Christian

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We Should Just Bubble Wrap Everyone

We live in an era of heightened protection. Maybe if everyone just wore bubble wrap from head to toe we’d all be safe. 

In medieval days they built forts and castles with high walls and moats to protect themselves from enemies. 

… Today we have to wear helmets to drive a Zamboni to flood a rink! 

When I was a child, there were no seatbelts. Car dashboards were made of metal and came to a point that would put a nice crease in your forehead if you hit it hard enough.

Back then we just bounced around in the back seat. Most of us survived. 

Now we seat belt or car seat our kids so that they are protected. I know our kids were not the tallest or heaviest kids on earth, but if we had have stayed strictly to the guidelines, our kids would have been sitting in car seats while they were attending junior high.

We take these measures to protect ourselves and our loved ones from things that could potentially harm us and them. 

I get that … but maybe we’ve gone a little overboard with protection. 

In the last year, I have gotten into flying drones and have really started to enjoy it. 

 

Now the government has come out with a whole new set of regulations, rules and laws. By June I will have to have a license to fly my drone. 

I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It might keep some crazy people from buying them, but maybe not. It hopefully will keep people safe from being attacked by a drone. 

But to get my license, why do I need to know the inner workings of my drone, and understand air speeds and currents?

When you write your driver’s license, they don’t make sure you know why the car goes forward. You just have to know how to move the gear shifter into drive and push the gas pedal. 

If safety is the issue with drones, why not just make sure that the people who get a license know how to operate them safely? 

Who cares if they understand what creates lift on a drone. They should just know which joy stick to move and in what direction. 

It seems that when we try to protect people from something, we do it to a degree that is ridiculous. 

Instead of being sensible with protection, society tries to overprotect to the point where we might as well just wear bubble wrap. … Maybe that could be a new line of outerwear to protect ourselves from the crazy drone people, or uneven sidewalks. 

If you were going for a walk and were not sure if the sidewalks were lifting in places, you could just put on your bubble suit and be safe.

If you were at the park and someone was flying a drone, you could just slip into that bubble suit and be good to go.

There are risks in life. You can hurt yourself, or be hurt by the environment you are in. … Maybe people should just protect themselves.

So if you’re concerned that your life’s at risk today, wrap yourself in packing bubble sheets and put your mind at ease.

Here’s the thing: In a society that seems to try to overprotect themselves, it is surprising that many have no qualms about living fast and free with eternity. To think that all there is to life is to live and then die doesn’t even sync with the human spirit. The only protection for eternity we have is God, and He has provided a plan for our protection in his Son, Jesus Christ. 

That’s Life! 

Paul

Question: What value do you place on protection? Leave your comments below.

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We Buy Time With The Meaningless

People often use pat answers and lines to buy themselves some time in responding to a request … but those words mean nothing.

We’ve probably all done it. … Someone asks us to pass something or come here, and we answer, “Yes. Give me a second.” 

What do we mean by “a second”? … because really that second is over by the time we’ve said it and we don’t yet intend on making good on the request. 

My wife, Lily, uses the phrase all the time, “Just give me a minute”.  I’ve heard it so much, I don’t want to hear that phrase ever again. 

The other day while we were in the car, I was telling her something while she was responding to a text. She said, “Just give me a minute.” 

So I paused the conversation. I waited. We went through two traffic lights before she was done. … I should say, we stopped at two red lights, waited until they were green, and kept driving before she responded. 

I started to do some calculating. When Lily says, “just give me a minute” she really means give me 15 minutes. 

Now in the Bible there is a verse that says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) 

So I started to do some calculations in my head … 

If her one minute is like 15 minutes, and there are 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day … that means one day to Lily is like 15 days! 

And then a whole bunch of things started to make sense to me. 

She is never late for anything, even when I wait for her at the door for 5 or 10 minutes before we leave. In her mind she’s early – she’s still 140 minutes early! 

