my activities

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I Need An Alternate Routine

My routine has been working for me for a few months now, but all that is about to change.

Back in December I developed a new plan for eating (read here) and exercise (read here). It’s been working for me and I feel great. I have more energy, and physically I’m able to play my sports at an increased level.

I’ve really enjoyed this run; I don’t want to see it come to an end. But I need to make some changes and I have a week to figure it out.

I took a week of vacation and we opened up our cottage for the year. But in doing that, it took me away from some of the routines that I have made over the last few months – mainly my exercise routine.

I’ve been trying (successfully, I might add) to do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. I’ve been playing hockey two, sometimes three times a week and then on the days I don’t play hockey, I work out at home.

There I have a treadmill, a bike on a trainer, and a rowing machine.

On my week away, however, I’m not playing hockey and I don’t have access to equipment other than my bike.

For the summer I can ride my bike, but there will be some rainy days. Because I ride dirt trails, if the trails are too wet from the day before, biking is then also out of the question.

So what am I going to do at the cottage to keep up my exercise?

I can walk, which would make Lily happy because she would love to go on more (or some) walks with me. But for that to be exercise I will have to walk at a fast pace, certainly not the way I walk around a mall.

Some people run, but I have bad knees so that’s not an option for me. I’m at a bit of a loss.

I feel like I need to be a MacGyver in this situation. You remember the TV show, don’t you? He could make things happen even when he didn’t have the proper materials or equipment. MacGyver would rig something up to get the job done.

I need to figure out something I can rig up for those rainy days, and as an alternative to biking every day of my time away.

There is one other thing I need to consider. When Lily and I went shopping to get groceries for the week, I had my eye on the candy aisle the whole time.

For me, vacations or being away is synonymous with snacking. It’s what I do!

I had a very difficult time not throwing a few chocolate bars and bags of candy in the grocery cart.

I can see that the only way forward, the only way that I will succeed, is to have a plan before I go and then to stick to it.

Here’s the thing: Planning is important for accomplishing your goals, but you also need a plan for when your plan doesn’t work. That is exactly the same when it comes to temptation. You need a plan to live right, but you need an alternative plan in place for when temptation comes. Make a plan today.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What alternative plan do you have for temptation? Leave your comments below.

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I’m An Unsatisfied Shopper

I’m not the most knowledgeable grocery shopper, but I know there is a conspiracy in the food industry.

Yesterday my wife, Lily, and I dropped in on our son who is living about 300 km’s away from us. The plan was to spend the night, have breakfast together in the morning and then be off.

When we got there I was a little hungry and Mike, at one point, said he was feeling a little hungry as well.

Looking through the cupboards, we observed a typical twenty-something male’s kitchen.

It reminded me of Old Mother Hubbard’s kitchen – she didn’t have anything in her cupboards either.

Mike had an early appointment so he needed to get to bed. I needed to stretch my legs after a disappointing finish to the Leafs’ game so I said to Lily, “Let’s go shopping”.

We didn’t have much time but we hit Walmart because it was open late.

I don’t normally go on grocery shopping trips with Lily because I put things in the cart that she would not buy on her own. They’re usually things that aren’t good for me.

But there I was with an assignment to find hot dogs and hot dog buns.

It wasn’t too hard; I quickly found the large hot dogs that came five in a pack. Mike just has to feed himself so that was a good number to get.

Then I went searching for buns. I found them in another part of the store.

They don’t have the hot dogs and the hot dog buns close together, and I know why – it’s so you don’t see the discrepancy when you buy the buns!

The grocery people are hoping that, by the time you find the buns, you will have forgotten how many hot dogs came in the package.

But being the keen sharp-minded shopper that I am, I noticed right away.

I had just tossed a package of 5 hot dogs into the cart and now I was holding in my hand a package of 8 hot dog buns.

At this point we should take a poll: Does anyone else think that these are weird numbers? Why 5 hot dogs, and why in the world 8 buns?

I’m not sure why they do that. You need the same number of dogs as buns!

I did the math – you and I would need to buy 8 packs of dogs and 5 packages of buns to have a bun for every hot dog.

