experiences

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It Was A Different Story, But The Same Outcome

I read a story last night … something I haven’t done in years.

Let me explain: it was a children’s story and I read it to a couple of kids.

It’s been years since I’ve read a children’s story to kids, because it’s been years since our kids were little.

The story was new but some things were familiar, like my tendency to change things when I read them or add things to the story that aren’t there.

I actually have the reverse effect on kids that I’m supposed to have.

When our kids were little and I would read them stories, they would end up giggling and laughing and ready for a party to break out.

Lily would have to come along and settle them down for bedtime all over again.

Last night I found myself in that old, familiar situation. It was bedtime for a couple of kids Lily and I were babysitting for the night. … It was actually Lily doing the babysitting; I just came in at story time to give a hand … or maybe disrupt the flow.

Lil handed me the books, so I went into the living room and slumped on the couch. Two little creatures followed me and sat beside me, one on each side.

There were two stories, and they picked which one I would read first. So I began to read.

I was a little uncertain of how it would go; it had been so long and I felt out of practice. I also didn’t know what it would be like reading to someone else’s kids, but I got into the rhythm fairly quickly.

Back when our kids were little, I would stop on certain pages – the same pages every time, in fact – and make comments about the pictures. … A number of years later, our son was reading a story to younger kids at his school. When he got to the page I used to make comments on, he was shocked to find that those comments weren’t actually part of the story.

I’d also read things in the first person, or sometimes change the story just a little. That usually stirred the kids up.

Well, last night the reading was going on without a hitch … nothing to change, only a few comments to be made about the pictures.

Then I came across a word that triggered a song in my head.

Now I don’t know how many times these kids have had that story read to them, but I bet it was the first time that the reader broke out in a rendition of “May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.”

I think they made me sing it three or four times after that! I just hope those little guys’ parents will know what to do when those kids get home, hand them that story book and say, “sing the song”!

Well, it’s nice to know I haven’t lost my touch!

Lil had to do her magic once again. I walked by their room a few minutes after they left me, and she was telling them one of her calming, soothing stories to put them to sleep.

Here’s the thing: If you find that things have been strained with God, that maybe your time with Him has been non-existent recently, or that through disobedience you’ve felt far away, just come back to Him. When you do draw close to Him, you will find that familiar relationship you once had is back again. God never changes.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What memories of your time with God do you want to rekindle? Leave your comments below.

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I Just Didn’t Remember Doing It

I recently did something, but then moments later couldn’t remember doing it.

On a daily basis, when I leave the church, I set the alarm and lock the outside door. One day not long ago, after getting into my car, I thought, “I don’t remember setting the alarm or locking the door.”

It bothered me enough that I wheeled the car around to the front door, got out, tested the door, and looked to see if the armed light was red on the control pad.

Yup, I had set it, locked it and walked to my car … without really being conscious of doing it!

I remember my mother telling me that when I was young I would sometimes talk in my sleep. I apparently never made any sense; it was more like muttering to myself.

Doing something in your sleep is one thing; being fully awake and doing something you don’t remember doing takes it to a whole different level!

Maybe when I was locking up I was focussed on something else and wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. … I’ve been accused of that before.

Sometimes when I’m on the phone with my wife, Lily, she can tell if I’m also working on my computer.

While talking to me, she will throw in a question. When I don’t respond right away, her next statement will be, “You’re on your computer; you didn’t even hear my question.”

I will then pause to listen to the question she asked. But because I’ve been working on my computer and not listening, I don’t always get the background to the question. She usually has to repeat the whole thing again.

She gets frustrated. Me? Just amused.

But again that’s a little different than doing something and not knowing you did it.

I think I have been doing the same routine of setting the alarm and locking the door for so many years that it is ingrained in me.

It’s like it’s second nature; I don’t have to think about it to do it.

It’s like tying your shoes. You don’t consciously think about the movements your fingers make in tying your shoes laces; you just do it. Only if you had to describe the process to someone would you think about each step.

When I was leaving work the other day, and didn’t remember setting the alarm and locking the door, I was just deep in thought about something else and went through the motions like I was tying my shoes.

