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The Perfect Message Can Be Very Illusive

Lately I’ve been trying to come up with the perfect message. 

the perfect message can be very illusive

No, I’m not referring to preaching a perfect sermon. That’s not what I’m talking about. 

I do remember when Dave Stieb, a long time pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, wrote a book. He titled it “Tomorrow I’ll Be Perfect”. The pour guy could have had several perfect games if his defence behind him could have helped out a bit. 

I’m also not referring to being perfect at what I do. 

We have a sign board in our home. It’s the kind that you put letters on and create a message for others to read. It’s not permanent; I can change it any time I want. 

Sometimes the message reflects the time of year, and sometimes it announces a special event or occasion. 

Last year we had a message up there for a long time. It was a countdown to my daughter’s wedding day. That one took work. I had to change the numbers on it every day. 

Every time I change the sign, I’m looking for the perfect message to put on it. I want it to be witty or funny or profound – something that will cause people to think.

It’s not easy, and maybe that’s why I don’t change it very often. When I get a good message, I like to milk it for a while. 

But I need to change it now. I have a son who’s turning 30 and a nephew who’s going overseas for 4 years. It really needs to be the right mix of letters.

I wish my dad was around to help me. He was the king of messages. 

When I was in college out west, he would write me often. For a while I received cards in the mail from him on a weekly basis. 

They weren’t greeting cards. They were just card stock paper he cut to size (about 5”x4”). He would address them on one side and write his message on the other. 

From his readings he would write out an inspirational message to me. It was usually some saying to motivate me.

I looked forward to those cards, and I always wondered how many other people benefitted from reading them, before they passed them on in the sorting line.

We see messages everywhere these days – probably more than ever before. 

Every store or building you enter has a message, usually COVID related. Some stores ask you to pause and read their messages … even though after a year of COVID I think we know them off by heart. 

This morning I’m looking for the perfect message. And I know there’s one for this time and this family. 

I just need to dig deep and come up with something that will speak to the moment and inspire those who read it. 

Here’s the thing: God has given us the greatest message of all time. That message culminates in our celebration of Easter in a couple of weeks. The message is inspirational and personal. It’s the message of the gospel that God loves you and made provision by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for you, so that you could experience God’s love. Be sure to consider this message this year as we turn our attention to Christ’s great sacrifice on the cross. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What would be the message you want your family to read right now? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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Your Internal Clock May Need To Be Reset

It’s really important to correctly time your sleep or your internal clock can get all messed up. 

Your internal clock may need to be reset

We just changed our clocks forward last Saturday. It was the big one because we lost an hour of sleep. I’ve heard that it can take up to three days to adjust to that time change. 

I believe our bodies know when to get rest, but I also believe we can mess up our internal clocks so that our bodies don’t act properly.

Sunday, the day after the clocks changed, I felt pretty tired in the afternoon. I had had a tiring day the day before and I also lost an hour of sleep that night. 

I use a lot of energy preaching on Sundays so I am often tired in the afternoon … this particular afternoon a little more so. 

By evening I had recovered and had my energy back. I watched a hockey game that disappointed me and left me feeling unsettled. So I put on a movie which would run until it was time to head to bed … to be fair, a little later than my regular bedtime.

Because I had taken a nap in the afternoon, by the end of the movie I was still wide awake. But it was late and time to turn in for the night, so I made my way to bed. 

The problem was that my mind was going a mile a minute. As sleepy as I had been in the afternoon, my brain was now firing on all cylinders as I lay in bed. 

I tossed one way, then another. I fixed my pillow and turned some more. 

My internal clock was so messed up that I just could not get to sleep.

It’s like Christmas Eve for children. The anticipation of the next day – Christmas morning with all the presents – keeps them from settling down and sleeping. They are wide awake. 

That’s why so many kids have melt downs on Christmas Day, even though it is one of their happiest days of the year. Their internal clocks are so messed up they are tired when they should be wide awake.

I’m not sure how long I tossed back and forth in bed, but at one point I decided that was enough. I needed something to settle me down. 

They say it’s not good to have a screen on just before you go to sleep, but I have a great ability to fall asleep with a TV on. 

So I got up, headed downstairs and put on another movie. 

