Christ

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Fans Can Be Sneaky

Fans are sneaky because you don’t know where they will turn up.

For this post and next(click here), I’m going to write about fans – not the kind that cool you down, but the kind that cheer you on.

The fans I’m focussing on are the Toronto Maple Leaf fans. One reason I’ll focus on them is that I’m a fan and the other reason is that they are an interesting group.

Recently the Leafs made a western road trip, including games in Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton. The most interesting thing about these games was the number of Toronto Maple Leaf fans in each arena.  

Everywhere the Leafs play, there are blue and white jerseys in the crowd. In Florida it’s understandable because it’s winter and mostly Canadians from Ontario go to the hockey games there. 

But there are Leaf fans everywhere. 

On this particulate western road swing, the Leaf jerseys at these three hockey towns rivalled those of the home crowd.

In each arena there were “Go Leafs Go” chants that the home crowd had a hard time overpowering. 

In Calgary, at one point, there were “Freddie, Freddie, Freddie” chants for the Leafs’ goalie. …This kind of chanting never happens where the opposing goalie is being cheered like a hero.  

It was unbelievable. 

In Vancouver, where the Leafs lost in overtime, the announcer commented, “Well, at least half the crowd are going home happy tonight.” … It’s pretty rare – or I should say never – that there are as many opposing fans in the seats as hometown die hards.

Maybe you could point out that the Super Bowl is filled with fans from both sides. That might be true, but the Super Bowl is played in a neutral stadium.

This is a unique phenomenon … perhaps because the Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 51 years. 

Some people say that other Canadian teams share the same kind of fan support, so maybe this is a Canadian phenomenon. 

But it can’t be that. 

… Sure, the Blue Jays are supported by fans right across the country and, when Toronto was in the American League championship a few years ago, the teams they faced could feel the whole country was behind them. It was like a whole country was playing a single city’s team. 

But the Jays are the only MBL team in Canada, so it makes sense that there would be fans across the country. 

The Raptors basketball team are the same. Many people are going to cheer for a team from their country first. 

The fan support for the Toronto Maple Leafs is different. 

In each city the Leafs play in, there is a team that the locals are passionate about. Yet, blue and white jerseys pop out of the woodwork and rival the locals’ passions and love for their team.

Fans may be sneaky, but with Leaf fans you can bet they are going to show up.

Here’s the thing: There are people all over the world who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. They are sneaky because you can’t tell who they are. They don’t wear jerseys with emblems on them in a certain colour. But you know that almost everywhere you go, there are those who raise their hands to Jesus. They come from countries where other gods are honoured, but they remain strong in their faith and in support of the one true God. There’s an army of Christian believers who are all cheering and praising our God in Heaven … Are you one of them?

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How faithfully do you stand up for your Saviour? Leave your comments below.

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If It’s Out Of Sight, It’s Out Of My Mind

From time to time I will repost an article that I’ve written in the past. Today’s post is from April of 2016.

There is a saying “out of sight, out of mind” and it is particularly true with me. If something is out of my sight, there’s a good chance I will forget about it. 

Case in point: I’m not a great guitarist, but I like to play my guitar a bit. I used to keep it in its case, but I would never see it so I never thought of playing it. 

Eventually I got a stand so my guitar now sits in our family room in plain sight, creating a much greater chance that I’ll pick it up and strum a little.  

I need to do that with a lot of things because if I don’t see them there’s a good chance I will forget about them. 

Maybe that’s why I have so many papers on my desk. I’m afraid that if I put those papers somewhere, like in a filing cabinet or file folder, I will forget about them and not get at the work they represent.

Lily doesn’t really like my “out of sight, out of mind” system for getting things done. For her it creates clutter. 

The other day there was a new piece of clutter: I received my renewal for our car licence plates. I don’t need to renew for a couple of months, and since I don’t like giving the government my money earlier than I have to, the way I operate means the renewal form will be on our kitchen table for some time.

Now maybe right about now you are sympathizing with Lily, but here’s the flip side …

A week ago I was getting low on Bisoprolol – it’s a beta blocker, and one of the pills I take for my heart. So it’s kind of important that I don’t run out of the stuff.

What I do when I get low is I put the bottle on the kitchen table to remind me to call the pharmacy for more. I can’t just call in at any time, however, because my insurance company, who pays part of the cost, doesn’t want me to start stockpiling the little pink pills. I have to wait until I’m down to 4 or 5 pills. 