That’s 40, by the way, and if you were feeding a football team I can see you buying that many. But for a family or for a single guy? Who would do that? – no one!

And who would leave you with extra buns so that you need go out and buy more hot dogs … only to need more buns to finish them off?

It’s a conspiracy.

Here’s the thing: We are driven to get more – more things, more experiences, more money, more … you name it! There is always something more we want. This desire for more is never satisfied, and it takes away from being at peace with yourself and with God. He wants you to be satisfied with where you are and what you have, and from that place of satisfaction He will add the more.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is keeping you from being satisfied? Leave you comments below.

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That Was A Real Close Call

I dodged a couple of bullets today – a few close calls on the ice.

I was playing hockey with my regular Saturday morning crowd and there was an incident or two that could have cost me.

The first was a blindside hit. It was supposed to be a stick check but he got a little body as well. I went down but I wasn’t hurt.

I was a little surprised because I didn’t see it coming; he came from behind my left shoulder.

I went down rather quickly and I was probably more shocked than hurt that he got more than my stick. We don’t play contact hockey, though in this sport you can’t avoid some contact … it’s just not supposed to be on purpose.

I’ve seen a few players in the NHL go down with hits like mine and suffer from concussions. I was really glad that I was okay.

It was a good thing the guy was young with not a lot of weight behind him to really cause a jolt.

Play continued and, even shortly after the incident, I didn’t think anything of it as I tried to wheel the puck up the ice.

Then later on in the game, I took a stick right across my visor. Again it was an accident – a guy following through on a clearing pass.

I know for sure that, if I had not had a visor on my helmet, I would have got a pretty good cut by my forehead nose area.

There is no question in my mind that I would have been going for stitches, because years ago I caught a stick to the head just like it and ended up with 5 stitches just above my eye, as well as two black eyes.

The only difference was the visor. In fact, the reason I wear a visor today is because of that cut I received about 30 years ago.

I was 31 years old then and I realized that hockey was a pass time and not my career. I needed my eyes for my career so I took precautions … thus the half visor that I still wear today.

I remember that injury well. It came the night before my first parents’ meeting of the teens that I worked with. I got ribbed a little about the black eyes. People joked that Lily took a frying pan to me.

This morning before I started playing I was actually more concerned about my knee. It hasn’t felt very strong and stable the last few days … but I wore a brace so my knee was good.

These two potential injuries on the ice today came completely unexpectedly. I guess you could say that I was fortunate or that Lady Luck was on my side. I’m just glad that I didn’t have to visit the emergency room or sit in the dark in the quiet room.

Here’s the thing: Everyday we have things happen around us that could cause us harm. It could be that we were a split second away from serious injury. We can’t plan for it or protect against these things most of the time. Some people think it is just luck. But I believe in a God who watches over us, where nothing escapes his oversight. Those inches, split seconds, and near misses are a result of His protective hand. No matter how many times you’re injured, think of how many more times you escaped unscathed, and thank God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What close call have you experienced lately? Leave your comments below.

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You’ve Got To Know The Right Guy

Knowing the right guy is so important. When you need advice or expertise, being able to connect with the right person is invaluable.

When it comes to making or fixing things around the house, I’m pretty limited.

I can do a few things as long as they don’t involved sharp objects. I’ve just had way too many cuts on my hands to be comfortable with saws and knives. … Hey, I’ve even done some damage in the past with a screwdriver and I wouldn’t consider it a sharp object.

In the past week or so I needed some advice on the kitchen upgrade we are doing at home.

Let me say upfront, I’m not doing much on this one; Lily is doing most of the work, which involves a lot of painting.

But we were also getting a new kitchen counter and that meant we would have to disconnect the water to the kitchen sink for about a day.

There were no shut-off valves under the sink so I needed another solution … unless we wanted to shut off the water supply to the entire house for over a day … No!

The guy at the hardware store said I needed a converter piece to connect our old style pipes to the new kind of pipe and then add a shut-off valve to that.

Well, I bought all the parts and it came to about $52. I thought that seemed like an awful lot of money for 24 hours of water!

