devotions

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I’m A Budding Political Activist

I think I’m becoming a political activist and I don’t really know how it all happened.

There have been a couple of issues that have created a sore spot in me that I can’t seem to ignore. … It’s like a blister that develops on your foot; you can only ignore it so long.

Well, there are a couple of things that are associated with the government that are rubbing me the wrong way.

I received an email from people at Sauble Beach where our cottage is located. They were asking me to write the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for preventing the town from cleaning up the beach of debris from the winter.

The ministry is trying to protect a handful of birds that want to nest on 12 kilometres of beach. … My house is only 1200 square feet and I am able to live in it just fine. Twelve kilometres for a few birds seems a little excessive to me!

So I wrote an email, politely asking the ministry to consider letting the town clean up their beach – after all, it’s the only reason most people go to Sauble Beach.

I received back a long email outlining the course of action that needs to be taken to ensure that these endangered birds are able to nest and breed at Sauble. The email never really acknowledged that they would even take my request under advisement, or thanked me for my opinion.

All I got was a defence for their actions.

So I decided I would push back a little. I send another email.

I pointed out that my wife, while on a vacation in Florida, saw thousands of these birds on the beach in Daytona. I also pointed out that maybe these birds have found a better habitat to survive in. Really, if you only had feathers to keep you warm, wouldn’t you choose Florida over north central Ontario?

There was another thought I had which had to do with survival. The ministry is concerned about the survival of a few birds. But what about the survival of a town and its people?

The reason Sauble Beach is a blip on the map is because it has one of the best beaches in Ontario.

Take the beach away and the local economy would crash, businesses would fail, people would move away. Home owners and cottage owners would have to give up their residences.

So who should have first right of survival? – a few birds or a few thousand people whose livelihood is based on taking care of one natural resource: the beach.

Well if the ministry has its way, they would choose the birds. The birds would run the beach; debris and grass would begin to take over.

People would stay away … and then there wouldn’t be a reason to pay someone in Natural Resources to stick their nose into an area that has had a long history of creating vacation fun for thousands of people.

Well, maybe the seven Piping Plovers of Sauble Beach would band together and chip in financially to float the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry payroll.

Here’s the thing: There are times we will only believe what we have been told or learned or were brought up on. Scripture has a way of challenging our thinking. Don’t be so set in your ways or responses that you fail to understand the message a particular passage of scripture has for you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is something you have a hard time seeing the other side of? Leave your comments below.

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Seriously, Something Is Wrong Here!

Today’s blog post comes from my wife Lily. She is the one who edits my posts and every once in a while she get inspired to write a post of her own. I hope you enjoy this post.

Even though the weather this week doesn’t feel like it, I know summer is coming … I’ve been dreaming about it … flip flops, scorching heat, a refreshing glass of cold lemonade and carefree days!

Ahh, those images take me back to my childhood …

When I was growing up, it was common place to either see or to have a lemonade stand on the hot, humid days of summer. Well, actually it usually wasn’t a lemonade stand but a Kool-Aid stand.

You remember Kool-Aid, don’t you? … “Kool-aid’s here bringing you fun, Kool-Aid’s got thirst on the run. Get a big, wide, happy ear-to-ear Kool-Aid smi-i-ile!”

I think Kool-Aid stands were our mothers’ faults. After all, they were the ones who would repeatedly spout the phrase, “Go outside and play.” Eventually, we’d get tired of skipping and biking and jumping on pogo sticks. We’d run out of scenarios for playing cowboys and indians (ya, I’m that old!). We’d finish soaking ourselves with water guns while playing cops and robbers. And there were only so many freezies we were allowed to eat before supper.

After sitting with siblings and friends on the curb for a while, racking our brains for ideas, someone would invariably suggest selling Kool-Aid. Even before the logistics were worked out, we’d be arguing how we’d spend our fortunes.

Logistics boiled down to someone running home and begging Mom to make a jug of the finest colour of Kool-aid in the house, and someone else ravaging their pantry for plastic cups …. which weren’t hard to find back in the heyday of Tupperware!

Of course, some kind neighbours would always oblige and purchase a glass or two, and the ever-loving moms would buy a glass of the drink they had just moments ago pulled from their own cupboard and mixed for us … Could there ever be people who love others more than moms?!

