family

by

You Can’t Capture It

“You just can’t quite capture it,” I thought to myself as I looked over my wife’s shoulder. She was taking pictures of the sunset.

IMG_5345 copy

It was spectacular that night, but what I viewed on her screen didn’t compare to what I saw just above the horizon of her phone.

Almost every night it’s the same thing. Well, it’s different in that the sunset is brand new every night, but it is just as amazing one night to the next.

All we can do is capture a portion of it, a scaled down version and reminder of what we really saw. We can’t capture the vast scope of it, nor can we capture the depth of what our eyes drink in. There is nothing like it.

The crazy thing is it’s free. Every night it only costs us a twelve minute walk, or a three minute bike ride down to the shore to take it all in.

My wife, Lily, and I were at a market the other day where someone was selling large prints of nature scenes. There were pictures of the beach, flowers and trees in the woods.

They were all stunning and inviting. They were also so cheap I wanted to buy at least one, but we didn’t have a wall that was big enough to hang one on. And how long could I look at the same picture without wanting, needing something different to look at?

Even with the cheap cost and beauty of these images, they paled in comparison to the free sunsets that go for as far as your eye can see, until the sun dips below the horizon on the lake.

And these sunsets are different every night. One displays a pale blue sky overlaid with light orange ribbons of colour. Another is a dark red fireball that sends deep pink and purple brush stokes across the clouds to complete the vista.

You can’t keep them though. You want to take one home, to look at it and then be able to look back at it again.

And maybe again.

But it is gone when the darkness takes over and erases the enormous etch-a-sketch in the sky.

People, all kinds of them, with their cameras and phones, lingered to take captive one last shot of the never returning sunset before them.

There was a little sense of melancholy at the end, but not too much because everyone there knew there would be a new one the next night.

I was ready to go for ice cream, but Lily wanted a few more pictures and even after that she wanted to just stand and watch for a while, as if it was an intriguing drama on the big screen.

No, it’s just a sunset. It’s big and bold; it changes every day, and it’s free for all. You just can’t really capture it.

Here’s the thing: You can’t capture a picture of a sunset that really shows what it’s like, but the sunset captures you. And that is God’s intent with creation. He has made it so it will draw us to His beauty, grandeur and magnificence. We can’t capture or fully understand God, but He can capture our hearts and our minds with what He has made for us. Allow God to capture your heart; the encounter will be new and fresh every day like a sunset.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Where have you seen the best sunsets? Leave your comments below.

by

I Have Special Privileges

I’m sure that the people I talked to yesterday think I have special privileges with God.

PM4026162A

Everyone knows it’s been a dry summer in southern Ontario. It’s been warm and hot so far, and when you add in the humidity, this summer rivals any warm spot south of the border.

It’s been so dry that at our cottage the grass is pretty much gone and only the weeds are flourishing. We needed to do something or all we would have left is sand and weeds.

So with my brother’s help we put in an irrigation system. And no, we didn’t bury 50 feet of garden hose in the process, but you can read about that story in this post (click here).

The installation of the system didn’t take much more that a few hours. Getting all the parts we needed took longer. I think the sprinkler manufacturers try to make it difficult to hack their system and make it a lot cheaper.

I don’t think it hurt us working with bone dry, sandy ground either. It made digging the trenches for the tubing fairly easy. The edger went into the ground like butter.

When we finished the install, I hooked it all up and tested the lines; it worked like a charm.

Our plan was to put down grass seed all over our property and then water it like crazy with our new system.

That was the theory. That was the plan. That was what we were going to do.

But since it was Sunday morning, first we were going to church.

On our way out of the park that our cottage is in, I noticed a white piece of paper hanging from the security gate.  As we approached, the words on the paper startled me.

The words burned in my mind as they raised with the arm of the gate to let us out of the park.

The words read, “watering ban in effect” … Whaaaaaaaat?!

We just finished putting in a sprinkler system to give us a lawn and keep our property from turning into a dune or a beach volleyball pit, and before I get to use my new watering system there is a ban on watering.

What gives with that?

After church, we did put seed down on the lawn. I went over to my brother’s place and there were some people there who knew what we had done so they kind of mocked me.

They joked that it was on account of me that the watering ban was on. So to counter them I said, “I’m praying for rain.”

Well, we haven’t had rain in a week or so. Everything is dry. But as the afternoon went on it looked more and more like it might rain.

That evening the humidity was thick, the air couldn’t hold the moisture any longer and it rained.  In fact, it rained for a good portion of the night.

Those people know I’m a preacher; they heard me say I was praying for rain. Now who’s laughing? I felt a little like Elijah, except without the false prophets, sacrifices, and fire from heaven (check that story out here).