I mean, for that money, there was no ride I got to go on, or show I got to see, or course I got to play. It was just plumbing parts … pretty uninspiring.

After I bought the parts I had a few days before I had to shut the water off, so I just kept them all in the bag.

The day before I needed to shut the water off I decided to go to another hardware store to see if there was a simpler solution.

I showed the guy at the store a picture of my present hook up and he suggested a threaded cap.

It was basically a plug that screwed into the end of the pipe. It only cost me about $11 and about 10 minutes to complete the whole task.

He was the right guy to ask.

After the new counter was installed, we needed a piece of wood to span the length of the opening under the sink. It needed to be 1 1/8″ thick, and if you know anything about wood, that’s not a common thickness.

I went back to the hardware store and the wood guy was totally unable to help me; he had no solution for me.

However, the next day I was talking to a friend who works in construction and told him what I needed.

Without hesitation he said, “You need 5/4 piece of wood. You have to get that at…”  and named the supply house.

Again, knowing the right guy made all the difference in the world.

Here’s the thing: We experience a lot in life that we don’t have answers for. We come up against things that we are totally unprepared for. But no matter what it is, Christ is that guy who can help us in our need. So often we don’t go to Him first. Christ is the authority and expert; He is able. Go to Him before you look elsewhere for help.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need advice and help with right now? Leave your comments below.

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It’s Been A Month Of Exercise

In the past month I’ve only missed two days of exercise. For some people that might not be a big deal, but for me it’s huge.

This year so far I’ve been trying to complete the rings on my watch. I wrote a blog about it and you can read that one here.

The three rings represent calories burned while moving, standing for at least one minute for each of twelve hours in the day, and completing 30 minutes of exercise a day.

… That last ring needs some explaining: Exercise as recorded on my watch is any time my heart rate is elevated past a certain range for a minute or so.

Most days I will get a few minutes of exercise just doing what I do in a day. If I’ve walked somewhere fast or shovelled snow, I’ll get that ring to move a little.

There are some days – and in the last month there were two – that I completed that ring by doing everyday activities that elevated my heart rate for a total of 30 minutes in the day. But in the last 34 days, I’ve actually worked out 32 times.

… I haven’t been this active since I was in my early twenties and was always running, playing, and doing things every day!

Sometimes my workouts have been short, maybe twenty minutes on the bike or rowing machine; other days I’ve played hockey for 60 minutes or more.

There have been a few times that I’ve come home from work and felt too tired to exercise, but I’ve done it anyway.

Times that I couldn’t exercise between work and an evening meeting, even though it was 10:00 or 10:30 pm when I came home, I still put in time in the gym.

And that’s what’s helped me. I have a mini gym at home, one room in the house – my son’s old bedroom to be exact – where we have equipment and a TV.

The TV is critical because I don’t think I could keep working out without some kind of distraction.

I have three basic pieces of equipment that I use: a treadmill, my old bike on a trainer, and a rowing machine.

When I think about how well I’ve done exercising this past month, I also realize that it’s just a month. It’s too soon to say that I have a pattern or a way of life now that includes daily exercise.

And that is the important thing for me to remember. I’m not doing this to reach a goal, or to say that I completed something. I’m doing this to make a change to my life.

When I was young, I naturally got exercise every day. At my age and with my work, I have to build exercise into my routine because my days don’t naturally produce it.

I feel so good right now, maybe this is how I always felt when I was in my twenties … now I’m not taking it for granted.

Here’s the thing: I now have to work at something that I didn’t have to even think about 40 years ago. There was a time in your life when you didn’t think about changing or renewing yourself. But when you become a Christ-follower, you have to daily put on the new self, your Christ nature, by building the fruit of the Spirit into your life. Don’t neglect your new self.

That’s Life!

Paul

Galatians 5:22-23

Question: What are you doing to daily exercise your new nature?

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I’ve been Neglecting My Guitar 

I need to play my guitar; I think it’s feeling a little neglected.

I don’t play the guitar all that well, and maybe that’s part of the reason it has been sitting on the shelf so-to-speak … but I do like to strum and play some songs.

