by

My Riveting Experience Almost Left Me Frustrated

I had a riveting experience the other day. 

my riveting experience almost left me frustrated

No, it wasn’t exciting or anything like that. I was trying to rivet a couple of clasps on my briefcase.

I don’t know too much about riveting, but I do own a rivet gun. … I’m not sure why they call it a gun because nothing comes shooting out of it. 

My fear was that if I went anywhere with my briefcase I would lose the two clasps that were dangling. 

This briefcase is a satchel style that you sling over your shoulder. It has a couple of zippered compartments for paper and my laptop and a flap that comes over the zippered compartments and attaches to the front of the bag with two clasps. 

The two ends that the clasps clip into are attached to the satchel by rivets. One rivet on each end had broken off so the ends spun around and put more pressure on the rivets that were still in place. 

I figured I just needed to put a couple of rivets in and I would be good to go again.

But it wasn’t working. The rivets would not stay in.

In hindsight I think it was partly due to the fact that I don’t know how to use my rivet gun all that well. But it was also partly due to the fact that the rivets I had were not long enough.

So off to the hardware store I went. 

Now I like to snoop around for what I want and only ask for help when I’m frustrated or need some expert advice. On this trip, however, an employee came up to me rather quickly and asked if I needed helped.

Inside I was thinking, “No, I’m good”. But I didn’t want to put the guy off so I replied, “Sure, what do you know about rivets?”

He admitted he didn’t know much but took me over to where he thought they might be. 

We looked at them and I asked a couple of questions. The employee didn’t seem to have any answers nor think the ones we looked at would work. He offered no other solution, so I thanked him and walked away. 

I thought these hardware guys were experts, but he was no help at all. 

I circled around a couple of aisles and then decided to go back and take a closer look at the rivet section myself. Upon closer scrutiny, there was a package of multi-length rivets with some  that were longer than what I had. 

I bought the package, went home and then had to figure out how to properly work my rivet gun to complete the repair. 

After a couple of failed attempts, I decided to watch some YouTube instructional videos. Some were useless, but from a couple others I figured out what I was doing wrong with my rivet gun.

I was then quickly able to fix my briefcase.

Now I’m confident that the next time I have to leave the house, nothing is going to fall out of my briefcase.

Here’s the thing: There are many people who offer advice and wisdom to us. We must be able to distinguish between what is good advice and what is bad. If you spend time in God’s word you will train yourself to be able to tell the good from the bad.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Where do you go to get good advice? Leave your questions and comments below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this to your email each week.

by

Shopping Is More Tiring Than Running A Marathon

There is something about shopping that zaps the energy right out of me. 

shopping is more tiring than running a marathon

I can work out for a half hour or play hockey for an hour and a half and have more energy afterwards than I do following a shopping session at the mall. 

My daughter and son-in-law just got a dog. They tell me that dogs expend more energy sniffing around than they do going on a walk. So you can run your dog ragged, chasing him or playing fetch, but he won’t use up as much energy doing that as he does just sniffing every tree and hydrant he comes across on his walk. 

Maybe we’re like dogs when it comes to shopping.

There is something else I noticed about shopping: I slow down.

When I’m walking from our car to a hockey game with my wife, I motor. My pace is fast. Sometimes Lily even complains that I’m walking too fast and that she can’t keep up. 

Usually she yells that at me from about 30 paces behind – haha, just kidding. 

But when I park our car at a mall, immediately I go into slow mo walk mode. As I follow Lily into the mall, my pace sinks to a saunter and my legs and feet feel like they are lead.

I notice that other people walk like that too. 

Sure there are some people who are power walking through the mall but many are trudging … like they’re on their way to a life sentence for some crime they committed. 

There is something about shopping that just simply sucks the life out of you. 

I wonder if it is the music they play. 

Maybe there is some kind of secret message in the music to dull our senses and make us least resistant to the ploys of the sale clerks or signs and stickers that read, “sale”.

The other day I went to a mall with Lily and our daughter, Karlie. I thought the we were there to shop, but Karlie had an agenda and it was to return items and buy different stuff. 

So what I thought was a shopping trip turned into more of a waiting and people-watching trip for me – waiting outside of stores I didn’t really want to go into and watching the people who were trudging by. 

When we were finished, in that whole mall of 140+ stores, there were only two that I had been interested in entering. I went into several more stores but not on my own volition. Lily and Karlie had a few stops they had wanted to make. 