If they thought I had an inside track to God before, they really think that now.

Here’s the thing: God is faithful; He gives us just what we need.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you seen God’s faithfulness in your life? Leave your comments below.

by

A New Idea For Your Shopping Experience

I’ve come up with a new idea for grocery stores, something I’m sure could be used in other retail businesses as well.

The idea is a bit of a throwback to the “service is king” mentality of yesteryear. It should work well because it will market to people who remember yesteryear.

“Yesteryear” is a time in the past – not really sure when – but it was long ago. It’s also referred to fondly by many as “the good old days”.

This idea I have is for seniors, and I really think it could take off. It would cost the grocery stores some money in employing young teens who can handle a harsh comment and a light touch of a cane to the back of the leg.

Here’s where I got the idea from …

I was at a grocery store helping Lily do the shopping. Actually, I was adding to the shopping cart, her shopping list and to the price we would be paying.

I had found something about two aisles over from where Lily was with the cart. As I made my way to Lil, I saw a little old lady (not the one from Pasadina) at the end of the aisle where Lily was looking intently at the label on a package of paper towels.

The lady caught my eye because she was just standing there with her hand on a stack of pop cans, with a look on her face that I identified as “I think I might need some help here”.

I thought maybe she was not feeling well, like maybe she was dizzy, or weak, or confused. So I asked her, “Are you okay? Do you need some help?

She responded by saying “I can’t find my shopping cart; someone has taken it.”

Hearing that I was ready to jump into action and overpower the jerk who took the old lady’s cart. But just as I was about to start looking, a teenaged store employee came along with her cart and a cane.

I guess she had wondered off from them and didn’t remember where they were. The young man called her by name and said, “here you go” as he handed her her stuff.

She turned and commented, “It’s hard; I’m 91 years old.” As she shuffled away, I saw a cashier trying to wave her down, telling her she also had some groceries waiting at the cash.

You know that lady was going to get into a car and drive away after that?! … but that’s another blog post altogether.

When I saw all this happen I got inspired. I bet a lot of seniors – I mean the really senior kind of seniors – would love to have a young guy or girl push their cart and fill it, all on their command.

Seniors would flock to a grocery store that had that kind of service. The kids wouldn’t mind; they might even get a tip, and something monetary from the seniors they served.

Who knows? By the time I get to be a real senior, I might like a little of that yesteryear treatment too.

Here’s the thing: We all need a little help at times in life. One of the most important things a church provides is others to walk with you when you need that helping hand. Church should be a place where people assist each other and we all should be on the lookout for those we might be able to help.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you been helped by someone in your life? Leave a comment below.

by

Frustrated On The Road Again

Traveling the other day, I found myself a little frustrated. The conditions were good; the sun was shining, and the road was dry.

FrustratedDriver

The traffic, though heavy, was moving at a good pace.

I had some music on and really, what more could you ask for? … Not much, except I would have liked the guy in front of me to get out of the way!

I found him a little annoying. Well, to be honest, a little more than annoying.

For one thing, he didn’t drive at a steady pace. He would keep up with the traffic ahead of him for a few minutes, but then slow down by almost 10 km/hr. I found I was on the gas, off the gas the whole trip.

I would have passed him but it was only a two lane highway and there was steady traffic coming the other way.

I figured he wasn’t much of a skater – he had to have weak ankles not to be able to keep his foot on the gas at an even pressure for very long.

I found myself analyzing what he was probably like. I came up with his personality traits and the kinds of things he was thinking about.

If I had have had a police sketcher in the seat next to me I think I probably would have been able to come up with a fairly good picture of what he looked like.

My picture might not have looked anything like the guy in real life, but it was dark out and so we will never know for sure.

Let’s just say my description fit him to a T.

The other thing that bugged me about his driving was he used his brakes all the time. We were driving on a highway; there were no lights, just straight road!

There was no need to touch the brakes, but it was like he needed to hit them frequently just to make sure the pedal was still there or that someone hadn’t tampered with his brake line.

Like in most things, momentum is key. I’ve learned in mountain biking to try to use your brakes as little as possible, because any forward momentum you’ve built up will be lost as soon as you put on the brakes. Coasting is a better way to control your speed than stepping on and off the brakes.

However, on a bike when you loose momentum, you have to expend a lot of energy pedalling to get it back. In a car you just have to put your foot back on the gas pedal … unless you have weak ankles and can only sustain the pressure on the gas for a short amount of time, like the guy who was driving in front of me.

In the end we parted ways. He turned off the road, and someone else had to drive behind him and get all frustrated.