It was an action movie. For most people that would work against them sleeping, but for me it doesn’t matter. 

It was not long before my eyes were shut and the flickering light from the television was bouncing off my closed eyelids.

Maybe the movie wasn’t good. All I know is that it got my internal clock to work again. When I woke up, I shut everything down and went back to bed … and straight to sleep. 

Here’s the thing: There are times in your life when your spiritual clock will be more apparent in your life. There will be interest; there will be opportunity. Don’t miss paying attention to your spiritual clock. You might have a hard time getting it on track if you mess it up.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can you do to pay attention to your spiritual clock? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I’ve Been Paralyzed By My Work Lately

I noticed this week that there are times when I can become paralyzed by my work, with an inability to make forward movement on things I really need to do. 

I'v been paralyzed by my work lately

Some equate this to being like a deer in the headlights. And since I have experienced first-hand a deer in my headlights, I kind of agree with the analogy.

I remember a time driving a van full of high school students through the mountains in BC. It was just after dusk and the darkness of night had set in like a heavy blanket over a table … where there is no light getting through under that table. 

As we were driving on a winding stretch of highway, we came around a bend and there they were, maybe 30 or 40 elk. 

Some were on the edge of the road, some in the ditches on either side. But they all just stopped and looked at the headlights of our vehicle. 

None of them ran away. Fortunately, none of them started to charge our vehicle. 

They were motionless, but all had their glowing eyes fixed on our van’s headlights.

Most animals in that situation would make a dash for the trees. They would flee the scene, but not deer or, in this case, elk. They stood still, motionless and didn’t move. 

The human version of deer in the headlights is a little different … at least for me it is.

I’m not actually motionless. There are things I’m doing.

Anyone looking on can see that I am working away. I’m getting things done.

The difference is I’m not making progress on the work that has me paralyzed. I will do anything but the thing that has me overwhelmed at the time. 

It’s like when you were a kid and your mother said you couldn’t get up from the table until you finished your vegetables. 

You sat there playing with your food, teasing your sister, bugging your brother or conspiring with him to sneak under the table and be freed from your prison. 

You did pretty well anything and even nothing so you didn’t have to eat those vegetables. 

With work, this scenario can go on for a long time. There can be something that paralyses you for a day or a week or even longer. You make excuses that other things have come up, but really the issue is you just can’t get yourself to work on that assignment. 

For me the solution is to break it down, to force myself to do one small thing towards that deer-in-the-headlights assignment. 

What I do is take a few minutes to break the assignment down. I break it up so that the first thing I do may only take ten to fifteen minutes. 

But then I’ve started and now the other little tasks of the big assignment seem to be doable. 

After completing one or two of those small tasks, I am no longer staring mindlessly at the headlights of the oncoming deadline – I’m getting back to work! 

Here’s the thing: There will come a time when Christ returns. And for some, that experience will be a deer-in-the-headlights experience. They will be overwhelmed and paralyzed and won’t be able to make any move towards Christ. It will be too late. Now is the time to think through what Christ has done and what He offers you. Then make a move towards placing your faith in Christ. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What puts you in a deer-in-the-headlights situation? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Why Your Arms Go Numb When You Sleep

From time to time I will repost an article from the past. This post is from March of 2014. I hope you enjoy it.

When I sleep, sometimes the circulation to my arms gets cut off. I understand that it’s good to get a deep sleep. But your limbs shouldn’t be going to sleep on you, as well. 

why your arms go numb when you sleep

In fact, when your arms do get all pins and needles, it wakes you up from whatever depth of sleep you were in. That’s to prevent your arm from turning blue and needing to be amputated.

I’ve been sleeping the same way my whole life. So to have this arm-numbing feeling rouse me in the middle of the night is a little disturbing. It never used to happen.

I’m thinking it’s an age thing. Stuff inside gets pinched or constricted in some way and, BAM, all of a sudden you’re dreaming about an elastic band being wrapped around your arm just above the elbow.  

There have been a couple of times I’ve woken up and haven’t been able to feel my arm. I worry that my arm will get so starved of blood it’ll become useless to me. I will have to walk around with my arm dangling and I’ll be unable to use it or stop it.