Since I load my pill dispenser every Saturday for the next week, I have to have that bottle on the kitchen table for a few days. 

So there the bottle sat, prominently displayed. … The problem was that we were having company and so Lily moved the bottle.  

She moved it out of sight which meant it was out of mind for me. I never thought of it until Saturday rolled around and I was filling up my dispenser. 

Not only could I not find my Bisoprolol bottle, I had forgotten I needed to order more! 

So Saturday morning I was scurrying around trying to find my pills and then trying to get my order in a.s.a.p. so I didn’t miss a day.

We’ll be keeping those bottles on the table from now on.

Here’s the thing: If you want to be consistent in spending time with God, keep your materials (Bible, devotional book, journal) in plain sight, ready to go for when you meet with God. Being able to see them will remind you that you have an appointment to keep with the Lord.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you do to ensure you keep your time with God each day? Leave your comment below.

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I Was Tricked Into What I Liked

The other day I got tricked into doing something I liked. That might sound crazy because why would anyone need to be tricked into doing something they liked doing?

Well, it happened; let me explain.

I got a text from one of the former players of the Kingston Frontenacs OHL hockey team. He was going to be in town and wondered if I was going to the Fronts game that night so we could see each other. 

The reason he was in town was because he now plays hockey for an Ontario university and they were playing the Queens University hockey team the next night. 

I thought this was great. We would be able to catch up on Friday night at the Fronts’ hockey game and then I would get to see him play the next night at the Queens vs Guelph hockey game.

When I let him know that I would be at both games, he said his game was going to be a sell out because it was a championship match. So I immediately went online and purchased tickets. 

As we continued to text, he mentioned that he probably wouldn’t be playing. I thought he meant he wouldn’t get many shifts on the ice. 

I learned later that he wasn’t even going to dress for the game. He is a first year player and, since the team has a ton of 4th and 5th year guys, he would sit this one out. 

When he said that, I thought, “That’s okay. There’s another former Frontenac who plays for Queens and I’ll at least get to see him play. All is good.”

Saturday rolled around, and it was a busy day. I had lots of little things to do to get ready for Sunday and, by the end of the day, I was tired … but I had tickets to the game. 

My wife, Lily, was also tired and at one point said, “Maybe we should just not go.” 

When she said that I was really tempted to stay home. Both tickets had only cost $16 and I was so tired. I also knew I would have more to do after the game, so staying home would be the smart play.

We even paused by the font door and considered it again. But I had said I would go, so out we trudged to the car.

We had a tough time finding a place to park near the arena – it really was a sell out crowd. But when we got inside and up to the stands, the energy in the arena was invigorating. It was like I got a second wind just being in that crowd. 

The game was end to end in each of the periods. The third period started with a 1-1 tie. 

In the end, the home town Queens University team won the game and the championship. 

Lily and I were so glad we went to the game and had been part of it. 

Here’s the thing: Sometimes our tiredness tempts us to do things we shouldn’t, or not do things we should. We all lead busy lives and that causes us to sometimes be tired. It is often clear to us what God would want us to do or not do when we have a decision to make. Don’t let tiredness keep you from making the right decision. If you follow God, you will be glad you did. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When you are tired, what do you base your decision-making on? Leave your comments below.

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I’m Adjusting To The Weather

We’ve been back from our Europe trip for a few days now and I’m adjusting to the weather inside just fine.

At the present time, it’s -6 Celsius outside, but in our home right now it’s a cozy 22 degrees.

Sometimes you have to go away to appreciate what you have. 

I know there have been times when I’ve had discussions with Lily about what the thermostat should be set at in winter, but now any temperature she suggests is just fine with me. I’m just happy I don’t need to wear a coat indoors.

At times on our trip I did have to wear a coat indoors! 

When we were packing to go to Spain, Greece and Italy, we looked at the forecasted highs and lows and planned accordingly what we would take.

In hindsight we should have taken some warmer clothes. After all, it’s winter over there too.

On the other hand, some of the highs were 15 degrees and, while that is not hot weather, I shouldn’t need to wear a coat in temperatures like that (check out this post). 

But what we didn’t factor in as much were the lows. The temperatures got down as low as 5, 4, or 3 degrees … that’s jacket weather for sure! But then again, I figured I would mostly be indoors at night when the temps got down that low.