As for me, I’ll forget about him, but there’s plenty others out there who will take his place in front of me.

Here’s the thing: Life can frustrate you at times. You may even be a little frustrated with God, feeling like He is not clearing the way for you. Patience is required, and maybe that’s what you need God’s help for more than anything else.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has you frustrated lately? What will you do about it? Leave your comments below.

by

When YouTube Strikes The Funny Bone

YouTube is a source for help and a source of humour … and sometimes one video can pull together both those elements.

Screen Shot 2016-07-19 at 12.00.57 AM

In my last post I wrote about how I was thinking of putting in some kind of watering system for our lawn. It’s been so dry that the only things that remain green are the weeds.

For research I turned to YouTube. It doesn’t matter what you are working on, or thinking of doing, someone has already attempted it and has recorded it on video for the masses to see.

There is a world of practical information and tutorials out there made by well-meaning people. I say “well-meaning” because there is a vast array of quality when it comes to these videos.

There are those who try to show you what to do, or tell you what they are doing, all while they are also holding the camera. It’s like they are filming on the back of a moving horse.

Then there are those who are over instructive. They want to make sure they have not left anything to the viewers’ imagination or interpretation.

And there are some who can pull together an instructive video that really is helpful.

In my search for a video to show me possible methods of in-ground water sprinklers, I found one who took forever explaining things I and every 10 year old on the planet already knew.

But along the way a video caught my eye. It was two young guys showing how to make an in-ground system for under $20.

The video started with the equipment and tools you would need to do it. Then they demonstrated how you would install their system. This is where it got funny.

They had found a 50 foot garden hose on sale for $2.49, which would really help their price point.

They showed how to mark the path of where the hose would go and put a sprinkler head on one end. They attached the other end to the water source coming out of the house. They then dug up the ground along the path of the hose.

Before they actually buried the hose underground, they had one issue to take care of: they had bought a 50 foot hose but only needed about 20 feet of it for their project.

Now, you have to remember these young guys were about 12-14 year old kids. So instead of cutting the hose to the length they needed, they suggested you coil the excess hose and bury it.

That’s right, you heard me! This sprinkler head was going to be at the corner of a garden, so they coiled 30 feet of hose, dug a shallow grave for it in the garden, and covered it up.

It was my laugh for the day. I’m still chuckling a week later!

… Definitely informative and funny.

Here’s the thing: Don’t be all serious when you read the Bible. There are things in there that will make you smile, and even laugh if you let them. Sometime you might find yourself chuckling with God as you read about Gideon and his battle against the Midianites without weapons. Sometimes you might chuckle at how much you are like the characters in the Bible. God’s Word is both instructive and, yes, it can be funny too, in places.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you found to be a funny passage in the Bible? Leave your comments below.

by

The Grass Is Not Greener Over There

We are having a pretty dry summer so far and that has good and bad side effects.

brown grass lawn

On the good side, there are not many days my outdoor activities get rained out.

I can get my golf game in and my mountain bike rides in without worrying if I’m picking the best weather days; most days of the week the sun is shining.

In the spring, when it was raining a lot, the soaked mountain biking trails would often be closed so we wouldn’t destroy them. Now if it rains, the trails are so dry that they suck up the rain and we never have to miss a day of biking.

Another good side is I don’t have to cut the grass that often. With the little rain we’ve had in the last month, my grass is not really growing; it’s turning brown … except for the part where they installed a fibre optics cable junction!

Last fall Bell Canada made a mess on my front lawn doing their installation. They finally re-sodded the little area this spring and have been faithful watering it ever since. That’s the only really green part of my lawn now.

… Which leads me to the downside of not having any rain. The grass doesn’t grow but the weeds are in fine form! They seem to be able to stay green and flourish under these drought-like conditions.

While I may not have to cut my grass every week, I still need to cut the weeds if I want to keep the lawn looking even.

So we’ve been thinking maybe we should look into putting a sprinkler system in our yard so that we can give the grass a fighting chance against the weeds. (One year we came home from vacation and our lawn looked completely brown except for thriving, foot high cactus-like weeds, spastically placed all over it!)

 

If we were getting a decent amount of rain, I’m sure we wouldn’t be looking into underground sprinklers at all. But in order for the weeds to not completely take over, we did a little investigation.

After we completed the online planning guide from one company, we looked at their end cost and started wondering if a green lawn was worth taking out a second mortgage on the house!

I’m leaning towards considering that brown is the new green.

We’ve already had to make adjustments like that. When they banned the use of chemical weed control in our city, dandelions became a beautiful yellow flower of spring.

Almost every home sports them and they’re cheap – you don’t have to buy them and they come up every year.