Today’s kids, however, are missing out on all that. Our country has gone berserk in bureaucracy! Remember that news report last summer about two sisters, aged five and seven, whose lemonade stand was shut down because they didn’t have a permit and weren’t following the bylaws? And they were selling lemonade to raise money for a summer camp for kids with cancer! Can you imagine?!

Seriously, for starters, who would report two little girls for trying to raise money for a cancer camp? What bylaw officer would actually follow through with shutting them down?

In the end, they are allowed to reopen their stand, but guess what? They had to change their adorable, crayon coloured “lemonade” sign because the word had to be written in both official languages!

What have we done to our kids? When are we going to stop reacting to every complaint and problem by creating more regulations and rules?

… Makes me nostalgic for the old, carefree days of summer where everything wasn’t regulated and kids didn’t have to be bubble-wrapped before venturing outside to play.

I think I’m going to go buy some Kool-Aid.

Here’s the thing: God has given us some rules to live by. But when we fixate on the rules alone, we can go berserk in Christian bureaucracy. God never intended us to live by rules, but by love. Our lives should be lived in response to God’s great love for us, and what Christ did for us by dying and taking the punishment we deserve.

That’s Life!

Lily Silcock

Question: What rules have you gotten fixated on? Leave your comment below.

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I’ve Got the After Easter Blues

I think I have the after Easter blues today, and I don’t really have any reason for it.

It’s not an unusual phenomenon to have after an emotional high, but it usually occurs when you are doing something out of the ordinary.

People who go to developing countries and help out in some way often experience the blues when they return home. The contrast of what we have here and what they don’t have there can be so shocking that their minds and emotions can’t deal with the contrast so they find themselves down with the blues for a while.

We get the blues when we’ve gone from an intense emotional state back to a normal state.

It’s like the way I get when I’ve eaten sugary food in the morning. I get a sugar spike and my body burns up that sugar really fast. Then it starts to beg for more. And when my body starts crying out “Feed me, Seymour” (a line from the play, “Little Shop of Horrors”), I get all weak, hot and sweaty. My body basically bottoms out.

It’s how we react when we come down from something that has been intense.

You wouldn’t think that Easter would be so intense an experience that it would cause the blues when it was all over, but somehow it did this year.

I’m not sure if it had something to do with the series of messages I did over Easter or not, but I’m still feeling a bit of a letdown just the same.

This year on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we looked at the difference the cross made to three different people.

We also had our annual meeting on Palm Sunday, which for me added a little intensity.

But probably the intensity culminated Easter weekend. For the Good Friday service I did a first person monologue as the Roman Centurion.

To prepare for the role, I had to put myself in the centurion’s shoes, requiring more emotion on my part than giving a regular message. I’m no actor but to make it effective, even in a little way I had to live the part.

Then Saturday night the Kingston Frontenacs battled for 6 periods of hockey (three overtime periods) to eliminate their opponents. It was a long and tension-filled game. I was wired when I got home from that.

I then had a very short turn-around before I preached my Easter message the next day on the third character.

When I think of it, I experienced a greater emotional output than usual this weekend, and now that it’s over, everything has just gone back to normal.

Well, maybe my system is not quite ready to return to normal yet … so I’m stuck in the blues for a day.

Here’s the thing: The reason I had such an emotional output this weekend is that in my messages we focussed on the greatest event for mankind. As amazing as creation was, and as powerful as the progress we humans have made, the fact that Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins, so we could have a relationship with God, is nothing less than a close brush with death that was avoided. Christ died for us – that’s emotional – and if you have put your faith in him, then it’s an emotional high.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you recover from a huge emotional output? Leave your comments below.

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I’m Facing A New Hockey Reality

This morning I faced a reality that I knew had been coming for some time – I broke my hockey stick.

I know many of you are thinking, “Big deal; just get a new one.” And you’re right; that’s all I have to do. But there is a little more to the story than simply picking up a new stick.

First of all, I’ve had this stick for about four years – that’s a long time in stick years. Pros break their sticks on an almost weekly basis. But I have protected this stick by taping the entire blade and rubbing a heavy layer of stick wax on it.