Now you have to wonder, “What in the world was I thinking about that was so captivating that I didn’t remember my lockup routine?”

Truth? I don’t even remember what so captivated my thoughts that I wiped a few seconds of my life from my memory banks.

But that’s a whole other story.

Here’s the thing: It’s not always easy asking God for help, wisdom or guidance when you are in the middle of something. You are focussed on the matter at hand and not necessarily thinking about God. If you can find a way to remind yourself to check in with God in the midst of your decision or action, the more you do that the more second nature it will become … until you automatically, without thinking, confer with Him on matters you need Him to weigh in on.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How would it help you to check in with God like it was second nature? Leave your comments below.

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I Couldn’t Believe The Progress We Made

It’s always interesting to see the progress in the city after being away for an extended time.

There is something about it that’s exciting, seeing what new things are cropping up, wondering if there’ll be something new to do, and new place to eat.

I find it intriguing and in some strange way hopeful. I guess it’s a sign that the city is growing, changing, adapting.

It’s like when you were in public school and your teacher told you to take a bean home, put it in a glass jar and stick a wet paper towel around it.

We would put it under the kitchen sink, but couldn’t wait to look and see if there was any change to the bean.

It was always amazing to see the sprout that would emerge and to track the growth of that new little leaf.

That’s sort of what it’s like to return home and see the changes that have taken place in the city.

I don’t go hunting all over for them. I just look for the progress on my fifteen minute drive to work, along a major route in town.

This year I have noticed lots of progress.

There is a dentist’s office, a stand-alone structure, at the end of my subdivision. I don’t know for sure what they’re doing, but there is now a huge trench that wasn’t there before my vacation.

It’s deep and covers three sides of the building – one more side and they’ll have a genuine, functioning, modern-day moat.

And I say “functioning” because we have had so much rain this summer that there has to be water in that thing.

I’m not sure if the dentist is worried about an army of gingivitis attacking his clinic or not, but he’s going to be prepared when this thing is done.

There are a couple of high-rise apartment buildings that are making serious progress. It’s interesting to see how high they’re getting, and changing the landscape.

Then there are two things I noticed that kind of surprised me. I wouldn’t consider them progress, but they open the door to new opportunities for progress.

One was a RV dealership that has been there for over 25 years, in a prominent spot. You always noticed the trailers in their lot.

On returning home, the place was deserted – no trailers. The building is completely vacant; they are gone.

Then there was an old style motel, probably dating back to the sixties, that closed a while ago. It took up a good chunk of land.

It’s now completely gone. There is not a scrap of evidence that there was a motel or anything on that land.

That was fascinating.

The only thing that didn’t change is the one thing I thought would have progressed: the reconstruction of a section of the mall where the Target store used to be.

You have to wonder if they found an ancient burial ground in the basement or something because the construction hasn’t changed in months.

Here’s the thing:  It is neat to see progress and change in the city, but what about you? Can you say you are progressing in your life, in your spiritual life? It’s easy to just coast along, and not make any headway in your relationship with Christ. Evaluate the last six months or year. Make sure you are doing something to keep your relationship with God progressing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can you do to ensure you are making progress in your spiritual life? Leave your comments below.

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Exercising Every Day For a Month – Not Bad!

Going into my vacation, I was concerned about one thing – exercising.

You see, I had gone almost six months without missing a day of exercising at least thirty minutes per day. Who wants to break a streak like that?

When I’m at home, I have options. There are always outside activities that I can do like mountain biking, golf, or baseball. But I have a backup when I can’t do something outdoors. I have a home gym that I can work up a sweat in.

Being at the cottage for an extended period of time, I only had the outdoor option … and this summer’s weather had not given me much confidence in my ability to get thirty minutes of outside exercising in every day.

Looking back, it rained every few days. We would just be getting into a pattern of sunny, warm weather when the clouds would roll in and dampen everything – literally.

Somehow through all this I was able to exercise every day.

There were a couple of times my exercise took the form of a power walk, but walking along the beach really fast is not my idea of enjoyable exercise. If I’m going to walk the beach, I want it to be a little more like a slow stroll.