What I didn’t realize was that over there the outside temperature has a greater impact on the inside temperature than it does in Canada.

For just over a week when we were in Spain, we stayed in people’s homes. We quickly found out that they don’t heat their homes like we do in Canada … nor are their homes insulated like ours are in Canada.  

So when the thermometer dipped down to 4 degrees, it was not much warmer than that inside.

I found that I needed to wear my coat all the time. A few seconds before I jumped into bed, I would whip my coat off … and even then I thought maybe I should have kept it on. 

Inside I was cold all the time. Outside I was better because the sun would warm me up. Inside I couldn’t put on enough T-shirts under my coat to stay warm. 

The crazy thing was, people would ask us how cold it was in Canada. At the time Ontario was experiencing a real cold snap: -25 C. 

The people would shiver at just the thought of that. But they didn’t understand that was only the outdoor temperature. Inside it’s a constant 20-22 degrees – that’s shorts and T-shirt weather in my books.

Now that I’m back in Canada, I’m okay with having to adjust to the weather I’ll be facing when I go outside. 

What makes it okay is that I don’t have to also adjust to the weather when I’m sitting in my living room.

Here’s the thing: One thing I’ve found in my spiritual life is that when I feel comfortable with my relationship with Christ that is when I stop growing. I find I get lazy with my prayer life and my devotions, and am not as disciplined as I should be. But when the spiritual temperature in my life is not to my liking, that is when I am spiritually on my toes, looking to add something to grow my relationship with God. Maybe being comfortable with the weather is good, but spiritually we should always be looking for something else to put on. 

That’s Life! 

Paul

Question: What are you too comfortable with right now? Leave you comments below.

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It Really Was 24 Hours

This morning I’m writing about 24 hours – not the TV show, “24 Hours”, that starred Kiefer Sutherland; I never watched that series. 

I’m writing about a 24 hour period of time. 

We get these every day, and spend some of that time working, relaxing, shopping, playing and, of course, sleeping. 

On Wednesday Lily and I left Madrid, Spain on an Air Canada flight to Toronto. We left just after 1 pm in the afternoon, Madrid time. 

We arrived in Toronto at about 3 pm in the afternoon, Toronto time. That sounds like it was a pretty short trip, but when you do the math and factor in the six hour time difference, it was an 8 hour flight. Three in the afternoon in Toronto is nine at night in Spain.

Our day had started at 6 am at a hotel by the Madrid airport. Lil and I exercised, had breakfast, packed and headed to the airport. 

By the time we landed in Toronto, got through customs and were picked up by my brother to go back to his house where we had left our vehicle, it was getting close to dinner time. 

We caught up with my brother and sister in-law and at about 7 pm left for home.

For Lily and I, it was really 12:30 am by then. 

We can normally make it home in about two and a half to three hours, but the roads were bad. It was snowing, the roads were greasy, and the traffic on the 401 was heavy.

It took us about four hours to get home, sometimes traveling as slow as 50 kms per hour. 

That meant that for Lily and I, we had been up for over 22 hours. By the time we unpacked and got ourselves into bed, we’d been up for almost 24 hours.

Lil actually cheated a little because she slept for part of the drive home, but that was the first all-nighter I’d pulled in years.

That’s not to say I’m unfamiliar with them, though. 

I remember being up all night with friends back in high school – usually we were up to no good.

In college I would regularly have to pull all-nighters to get a paper done on time. 

And when I was a youth pastor, we would have all night events. That’s right, on purpose we would have high school students stay up all night. We thought that was fun back then. Well, the students thought it was fun; the leaders, not so much. 

I had one leader who finally declared she was not doing the all night events any more. Lily later pulled the same trick and blamed it on the fact that she had two little kids at home who needed her.

Needless to say, it’s been a long while since I failed to sleep for a 24 hour period of time. 

The crazy thing about this time was that I never felt like I had hit the wall. I never had that jittery, crummy feeling that you get when you go without sleep.

Here’s the thing: I’ve had enough experience staying up all night to know what it feels like. I’ve also driven when I’m tired and know what that feels like to keep your eyes on the road. God gives us what we need, and I needed to stay awake until I got home despite being up for 24 hours. When my head hit the pillow, however, I think I was asleep in under a minute. … God graciously gives us what we need when we need it. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When have you gotten just what you needed from God? Leave your comments below.

