Christian

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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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I Did It Again

“I did it again!” These were the words that popped into my head this morning. 

Unfortunately, reading these words doesn’t give you the emotion with which I said them or thought them. 

… Years ago I was finishing my basement and had a door that needed to be trimmed so it wouldn’t get stuck on the carpet.

I didn’t have all the tools I needed so I used what was available to me. I used a keyhole saw to do the work. This saw had a thin blade that tapered to a point. But the blade was also very toothy, if you know what I mean.  

While sawing through the bottom of my door, the saw slipped out of the groove and sawed the base of my finger. 

It bled like crazy so we hurried down to the hospital to get it stitched. 

Five stitches later and three months later, I was working on a sliding door. Again I needed to cut down the panels which were made of fibre board. 

For this job I used a utility knife. As I was cutting the board along a ruled line, the knife slipped off the board and sliced the end of my finger.

The first words that came out of my mouth were, “I did it again!” Off I went down to the hospital to get another set of stitches, this time near the tip of the same finger.

Now you have an idea of the emotion in which I used the words, “I did it again!”

This morning I used those words, not because I cut my finger, but because I missed my move goal on my watch. 

I’ve written before about the three rings on my watch that I try to complete each day (read about that here). The move ring tracks how many calories I’ve burned in a day. 

Back in August of 2017 I had a streak of 231 days in a row until I missed the next day by only a few calories. 

I was just not paying attention. It really fried me because I was trying to go a whole year without missing my move goal.

Over the next few months I missed my daily goal every once in a while, but finally got on track until just a few days ago my streak was 286 days. 

It was all going well. 

I was traveling to Spain, however, and that concerned me. How would the time change affect completing all my rings? I would lose five hours on the flight. 

Well, when I got here, it seemed like everything was okay. I looked at my watch and, by the end of the day, I had all my rings completed. 

But this morning when I checked, all the times on my watch have been corrected to the time it is in Spain. And guess what?  

It shows my move goal was short on the day I travelled.  When I saw that I said to myself, “I DID IT AGAIN!”

Now you know how I’m feeling.

Here’s the thing: Have you ever had this same feeling and expressed the same sentiments as “I did it again” when you sin? It can be very upsetting when you give into temptation again. Thankfully, God is a forgiving God and you should be quick to seek His forgiveness. That forgiveness enables you to reset, move on and not get stuck in your sin.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to reset In your life and move on from? Leave your comments below.

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Make The Wise Choice

When you make the wrong choice, it often causes you more work in the end. 

There was a little, almost undetectable rain falling yesterday afternoon. It wasn’t as light as a mist, but not much more than a mist. 

I looked intently out my living room window at my Christmas lights that were still hanging just below the roof line. They looked out of place on a snow-covered winter day in February.

I realized I should get out there and take them off the house while it was mild out. 

As I pondered that thought, I walked through our living room and kitchen and looked out the back patio doors … at a deeply snow-covered deck.

I thought I should get out there and shovel the snow off the deck before another deep freeze made it harder to shovel. 

I had two jobs and I needed to choose which one I would do first.

We are often faced with the decision to choose between one of two things. 

I remember once when I had planned a full day of work around the house. I had a list of things that I needed and wanted to get done. It was the first day in several weeks that I was free to get at my list. 

Then I got a call from a friend who said, “We had a guy drop out of our hockey team this weekend and we need someone for a tournament we are in.” 

Choices, choices. What should I choose?

It took me a nano second to decide. I chose the house work. 

Wait a minute! … no, I didn’t. I almost had my hockey bag packed up and ready to go by the time I got off the phone with my friend. 

It was an easy decision. I chose the thing I loved over the things I had planned and wanted to accomplish.

This time the choices were not very different. It wasn’t a matter of one being fun and the other work. They were both work.

I had limited time and what I decided to do was first take down the lights and then shovel. I knew that the lights would come off quickly and I might still have time to shovel.

And that’s what I did … except company came as I was finishing taking down the lights, so I never got to shovel the deck.

Now a day later, it’s not raining. It’s even warmer outside which means the snow on the deck is heavier and will be harder to move than if I had done it yesterday.  

It will take me twice as long to shovel today than it would have if I had have tackled the deck the day before. But if I had have left the lights for today, it would have taken the same amount of time to remove them. 

As the Knight Templar in the movie Raiders of the Holy Grail said, “You chose poorly.”