So mostly I rode my bike. When the mountain biking trail I ride was too wet and nasty, I was able to find time between the rain drops to get a half hour ride down to Sauble Falls and back.

I’ve never looked at my weather app as much as I did on this vacation. I’d get up in the morning, look outside, check my app and think, “Okay, if I get my ride in at 10 o’clock I’ll beat the sprinklers.”

… I remember playing golf years go, early in the morning or late in the evening, before they had underground watering systems.

There were hoses and sprinkler heads on the fairways, with water spraying in a circle like a ticking clock.

If your ball landed in one of the spray zones, you would wait for the spray to pass by and then quickly move in to take your shot before the sprinkler came around again.

You had to dodge the water system in those days.

That’s what I was doing on vacation – dodging the big water system in the sky … even down to the last day!

My plan was to get up and get in one last ride on the trails before I packed the car and left for home.

But no way; the rain started at 7 am. That meant exercising on my last day of vacation would have to happen at home. Well, at least it was there waiting for me, with no weather conditions to consider.

My biggest concern going into vacation was being able to somehow exercise every day outside, regardless of the weather.

I did it! I got wet a few times, I caught a few breaks, and even on those days I just didn’t feel like doing much of anything, I still got it done. Not bad at all.

Here’s the thing: In life there are challenges every day. You don’t know when or what form they will take so you can’t avoid them or even make contingency plans. You just have to deal with them as they come and figure out a way through them. When you know this is true, it only makes sense to seek God every day for His wisdom and direction through the challenges.

That’s Life!

Paul

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

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I Found Out I would Not Be A Good Pilot

Someone recently told me that I was going to lose my pilot’s license. I did more than that … I lost the aircraft.

It all started back at the end of December when Lily got me a mini drone for Christmas.

It was mostly an indoor drone and I learned to fly it around the house, bashing into things in those early stages of pilot lessons.

On vacation I decided to get a little bigger drone, one I could fly outdoors.

I was pretty happy for a few days.

I flew it around our cottage and got some video of our place and the roof tops of the cottages around us.

Oh, and yes, I also crashed it into things, mostly trees and cottages.

It was just after one of those crashes that my neighbour came onto his deck and called out,  “Paul, you’re going to lose your pilot’s license”. I called back, “I think I’ve already lost it”, as I tried to pick my drone out of a tree.

It was soon after that that I decided it would be neat to take some pictures and video of the sunset with my new drone.

So at the end of the day, just before the sun sunk below the horizon, I went down to the beach and launched my drone.

For maybe 10-15 seconds it flew very well, but in my haste I didn’t realize that there was a wind and it was blowing out towards the lake.

My drone made a turn towards the water. I tried to get it to turn back, but before I knew it, it was over the water and I was struggling to bring it back to me.

I watched it go farther and farther out over the lake … none of the controls were doing what I wanted them to do. I lost visual sight of it, it was so far offshore.

I hit a button that was to automatically bring the drone back to me and I could see on my screen that it was pointing towards shore.

But it couldn’t fight the wind.

Two nights before I had seen a documentary on how JFK Junior’s plane went down on his flight to Martha’s Vineyard years ago.

They said, among other things, he made a risky decision in turbulent weather to fly over water instead of flying along the coast and he got disoriented.

Well, I know how that can happen! In my panic to bring my drone back, I forgot to press a speed button which would have given the drone more power to battle the wind.

From the camera on board the drone, I could see it was still in the air, but then the screen went staticky and then blue.

I lost my drone … somewhere out in Lake Huron, along way from shore. It’s gone.

Only the SD card can tell the real store of what happened.

All I can say is don’t get into a plane if I’m the pilot.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we are not the best judge of a situation or the best one to make a decision. There can be so many things to take into account and we can’t consider them all. But God knows all the issues, and all the scenarios. If we ask Him to guide us, He will help us make the right moves to keep us moving in the right direction.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What decision do you need to take to God right now that is past your skill level? Leave your comment below.

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Burdens Come Along Too Often

There should be limits to the number of burdens we carry for other people.