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Walk A Mile With Me

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to walk a mile in another person’s shoes?

Well, let me tell you what it’s like to walk a mile in my shoes – actually 22 kilometres to be exact.

I should clarify that I used the stats from my wife’s Apple watch because somehow, even though we walked everywhere together, apparently I only walked 21.56 kilometres. … I’m not sure what’s up with that! 

We spent our last day in Rome taking tours – first was a walking tour of the Vatican. To be honest, it was not high on my priority list but I was glad we saw it. It was amazing. 

The Sistine Chapel paintings and St. Peter’s Basilica are true wonders of beauty and architecture … not to mention ingenuity to build on such a grand scale. 

As inspiring as that tour was, you have to know that Lily and I started our day at about 5 am. Because Lil is frugal, she thought a good brisk walk at 6 am in 4 degrees for 4 kilometres would be a good thing.

By the time we got to the tour line, I wasn’t cold anymore. We had hoofed those 4 k’s in about 45 minutes. 

After that first tour, we had some time before the next tour. And, of course, the second tour didn’t start at the Vatican, but about 3.5 kilometres from the Pope’s place.

We were a little tired and I needed to eat something since we hadn’t had breakfast. So we found a little spot I like to call McDonald’s.  

I know what you’re thinking: “What in the world are you doing eating at McDonald’s in Rome?!” Well, I need non-sweet, non-sugary food in my belly in the mornings, and most of the cafes had pastries and carbs that wouldn’t last me very long.

To redeem myself, from the Mickey D’s on our way towards our next destination, we stopped off at a cafe where Lil got a cappuccino and a pastry. It was good to sit down at those two spots because we still had a lot more walking to do that afternoon. 

Our next tour started at the Colosseum, which involved a lot of walking on its own. Then we headed over to the Roman Forum and spent some time there. 

Walking through the Forum was all down hill, but as they say in mountain biking, “every time you get a downhill, there will always be an uphill that follows”. At the end of the Forum, we climbed up a windy road to get some great pics looking down at the Forum from above.

We then walked to the Pantheon and it seemed like we passed a church or a fountain or a statue at every turn.

We finished our tour at the Piazza Navona which the guide said was too small for chariot races. … I bet she’s never seen the wagon races at the Calgary Stampede! … I’m sure they could have done chariots in the Piazza.

Finally, we were done … I mean, we were really done in. We found the closest restaurant and sat down. 

We closed out the day with a 3 km walk back to our hotel … tired of walking, but very satisfied.

Here’s the thing: We walked a long way that day – maybe you wouldn’t walk that far; maybe you would. We walked it for ourselves, for our own benefit. When Jesus came to walk on this earth, He walked for your benefit. So when you think of walking in someone else’s shoes, that’s what Jesus did, including dying for your sins … because that should have been part of your walk too. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you respond to someone walking in your shoes? Leave your comments below.

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I Might Start Wearing A Medical Mask

I think I want to start wearing a medical mask – you know, the kind of mask doctors and nurses wear when they do surgery.

There are lots of people who wear these masks outside the hospital. In some countries it’s as common for people to wear them on subways, transit and on crowded streets as it is not to. 

There’s a part of me, however, that doesn’t like them at all. It always seems like people are hiding something. When you can’t see someone’s face, you wonder what they are thinking or what they are hiding behind that mask.

But now I’m having a change of thought on the matter.

Traveling can wreak havoc on your health: you stay in hotels, your schedule is not conducive to getting the proper rest, and you are around a lot of other people in close proximity. 

If you get a little run down and someone has a bug, you’re bound to get it too.

At the beginning of the conference we attended, I noticed a few people who were coughing and sniffling. But as the conference went on, there were more and more of them.

During one meeting, I sat in front of a guy who I thought was coughing up a lung. I didn’t want to look; I just put my collar up and moved at the break. 

By the end of our time, it was very noticeable the number of sickies. Then as we moved on from the conference for a week of traveling, my wife, Lily, started to show symptoms.

We flew from Greece to Italy and on the plane there were about five people who were wearing those medical masks. 

For the first time, I was a little envious of them. I thought about asking one of them if they had a spare they could lend me for the flight, but I resisted.