When it was all over, it was dinner time. I was so tired, it was good there was a restaurant outside the mall we could eat at. I don’t think I could have made it back to our car; it was too long a walk.

After dinner I had revived enough to make it home and to contemplate doing it again sometime … not soon though!

Here’s the thing: There are things that exhaust us yet take very little physical output. One of those things is contemplating what happens to us at the end of life. Some just don’t think about it, while others try to convince themselves of something comforting. It zaps our energy. The Bible tells us that God loves us and has a place for us to spend eternity with Him. Expend less energy and believe Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find that zaps your energy? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email weekly.

by

Hearing Can Be A Problem … “What Did You Say”?

I am experiencing what it’s like to lose my hearing before I lose my hearing. 

hearing can be a problem ... what did you say?

Many people struggle to hear well. I even wonder if the most used phrase in the world is, “What did you say?” 

We all use that phrase – maybe because there is other noise in the room, maybe because something else caught our attention, or maybe because the person speaking mumbled or dropped their voice a little. 

We all know what it is like to not hear something. 

I think I have good cause to have some hearing loss. In my teens and early twenties, I went to my fair share of rock concerts … and probably used up others’ fair shares as well. 

There wasn’t a concert that didn’t leave me with a little ringing in my ears. 

Though I haven’t been exposed to constant loud noise in my life, I’ve experienced enough. 

The first year I was a chaplain for the Kingston Frontenacs we held chapel in the opposing team’s dressing room. I don’t know if they do this on purpose but the visiting team’s dressing room is right below the cooling engine for the rink. To keep the ice from melting, this cooling system has to be on. And it is loud. 

I always felt like I was yelling at the players while giving my talk and praying. Fortunately we moved from that spot the next year.

My wife, Lily, has tinnitus. She always hears some competing noise with whoever is speaking to her. 

Then, as we get older, our ears naturally experience some hearing loss. 

About two months ago, I accidentally drove a Q-tip into my ear so hard it bled (read about that here). That certainly didn’t improve my hearing but, generally speaking, I can hear well. 

I do have a set of headphones I wear in my workout room though. I watch TV while I work out to keep my mind off of what I’m doing. The machines I use make so much noise that I would have to turn the TV up to a crazy volume to hear it. So I wear a pair of wireless headphones. 

The one problem with them is that they randomly cut out for maybe three or four seconds. Every time they do, it seems like it is right at the point when someone is saying something important. 

Three or four seconds is not much, but it is just enough to lose the context for what was said and make me feel like I’m missing something and am now in the dark. 

I’m sure that is how people who suffer hearing loss feel most of the time. It keeps you from engaging. It becomes easier to sit back and simply nod or just observe others and not be part of any conversation.

One thing for sure is I don’t like it. I’m not looking forward to the day my hearing goes. 

For now I’ll just get a new pair of headphones.

Here’s the thing: At Christmas time we tell the story of how Jesus came to earth. It is an amazing story, a story of how much God loves us. But it’s not the whole story. It’s just the part of God’s gift to us. It doesn’t tell us how to received this gift. It’s easy to hear this part of the story and, like hearing loss, not know what happens next and maybe check out of the conversation or just observe it. We all need to listen for the full story of how Jesus died to pay for our sin and how, by placing our faith in Him, we can receive God’s gift of love to us. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you been missing out on? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this to your email weekly.

by

So It’s Christmas – Say It Isn’t So

I’ve been thinking, “Is it really Christmas when the family is not present?”

so it's Christmas - say it isn't so

This was the first Christmas where our kids weren’t at home on Christmas morning. 

We have probably had a longer run at Christmas time than many families. But still, it seemed a little off not waking up to a house filled with our children.

And it’s not like there are little ones running around. Our kids are grown and live in other cities.

But still, part of me thinks that at Christmas you revert back to the days when you were all together all the time … maybe because it was tradition, and traditions are hard to let go of. 

There’s nothing wrong with making new traditions, and we have done that over the years.

When we lived in Edmonton, we would have a Christmas Eve meal at the revolving restaurant atop the Chateau LaCombe hotel. When we moved to Kingston we realized they didn’t have a revolving restaurant. For that matter, Kingston and all its restaurants close at about 6 pm on Christmas Eve.  

We needed a new tradition.