We all have to carry burdens in life; I know that, and I’m not talking about physical burdens.

I do remember way back when our kids were in elementary school. Their backpacks were larger than they were, and sometimes weighed about as much as they did.

One false step and they could fall over and turtle until someone could come to their rescue.

But I’m referring to the emotional burdens we carry.

It seems that these kinds of burdens always increase; the weight never or rarely gets lighter. As we get older our burdens increase.

… At least if you have children they increase.

When your kids are young, the emotional burden seems great, and it’s usually around life or death situations, like cuts and scrapes and stubborn wills.

We parents attach ourselves to our kids’ emotions and carry those burdens with us.

When there is a meltdown, we bear that burden until the tears are dried away.

Fortunately, the burdens are short-lived and can be left by the wayside. Unfortunately, when our children are young, the emotional burdens happen rapidly and frequently throughout a day.

It’s good we don’t have to carry them very long.

You might think that as children grow up those emotional burdens would get less and less as the child matures, and takes on more responsibility for his or her life.

But they don’t. The emotional burdens just become larger and longer lasting.

Now, I know we are to carry one another’s burdens – the Bible says we should. But how many burdens can you pile up on one person?

You go from worrying about the spat they had with their sibling, to what kind of a life partner they will find and when that will happen.

You carry the weight of their safety while driving a car you don’t think is that safe any more.  And you carry the burden of wondering how they will afford a new one.

You take on their burden of stress at work, and even the burden of showing up on time to events they have planned.

Our daughter was going to a friend’s wedding across the country. She booked a direct flight that would get her into the airport two and a half hours before the wedding. The wedding was a half hour or so away from the airport.

No problem. She would be picked up by a friend, taken to her hotel, and have enough time to change, do hair and makeup and drive to the wedding.

It was all good – no stress, no burden… until the plane was delayed from take off … twice!

Suddenly, we had the emotional burden for several hours of “Will she make it to the wedding?”

Well, hair was done in the Toronto airport, makeup was put on in the airplane lavatory, and the dress was put on in the Kelowna airport … just in time to be picked up and whisked to the wedding with a few minutes to spare.

Well, that emotional burden is over. I’d like a breather before the next one, thanks.

Here’s the thing: We are not only to carry one another’s burdens, but we are to give our burdens to God. So when you find yourself overwhelmed with emotional burdens, you’re over-burdened because you have kept picking them up without laying them down. Give your burdens – even the ones you carry for others – to God. It will give you greater capacity to keep carrying burdens.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What heavy burden do you need to give to God? Leave your comments below.

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Interruptions Don’t Have To Interrupt

Have you noticed how interruptions can come along so unexpectedly?

You can be in the middle of a conversation and your child comes up to you, grabbing at your pant leg, seeming to need your immediate attention … and you didn’t even see him coming.

People interrupt us all the time. They step into a conversation as they pass by; they pop their head in your office while you are on the phone.

You can even be telling a story, and when you take a breath, someone interrupts and begins to tell their related story … interrupted again!

Life can get interrupted too … like last fall when I was driving in the dark and out of nowhere a deer crossed my path and crumpled the front corner of my car.

That little interruption cost us a week without a car and the expense of having to buy a new one. (You can read about that here.)

The other day a grapefruit interrupted my life.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been doing great physically. I’ve lost some weight; I’m feeling good; I have more energy.

Playing sports has never been more enjoyable. I couldn’t be happier in that department.

But the other day, I bent down to get a grapefruit out of the fridge and, BAM – I put my back out.

No, the grapefruit wasn’t 250 pounds, and it wasn’t a fake one made out of cement either.

It was just a grapefruit; I eat one every day.

I must have twisted a little when I bent down and aggravated an old injury.

Several years ago I pulled something in my lower back and since then, every once in a while, I injure it by doing something very simple … like an ordinary daily action.

I’d been mountain biking, building trails, and no problem. I played hockey all winter and nothing. It was a grapefruit this time that tripped me up.

And for the last three days, I’ve had to be very careful how I sit, what I sit on, and how I stand.

It’s been a real interruption.