When my kids were young, I would play songs like “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin, and they would bounce up and down on the bed, while screaming out the words to the song.

I’ve played the guitar for about 30 years, but I have about 5 years of real experience … and about 6 months’ worth of talent.

When I was a youth pastor I wanted to lead my teens in worship, so a friend and colleague got me started.

I never really progressed much past that, and it was a bit of a relief when the students in my youth group got good enough to lead. They formed bands and took over all the worship for the group.

Since that time I’ve really only played for myself and my kids. Both of them now play a little too … and I think they’re both better at it than I am.

I chock it up to not having great hand-eye coordination. I see where my fingers need to go on the strings to form the chord; I just can’t get them on the right strings fast enough.

It’s like I’m in slow motion.

It’s easy to tell it’s been a while since I’ve played the guitar: there is a thin layer of dust on the guitar neck and when my wife strummed the strings, wow, were they ever out of tune!

And speaking of tuning, I’ve never been great at that either. Maybe my hearing is off, because even with my digital tuning device, I can still mess up the tuning.

With all these negative thoughts, you might wonder why I bother to still own a guitar.

The truth of the matter is I don’t even put it away. My guitar is always on a stand, prominently displayed in our family room. Why, you ask? – so it’s always right there, ready to be played.

It’s like keeping my hockey sticks in the car all winter long, or keeping my golf clubs in the trunk all summer, just so that I am ready to play at a moment’s notice.

I don’t think Lily would appreciate me keeping my bike on the roof carrier though. That might be too over-the-top – plus then our vehicle wouldn’t fit in the garage.

Hearing that out of tune guitar this morning did stir something in me. I think before the day is done I will try to bring those strings into harmony with each other and then pluck away for a little while.

I’ve always found playing the guitar a little soothing to my soul.

Here’s the thing: There are times in our life when we might find that we are neglecting God with our time. We can get busy doing other things; family responsibilities can get in the way; our Bible collects dust, and we become a little out of tune with our Lord. Let me encourage you! No matter how long it’s been, don’t play the guilt song. Just pick up that Bible and sit with the Lord for a while and have a conversation. He hasn’t gone anywhere; He’s right there waiting for you to check in with Him again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has kept you from spending time with God in the past? Leave your comments below.

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I’m In Need Of A Desktop Cleaning

It’s my day off but I’m going to do a form of cleaning that I don’t really consider day off kind of work.

In the cartoon “Popeye”, when he would get to the end of his patience or the end of himself, Popeye would say “that’s all I can stands; I can’t stands no more”. Then he would eat a can of spinach.

You really should read that out loud with one eye shut, speak out of one side of your mouth and have a pipe stuck between your teeth.

Okay now that you’ve said it, that’s how I feel about my computer desktop. I’ve written about this before but it’s time again to address the mess that I have to stare at each and every day.

I have a few home screens that I switch between and, on two of them, I have family pictures. Those faces are skewed because of the number of files that are littering my home screen.

You would think that having those files right there to see would make it easy to find them, but it doesn’t work that way. When you have a screen that looks like mine, it takes longer that if they were filed in some kind of logical order.

Well today’s the day that I’m going to make my computer a little more functional again.

I’m not sure what got me to the point of not being able to “stands it” any longer, but it may have been a comment made by someone the other day.

I was showing a group of people a seminar video from my computer which was hooked up to a projector. For a brief time, the whole group could see what my computer screen looked like.

To make it worse, the projector showed my screen at a lower resolution so the aspect of my screen changed and all the files were condensed and jammed together.

One person said, “Your desktop is a mess.”

Now I didn’t want to call him “Captain Obvious”, but I’ve been living with this messy screen for about a year now.

I just have not wanted to tackle it. There was always something else to do.

I didn’t want to have to think up places for these files to go. It was easier to just leave them there and not deal with them.

Well, today I’m going to deal with it. I will probably trash some files, organize others into folders, and probably move some to a hard drive off my computer.

One of the reasons I’ve taken so long to do this is that I don’t have a space problem on my computer. I have tons of room on my hard drive.