We started having a family fondue after the Christmas Eve service. That became our new tradition. It was an easy switch; the family was still all together.

This year things were much different.

There was no one getting up early. There was no dragging anyone out of bed to open Christmas stockings.

On the other hand, there was no “wife saver” brunch thingy that Lily used to pre-make that we never really appreciated.

But this year Lily and I were not really excited to restart an old tradition of doing Christmas with just the two of us. Those first four Christmases were many years ago. 

Back then they may have been special, just the two of us, but we’re not sure we are ready to go back to that. So we decided to stop time for one day. 

Our kids arrived later and much later on Christmas Day. So we had our Christmas on Boxing Day. That’s the new Christmas for us … well, at least for this year.

John Lennon sang the words, “So this is Christmas.” … Yes it is. It’s not what it was, not what it should be, but this is what it is.

The day after we got up, opened stocking and presents and later had Lily’s side of the family over for a meal. 

It’s like Christmas Day came one day late. 

In all that shifting and adapting, I realized that really to me Christmas is all about family. Family has replaced the central focus of the day.

There is nothing wrong with family, but this day – Christmas Day – is about the birth of Jesus. 

The idea of any birthday is to focus on the one who is celebrating his or her birthdate. I’ve come to realize that I’ve replaced that focus with my family. 

I need to rethink Christmas from the ground up. 

Here’s the thing: We celebrate Christmas because it marks the time God sent his Son, Jesus, to us. The reason we celebrate the birth of someone who is not part of our family is because of what He did. Jesus grew up and died on a cross to pay for our sins. Then He rose from the grave and offers us forgiveness for our sins and a relationship with God. Just as we have a connection with our family members, we can all have a connection with what Christ did for us. We just need to take Him up on His offer and put our faith in Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What Christmas tradition do you need to rethink or make next year? Leave your questions and comments below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email weekly.

by

Getting Old Is Not Just A State Of Mind

I think I figured out a new way to tell that you are getting old … and it has nothing to do with counting wrinkles or loss of hair.

getting old is not just a state of mind

I know that some people might be thinking, “Well, if it’s not those things, it must be all the aches and pains, or the mystery ailment that can’t be explained.” 

These are all traditional signs that we might be aging, but I just discovered a new one. 

From the earliest memory that I have, I always had a long list of things I wanted for Christmas. 

When the Sears Christmas catalogue came out, I would scour it for ideas of toys that I could put on my Christmas list. That “wish book” was always a good source of inspiration for the dreams that would keep me awake on Christmas Eve. 

My son, Mike, also loved that Sears catalogue. 

When he was quite young, I came home from work one day and my wife, Lily, handed me the catalogue. All she said was, “Take a look at what your son wants for Christmas.” 

I began combing through the pages, starting at the toy section. He had circled every single toy in the book! Literally, there was not one toy that Sears sold that he didn’t want. 

On the one hand, it made it pretty easy for Santa to come up with a present for him. But on the other hand, how indiscriminate can one be?

… And maybe that is one of the signs of youth. There is no consideration for cost, size, use, even appropriateness. They just want it. 

Not that I should pick on my son too much – I’ll do it anyway – but there was a time when we were at Disney World and he saw some venders selling turkey legs. Then he saw people eating those turkey legs. 

He wanted one bad! 

Those hunks of meat were about a third of his body mass. They reminded me a little of the ribs that Fred Flintstone ordered at the drive through in the closing credits of each episode. The ribs were so big that they tipped over his foot-driven car. 

Well, there was no stopping Mike from wanting a turkey leg. And when he did get it, it became a community exercise in eating it. We all had to have some just to put a dent in it.

I guess what I’m saying is that when you are young, you want lots! 

But there comes a time when you don’t want as much … maybe because you have so much. 

When Christmas comes around and older people are asked what they want for Christmas, they all have the same answer: “I don’t know; I don’t need anything.”

I never thought I would get to that stage in life where I wouldn’t have an answer to the question of what I wanted for Christmas. But this year, I don’t know what I want. I don’t really need anything. 

… Wow! I guess I’m old now.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes the desire for material things is so great that we overlook or don’t even realize the other needs we have in our lives. We can be so fixated on and striving for what we see that we don’t consider our spiritual needs. There are two wants or needs that we all have – whether we realize it or not. We have the need to understand our purpose and the need to know our eventual destiny. The only answers to both those needs come from God in Christ Jesus. Receive His gift of salvation and He will meet those two great needs. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you hoping for this Christmas? Leave you comment and questions below. 