Another thing that has kept this stick going so long is that I don’t take slap shots. I play mostly shinny hockey and that really isn’t a place for taking many slap shots.

Besides that, I cut my sticks down so that I take away any of the flex in the shaft, making my relatively poor slap shot even worse.

Getting a new stick is not a simple process. I’ve known this day would come and so, from time to time, I’ve check out hockey equipment stores to see what might be available. My biggest problem is that I can’t find my curve any more.

It seems like no one in the NHL uses a heel curve any longer, and I have been using the same one for about thirty years. It’s not something I’m looking forward to switching.

Finding a stick that I’m going to like and be happy with is not going to be fun or easy … or cheap.

Sticks are expensive. Four years ago when I bought this stick it cost $300. Now at the time it was on sale and I had $100 in Christmas money that I also put towards it.

I still paid $100 for that stick.

The stick really owes me nothing. It’s been an awesome stick and I’ve scored a lot of goals with it. But it’s time to move on.

I only wish it was as easy to move on as it was when I was in my teens.

Back then all sticks were made of wood, and Canadian Tire had a crazy return policy. If you had the receipt, you could take your stick back for a replacement up to two weeks after you bought it. (Their previous replacement time frame was a month!)

Wooden sticks broke quickly and there was one year that I think I only paid for two sticks all year. The rest of the time I simply took my broken stick, with its receipt, back to Canuck Tire and they gave me a new one.

… That was awesome! It was also back in the day when a good stick cost about $18. Now they’re hundreds, but with all kinds of technology built into them; they are feather-light and last a long time.

All I have to do now is dig deep into my pocket for some serious change and hope I can find my curve somewhere.

Here’s the thing: When you’ve been spending time with God in the same way for a long time, you will get to the place where you need to make a change. That time with God either won’t be long enough, or it’ll become very routine. You’ll get to the place where your devotional time is stale and dry and uninspired. That’s when you know it’s time to make a change. You need to do something different, add something, search for a way to make your time with God fresh again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you tell when you need to change something up? Leave your comment below.

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There Is A Difference One Day To The Next

Things can be different one day to the next, even when the conditions are the same.

Have you ever noticed that you can have a great day and, with no rhyme or reason, the next day is crummy?

I find that young adults can be like this. My wife, Lily, and I regularly talk to our kids on the phone. One day they can be sailing and the next they are in the pits.

Maybe there is some latent hormonal chemical reaction that strikes from time to time (they’re both in their late 20’s), but I am always dumb-founded to know what changed from the day before.

Often nothing changes, but we look for something to blame. It somehow feels better when we can find a reason for the turn of events.

… Like when the weather fails to turn out the way we had hoped it would, we blame the weatherman, as if he had something to do with changing the weather. As if he or she had some control over how the weather was going to turn out!

It doesn’t matter that meteorologists only predict the weather, we like to stick it to them and focus our frustration on their seeming incompetence.

The other day I played hockey with a group of guys and everything clicked – passing, shooting, skating. I scored one goal that I’m still playing over in my mind … it was a beauty!

I’m sure the guys on the other team weren’t saying the same thing. They seemed frustrated; not much was going right for them. I almost felt a little sorry for them.

But hold on to that thought …

Today came around and this time, playing with another group of guys, nothing was working.

Passes never seemed to get to me, and my passes sometimes got intercepted by my own teammates. Shooting, well, I hit three goal posts … that’s enough said there.

I felt as good today as I did the other day when I played. All the conditions were the same.

I was playing with a different group of guys, so I could say that it was the players that made the difference. I could blame them to make me feel a little better about myself.

The problem with that is I was playing with better hockey players today than I was the other day when everything went right!

There just doesn’t seem to be any explanation for the change, or any way to hang some blame on anyone.

One day everything went right and the next day nothing seemed to go right.

When someone is in a grumpy mood, we tell them that they woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or that they didn’t get enough sleep. We can blame their mood on something they did or didn’t do because those are conditions we can measure.

When there is nothing to measure, we are left with a mystery that will never be solved; it just must be accepted.