I’m glad my face won’t melt off, but it’s now going to take me longer to remove that snow.

Here’s the thing: We often have a choice to make on two seeming even things. But if we choose poorly, it will cost us. We should think it through and choose wisely. There are spiritual choices you are confronted with: choosing salvation now or choosing something else for the immediate; following through on something God has put on your heart or choosing a different option. If you choose poorly on these, it will cost you in the end. In the case of salvation, it will cost you your eternity. Choose wisely.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What choices are you facing today? Leave your comments below.

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I Noticed Something Hopeful

I noticed something the other day that I have not witnessed in several months. It was the light of the sun. 

I’m not saying that I haven’t seen the sun in months – I don’t live in the Antarctic. What I noticed was that it was still light out when I left work to go home. It was 5:40 pm and it was still bright outside. 

It seems like for months it’s been dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. 

I’m sure sundown didn’t just jump from 4:30 to 5:45 in a week, but it was nice to still have some light at the end of my work day. 

We’ve had many – I should say, mostly – overcast days that have made it seem like the sun has gone down early.  

But yesterday it was really sunny all day so, as evening approached, the light lingered and for a brief moment I felt like we were finally getting the better of winter. 

We just had Groundhog Day and, from the most reliable sources, the decision goes to an early spring. Wiarton Willie and Punxsutawney Phil both predict an early spring with Shubenacadie Sam being the dissenter after seeing his shadow. 

For me, after seeing the sunlight at 5:40 yesterday, I’m on the side of the early spring hogs. 

And frankly, I can’t wait.  We’ve had a pretty easy winter so far but the last two weeks have been anything but. 

I liked what I saw last night though, and I’m encouraged by what our two little groundhog friends are reporting.

… Though in the days of climate change, how can they really know? 

I’m just glad that those rodents don’t live in the Midwest. It’s sunny there all the time so they would see their shadows every year. Then we would definitely have long winters. 

… And that’s what those in the Midwest experience: long, cold winters. However, it is sunny there and that makes all the difference. Well, that and the fact that it is a dry cold so it really doesn’t feel as cold as it is. 

It’s -25 C in Red Deer but with the sun and the dry cold it feels like it’s +2 C.  …These are stories people tell themselves to help them believe winter isn’t that bad. 

The west has sun and dry cold and we have a couple of rodents calling the shots. 

This year I’m all onboard with Phil and Willie.  

As soon as I shovel off my back deck, maybe I’ll fire up the BBQ just to get me in the mood for the coming spring and summer. 

I know that catching a glimpse of light at dinner time and a couple of groundhogs not seeing their shadows isn’t much to hang my hopes on, but it could be time to put the shovel away for another year. 

And if nothing else, we can hope for it all to be true.

Here’s the thing: We are so quick to put our hope in things that don’t have a sure base. And we are comfortable in doing that. But how often do we forget or neglect to put our hope in God for things that are much weightier? – especially when placing our hope in God is sure and secure based. We all need hope because while we are living in the present we are constantly pushing against and moving the boundaries of the future. It’s what’s ahead that drives us to seek hope. Seek hope in God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need hope for? Leave your comments below.

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When Enough Is Enough

When do you say, “enough is enough”? When does one get to the end of her rope and start to climb back up? 

A person can only take so much before he starts to lose it. 

Like with a hockey team that’s having a difficult season, you want to cheer them up, to tell them a win is just around the corner. … but it might not be. 

How do you keep them from giving up? How do you deal with things that take you to the edge of the cliff? 

It’s a tough question to answer. 

Where I work part of the building has a flat roof. It’s an older church and it was built in three main stages over a 60 year span. For the last little while we have had a leak dripping from the ceiling of one of the flat roofs.  

That’s not the problem, however. The problem is we have had repairmen come to fix the leak almost 10 times! 

And what is worse is that after every time they have come to fix the leak, the leak has gotten worse! It keeps spreading.

The latest development is that now the roof leaks regardless of whether it has been raining and regardless of the temperature. 

Right now the temperature is in the -15 C range, and it is still leaking! 

The water keeps coming in and so do the bills. 

When do you say, “Enough is enough! No more money until you fix the problem.”? 

I remember when our daughter was a baby, she had a strawberry birthmark on her forehead. One night she rubbed it against the bumper pad in her crib and it started to bleed. Lil and I couldn’t get it to stop so we took her to the emergency department at the hospital.  