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this to your email weekly.

by

The Trigger That Ignites Your Interest

You need a trigger to create excitement for something you haven’t really cared much about. 

the trigger that ignites your interest

You can get interested in something that you wouldn’t normally be focused on, but you first need something that will peak your interest. 

Way back in high school the TV was a magnet for me. I would come home after school, grab three or four cookies from the tin my mom had hidden, and flop on the couch to watch television. 

We only had a black and white TV so I was not watching in “living colour” as NBC advertised. One of my favourite shows was Perry Mason, so it didn’t matter that we only had a black and white TV. That show was filmed in black and white. It was a who-done-it show where Perry Mason, the lawyer, defended the cases. He always won.

At some point they changed the time of the show to a half hour later. Instead of coming home and doing homework, or something crazy like that, I just watched whatever was on before my show. 

I had never seen a soap opera before, but with a half hour to kill before Perry Mason, I started watching the “Edge of Night” …  da da da dum. 

Something I had had no interest in suddenly caught my interest and, for a while, I religiously followed the Edge of Night and knew all the characters.

The trigger for me was that I had time to kill before watching what I really wanted to see. I got sucked into watching what was before it and I got hooked – interested. 

The same thing has happened to me with the FIFA World Cup this month. 

When I was in college, I played soccer … or football as they say in the rest of the world. In fact, my college team won the Saskatchewan Provincial Championships in 1984. We went on to play in Toronto at the National College Championships. I was injured most of the season that year but I did get in a little action in one of the games.

So I know soccer. Also both my kids played some soccer and I watched them play in high school. 

… But I have to tell you, it’s not my favourite sport. 

I didn’t mind playing it, but watching it is tiresome. The biggest reason is they don’t score enough goals. The goals that are scored are often spectacular and the skill is amazing, but they just don’t score enough for me. 

So I’ve never really gotten too exited or interested in the World Cup before.

But this year is a different matter. Canada had a team in the tourney and, all of a sudden, I’m into soccer. 

I’m watching highlights of games. I’m watching games that Canada is not even playing in. 

Basically it took Canada making it into the World Cup for me to have enough interest in the game to get excited about it.

Team Canada was my trigger.

Here’s the thing: Life is full with all our activities, work and interests. If God has not been part of your life from an early age, it might be hard to get excited about Him. But there are triggers that can cause us to consider God and then become interested in knowing more about Him. Triggers like discouragement, trouble, heartbreak, sadness, stress and other things can cause us to look for help outside ourselves. Some of these things will come to all of us at some time in our lives. Be sure to seek God for help and comfort and you will find you want to know more about Him and His love for you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has triggered your interest lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email about twice a week. 

by

New Christmas Lights Have Been A Challenge

Bringing something up to a new standard always presents its challenges.

new Christmas lights have been a challenge

It doesn’t matter what it is, upgrading or moving to a new system is never smooth, such as going from analogue to digital – it’s a process. 

I was looking at a number of home movies we shot years ago when our kids were little. I had brought home the big, massive VHS video camera from the church, plunked a regular-sized VHS tape into the unit and shot birthday and Christmas events.  

… That was great while VHS players were a thing. Now VHS tapes and players are a thing of the past. 

The change in technology makes it difficult to save those memories for the future. I’ve almost lost the window to transfer those tapes to a digital format. But I still have a VHS player and I think one of my old video cameras can be plugged into it to transfer the recordings to digital.

I remember upgrading how I wrote sermons, from pen and paper to typing them onto my computer. I’ll admit I sometimes had a hard time reading my own writing. 

But when I forgot to hit “save” and my computer crashed, sometimes I lost pages of type … and you can’t even try to decipher what isn’t there anymore.

I learned the painful lesson that you should hit the save button every time you pause to make sure you don’t lose anything.

Well, last week I tried a new upgrade with our Christmas lights. 

I’ve been forever using the same strings of lights to give a Christmas feel to the outside of our home. But now our incandescent strings of lights are wearing out. Some of the sockets no longer work and lightbulbs are always going out.

I decided to go LED all the way. 

I headed to the store thinking it would be seamless to replace the four strings of lights I put on our house, only to find that the new strings are not 25 feet long like the old ones. They are 16.1 feet long.