Maybe I just need to look at that brown grass and think of how nice it looks that way. Maybe I just have to ignore the green weeds.

For sure, I can embrace brown grass if it means more time in the sun and less interruptions from my outside activities.

Here’s the thing: You can get used to allowing a certain sin in your life. If you live with it long enough, you may even get to the place where you think it is perfectly fine. But don’t fool yourself! Grass is supposed to be green and you are to confess your sin and turn from it. There’s no other way of looking at it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life have you come to accept but instead should cut out? Leave your comments below.

by

Waiting For An Outcome That’s Worth It

Sometimes the outcome is worth the wait … and sometimes it’s not.

Mario-+Queen+of+the+Circus

That’s what I found last night when we went to the buskers festival downtown.

I’ve been to them before and seen all kinds of acts. It truly is remarkable what some people can do with their bodies and a few props.

On this trip to watch the street performers, Lily and I mostly witnessed juggling in various forms.

There was the guy who could juggle and eat an apple. There were the guys who juggled between each other, one on a unicycle and the other on a ladder, completely unsupported.

We also saw a guy who juggled two fire sticks and a sledge hammer – that was pretty remarkable.

Being a juggler myself, I found that fascinating. I can only juggle three objects and Lily still won’t let me attempt to juggle eggs from the fridge. … I guess I’m not quite ready to join the cast of performers making a living off the street.

As we moved from one busker to another, we noticed that many of them used similar jokes and lines. I personally found there was way too much similarity between the acts. It would have been nice to see more variety.

All the acts work on the same premise. They have one big trick, feat or demonstration that they are going to show the crowd.

That one thing probably only takes about two or three minutes to perform. They make their living off people donating to their act so, to get people to pay up, they need to build some rapport, and give people something more than a two minute reason to spend $5 or more.

What the buskers do is develop a whole act that takes about thirty minutes, leading up to this one main trick everyone is waiting to see. By then you’ve expended a significant amount of time with them and and they have been able to charm you into being generous with your money.

What I found, however, is that most acts really left you thinking, “Please, get on with it”. I didn’t say it because I’m Canadian, but I had thought of shouting out, “Okay, let’s get to the big trick!”

With most of the acts, I thought they were putting in time. But there was one act Lily and I both agreed kept everyone entertained. I never felt like I wished they’d get to the finale.

I found it to be a lot like preaching. You have a point that you want to make, and then you inform the congregation, illustrate the point to emphasize it, draw some conclusions to it, and hopefully are able to do it in a way that keeps the congregation engaged throughout, and not just hoping you’d get to the end.

Maybe I do have some street performer in me.

Here’s the thing: Following Jesus shouldn’t be like most of those busker acts where you are all focussed on the final feat (heaven). It should be more like that one act we saw, where you are engaged with Jesus and interacting with Him all through life. Christ doesn’t call us to an ending; He calls us to come along with Him in relationship.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of relationship with Jesus do you have? Leave your comments below.

by

Is Taking A Vacation Worth It?

My life is so overextended right now that I have to work extra hard just to get myself ready for vacation.

Working-on-Vaca

Back when I was a child, and even a teen, when vacation time came around I could literally drop what I was doing and go.

Of course, in those days I had servants (also called parents) that did all the prep work for vacation. I was just along for the ride.

Family vacation was a bonus for me then anyway; I was already on vacation.

But now it’s a different story. In order to leave on vacation, I have to cover my bases, make sure people are in place, and that responsibilities are assigned.

Then there’s the issue of unfinished work.

The experts say that if you really want a rest, if you want to relax, you need to clear up the things you’ve been putting off. In other words, you need to catch up on your work so you can take a break.

The problem is we’re often behind on our work because we’re too tired and need a break.

It seems like a lose-lose situation. I need a break from work, but in order to do that I have to burn myself out before I go so that I have nothing left when I actually take my vacation.

My vacation then becomes a rest AND recuperation.

I have lots of projects that I should tackle before vacation and but there are particularly two things that will stare me in the face all throughout vacation if I don’t do them before I go.

One of those projects involves the desktop on my computer. It is strewn with files and folders, representing work that I need to file or finish.

The filing is not that difficult to accomplish; the time it will take is minimal. It’s the work I need to finish that has me reeling.

The work staring at me from my computer screen has two stages to it. It’s work I need to post to a website.

The first stage is the preparation. I need to get the work in a format that is ready to be posted … I’ve already been working on that.

The second stage involves posting it to the website. This part will take a long time. It’s a tedious, multi-step process for each file.

I remember one year going on vacation, and within an hour of leaving the house, I started feeling sick.