Just the other day, however, I discovered that my muscles are too tight and that’s what’s causing the circulation in my arms to be cut off. 

Apparently, I need to loosen up some of the muscles around my neck and shoulders. I’m wondering if I had have stretched more if I wouldn’t have this problem now.  

I’ve never liked to stretch. I know experts say you should stretch before and after you work out, but I’ve never done it; I’ve never felt the need to. I’m not the most flexible guy, but I never thought it has hurt me in any way.

But maybe if I’d been stretching all these years, my arms wouldn’t feel like a couple of 2×4’s attached to my body at two in the morning. 

Another theory I have is the older we get the tighter we get, the more tension we carry in our muscles, and the more they start to put the squeeze on our nerve pathways until they can’t transmit information from the brain to that limb or back. 

It’s like when you’re driving and talking on your cell phone to a friend (using hands-free bluetooth, of course). When you suddenly enter an area that doesn’t have a cell tower to give you a signal, your phone call goes dead and you’ve lost the connection with your friend.

With a phone, you have to re-enter a cell area and make a new connection. The good thing with your arm is you just have to wait a few seconds until the connection is restored automatically.

So now I’m doing some exercises and stretches to limber up my muscles in hopes that my arms won’t take any more liberties of catching a few extra zzz’s while my brain doesn’t know what’s going on.

In the mean time, if I find my arm is tingling at 4 am, I know it’s not my “spidey sense” and that the “Sandman” isn’t robbing an armoured car or something (Spider-Man 3 movie).

Here’s the thing: Prayer is one of the greatest connections we have with God. If we restrict our prayer with God, we will for sure hinder our communication with Him. Praying regularly and often will keep the connection flowing and prevent you from having that numbing feeling when you have lost the means to transmit your thoughts and needs to God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What causes you to restrict your prayer times with God?  

I would really love to hear from you. You can leave a comment below.

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Funeral Processional Etiquette Is Needed

From time to time I will repost an article from years past. This article was originally posted March 2013

funeral processional etiquette is needed

Last weekend I took part in a funeral. It all went very well until it came time for the interment. 

Getting to the cemetery meant a twenty minute drive through the city and in the country.   

Only family and close friends attended, while most others opted not to take the drive … probably a good thing because they never would have made it. 

You see, most people don’t follow other cars very well, driving too far behind the person they’re following. 

It’s like they’ve watched too many TV detective shows. They try to follow so the lead car doesn’t know they’re on their tail. 

I once had a person follow me to a destination they had never been to, yet they kept going slower and slower and falling farther and farther behind. 

At first, I slowed down to make sure they wouldn’t lose me, but then they slowed down even more! Finally, I just decided to drive and let them keep up to me. 

They never made it; they got lost and went home.

In a funeral procession, people really need to drive close to the car they’re following, especially through intersections. 

Personally, I like to get close to the car in front of me so the vehicles traveling in the other direction see that I’m part of a procession and don’t T-bone me when the light changes green for them.

Those other drivers on the road can be a real problem. Most of them act like they have no clue what’s going on. 

They see the hearse, the flashing lights, the long line of cars with little flags on their hoods like it’s a diplomatic motorcade, and they STILL try to jump into line like they want to be part of the parade! 

After all, their shopping trip to the mall has been timed down to the last minute. They didn’t calculate running into a funeral procession. 

There was a time when cars pulled over to the side of the road when they came upon a funeral procession – like we’re supposed to do with emergency vehicles. 

But then again, some people are not good at that either. I’m not sure whether people drive without looking around or whether they just don’t understand the unwritten rules of the road. 

When our procession of cars got out of the city, some cars pulled over to the side of the road, and two ladies who were walking stopped and just stood as the line of funeral cars went by. 

But most cars just kept going and even drove around the cars that had pulled over.  These people were both young and old – I know because I looked at them, trying to stare them down! 

We finally made it to the cemetery, with no accidents, and only missing one car. One with several of the family members in it. 

They arrived late because a car cut into the line and then didn’t go through and intersection with the rest of the procession. 

Going home from the cemetery only took about 10 minutes … there were no funeral processions to stop for.