My quick trip to the hardware store turned into a half hour of humming and hawing over what strings to buy. 

I also had to buy all new clips to attach them to our house.

I ended up getting five strings, but two of them had five colours of lights when I only wanted two. It took some time to swap out the colours I didn’t want.

When I finally got them all up, one string didn’t work. Sure enough, it was one of the multi-coloured strings. I had to switch the lights back to the originals and return them to the store. 

The new set I bought worked when I got them home but, by the time I’d swapped the lights out, the string didn’t work. I took that set back too, plus the other matching set that had multi-coloured lights. 

The time I spent on this project was as much time as I’ve spent over the last three years putting up and taking down lights. 

It’s all good now … but the updating was a royal pain. 

Here’s the thing: It’s never easy to make changes to your life. But if you don’t, at some point you will be unable to make changes or you might think it’s too hard and miss out. Jesus came to earth to pay for your sins and enable you to have a relationship with God, now and forever. Yes, the change may cause some challenges but, in the end, giving your life to Christ will be far better for you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to update or upgrade this Christmas? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email weekly. 

by

Am I More Observant Now Or Just Nosy?

What some people call being more observant, others might call being nosy.  

am I more observant now or just nosy?

Retirement has been interesting. Though I have not had a shortage of things to do these last almost two months, I’m now doing them from home. That’s a big difference. 

I’m not sitting in my living room eight hours a day looking out the window though. In fact, I spend most of my time in the basement working at my desk or sorting papers.  

But I come up for air periodically and it’s then that I have occasion to look out the front window. And, when you do that a few times a day, you can’t help but get a little bit of the pulse of the street. 

I remember back in Edmonton we lived next door to a fireman. He was the eyes and ears of the street. He knew what everyone was doing, their schedules, what they brought home and when they went on vacation. 

Working the kind of shifts that gave him several days off in a row, he had time to stay on top of the street happenings. 

It was a little comforting too. 

We knew that someone was watching our place if we were away. If a package was put by our door, no one was going to come along and take it. It was better than having a door cam. 

I wouldn’t say I’m the eyes and ears of our street – well, at least not yet. There are a couple other retired guys who fill that spot. But I’m noticing things … my neighbours got new vehicles and some on the street don’t use their composter. 

And then there’s the guy behind us across the road. He is the most interesting.

For the last two months, I’ve noticed he gets a newspaper of some kind dropped on his driveway once a week. The paper comes in a plastic bag … which is a good thing because it remains there, near the end of his driveway, all week! 

Depending on where the paper lands, it will get driven over several times during the week. No one picks the thing up. 

I first wondered if he was the only one getting this paper, but then I noticed last week that his neighbour gets one too. However, contrary to this guy, his neighbour takes his into his house within a couple of hours.

Last week we got some sloppy snow and this guy’s paper not only was driven over, but it got wet and ground into the driveway. 

I know that this is none of my business and that I shouldn’t care a second about the paper that is on this guy’s driveway – right now, by the way – but I want to know what is going through the guy’s head. 

Why doesn’t he just pick up the paper and throw it into his recycling bin?

My observations have turned into story lines that I have been creating in my mind. I wish I could get to the bottom of it. 

Here’s the thing: We can’t know what goes on in someone else’s mind. We don’t know what they are thinking and believing, but we can present them with the knowledge and opportunity to believe in an eternal God who loves them, sent His Son to die for them, and desires to show them His love and acceptance.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What gets you curious about others around you? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email up to twice weekly.

by

I Was Oblivious To What I Already Knew

Sometimes you can be oblivious to a reality even though you’ve been informed about it.

I was oblivious to what I already knew

… That statement might need a little explanation. 

Recently I needed to see a doctor. Though there is lots of news concerning the deficiencies in our medical system, it didn’t hit me until I tried to use the system.

In my previous post I wrote about poking myself in the ear with a Q-tip (read here). Well, after several days – a week, to be precise – I decided to make an appointment with my doctor.

I thought it would be as simple as phoning the doctor’s office to make an appointment – boom, done. Instead I was told I couldn’t get in to see my doctor for a couple of weeks! 

The receptionist and I thought maybe I should try a quicker solution, but it wasn’t an emergency so going to the hospital didn’t seem like the right approach. 