I started thinking about how many people on the plane might be sick and all those germs being filtered around and around in the cabin of the plane.

Lily and I weren’t sitting in the same row so I knew I wasn’t going to get sick from her. But the combined germs of everyone on the plane was really getting to me.

I wished I had a neck scarf that I could put up over my nose … but then I thought that might make me look like some kind of a criminal threat on the plane. 

Maybe it was just as well that I didn’t have one. 

I’ve visited people in the hospital and, at times, have had to put a mask on, either for my sake or theirs. So I know what it’s like to wear them.  

They are uncomfortable and, as you breathe and talk, a little condensation develops under them. Even your voice is muffled. It’s not a nice experience. 

But on this trip, I’d do almost anything to keep from getting sick … even sleeping on the far edge of the bed from my sick wife.

Here’s the thing: When we fear something, we take measures and do things to alleviate our fear. God is loving and has provided salvation for us, but He is also to be feared. Often we don’t fear God as we should; we just take advantage of His love. Maybe it’s because we don’t visually see the results of not fearing Him. But make no mistake – we will all face Him one day … that fact should motivate us to take measures so that on that day we will have nothing to fear.

That’s Life! 

Paul

Question: What do you fear right now and what measures are you taking? Leave your comments below.

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Same Experience Different Takeaway

It is no surprise that people can be engaged in the same experience but have different takeaways.

Even as I write this now, I prove this “same but different” concept to be true. It’s 3:30 am and I’m writing my blog while my wife is fast asleep. 

Just a few moments ago we were both in bed. We got into the same bed at the same time, and turned the lights out at the same time. 

All the conditions were the same, yet she is sleeping and I am not.

I spoke at a church in Spain two weeks ago. Everyone heard the same message, though some in Spanish. One woman, however, responded differently to the message than everyone else. She gave her life to Christ that day.

Back in 1974 I had waited outside of A&A’s record store on Yonge St in Toronto for tickets to an Elton John concert. My friends and I got 17th row on the floor, centre stage. 

Those tickets were pretty sweet.  

From the first note, all 20,000 of us in the Gardens that night were on our feet, jumping up and down and screaming out the lyrics of every tune Elton sang … I pretty much demolished the chair I was standing on.

Near the end of the concert, someone I knew was even closer to the stage. I’m not sure if he wormed his way up there or if his seat was just that close. 

At one point in the concert, Elton John came to the edge of the stage and touched the hands of delirious fans. This acquaintance on mine had a felt top hat in his hand. He held it out to Elton and he took it, sat down at the piano and played, “Bennie and the Jets”. 

Then Elton got up and, amongst all the extended arms, put the hat right back into the hand of my school mate.

We all experienced the same concert but that guy had a different takeaway than the rest of us. 

I just finished attending a conference in another part of the world. During one session each day, conference participants spoke about their experiences of sharing God’s love with others. 

The stories were the same in that each story was about making Jesus famous. The content of each story had the same bottom line of how Christ was changing people’s lives. 

But each story was so different.

Some of the stories involved people being healed. There were stories of kindness being the convincing factor. Some stories were about explaining or interpreting a dream. And some of the stories involved a consistent example. 

It was amazing how in one story it seemed like only an angel could have been involved in making Christ famous. 

It was so interesting because, though we heard story after story on the same theme, each story was so different.

It was the same message but each person had a different takeaway. 

Here’s the thing: The message of Christ is the same. It doesn’t change but people respond to different parts of it. Some people respond to love extended to them, some to a truth that finally clicks and makes sense. Some respond to the contrast of God’s desire for them versus the desire of another god. Some take longer to respond than others, and some respond through different means, like in dreams or visions. But to all who respond, the takeaway will be the same … salvation.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What experience have you had that needs a different takeaway? Leave your comments below.

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Travelling And Food – A Tough Adjustment

One of the toughest things about travelling is adjusting to the food.

Many of the adjustments when travelling are not difficult, but eating when travelling has always been tough for me.

We recently flew to Spain. So many things in Spain were the same as in Canada. 

Their roadways were the same. If you kept your eyes away from the Spanish signs, you would many times think you were driving the Canadian countryside.

It was also winter in Spain, just like in Canada. It was cold there just like at home – except for one difference: at home I’m cold when I go outside; in Spain I was cold when I was inside. Many people there don’t heat their homes like we do, so I found myself bundling up when I got indoors.