Other times this has happened, I’ve ended up flat on my back on the floor for a day or two. This time it wasn’t that bad.

The worse part was I thought the back injury would interrupt my exercising streak. … I have exercised for 198 days in a row and I was afraid my streak was over.

It was really disappointing. I kind of moped around most of the day.

It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I got a phone call from my son. We chatted about a bunch of things, and then I told him about my back and my exercising streak.

Then he interrupted my interruption.

He said, “Why don’t you just ride your bike on the streets, and go for an easy ride? Or take a slow walk?”

With that inspiration, I decided to see if I could get on my bike. And what do you know, one of the most comfortable positions for me is bent forward a little on my bike.

What was going to be a major interruption to my exercising, ended up being a little interruption to my comfort, but not to my life.

Here’s the thing: When you get interrupted in life, don’t take the interruption at face value. You have a God who can turn an interruption in life into a change of direction, into a better circumstance, or into something that has way less impact than you thought it would.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has caused an interruption in your life? Leave your comments below.

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The End Will Make Up For The Beginning

Sometimes the end can make up for all the disappointment that’s gone on before it.

That kind of sums up yesterday for me. I woke up to rainy drizzle which kind of set the tone for the day.

I checked the weather to see what I could expect and, though the rain was supposed to stop, it was to remain cloudy and cool for the rest of the day.

The outlook was not favourable to hit the beach, or really do anything outside; I wasn’t sure I would even be able to get my exercise in.

I have a radar app on my iPad which I also checked and noted that once the rain had ended there would be no more.

However, that proved to be a lie because there seemed to be a blowing mist in the air that made me feel like turning around and going back inside every time I attempted to go outside.

So what do you do when the weather is like that? … There were some who went golfing, but at 16° C with precipitation in the air, that’s not my kind of golfing weather.

In those conditions, if you hit a shot thin, your hands start to vibrate and, even if you don’t have arthritis, you’ll feel like you just got it for a few minutes. Sometimes your whole body feels like it’s vibrating – like a cartoon character that has just been electrocuted.

That’s not for me.

So the beach was out and golf was off my list. The only thing left to do was go shopping in town.

I went to a few big box stores but, though I didn’t have to focus on the weather while I was shopping, I wasn’t having any success finding the things I was looking for.

Another disappointment.

By late afternoon I was done with shopping and back at the cottage, a little more depressed and kind of tired from all the walking I’d done in the stores.

It didn’t help my mood that I had to have the windshield wipers on intermittent the whole way back.

I couldn’t bring myself to exercise so I just flopped on the couch for a while. Then out of sheer determination and fear that I would break my exercising streak of about half a year, I braved the outdoors again and exercised.

It provided little comfort, however, and didn’t put me in any better of a mood.

Well, that was until about 7:30 pm when the clouds rolled away, the wind stopped swirling and the sun came out and brightened things up.

And even that late in the day, with very few hours to enjoy it, somehow the day was redeemed. The sun made an appearance in the end and it changed everything about the day.

Here’s the thing: That is what it’s going to be like when Christ returns for those who follow Him. It won’t matter how bad the day, or life has been up until that time. All the disappointments, the discouragement, frustration and even harm that has taken place won’t be a consideration. When Christ comes it will be like the sun coming out at the end of a cloudy, rainy, cold day. And it will change our outlook and our disposition completely … forever.

It will be a great day.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Are you prepared for Christ to change your day? Leave your comments below.

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I Couldn’t Find One, So I Created It

There are times you have to create something because you can’t find what you’re looking for anywhere.

Have you ever needed or wanted something but just couldn’t find the right thing? … Maybe it was an item of clothing or a tool, but no place had the right colour, or style you were looking for. You couldn’t find what you had in mind.

Maybe you needed a tool to do something that it wasn’t designed to do and you couldn’t find one that was.

It’s in those moments that you get an urge to create, to make something that will work for your need. Maybe it’s not a total new creation but an adaptation on something that already exists. You feel the need to design something different.

Well, that happened to me the other day.