The decision was made to try the after hours walk-in clinic my doctor’s office is connected to. Even though the words “after hours” didn’t have a good ring to them, at least I could go that day. I was told to go right when it opened to make sure I got into the clinic. My wife, Lily, then warned me to get there even earlier. 

When I arrived twenty minutes before the walk-in clinic opened, I was fourth in line. 

I had twenty minutes to kill standing outside in line to get in to see a doctor.

I‘ve stood in lines before. One time back in 1974, I stood in line on Yonge Street in Toronto outside A&A Records to purchase tickets to see Elton John in concert. Now that was standing in line! We were about ninth in line and waited from 9 pm to around 7 am the next morning when the tickets went on sale. 

… The stories of that night could fill a few blog posts. But that was late summer and warm outside.

Not the other day, standing twenty minutes outside in damp, 0° Celsius weather. 

The line of people grew and there were several parents with children, young children and babies, lining up to see a different kind of rock star – a doctor.

I couldn’t help but think that the sight was something you would see in a war-torn, third world country. Sick people were standing out in the cold to get treatment for their sicknesses. 

I used to stand in line to play shinny hockey, but at least we could stand inside the foyer of the arena in a climate-controlled temperature. 

When they did let us in – one by one, after we signed in and took a number – you really got a sense of how sick some people were. There was a constant noice of babies, children and adults coughing and sniffling. 

I don’t think sick people should have to wait outside in the cold to get medical help. There has to be a better way.

I’d heard that there are deficiencies in our medical system but, until yesterday, I didn’t really get it. 

Here’s the thing: We can hear about God, about what Christ did on the cross, but still be oblivious to it. It is when we take the time to investigate the reality of what God has done for us that we really are able to get it. Seek who Christ is and what He has done. Then let that knowledge impact your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you know about but don’t really know? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this to your email twice weekly.

by

A Lesson Learned Is More Valuable Than You Know

There is a lesson to be learned from almost everything in life. Some of those lessons are enriching and guide us going forward.

a lesson learned is more valuable than you know

Other lessons, well, they are difficult and they challenge us to be better, to do things differently.

One of the lessons that has stayed with me my whole life was learned when I was about four years old.

I was colouring in a colouring book in the back seat of the family car. We had just arrived at home and, before getting out of the car, I turned the page to start colouring another picture.

My dad, who was watching, said to me, “don’t start colouring another picture until you finish colouring the picture you are on.” 

That little sentence has stayed with me my entire life. The lesson I learned was “finish what you start”.

There have been many lessons learned along the way. Many have not been as impactful as that lesson my dad taught me that day. 

Some of the lessons have hurt. 

For a while I had difficulty with sharp instruments – like hand saws and utility knives. People were even hesitant to let me hold a knife with a sharp edge. 

I had cut myself sawing off the bottom of a door … while propping the door up with my knee and my left hand. When the door slipped, I almost severed the tendon of my index finger. 

About three months later, I took five stitches to the top of the same finger while using a utility knife to cut some fiber board for a sliding door.

I learned that I should have the proper tools and properly secure an object before I cut it. 

But that is nothing like the lesson I just learned.

I was using a Q-tip to clean my ears. … I have been using Q-tips on my ears for decades, so really, what could I possibly learn about cleaning my ears? 

Ya, I’ve seen the commercials about the special screw-type ear thingies that remove ear wax like an auger. But I like Q-tips; I’m proficient with them. And I get the originals. I don’t settle for some cheap ear swabs that basically feel like you are using a stick in your ear.

Well, the other day, I had a Q-tip in my left ear when I noticed that some hair on my head was out of place. So I swiped at the hair … and literally drove the Q-tip into my ear. 

Oh, baby, that was painful!

After reeling for a few moments, I had to leave for an appointment. On the way, my ear still felt sore and, when I put my finger in my ear, I realized it was bleeding.

The last two days I’ve been picking dried blood from that ear. I may have to see my doctor to make sure there isn’t any permanent damage. 

So what was the lesson learned? Well, that’s simple: don’t use a Q-tip while looking at yourself in the mirror. That’s what got me into trouble.

Here’s the thing: With so many experiences in our life time, we need to wisely learn the lessons that will benefit us as we journey on. The greatest lesson we can learn is that we all mess up and sin, but God will forgive us if we will place our faith in Jesus Christ. We get tons of practice to learn this lesson. The question is will we learn it? 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What life lessons have you learned lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email inbox twice weekly.