Here’s the thing: In a funeral procession, you need to keep up and others need to pay attention. If you don’t keep up, other cars don’t know there is anything to pay attention to. In your Christian walk you need to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). So that others will pay attention and see a difference.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find difficult about following someone?  Leave your comment below.

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In Sync Is Something We should All Strive For

Being in sync is a great feeling once the sync is complete … but I tend to put the process off rather than get right at it. 

In sync is something we should all strive for

Now, some of you started reading this post thinking that I was going to be writing about the boy band, pop group from the 90’s called NSync. 

Sorry to disappoint you – this has nothing to do with that musical group at all.

What I’m writing about today is when something fits together, when it is all settled in the right spot, when something works the way it should.

You would think that is something we would strive for all the time. It should be what we want to accomplish every day and with every aspect of our life and work – to be in sync.

You may remember when you would sync your phone with your computer. You had files, videos, pictures and music on your computer and you wanted to sync it with your phone. 

We don’t do that anymore; it now syncs all on its own. Back in the day we had to do that manually. We had to plug our phone into our computer and initiate the process.

I don’t know about you but I always delayed doing it. I don’t know why; maybe I was busy. 

I know I was not the only one because now it’s an automatic process. 

For me that was just one small sync that was fixed. I have many in my life. 

I don’t like backing up my computer, and sometimes I delay that for a week or two … or three. Hey I’ve gone over a year without backing up.  

I know I should do it, but I don’t want to take the time, or I forget and remember when I don’t have the time. 

When I do complete a back up I feel good; I feel my information is safe. I’m in sync.

I want to be in sync. I just want it done for me. 

… I wish that was true with exercising. 

I’ve just completed seven days in a row of exercising – a combination of working out in my home gym and playing hockey. 

I feel really good right now. I kind of feel like my body is in sync. 

But it has been so hard some days this past week to get rowing or spinning in my gym. 

I wish it would just happen for me – you know, like I could keep going about my life and at some point look at my Apple watch and notice that all my rings were complete, that I got my steps in, burned those calories, and completed my exercise for the day. 

But I can’t. I have to decided to do it, figure out when to do it and then walk into that room and get on the equipment. 

When I’m done, I’m glad I did. I then feel in sync, like everything is in place, and I’m where I should be.

Here’s the thing: It would be nice if we could just be in sync with God, that it would just happen for us. But the reality is it doesn’t work that way. We have to do things that will keep us in sync with the Lord. We have to plan what we should do and when we will work on it, and then actually take the time to do it. Wishing you were right with God won’t change anything. You have to do something.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What could you do today to sync your life with God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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People Are Lousy Lip Readers For The Most Part

The ability to hear has got to be one of the most important senses people have.

people are lousy lip readers for the most part

… I guess we could have a discussion on which of the five senses is most important. I’m sure we would have some disagreement. 

Some would say that sight is the top sense. Others would say it is taste that’s number one. 

If, before you finished eating breakfast, you already started thinking of what you might enjoy for lunch, well, you may think taste is the top sense.

The truth is all our senses are very important and no one would want to give up any of them. It is our senses that enrich our lives.

Hearing is a sense that is vital in so many ways. 

In fact, hearing is so important you would think we would all have a back up for hearing, just in case something went wrong. 

Truthfully, we are lousy at trying to determine what someone is saying by watching their mouth move. 

When they can’t hear, many people will just nod and pretend that they’ve heard what the other person is saying. In a loud room, people will look interested and nod. They may say something like, “yes” and “that’s right”. 

We’ve all done it, hoping that our response is in line with what the other person said. 

 If we were just better at reading lips, life could be easier.

This week I gave a livestream talk on YouTube. 

One morning a week, I give a reflection on a passage in the Bible, along with some personal thoughts.

The thing about being live is that if something goes wrong with the equipment or the technology or even the sound, you have to deal with it right then. 

The other week my camera fell off the tripod just before I went live (you can read about it here). All people saw was a black screen and heard me saying, “Oh no, what am I going to do now?”

This week, for some reason which I still have not figured out, the sound wasn’t going through. 

Of course I didn’t know it and was talking away to the camera like there was nothing wrong. 