Here’s the thing: We often blame God when, out of the blue, things go wrong. We blame Him for allowing the bad to come into our lives. We want to blame someone or something and we feel God is as good a person to blame as any. However, before you turn your ire on God for something He may or may not have been at the centre of, why not accept it and keep moving forward? If you don’t, you will just spin your wheels, fixated on blaming.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Who or what have you been tempted to place blame on lately? Leave your comments below.

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I’m Never Sure About Redecorating 

We are doing a little redecorating in our house lately. I should say that Lily is doing the redecorating and I’m along for the ride.

This project all started with painting, and I’m okay with that because I don’t paint. Lily does the painting in our house – it’s one of the ways our marriage has stayed strong for over thirty years.

Though now that the paint has hit most of the walls, and much of the furniture is back in place, I am realizing that I was duped a little bit.

I thought painting meant you covered up the old paint, maybe with a different colour, for the purpose of freshening up the place. What I’m discovering is that painting is just the first phase of the project.

Yes, the furniture is back in place, but that is all. Nothing has gone up on the walls and that’s because she’s not sure what she wants to put on the walls.

I’m thinking, “Oh boy, here we go. Now we have to buy new pictures and add new accent pieces to the place.”

I’m just saying that I thought we were mostly done, but I’m realizing we are far from the done stage. It could be weeks – maybe even months – before she settles on what the final look of the living room will be.

But I’m not completely worried about that … yet.

What I am worried about is that almost immediately when she started to paint, Lily wasn’t sure she liked the colour of the paint she had picked.

I get it. It’s not easy to tell what paint will look like from a sample card that is two inches by one inch. When Lily would hold a sample up to the wall and ask me what I thought, I had no idea! All I could tell was that it was going to be a different colour than what we already had on the wall.

This will be a major deal if she decides she has to cover up what she’s already painted. We are at the 95% done stage of painting … and apparently paint is not as cheap as it used to be back in the 80’s.

But it gets worse! That’s not the only paint Lily’s not sure about – there is another colour. She painted a feature wall and it seems now that the paint is drying, that it is not as dark a colour as she had originally thought.

Even I, with my crack decorating and colour-scheming eye, can tell that it’s not as dark as I thought it would be.

So we are in a spot. Lily’s tired of painting. We could finish the last little bit and be done with it, or she could repaint it all, or I could paint it.

Wait … what did I say? … On second thought, we only have two options. I won’t be painting.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes the unexpected things in life will be minor, like paint; sometimes they will be major. I read a verse the other day that seems appropriate for when life unexpectedly turns on you. When you don’t know what to do once an unexpected development appears, when things don’t turn out like you had hoped, there is still hope. 2 Corinthians 1:10 says, “He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (ESV). When the unexpected happens, trust God. He is your sure way forward.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has life unexpectedly dropped on you lately? Leave your comments below.

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I’ve Been Driving Around Potholes

From time to time I repost an article from the past. 
This post was originally published in March of 2014.

I’ve never been into monster truck racing, but lately I kind of wish I owned one. In the aftermath of winter – not that I’m saying it’s over, but it better be – I need to be driving something a little more substantial than my Hyundai Accent.

The road conditions in my town are like a war zone. My apologies to those who actually live in war zones; I’m sure it’s nothing like it. But from my perspective, I’m dodging bomb craters every few minutes.

It’s our crazy winter that has created these conditions, and if the city doesn’t soon get the road crews out there fixing the potholes, the mechanics in my town will be rubbing their hands together with sinister smiles on their faces. I think my car might already need new shocks or something.

I feel like a rally driver bobbing and weaving around land minds that want to take my car out. I’m not even using the double lanes to pass cars any more. I need that other lane just to get around the missing pavement so I don’t have to drive into oncoming traffic.

I’m sure in other Canadian cities the state of the roads are the same as they are here. … Now I’m starting to worry about an asphalt shortage!

I’m not sure that it’s even possible for us to have an asphalt shortage but I can see the construction companies starting some rumours to drive up the prices. We’ll all be paying for that if it happens.

I’m also predicting a tax increase this year. The bill for road work is going to be astronomical and I’m afraid it will take them until next winter before they make all the repairs that need to be done.