The doctor looked at it, said she was fine and then left the job of bandaging the spot to a nurse and an intern. 

Lil and I watched as this pair tried several different ways to bandage our daughter’s forehead. 

We really raised our eyebrows when they put some gauge on the birthmark and then attempted to put a mesh band around her head to hold it in place. 

I could see Lil getting more and more upset as our daughter Karlie kept crying and grabbing at the mesh band.  

Finally Lily got to the end of her rope. 

She blurted out, “That’s enough! Get the doctor.” They stopped everything and one of them quickly went to get the doctor. 

… I realize the roofing company has to pay their employees for the work they are doing on our church, but they are not even slowing the leak down; they are making it worse with every visit! 

Maybe it’s time to say, “enough is enough”.

Here’s the thing: When you watch the news, and catch the latest media buzz, you realize that our world is getting sicker and sicker. The weather shows us this is true, and people and countries show us this is true. At some point God will say, “enough is enough”, and He will make things right. … Be ready and prepared for that day. You just don’t know when that will be. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When was the last time you had enough? How did you handle it? Leave your comments below.

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A Secret Is Not Secretive Here

In Canada – for that matter, North America – we have a funny way of being secretive.

At one time secrecy meant that no one knew anything about what was being kept a secret. But it doesn’t mean that anymore.

In my town we’ve just had a terrorist threat diffused (literally).

Kingston, the very heart of Canadian power and wealth and knowledge, had someone making and planning on setting off an explosive designed for the purpose of terror.

Twenty or thirty years ago, we would never have even known that there was a threat. But now the public has a right to know. And the media has a right to investigate, ask questions and publish what there is to be known. 

Secrecy is kind of in the open now. 

This particular incident started with regular town’s folk noticing a plane circling the city, at low altitudes in the evenings. 

Social media was a buzz with people wondering what was going on. As the news media started to make it known to everyone, well, that’s when the RCMP were forced to admit that it was their surveillance plane … but that’s all they said about it. 

The word “surveillance” should have been enough for people to conclude, “Okay, something is happening and we need to let the authorities do their job and not draw any more attention to it.” 

But we don’t think that way. We want to know why. We have a right to know what they are watching and who they are watching. 

When arrests were finally made, a press conference was held to inform people what had taken place and what was happening next. 

… It’s all fine and good to be telling everyone about your top secret operation, but unfortunately then the terrorists also get in on what the authorities are doing when everything’s made public.

To be fair, the RCMP didn’t divulge information that would be crucial to the case, but I’ll bet other would-be terrorists will be checking the skies at night to look out for surveillance planes in the future. 

At one time my dad had been a mason, and I remember once when I was in my early teens, my older cousin grilled him on how he could identify other masons in a room. My dad hadn’t had anything to do with the organization for decades, but he still would not tell the secret. 

Government and security officials can’t keep secrets that way. There has to be transparency because we don’t trust them to do right things when they keep secrets.

Maybe it’s for the best that we don’t let CSIS or the Secret Service be too secretive. 

When I was a youth pastor we would play a game where I would tell a secret to one person. The secret would then be passed from person to person around a circle until the last person heard it and repeated it out loud. 

It was never the original secret. It was always some crazy line that was just plain nonsense. 

Hey, maybe that’s what the RCMP are telling us. Now that would be smart!

Here’s the thing: God has never kept secrets from us. He has made Himself known in nature and through the Old Testament scriptures. He clearly identified and made public His plan through His Son, Jesus, and the disciples recorded it all. Down through the ages, men and women of all nations have announced God’s presence and plan. … Maybe He should have kept it a secret. Then people would insist it’s their right and demand to know it. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What secret should you share? Leave your comments below.

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The Biggest And Most Powerful Always Get Their Way

The biggest and most powerful always get the last word. This has certainly been true when it comes to children.

When I was a kid, the bigger you were the more clout you had. You had more persuasion. It might have taken a push or a shove, but the little guy finally buckled under. 

It might have just been the intimidation of their size, but the big guys had an edge. Sometimes they would stand tall and get really close so the little guy couldn’t help but notice just how big they were.

The big kids were often the ones the teachers would ask to help them. For one thing, they could reach higher – sometimes even higher than the teachers could reach. 

Their physical size gave the impression they could do things that others couldn’t do. And in many cases, it wasn’t just an impression, it was true.

How do I know all this?