People were friendly and willing to communicate, to the point of being interested in where we were from and where we were going. 

It was just like home in so many ways. 

But then there was the eating thing. Every few hours I need a little refuelling and that’s where it got a little tricky. 

It would have been easy to eat American fast food (if you know the song, you can sing it here), but then I’d have missed out on experiencing some of the culture.

I’m not one to experiment too much when it comes to food, so when I found something that had some similarity to what I would eat back home I jumped on it. 

Pizza was one of those food items. I’m really familiar with pizza; I eat it all the time. Bu there I had a chance to experience a different slant on pizza. … I tried it twice because I wasn’t sure the first time if I’d just picked a bad restaurant.

Over all pizza is pizza: you have your crust, your sauce, your toppings and your cheese.

The crust, though slightly different, was much the same. The toppings tasted the same as back home … as long as I made sure the ham was not some Spanish ham. 

But the cheese was not mozzarella. I don’t know what they used. It wasn’t a strong tasting cheese, but it had a peanut butter quality to it – not in the taste, but just like peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth, so did this cheese. 

It was just a little much.

The biggest difference was almost no tomato sauce. Pizza in Canada has a rich tomato sauce spread out over the whole pizza.

In Spain, and I’m told in Italy as well, there is very little tomato sauce – just a hint, and that might be exaggerating how much they put on the pizza.

It was this combo of sauce and cheese that turned me off of pizza – one of my staple food groups at home. 

I got by, however, and no one knew I didn’t really like it. Well, until now. 

Here’s the thing: We often project that we are fine with things, that we are mostly good with what we are facing. Sometimes we give everyone the impression that we are alright with God when we are not. Maybe He hasn’t answered a prayer for a long time. Maybe He didn’t come through for you when you had a big need. You don’t have to pretend you are okay with it. Everyone else might not know how you feel until you say it, but God already knows and He can handle it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you kept from others that they should know? Leave your comments below.

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“Cold” Doesn’t Always Mean the Same Thing

I’ve discovered that “cold” does not have the same meaning everywhere.

In my part of the world we understand cold to a greater extend than in other parts of the world. In Canada cold has a greater depth of meaning because of the wider range of temperatures we experience.

Most places on earth experience cold, but the range of temperatures a region experiences will determine the extent of their understanding of cold. 

I remember driving to Florida for a winter vacation with my family. We had left a major snow blizzard back in Canada. In fact, we got out of “Dodge” just in time, or we would have been stuck there and not made our trip. As it was, the roads were treacherous for the first day and a half of our trip. 

When we finally made it to Florida, we ditched our winter coats and put on our spring jackets because it was not very warm there.

The next morning we were up very early to spend the day at Disney World. When I say early, I mean Lily got us there before the park workers arrived!

It was quite chilly standing around in our spring coats, but it was nothing like back home where we would have had every inch of skin covered in layers. 

After a while the park workers started to show up for work. What surprised me was that they were arriving for work in winter parkas. 

For some reason, I thought that winter coats were only sold above the 42nd parallel, but here these people were decked out in the latest polar fleeced, designer winter jackets.

My first thought was, “That’s a little overkill.” … I wished I had have had a heavier spring jacket with me, but I would never have thought of digging my winter coat out of the trunk of the car when I was in Florida.

But for people living in places like Florida, they don’t experience the range of temperatures we do in the north, so for them it was cold … winter coat cold.

This morning at 9:15 am, I took a tram in Spain. The sun was out; the temperature was about 14 degrees. I was the only one on the tram without a coat of some kind.

There was even a woman wearing a winter coat, a scarf wrapped around her neck a few times, and a pair of ear muffs. 

The ear muffs were excessive. I don’t know any Canadians who would wear ear muffs in temperatures above zero.

But cold in Spain doesn’t mean the same thing as cold in Canada. They don’t understand cold like I do. 

On the other hand, I don’t understand hot like they do here in Spain. I might have more experience with cold in Canada, but they have more experience with hot.

Here’s the thing: Your experience with something helps you understand it better. Your experience with forgiveness from God helps you understand forgiveness so that you can apply it to others. When you understand that you need to be forgiven and then experience forgiveness from God, you have a greater depth of understanding so that you can forgive others. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is your experience with forgiveness? Leave your comments below.