And another thing that I understand now is when she can’t remember something we talked about, something she was even passionate about the day before. 

For her that conversation was over two weeks ago! No wonder she can’t remember it. Who could remember word for word something from that long ago? 

I thought she needed to do more Sudukos to keep her mind sharp. But her mind is like a razor when she can recall something I promised to do earlier in the day – that’s about four days ago to her and she still snapped that promise back to me in a flash. 

Here I was criticizing her and she’s really a superwoman. 

The downside to this new revelation that I’ve been given is when I come home from work, suffering from a little hypoglycemia, and usually a little “hangry” by the time I walk through the door. 

When I then ask if dinner is ready and Lily says, “Just give me a minute”, I know it’s going to be forever before I eat … and I will be dead by then.

I can’t see any way that I benefit from this new discovery. So for my own self-preservation I have to declare her phrase of “just give me a minute” as meaningless. 

Here’s the thing: God can operate outside of time. So when things don’t seem to be working the way we would like them to, in the time frame that we are subjected to, and have subjected them to, we know that God can still bring the very best outcome because He’s not restricted by time. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What phrase has become meaningless to you? Leave your comments below.

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I Didn’t Sign Up For What Is Required of Me

There are certain things that are required of us in life, but you might be surprised about some of them.

hugs required

For sure, one thing on the list is taxes. We are required to pay taxes – and that’s just one of many government-related things that are required of us. 

We could make a list of them all here, but we are just beginning a new year and who wants to start the year being depressed!

There are some things that we put on our required list that only apply to us personally, and are not universal.  

For instance, I might have “playing hockey” on my required list. … I’m not saying it is on my list but, if it is, well, that’s personal to me. 

There are, however, things we might not think are on everyone’s required list that are in fact on it. 

I was made aware of one the other day. 

My wife and I had just finished having a stand up breakfast, where we moved around the kitchen as we ate and prepared another part of breakfast, all at the same time.

I was putting away my dishes, ready to head to the family room to work on a project. Lil was brewing a cup of coffee before heading to her office to finish her devotions. It was like we were just passing through, on our way to different places in the house. 

Then she said it: “Oh, I need a hug before you go.” 

I thought I might slip away because she grabbed the water jug and started filling it as she spoke.

But then she said, “Don’t go anywhere; I require a hug before you go.”

I was only going to the basement – I wasn’t leaving the house for the day! But somehow Lily required a hug right then. 

And I even had to wait to give her one!

I thought a hug was a mutual thing … you know, two people agree to give each other a hug, so they hug. 

But this requirement had no mutuality to it. I was required to give her a hug right then, regardless of whether I wanted to receive a hug or not.

I don’t remember signing a form or saying anything in my wedding vows that pertained to giving hugs, either the frequency, the length or the quality of the hug.

And even if this is some kind of personal requirement that Lily has for her life, it obviously has migrated over to my requirement list since I have to be on the giving end of these hugs.

We’ve been married for a long time now and it’s never really been discussed as a specific requirement. 

I think what Lily did was very sneakily introduced the hug, then repeatedly gave them to me whether they were wanted or not. 

She then, from the time they were babies, indoctrinated our kids regarding hugs. 

Now, therefore, without any official declaration, or military victory, hugs are required in our marriage. 

Well, I gave her a hug and then headed downstairs to work. … I’ll probably have to give her another one when I come upstairs again.

Here’s the thing: When you begin a relationship with God, you begin by placing your faith in Him. As you grow deeper in your relationship with Him, God requires more trust from you. Interestingly, your relationship with Him can’t grow without more trust. The great news is that God proves Himself more faithful the more you trust Him – it’s amazing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How much is God requiring of you now? Leave your comments below.

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All Anticipation, No Results

My anticipation didn’t live up to the actual results of my activity.

Flying a drone in Canada in the winter is sporadic at best. There are so many factors that work against being able to take your drone for a spin.