I was getting into my talk when I started to get some text messages to my phone. I ignored the first one, but then I got a second and a third. So I pulled my phone out of my pocket and it started ringing. 

It was my wife, Lily, telling me that no one could hear me. 

Right at that moment I wished people were better lip readers. 

If they were, they never would have skipped a beat. The people watching would have been able to decipher what I was saying and I could have carried on. 

But we are lousy lip readers, so dependent on sound to know what someone is saying.

I typed in the chat section that I would record the talk and upload it later to YouTube (you can watch it here). 

I knew my audience wouldn’t be able to read my lips.

Here’s the thing: We are so programmed in how we hear from God. If He doesn’t use those methods to communicate to us, we don’t hear Him. Be open to hear God speak to you in different ways. In a spiritual way, learn to lip read and don’t miss what God is communicating to you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How may God have tried to communicate to you in the past but you missed it? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Weight Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

When you consider interacting with an item, its weight is deceptively important. 

weight is a bigger deal than you think

You probably know this to be true when you consider doing an activity and you’re a few pounds heavier than the last time you did it. 

I know for myself, when I play hockey, I feel a whole lot better on the ice when I am about five pounds lighter than my present weight. 

Just five pounds makes a difference. 

But that’s not all. The weight of most things should be considered.

Recently, we purchased a new TV for our family room. My plan was to put the old one in our workout room. I delayed doing that because the old TV is a plasma television, weighing in at about 90 pounds. 

You don’t flippantly hang almost 100 pounds on a wall and think it will stay there. I had to do some research and make sure I got the right kind of mount. 

The plan was to hang that beast of a TV about six feet off the floor. That certainly was not a one man job! It took two of us to mount that baby on the wall.

But even slight weight variances can make a difference.

Just recently I broke a hockey stick. It’s the stick I used all the time. 

I do have a back-up. In fact, I have a few because they are all kind of heavy and I kept buying sticks hoping that one would feel a little lighter. 

These hockey sticks are not like those from the old days for two reasons: 

For one, back in the day I would buy a hockey stick for about $15. It might only have lasted for a couple of weeks but, if I bought the stick from Canadian Tire, I could return it and get a new one for free.

That was then. 

Now sticks cost over $100, up to about $350. They last a lot longer … if you don’t take a lot of slap shots. 

The other reason sticks are different, from back when I was growing up, is the material they are made of.  

All Sticks used to be made entirely of wood. Now there is no hint of wood in sticks, just carbon fibre … and they are sooooo much lighter. 

My old Sherwood PMP 3050 was heavy – like a 2×4 made out of spruce. I might as well have been carrying a tree on the ice with me. 

Now sticks are light – 430 grams and lighter. In fact, the stick I just broke was 400 grams and my back-up sticks weigh in at around 427 grams. 

It really doesn’t sound like much difference, but every time I go to stick handle or shoot the puck with one of my back-up sticks, it feels like I have cement for a blade. 

It’s like I taped my hockey stick with lead-lined hockey tape. 

It doesn’t take much weight to make a big difference. … I’m thinking I need to buy a new every day stick and keep the ones I have as back-ups. 

Here’s the thing: Every once in a while we need to take a hard look at our lives and consider what might be weighing us down spiritually. Excess spiritual weight could be rules we follow or wrong theology we hold to. It might be legalism or a sense of superiority. We can add spiritual weight by justifying something that is wrong or sinful. Practice being spiritually lighter by shedding unnecessary and harmful spiritual weight. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is one thing you should remove from your life right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Crisis Reaction Time Is Crucial

You can not prepare for every crisis; sometimes you just have to react. 

crisis reaction time is crucial

The question is, “How well, do you react to a crisis?” 

Certainly some people react swifter and better than others when faced with something that is sudden and unexpected. 

I’ve seen it in hockey where a goalie is prepared for a shot from the point and then just in front of him the puck gets tipped. You can’t prepare for that; you can only react. And how fast that goalie reacts is the difference between the puck ending up in his equipment or the back of the net. 

The other day I was faced with a crisis. 

When COVID first hit, I started live-streaming a devotional to my congregation once a week on Thursday mornings at 8:30 am.

I took a break over the summer, but didn’t get back to doing them until the new year.