Well, I was never one of the big and powerful guys growing up and so I watched all this take place. I even had the experience on occasion of having to buckle under someone bigger than me. 

It was never a great feeling. 

It was always better to be on the side of the big guys, to be on their team. Then you felt you had a protector, a defender, someone who made you feel bigger, walk taller and talk tougher than you really were.

What I experienced as a kid is the very same phenomenon taking place these days on the world stage with adult world leaders.

It has always been the case, but I don’t think it has ever been as obvious how the big and powerful throw their weight around. 

I think it started with Donald Trump and how he speaks so boldly and puts the pressure on those countries that are smaller than the USA. Trump even tells them they are going to have to buckle under and submit to his country’s power and size. 

And now we are seeing China exercising the same big guy bully tactics with Canada. 

The reason for China’s power assertion might be anger at the USA, but they are making it clear to Canada that “you mess with us and look out”.  

Their actions have basically declared: You better buckle under and free the Huawei cell phone executive who Canada is detaining. We’ll hold a few of your own people’s lives over your head just to show you who’s boss.

Inside everyone is the temptation, when you are big and powerful, to throw your weight around, to use your clout. … Before my son got to be bigger and stronger than me, I would use my size and power to make him say “uncle” every time we wrestled.

With all that is going on in the world right now, I wonder if we are ready for such a big power struggle to rise up and show itself on the world’s main stage. 

… It certainly is cause to think long and hard about the powers that are over us.

Here’s the thing: One day God is going to say, “enough is enough”. Then everyone will have to buckle under to His will because there is no one or nothing greater than He. The question we must all ask ourselves is, “Are we prepared for that day?”

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When has someone big and powerful been on your side? How did you feel? Leave your comments below.

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When Should We Hibernate?

I feel I must place a caveat on this post. I wrote this article on Saturday morning. Sunday morning we got a ton of snow and wind. It turned out that only a handful of people showed up for church. I am not pointing fingers at anyone.

There are animals that hibernate in the winter and sometimes there are people who hibernate as well.

So far this winter has been pretty easy on us in this region. Often first thing in the new year we have some weird weather patterns that create lots of rain and then a deep freeze. 

… We certainly know in Kingston what an ice storm is like! 

But this year we have had relatively little snow. It really has been minimal. 

Most years I drool over the snowblower ads in the flyers and whine to Lily that I need one. But I have not given them a second thought this year. 

I could be a contributing factor to the reason the snow has been almost non-existent this year -in the fall I finally bought winter tires. (You can read about that here.)

But we are not done with winter and today I’ve been reminded just what winter is like. 

We are supposed to get a snow storm today, with lots of snow, but I’m hoping the snow drops south of Lake Ontario so that we get very little.

However, the temperature today is the coldest it’s been all season and it’s way colder than I want it to be. 

It was minus 20 Celsius this morning! 

And if there was ever a time when human beings would think about hibernation as something they would consider practicing, minus 20 would be a temperature that would drive them to it. 

I played hockey this morning before I knew just how cold it was outside. We park our car in our garage so I didn’t really experience the weather until I got to the arena and got out of my car. 

Man, it was bitter!

The little snow we got the night before was squeaking as I walked across the parking lot. It was like how fresh cheese curds sound in your mouth when you chew them.

It turned out that we didn’t have too many guys for hockey this morning. I think some of the boys thought hibernation was on.

… And that’s the extent of hibernating that a human does. We eventually have to come out of the cave (house). 

We might stay indoors for some things, but there are still things we need to come out from our winter slumber for.

I know I need to pick up a few things from a store today. I wish they could be delivered, or that maybe Lily is going out and can pick them up for me.

But I think if she has things to get, she’s probably hoping I will pick them up for her when I go out. 

I will also need gas for the car soon. I could have gotten it two days ago when it was warmer but now it looks like I will have to stand at the pump when the mercury is all sucked into a ball at the bottom of the thermometer.

The real reason we can’t hibernate too long is that we have to eat. We’re not like bears that store up food for the winter. 

I need hot wings tonight for the hockey game. It doesn’t matter how cold it is, I’m going out to get them.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we let things like weather influence our decision to do certain activities. On Sundays we gather to worship God. Letting weather determine your decision on attending, well, that just takes you down the food chain a couple of notches. Worshipping God together is important; don’t neglect it. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What things keep you from attending church? Leave your comments below.