There are weather conditions including wind, rain, ice, snow and cold – the cold is deadly on drone batteries. If you are not careful, the battery can give a false read to the controller and cause the drone to fall out of the sky. 

Cold is also a factor for the person flying the drone. In November I flew it in about -5 C for 13 minutes and Lily had to take the controller out of my hands because I was so cold I couldn’t move my fingers.

With all the opposition to flying a drone in winter, when you get a chance to get it up in the air it’s pretty exciting. 

The other day the forecast was +4 C and sunny. 

I had to work but I was anticipating that I would get a chance to fly my drone at the end of my work day before the sun went down. 

… And that’s another factor against flying drones in winter in Canada: the sun sets very early in the winter, at about 4:30 pm right now. 

So I raced against time to get my work done, and get to a safe place to fly my drone. 

With all the anticipation, I was most looking forward to the video I would capture. I wanted to do a fly over of some wooded areas and get shots and video looking down on the tops of trees. 

My anticipation was high in the afternoon while I was working, and when I was driving, parking the car, and even as I was getting my drone out.

I was in such a hurry because the sun was going down fast that I didn’t put my gloves on to fly and so I experienced a little pleasure and pain all at the same time. 

It reminded me of my childhood when we would go skating on the Humber River and end up being so cold that we would actually walk home in our skates. Our hands were too cold to untie our laces, our feet were almost frozen off, and we would carry our boots and sticks home tucked under our arms. 

It was brutally painful. And the pleasure? Well, we were out on that river the next day doing it again, so there was obvious pleasure involved.

By the end of my flying session, I was anticipating looking at the video I had shot and editing it on the computer. 

I could hardly wait as I drove home because I thought I had captured some great shots. 

The first thing I did when I got home was upload the footage onto my computer. And when I did, what a letdown! 

I had apparently not fully pressed the record button on take off, so it didn’t record. When it landed, I had pressed the button to stop recording, not realizing that I was now only starting to record. All I got was a few seconds of pavement footage!

… I’m already anticipating the next time I will be able to take my drone out. 

Here’s the thing: You may not anticipate it, but God anticipates the next time you will spend with Him. You may take it for granted, you may see it as a duty, but God anticipates each quiet moment He has with you in His presence. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you anticipating right now? Leave your comments below.

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I Can Predict Stress In Others

There are times when stress can be very predictable: when you are moving into the last phase of a project and experiencing a time crunch, or when there is a lot on the line and there’s no margin for error.

… Or when you are going to a Christmas gathering with family. 

Family times when I was young were never stressful, but I do remember that my mom especially would show signs of stress at some points. 

Now, as an adult, I understand the stress that is involved in family Christmas gatherings. And sometimes that stress makes everything a little more taxing on our emotions. 

For instance, each Christmas we do a trip up to Ottawa and a trip down to Toronto to cover both sides of our family.

Though we have to travel, we also have some responsibilities in the preparation of the events. 

For the trip to Ottawa, I, apparently, had to bring my computer for a game. Lil, well, she just had to buy some presents, wrap them, make a salad and cook one main dish for the meal.

For my role, I needed to plug the charger into my computer to be sure the battery was at 100% and I had to cut out of hockey early to make sure I was home in time to leave. 

Now this is an aside, but it seems that every time we get extra ice time, I have some commitment preventing me from staying as long as I’d like. 

This was the case this morning. I stayed longer than I should have and was all prepared for a lecture on tardiness and that we should have already left.

That didn’t happen because Lil was busy putting the final touches on the salad and bemoaning the fact that she burnt the meatballs.

She had me taste one to see if they were really burnt and, yes, they were. Apparently she had forgotten to turn the slow cooker off at midnight.

So a discussion took place about what we could do. There was one opinion of, “Hey, sometimes you get burnt meat balls; no big deal!” 

But Lil didn’t want to bring inferior food. 

So, at the last minute, I headed to the grocery store to buy more meatballs while Lily made more sauce. The plan was to start cooking the new batch in the slow cooker at home and then continue the cooking process in the slow cooker in the vehicle on our drive to Ottawa.