I don’t have a studio, so I have to set up for it each week. There are lights, a camera, tripod, iPad and computer all to set up. The set up takes just over a half hour. 

This week I was set up and ready to go one hour and forty-five minutes before I was to go live. 

About forty-five minutes before the devotional I got the streaming software active and set, just waiting for me to hit one button to go live. 

With twenty-five minutes to go, I hit the go live button. With five minutes to go, I switched the scene to a count down and music. 

It was all going perfectly: the picture on the screen was counting down and everything was set to automatically switch to the video feed of me looking into the camera and saying hi.

With under one minute to air, I was standing in my place. And then, all of a sudden, my camera fell from the tripod. 

What? I had forty seconds to air. I went for the camera, got hold of it and promptly put it back on the tripod. 

Everything was good; nothing had unplugged. 

I took a deep breath and counted down, 6, 5, 4, 3 … and then the camera fell off the tripod again! 

I went to grab the camera; this time the power cord had unplugged. 

I was live … the screen was black. I made a few comments like, “Oh no.” I sounded like Mr. Bill from the 70’s Saturday Night Live show. 

I plugged the power cord back in and turned on the camera. Then I swung around to face the camera, but everything was still black. I fiddled with the software in hopes to get the camera to connect again, but it was not happening. 

So quickly I switch my camera source to my laptop’s built-in camera and presto, I was visible. 

I thought it only took about a minute to do all that but looking back at the recording, the screen was dark for about 2 1/2 minutes. 

I need to work on my reaction time in a crisis.

Here’s the thing: What is the first thing you do when you face an unexpected crisis? I will bet that, when your adrenaline is flowing, your reaction is to do something – do something yourself. To lessen my reaction time, I need to first call on God for help and then let Him guide my next moves. I’m sure that most of us need to work on adding God to the beginning of our reaction time. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: At what point in your crisis reaction do you seek God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Don’t Lose What You Once Learned

They say once you learn something you never lose it, but you may lose some skill.

lose what you once learned

That expression “it’s like riding a bike” is a bit of a misnomer. The expression means that once you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget how. What they don’t say is that you might lose your able to do it well.

Learning to ride a bike takes time. You have to learn how to find your balance on those two wheels. But once you have figured out how to balance yourself on a bike, you will always be able to balance yourself. 

Many people learn to ride a bike as kids, but as they get older they stop riding. Yet no matter how long it’s been since the last time they rode, once they get on a bike again, they still know how to balance themselves. 

This is true with a lot of things.

I learned to drive a standard gear shift in my 20’s, but I probably went twenty years without driving stick shift. 

I remember test driving a car that I was considering buying. It was a standard and I didn’t have any problem knowing what to do with the clutch and the shifting. 

But like that bicycle expression about not forgetting how to ride, but forgetting how to do it well, when I test drove the car, I ground the gears a bit and stalled it once. 

You might remember how to do something, but it doesn’t mean you can still do it with ease.

Last week they lifted the lockdown in our region of the province which meant I could play hockey again. 

Yes, I had to come to the arena dressed in my equipment like a 7 year old (read about that here), but at least I got to play.

It had been six or seven weeks since I had last tied up my skates and hit the ice. That’s not all that long considering some people go ten years in between bike rides … or like me, twenty years in between driving a manual transmission car. 

Six weeks is shorter than most kids’ summer break from school. 

It’s a short enough time to remember some details of the last time I skated.

But let me tell you, in that six weeks, though I didn’t forget how to put on my equip or do up my skates, I certainly lacked something out on the ice. 

My legs didn’t want to move as fast as I remembered them moving six weeks earlier. My shot didn’t seem to be as accurate as it once was. 

And I got out of breath way faster than I did less than two months ago. 

My first game back on the ice felt like I had been off for 4-6 months. 

It was not really “just like riding a bike” … unless you picture the rider weaving all over the road. 

Here’s the thing: In the past year, many or most of us have not been involved in any regular ministry or service to God. Consider getting back to serving in some capacity and, although you haven’t forgotten how to serve, it will take time and perseverance to get your serving back to the level it once was. Don’t neglect serving God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can you do right now to serve the Lord? Leave your comments and question below. 

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