When I was a kid winters were harsher, but the roads seemed to last longer. Maybe they are skimping on the base of the roads. Is it possible that they are using cheap crushed stone from China under our roads? Maybe that’s why our roads aren’t holding up as they should be.

I’m in favour of starting a “buy Canadian gravel” campaign if it will help us drive on smooth pavement.

It could be that they are using a thinner layer of asphalt. They should lay that stuff down as thick as they do for airport runways. Those planes weigh tons more than my little car but those airstrips seem to last and last.

One area that is holding up are the speed bumps they put on some roads to encourage slower speeds. I haven’t seen any missing sections in them. I have, however, been secretly wishing the snow ploughs would push them off to the side with the snow.

No one would notice in the winter. Not until the snow melted would anyone see the piles of black top on the side of the road. They wouldn’t be able to replace them either with all the work they have to do filling potholes all over the city; there’d be no time.

Well, here’s hoping my vehicle will make it on another rally car race to work this morning!

Here’s the thing: In life there will be potholes. We can complain about them; we can blame others; and we can blame God. We can ask God to fill them, but most likely He will help us and guide us around them. We just need to stay alert to God’s direction in our life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are the road conditions like in your city, in your life?

I would love to hear from you; you can leave your comment below.

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I Wish I Could Expand Time

Time never expands but the things we do often expand to take up more time than we think.

We can’t add to time, but we can plan less so that we end up with time to spare.

But really, who does that? Not many people. Most people run late because they try to do more than they can get done in the time given them.

We think we can do things in “X” amount of time but most often we miscalculate, or something interrupts to eat away at the time we have.

It’s sort of like cracks on the road. Water gets in them and then freezes. The frozen water expands, overfills the crack and eventually breaks up the pavement, creating potholes.

That’s what happens to our time. It’s like a crack that gets filled up but then whatever fills it expands past the time we have.

The other day I was working on a project that I gave the whole day to. I finished the main part of the project well under the time I had allotted.

But after the main part was finished, there were other parts of the project that also needed to be done, like PowerPoint presentations, online notes, and presentation notes.

I had a lot of time to get them done by the end of the day though. So I was feeling pretty good about myself. I felt like the pressure was off and I might even surprise my wife, Lily, by getting home early.

But later in the afternoon things started to expand. I also didn’t account for my drop in energy so I wasn’t accomplishing tasks at the same rate I had been in the morning.

But worse than that, one task expanded to fill up the time I had left. I never saw it coming. I never accounted for it.

I was in the the last stages of my afternoon. I don’t usually listen to music while I work because it’s a distraction to me; I think better when it’s quiet.

But the work I was doing didn’t require much thinking, mostly performing rote tasks that I have been doing each week for years.

So I turned some music on. Sure it would slow me down, but I still had lots of time, more time than I needed … until I couldn’t find a picture I wanted for my presentation.

I looked and looked and it literally took a half hour to find the picture I needed. And then I only found it by fluke in my email trash bin.

That one little thing had expanded past my allotted time. When I left for home, I still had one task undone; I hadn’t even started it.

Time doesn’t change, and though we plan and organize our day to live within the confines of the time we have, things seem to expand to the point that they overwhelm our time.

Here’s the thing: What I have also found true is that when you take time to worship God, your worship expands to overfill the time you set aside for it. This happens because you are relating and dialoging with the Lord, and good relationships take time – often more than we realize. So whatever time you set aside for God, know that if you are truly developing your relationship, you will eventually have to increase the time you allot for God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What expands to fill up your time more than anything else? Leave your comments below.

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I Wish My E-Wallet Was Growing Faster

My e-wallet is starting to get a little thicker, and I’m not concerned about it one bit. In fact, I wish my e-wallet was expanding at a faster pace than it is.

I wouldn’t be able to say the same thing about my physical wallet – that’s a completely different matter.

My physical wallet is at its max; I can’t put anything more in it. I use a hard case for my credit and information cards and it can only hold so much before they are so jammed together that you can’t get any of them out.

Since the time I started carrying a wallet I have tried to keep it as thin as possible. But the older you get, the more cards you have to carry with you.

I remember a time when I carried a billfold with six slots for cards in it. It was pretty thin, but before long I needed to double up the cards, with more than one per slot.

