

One of the guys I play hockey with said it was gout, but that was because he had just finished experiencing some gout in his foot. I knew his diagnosis was only based on his experience and had nothing to do with really being able to identify my problem.

But yesterday at church, I may have figured something out. 

I asked my doctor if I possibly have a bit of arthritis, but when I described what I was experiencing, he didn’t agree. So I responded that maybe I did just injury it. He kind of nodded.

A few minutes later I was talking with a group of other people and the topic of injuries came up.  While I was relaying to them my conversation with my doctor an idea came to my mind. 

I had grabbed a puck out of the air with my hand a week or so ago. Maybe – just maybe – my sore knuckle was a result of catching that puck with my hand. 

My conclusion: injuries come more easily as we age, but also our memory is not as sharp in identifying incidents with injuries. 

Here’s the thing: The only way to prevent sin from going unnoticed in your life is to stay diligent in identifying and addressing it each time. When you let sin slide, your memory starts to fade, and you then don’t easily identify the ramifications to that sin. Stay on top of your sin by identifying it right away and dealing with it. It will lessen the chance of a lingering sore spot.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What mystery in your life do you need to identify? Leave your comments below

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The Case Of The Disappearing App

We all know what disappearing ink is like, but I have an app on my phone that sort of behaved the same way.

When I was a kid it was fun to try to make a secret message that no one could read, except the person you wanted to get the message because they had the formula to see what was written on the paper.  

Disappearing ink is made with lemon juice and to read it you need to get the paper close to a heat source. Then what was written in invisible ink can be seen.

There are also other ways to get ink to disappear. For instance, over time, in certain light ink starts to fade. 

On the wall of my office hangs my ordination certificate, signed by the six men who interviewed me and agreed that I should be ordained. That was almost thirty years ago and the signatures on that certificate are quite faded. In fact, they will likely disappear completely in the next few years. 

The proof that I’m a Reverend will be gone. I may have to retire. 

Ink doesn’t last forever. I shouldn’t expect more of it. 

But the other day, six pages of notes suddenly disappeared on me – notes that I’d made in writing my sermon. 

I probably have a peculiar way of studying, but I stand and make notes on a white board. When the white board is full, I use an app on my phone to scan the contents of the white board and turn them into a PDF. 

Then I erase  the whiteboard and start writing more notes. 

By the time I’ve finished making my notes, which I do over three days, they are all saved into my app as a PDF. I then refer to that PDF on my tablet as I write my sermon. 

Well, this week I opened the app to view my scanned notes, and the app opened as if it had never been used before. There was a splash screen and then some “let’s get started” slides. I thought that was strange, but I also figured that perhaps the app had updated during the night. 

But when I went to find my scanned whiteboard images, there was nothing. 

Nada. None. Nowhere to be found. They just all disappeared. … and I had no intention of making them secret notes! 

I searched the app for a way to get them back. Nothing. 

I started an online chat with a representative from the app, but couldn’t help but notice how much time was ticking by. 

I should have been well into writing my sermon, but I hadn’t started. Instead, I spent two hours trying to recover my disappearing scans. 

In the end, the person I was chatting with had to pass my problem off to more technical employees who would get back to me sometime after they investigated my problem.

I couldn’t wait for that to happen, so my notes were lost to me in writing my sermon. 

… I still haven’t heard back from the company. I’ve finished writing my sermon, so I don’t really need them, but there is still no sight of my disappearing notes!

Here’s the thing: Guilt can be disappearing on us. You might think that’s a good thing – it is and it isn’t. Guilt serves a purpose to draw us back to God in repentance – that’s good. But if we don’t act on that guilt, it begins to fade and will completely disappear, leaving us in our sin and drifting away from God – that’s not good. Don’t let guilt disappear. Act on it and draw close to God. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you let disappear that you want to get back? Leave your comments below.