I was building a new trail to bike on (you can read about that here) and I needed some kind of a scraping tool – a tool that would take the top layer of pine needles and half-decayed leaves away to expose the dirt below.

The logical tool was a rake. But how do you carry a rake with you on your bike when you are traveling through the woods, going up and down hills and around tight corners?

It’s just not practical. I needed to create a tool that would work for my application.

I first looked for options online and found I could purchase such a tool. It had a telescoping handle but was still too long … and it only cost $240.

I thought, “Wow, that’s a lot of money for a rake!” but there was more: you could also attach a saw or a shovel to this handle.

The price for the whole kit was over $600!

You’d have to be a paid trail maker to buy one of these kits. Building trails would have to be a full time job for you to justify paying that much money.

I needed a simpler solution for my trail building, so off to the hardware store I went.

I found what I thought would be perfect. It was an 8-inch wide plastic rake with a 12-inch handle.

The rake part was great but even a 12-inch handle was too long for me to put in my backpack.

An idea came to me to use the forest’s resources.

I was set. All I needed to do was take the handle off the rake. Then when I got to where I was building the trails I could find a tree limb, insert it into the rake and somehow secure it.

After several tries, the use of a drill, screwdriver, pliers and a heat gun, I extracted the handle from the rake.

I got a few drywall screws and a couple of plastic washers and off to the trails I went.

Everything fit in my backpack perfectly. And when I got to my spot, I had a whole selection of handles for me to pop onto my rake.

My new tool works great and the cost to me – just $8.50!

Not a bad creation. … Now I just need a patent.

Here’s the thing: When you find yourself in a place where you need something that you don’t have the resources for, know that you have a God who is the greatest creator there is. He has the solution to your need if you will seek Him, listen to Him and act on what He provides.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you been in need of lately that might require some kind of creation? Leave your comments below.

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I Just Developed A New Skill

I’m adding a new skill set to my resume: trail builder.

With the wet spring – and now summer – we’re having, I’ve had to get a little creative with my mountain biking.

There is a place that I go biking in the summer that normally has a few wet spots. But this year there is so much more water, it has created the need to carve out some new trails to bypass the wet zones.

What got me inspired was finding that someone had built a new section that continues on from a trail I normally ride. It’s a great addition so I thought I should do some building of my own in another area of the system.

I normally carry a folding saw with me, the kind that is used in gardening. The saw folds up like an extremely large pocket knife so I can keep it safely in my backpack when I ride.

I use it mainly when small trees or limbs fall across the path. But this year I’m using it to build some detour trails around the bog areas.

There is a section of trail at the farthest point of my ride that is blocked by soft, wet, boggy muck and this year there is no getting around it.

Up until now I have been getting to that point in my ride, then turning around and riding back again. But what I would really like to do is complete the loop.

So where the bog begins I’ve turned off the trail and have been cutting a new path.

I’m not cutting down trees or anything, mostly picking my way around trees or between them. I cut off the little dead branches that stick out and clear trees and limbs that have fallen or are already dead.

It’s been fun, like trying to put together a puzzle. I have to figure out which is the best way to go and sometimes I have to look at it from more than one angle to discover the best route.

Trying to get to the end in a straight line is out of the question.

The bugs – especially mosquitoes – have been pretty bad, but I’ve been loading up on bug spray and found that, though they are flying around me, they aren’t landing on me very much.

I’ve also been checking for ticks every time I get back, just in case one of those little beggars has attached himself to me.

I just have to build one more small section to connect the loop, and then I’ll rake the path to give me a harder surface to ride on and create some definition to the trail.

I’ll write about my rake in my next post; I had to use a little ingenuity on that one.

I’m feeling pretty good about my new found skill. Though it’s just a small section – it’s not like I’m creating a kilometre or more of trail – I’m creating something out of nothing.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes in life we hit a wall and have to go in another direction to get around it. Where do you find the inspiration for that? Don’t stall out; don’t turn around and go back the way you came. Seek God for the path He wants you to take to get past that wall. He may tell you through the Bible, through a pastor, a friend or even something you read … Be listening.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What wall have you come up against recently? How are you getting around it?  Leave your comments below.