Saturday mornings are usually pretty quiet and calm around here, but this morning we had two extra bodies with our kids home for Christmas and, of course, we had the stress of getting up to Ottawa with food for family Christmas dinner.

I thought once we were in the car some of the stress would be gone … but there were road conditions, the speed of the driver, and who was in control of the music.

… All those variables have the potential of raising the stress in the vehicle.

And all this stress is caused by expectations – what certain people expect, and what they think others will expect. It is compounded when other people in the family don’t live up to expectations or they don’t help others meet their expectations.

… Our two hour drive gave us time to refocus on relating to one another rather than the expectations we each had had.

Here’s the thing:  We can be stressed with God if we feel we are not meeting His expectations. We could even be stressed thinking that God is not helping us meet our expectations. But if you simply stop thinking about His expectations and start to thinking about His love for you, that will influence your actions, responses and thoughts … and remove your stress.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has you stressed lately? Leave your comments below.

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Is it Really Over?

Today’s post is from a guest writer, my wife. Every now and then Lily gets inspired to write a post of her own. It comes at the right time to give me a little break. Merry Christmas and enjoy.

It’s December 26th and, just like that, it’s over. 

In the last few weeks, we bought presents, baked, decorated two trees, strung lights, put up decorations, organized costumes and children programs, prepared readings, gave gifts, cooked food, planned services, set up extra beds, wrapped presents, delivered poinsettias, sang carols … and now it’s over.

Our daughter has packed up and gone home; our son will leave later today. Work is calling.

December 25th was a peaceful day. The hustle and bustle of the previous weeks stopped and we paused to gather and celebrate, eat, relax and reflect. It was Christmas. 

As I went for a walk this morning – the morning after – the neighbourhood was still fairly quiet … just a few signs of life, of people stirring after a day of quiet and peaceful celebration. 

A few cars were warming up in driveways, getting ready to take their owners back home from the holiday. Two people were out walking their dogs, getting back into routine after a day of relaxing.

But as I turned a corner, I saw a sight that stopped me in my tracks. A woman was hauling a Christmas tree out her front door. She lugged it down the driveway and heaved it into the back of a pick-up truck. And there it lay, upside-down and bare, except for one lonely piece of tinsel that stubbornly clung to one of its branches. 

I couldn’t help but notice that it was a beautiful tree. It had a perfect conical shape, and was a lovely shade of green. It still looked very much alive … and very out-of-place dumped in the back of a truck like garbage.

To think that the day before it had been the centrepiece of that home, beautifully adorned with hundreds of lights, and carefully chosen ornaments. 

And in a mere 24 hours it had gone from the home’s showpiece to a meaningless extra that was quickly discarded. 

The sight somehow made me sad. … Was it really all over that quickly? Done? Finished? Discarded for another year? … Do I already need to start packing everything away?

Christmas Day seems like a serene pause in an otherwise chaotic world. It’s the only day that seems to have that effect on our society, our world. I wish it didn’t have to end!

But does it?

Sure, the trees and decorations eventually need to come down. And yes, most of us need to return to work … and for sure all of us need to stop binging on Christmas baking.

But, when you think about it, Christmas was never meant to be a one day celebration!

Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. In Matthew 1:20 in the Bible, it says, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.”

Immanuel – God with us. 

The Almighty God of the universe is with us. His appearance and presence on this earth was not a one day event. He is Immanuel, God with us … still … now.

Here’s the thing: God with us … Why would we ever want to discard that truth or even pack it up and ignore it most of the year? When you think about it, God should be the centrepiece and focus of our lives all year round, not discarded like an old Christmas tree the day after Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Lily

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Just In Time For Christmas!

Just two days before Christmas we got a light covering of snow here in Kingston, Ontario. The white stuff came just in time for Christmas day. 