If my HD was nearly full, I would have been forced to do something with these files by now. But there’s no necessity for that.

The only reason I am doing this at this time is that I’m feeling like Popeye the sailor man today – “I can’t stands it”.

Here’s the thing: How is your life right now? Is it a little cluttered with sin, some poor habits, maybe even an attachment to something that’s not healthy? Maybe it doesn’t seem that bad to you right now. But why wait till you “can’t stands it” any longer? It’s impeding your progress now. Don’t wait until you’re buried under it. Do some house (life) cleaning with God today. Confess those sins, turn from them, and ask God by the Holy Spirit to help you clean up your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s been cluttering your life these days? Leave your comments below.

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Decluttering Electronic Waste

I’m looking at a pile of electronic waste I need to dispose of. It’s surprising how it can accumulate and become clutter that you live with.

Recently we were cleaning up the laundry room to prepare for a new washer and dryer (read about that here), and I noticed how much old electronics we had kicking around.

There’s an old TV – tube television that is – with a built-in VCR, an old laser printer, and a couple of satellite receivers.

I don’t want to say this too loudly in case Lily hears it, but I think if I looked harder around the house I could find more old electronics that could find their way to the electronic waste site.

And that is the problem right there. With any other trash in our house, we collect it in waste bins and then put it out by the curb for the garbage truck to haul away.

It happens weekly so there is never too much of a build-up. Maybe at Christmas time we need to put out more than one bag of garbage, but other than that, most weeks we put out less than half a green garbage bag of trash.

Then there is the recycling. We have a green bin as well as blue and grey boxes. But again, they are picked up weekly; we never get a build-up.

With electronic waste, it’s different. It doesn’t go to the curb; you have to take it somewhere.

I’m never sure where that somewhere is either, giving me more reason for keeping it in the house.

Electronic waste also still looks useful, unlike other garbage. It might not work, it may be old technology, but when you look at it, it looks like you could still turn it on.

So I hate to get rid of it. I’m thinking maybe there will be a time when some parts can come in handy or someone will come up with a great idea for an alternative use for these items.

Years ago Apple made a computer that had a nine inch screen. Did I mention it was a monochrome monitor? Yes it was.

Well, after computing had long progressed past the Mac plus or Mac Classic, people starting using the frames of these computers for things like goldfish bowls.

That may not be an exciting alternative use for the product, but you never know what someone will think up.

I have an old desktop computer that still sits on a desk in our basement … I’m sure that one day there will be a use for it. In the meantime, it has a real retro look to it.

These old electronics, that are spread out in different rooms in our house, seem to fit somehow. But now that a few of them have been placed together in a pile, I can see they really are good for nothing.

They just have to go.

Here’s the thing: It’s good to review your life and evaluate the things that are not of value, or may be negatively impacting your spiritual life. When you identify them as such, then you realize how they stand in your way of having a more meaningful relationship with God. If you don’t evaluate them, they will clutter up your life, preventing you from realizing why you seem to be stuck spiritually. You need a disposal of waste to declutter your spiritual life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you evaluate the clutter to your spiritual life? Leave your comments below.

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We All Need Great Neighbours 

It’s really nice to live on a street with great neighbours; it’s not something you should take for granted.

We’ve lived on the same street for 21 years. It’s a small cul de sac with only 10 houses on it, so basically all the homes face each other.

Most of our neighbours have lived on the street for many years – three of the families longer than we have, so we have gotten to know each other a little bit.

We talk more in the summer time, and we keep tabs on each other’s homes when someone’s away.

We even have a street BBQ once a year, and I don’t think we’ve missed a year in all the time we’ve lived here.

Sunday was a particularly busy day for Lily and I. We had church and then a seminar afterwards that kept us hopping right up until we left for the Junior hockey game.

By the time we were driving home from all the activities, we had been going for 11 hours and we were both kind of tired.

Oh, and by the way, it had been snowing all that time. … We haven’t had much snow this winter – I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had to shovel – but we got a pretty good dump yesterday.

It was probably the biggest snowfall of the year.