I started feeling my wallet when I sat down. I kind of had to move to sit on one cheek more than the other.

I’ve seen people with wallets that are two or three inches thick, and I wonder how they are able to sit down at all.

In fact, many people pull their wallets out of their pockets when they sit down.

That is not something I would ever do. I would constantly lose my wallet and be replacing it and all the cards inside it on a monthly basis.

For me a wallet has to be thin and be able to stay in my pocket. And that’s what I like about my e-wallet.

I can add cards to it and it never gets any thicker. I just added a card to it the other day.  And when I use it I won’t even have to pull my wallet out of my pocket. I just use my phone or my watch.

E-wallets are the way to go. We should be able to put our health care card and drivers’ license in our e-wallets as well.

I would like it if all I needed to carry with me was a billfold. And even there, I’m using cash a lot less.

There are some stubborn institutions though. I have two credit cards by the same company, from different banks. One bank gives me the e-wallet option while the other one doesn’t.

I’m not sure what their reasoning is other than they don’t want to make life too easy for me. I guess we will always have those who are not going to go with the trend until the trend is a well-worn path used by almost everyone.

All I know is the quicker the wallet in my back pocket shrinks, the more comfortable I’ll be sitting down.

Here’s the thing: Often I will find myself communicating with God in the same familiar ways, praying the same types of prayers, asking for the same types of things. My ways are very accustomed to me. But seeking new ways to speak with God, and to listen to Him communicate back, opens up whole new avenues of relating to God. Always be growing in how you interact with God and you will find God to be more refreshing and easy to access.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What new ways of doing old things do you need to look into? Leave your comments below.

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Not Sure I Can Live Through These Deadlines

Deadlines are part of my world, but there are some deadlines that suck the life out of me more than others.

Most weeks of the year I live with at least one deadline: I have a sermon to prepare for Sunday and it doesn’t matter what has happened during the week, that deadline has to be met.

I might be sick that week, have meetings I’ve been called away to, or have had to conduct a funeral, wedding, etc. No matter what, that deadline of being ready to get into the pulpit on Sunday remains.

I know that deadline, have become accustomed to living with it, and can successfully navigate through my week to deliver on time.

But there are other deadlines that I don’t deal with regularly and they take a heavier toll on my state of mind.

When you compound a deadline with one or two other deadlines, all due around the same time … well, that’s how I’m feeling right now.

Right now the pressure is on. I have only a few days to go before these deadlines stop me in my tracks.

It’s like those auto commercials where they test how a car does in a crash. They stick a crash test dummy in the vehicle and then they remotely drive the car into a wall or a cement barrier of some kind.

It’s fascinating to see what happens when the vehicle stops on impact. The front of the car coils up like an accordion and then the car bounces back a little.

The car is a right-off, but what the company really wants to know is how the dummy will fair inside the automobile when it reaches the deadline.

Based on the dummy’s reactions they can tell how safe they have made the car. But no matter what kind of safety measures they have built into the vehicle, there are two things that happen to the dummy.

First, when the car hits the deadline, the dummy moves forward; the inertia is uncontrollable and the dummy’s body has to move in a forward direction.

But then at the pinnacle of the impact there is a force placed on the dummy that is every bit as uncontrollable, forcing its body to snap back in the opposite direction.

This action causes a whiplash affect on the dummy.

I am that dummy right now, right at the stage of whiplash with these multiple deadlines looming over me.

In a few days it’ll all be over; time will have run out on me. I will be a wreck, emotionally and mentally drained.

So in the short time I have, what do I do? I ask myself the question, “Do I work at one deadline until it is finished and then tackle the next one, or do I begin each one and gradually work towards completely them all at the same time?”

This is where I differ from a crash test dummy. It is just along for the ride, no thought, no input. Me, I have to think through the questions and decide a course of action.

Here’s the thing: We are all coming to a deadline. The problem with our deadline is that most of us don’t know when it will be. But when the deadline hits, that will be the end; we will be stopped in our tracks. To be ready for that deadline, be sure you have become friends with God, through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no better way to prepare for that deadline than to live now by faith in Christ so that you’re ready for that deadline of death.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you handle deadlines: well in advance or right down to the last minute? Leave your comments below.