Some how, for us living in Canada, the presence of snow puts us in the Christmas mood. It feels like Christmas when everything glistens in white under the moon.  Snow makes Christmas.

There is a passage in the Bible that says, “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.”

Like the snow came at just the right time, this year, Jesus came to us at just the right time.

That passage goes on to say, “God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.” (Galatians 4:4-5, NLT)

At just the right time, Jesus came, so that we could be made right with God. God wanted us to be part of his family, and Jesus makes it possible.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

And thank you for reading my blog.

That’s Life!

Paul

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Goals Can Become Discouraging

Goals are good to have, but when you fail at a goal it’s not easy to get back on track – especially if you have to start over.

I have an Apple Watch which I use to track my fitness every day. I track how much I stand each day, the time I spend exercising each day, and how many calories I burn each day – that’s called my “move” goal. 

On August 28, 2017 I missed reaching my move goal for the day. 

That was no big deal in itself, but I had not missed a move goal in 231 days. I had really wanted to go 365 days in a row of making my daily move goal, and I had been well on my way. 

You can imagine how disappointed I was. (You can read about that here.)

The toughest thing to get my head around was that I had to start back at day one. I had to go 231 days just to get back to even. 

Well, I sputtered a bit. 

I went 68 days in a row and then blew it. I kept slipping up and having to start my streak over. 

On April 28th I missed my move again … but that was the last time I did. 

Just the other day, I beat my old streak of 231 days in a row of making my move goal! 

Now every day I set a new record. I’m back on track to reach that goal of mine to have 365 consecutive days of meeting my move goal. 

It took me eight months to get back to a consistency with my move. 

There is a chance every day that I might miss it. For instance, yesterday I had to drive to Toronto and back. That’s a long time sitting in a car.  

Every day now I have to be conscious of what I do so that I don’t slip up and have to start all over again. 

When I was a kid we would play four square at recess every day. 

It was so popular that there was a line up of kids waiting just to get into the first square. As kids would get knocked out of the squares, I would move closer to getting into the grid. 

When you got there, you didn’t want to leave. You were playing the game. It was exciting; you didn’t want to stop. 

But one false move and you went to the back of the line … and waited for your turn again. 

With my move goal, it seems like these past eight months I’ve been in line, waiting for my turn. 

But now I’m on the grid and I don’t want to get out of the action. Each day the pressure is on to keep making it. 

All I can do is keep moving and stay alert.

Here’s the thing: If you are a follower of Christ, you have a goal of pleasing Him every day. It gets discouraging if you consistently miss that goal. So try for consistency. There are two things you need to be aware of: First, when you miss, you are not out of the game. It might feel like you went to the back of the line, but you’re still playing. And second, be alert. It’s so much better when you are on the squares pleasing Him with your life and relationships. So watch out for things that could knock you off the grid.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find can get you off your game plan in pleasing God? Leave your comments below.

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I’m Not A Procrastinator

Some people are procrastinators. They work opposite to Nike’s motto of “Just do it” … But why?

Why do some people delay what they know they have to do? 

I should know the answer to that question because I am one of those people. I don’t procrastinate with everything, and I try to do it less and less, but I am a procrastinator.  

I prefer to call it “delayed action”. I know I have to do something; I just delay in doing it. 

For instance, yesterday I posted seven weeks of material to a website that I maintain. 

It took a while because there was minor editing to be done for each of the seven posts. I also had to gather three documents, and write a summary for each of the posts. 

I know why I delayed my action: I didn’t want to spend the time. It took a lot of time to edit and upload those seven posts. 

The reason I got behind, though, and the reason I procrastinated was that I had a problem with the first post that I wasn’t sure I could solve. As a result, each week I put my work off because that first post was still not ready. 

After seven weeks, I finally tried to solve the problem and it turned out not to be much of a problem at all. It was more in my head than anything else. 

And that is why some people procrastinate. They think the task is too big and so they don’t start, or they get into the task and come up against a seemingly big obstacle and so they stop. 