So when we pulled into our driveway after being away all day, I said to Lily, “Let’s tackle this snow in the morning.”

We pulled into the garage, shut the door and didn’t look back outside.

Instead we changed into sweats, ate some comfort food and watched a movie.

Well, Lil watched a movie … it was a romantic flick and I slept through most of it.

And that was all we did.

You could picture it like a movie scene where the snow outside is flying and the wind is howling, but you, the characters, are all warm under blankets, sitting next to a blazing fire in the fireplace. And there is a soft, warm glow of light that breaks through the curtains and casts a pattern on the snowbanks outside.

… Just take away the fireplace, the warm glow hitting the snow, and the howling wind and you pretty much have a good idea of our evening.

That was Sunday. The next morning when I got up and looked outside, the snow had stopped, and the plow had come by our street and cleared the road.

As I looked closely, I could see that someone had used a snowblower on our driveway – probably the previous night because there was a thin layer of snow covering the pavement.

Wow, that made my day!

My biggest problem with it is, I’m not sure which neighbour did it. It could have been any of three neighbours, or the son of a neighbour who is out of town.

Having great neighbours is never something to take for granted. … Thanks guys, whoever it was.

Here’s the thing: In life and on your street, it’s great to have neighbours you can count on. In your Christian walk, it’s also important to have people you can count on. They can help you through difficult times, and celebrate with you when you’re full of joy. They’ll be there when you need another set of hand, ideas, or support. Don’t take for granted Christian friends; they are there when you need them.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When has a friend come to your rescue? Leave your comments below.

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I Was So Tired After My Recent Road Trip

There is something about being on the road that tires me out.

I’m not sure what it is … maybe it’s not sleeping in my own bed or maybe it’s keeping later hours, but being away from home just tires me out!

I don’t know how many times I’ve come home after a vacation and said, “Man, I need a vacation from my vacation!”

The whole idea of vacation is to relax and rest, but I’m always tired after my rest and relaxation time way.

It must be a bit of a mental thing, because when I lived in a dorm for four years I was able to feel rested, even though home was really halfway across the country.

Home is where you tell yourself it is, but once you settle on it, you get your full rest there; anything else kind of drains you a little.

This past week both my wife, Lily, and I were away from home – in separate directions. I was in the Toronto area for three days and Lily was in Ottawa for that same period of time.

I stayed one night in a hotel and the next night at our daughter’s place. Lily spent her nights at her mother’s. We were both in pretty familiar and friendly territory.

But when we both arrived home Saturday afternoon, we were wiped. If we hadn’t had things to do, both of us could have easily taken a big ol’ afternoon nap.

In fact, that might have made us more productive!

Our time away was spend with people we knew well. Both of us had a mixture of business and family time in our itineraries. But it seemed to drain us and not give us renewed energy.

I’ve talked to other people who share similar thoughts. The consensus is if you can make it back home after a full day away, it’s better being home than staying overnight somewhere else and getting back the next day.

You might think this feeling would be detrimental to hotels and resorts, but they seem to be able to sustain a good business. We like home, but obviously we also like to travel and experience other places.

I’ve been on vacations, missions trips, and business trips, some lasting as many as four weeks. But no matter where I’ve been, or how long I’ve been away, when I get back home it feels different.

When you get home, that’s when you really are at rest. Your whole body relaxes physically and mentally … that is unless you’ve been at home for a long period of time and find yourself a little stir-crazy. That’s when some time away from home will “reset” home for you.

It’s like a computer that’s been working for a while but then freezes. You can’t get it to do anything; the mouse won’t work and pressing the buttons does nothing.

All you have to do is hit reset and the computer comes back on, working like it always did.

A brief time away resets home so that coming back, walking in the door, flopping on your bed brings you back to the rest that comforts your body, soul and mind.

It’s home!

Here’s the thing: When you spend regular time with the Lord, that’s home. You know the place, the setup, the atmosphere; there is rest there. But sometimes that regular time gets disrupted, making you spiritually tired. You need to reset, get back to your time with God and find rest.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When was the last time you reset your time with God? Leave your questions below.