I have to write out thirty Christmas cards with different greetings in them. It’s something that I’m not looking forward to. 

I want to delay my action on the task because it seems like it will take too long. It will cut into the other things I want to do today.

The truth is, when I actually sit down and write out those cards, that task will cut into anything I want to do.

But again, at the source of the delay is a problem I don’t want to solve. The problem is figuring out what I will write in all those cards. 

People who procrastinate somehow see a problem that is insurmountable. They also don’t take much time to think about the problem. 

If they took the time to investigate the problem, they would often find that the problem is not that big of a deal. There is a simple or easy solution to most problems. 

But, for the procrastinator, any problem or potential problem seems like a major road block … and so the work halts.

Often the work has to get done, so it doesn’t halt indefinitely. At some point – like with my posts to the web – one has to buckle down and get at it. 

That’s when the procrastinator declares, “I work better under pressure.” 

Not true. … The person who delays action just has a phobia towards problems. 

Here’s the thing: There is a problem we all have and that is sin. Sin is anything that misses God’s desired will for you. Do we deal with it or do we ignore it? That problem leaves us all at the doorstep of delayed action. The thing is sin doesn’t go away and it will have to be dealt with. In fact, Christ dealt with it already on the cross. Your job then is to confess and repent of it. And my advice is don’t procrastinate. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you tend to delay action on? Leave your comments below.

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A Change Can Be As Good As Something New

Sometimes a change is as good as something new. I’ve heard that saying, or something like it, before.

It’s often true – if you change something, you’ll get the same reaction or feeling as if you got something new. 

The other day I put the Christmas lights up on our house. It was a perfect time to do it; it wasn’t raining and the temperature was a mild, 8 degrees Celsius. 

I had heard that the temperatures were going to drop the next day so it was the right time to get those lights up. 

We’ve lived in our house for over 22 years – that’s 22 Christmases. All that time, I’ve had basically the same pattern of lights on the house. 

It’s not fancy – I’m not trying to compete for the most decorated house on the street or the neighbourhood. I have no desire to have people driving by our house every night just to see the lights and display. 

… When we lived in Edmonton, there was a street they called Candy Cane Lane. I don’t know what it’s like now, but when we lived there the police would have to alter the traffic and make the street one way during the Christmas season.

Every house on the street had elaborate Christmas displays. There was one house that had wrapped Christmas presents hanging all over a big old tree in the front yard. All the presents were to Dad from Santa … lucky guy!

Charities collected gifts for the needy and sold hot chocolate to raise money. 

Let me tell you, it was a production! Home owners really went all out to make it a special occasion for the thousands who would do the slow drive down the street, or park and walk it. 

I’m sure people buying homes on that street had to sign a waiver that they would continue to promote the Christmas spirit by decorating the front of their houses each year.

Well, that’s not me. I have a standard lighting configuration. I string lights along our garage and up and down the peak of our roof. 

There was a short time when I put some lights along a fence, but that didn’t last. 

Oh, and I always put a couple of coloured spotlights pointed at the house, to light up some bushes, the front brick and living room window. 

It’s worked well for years. I can put those lights up in my sleep.

But this year I had an idea: Instead of lighting up the front of the house with the spotlights, why not light up the big tree in the middle of our front yard? 

Why didn’t I think of this years ago? 

It’s like a whole new display this year!  And all I did was buy a longer extension chord, and point a red spot directly on our big rock by the tree. I pointed the other red and green spots up at the tree, letting the colours blend together as they shone on the branches. 

It’s just a little change but it looks and feels like something new.

Here’s the thing: Maybe you’ve been spending time with God the same way for years, or you’ve been serving in the same ministry for a long time. Maybe you’ve had the same long time friend for years. You don’t have to quit what you are doing, or do something radically different to spruce things up. All you need is a little change and that time with God, that ministry you serve in, or that friendship will feel new and fresh again. Just a little change can make all the difference.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What could you change to make something new again? Leave your comments below.