By the time we got to where we were staying the first night, I was sicker than I’d ever been in my life.

I think I had worked so hard getting myself ready for vacation that my body said, “That’s enough!” and it kind of shut down on me.

I was a couple of days into vacation before my body started to come around and I began feeling like myself again.

That seems counteractive to the whole idea of vacation.

Oh, for the days when I had servants to do all the work for me!

Here’s the thing: We tend to overextend ourselves, pushing hard for things, even when we don’t have the power to make them happen. We strive in our own power, and become exhausted, only in the end turning to God for the help He can provide. Why not go to Him first, and seek His wisdom, power and support? Don’t burn out in your own power.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What work or issue could you take to God, instead of wearing out in your own strength? Leave your comments below.

by

My Hockey Season is Finally Over

We just celebrated Canada’s birthday, and this morning I finally hung up my skates for the season.

DSC_4925

That’s Canada … hockey till July! No wonder some folks down south believe we live in igloos. Those same people probably think we are still skating outside in July.

This is actually the latest I’ve played hockey in several years. There are other things that get in the way, things like golf and mountain biking.

I only have time for so much; something had to give.

I will tell you though, it’s kind of nice showing up to the arena wearing sandals, shorts and a T-shirt … and I’d much rather come out of the arena to temperatures of +25 C with the sun high in a blue sky than -25 C with the wind howling and the snow flying.

It was time to stop; the numbers were getting low. I guess people have other things to do on a Saturday morning.

We only had three aside and two goalies yesterday. It was like playing overtime in the NHL, except we did it for an hour and 10 minutes!

We even made a trade part way through the game, and my team acquired my son in a one-for-one trade.

We made a killing on the trade, and improved our team and chances by a considerable amount.

For the last game of the season, it was nice to be on the same side as my son and set him up for a few goals.

Normally, we are on opposite teams because he refuses to put a white jersey in his hockey bag. … The teams are usually chosen by light and dark sweaters, so he’s on the other side most of the time.

Before I even had kids, I remember dreaming about being able to play hockey with my children when they became adults.

Since I was in my 30’s before we started, I wondered if I would still be able to skate by the time they reached an age where we could play on the same level.

Well, it’s kind of nice now. I just turned 60, my son is 25, and we were able to dangle some moves together that hypnotized the goalie.

Lily has mixed emotions about the end of the season.

On the one hand, I leave to play at 6:30 in the morning so it’s no hassle for her because she’s still sleeping. But on the other hand, now that the last game has been played, I just added all my hockey sweaters, socks and underwear to the pile of laundry … laundry just increased by a few loads this week.

Without hockey on Saturday, I’ll be able to get at things earlier on Saturday mornings – Lily should be happy. She’ll have more of my time to coerce me into projects and tasks around the house.

Then there is some vacation time up ahead and there’s not much room for hockey when the beach is taking up most days.

It’s a good time for a break, to focus on some other things, and do some dreaming of next season.

Here’s the thing: Different seasons or times of year bring different schedules and commitments. In the changes, your time with God can get put on the shelf. As one thing stops and something else starts, be sure that you keep your time with God – that season never ends.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What seasonal activity has impacted your devotional time? Leave your comments below.

by

I Just Got Some Insights On Baking

I’m not often in the kitchen when my wife is baking, but the other day I got a little insight into what goes into baking.

gingersnaps2

She was making cookies – ginger snaps to be exact. I’ve been eating her ginger snaps for years and I really never knew what went into making them.

I knew there had to be sugar because they’re pretty sweet. I also knew that there was molasses in ginger snaps.

But what I didn’t know is that it’s not just any kind of molasses that you put in ginger snap cookies. It’s fancy molasses.

To be honest with you, when I realized that it was fancy molasses in the cookies, I found it hard to believe.

First of all, I wouldn’t call ginger snaps fancy cookies. You wouldn’t find them at a fancy restaurant, or at a high class hotel. You wouldn’t even necessarily come across ginger cookies at any special occasion like Christmas or Easter or Thanksgiving.

It’s your run-of-the-mill, every day, blue collar, working man’s kind of cookie.

So why do they use fancy molasses? And what’s the difference between regular molasses and the fancy kind?

I was really puzzled about this so I did a little research and found out that my wife, though she bakes a mean cookie, has been using the wrong molasses in her ginger snaps.

There are actually five types of molasses and it comes directly from sugar cane. I couldn’t find out why it’s called “fancy”, but another name for fancy molasses is “gold star”.

Whatever you call it, it sounds kind of special, certainly more special than the others: Lite, cooking, unsulphured, and Blackstrap.

Fancy molasses is very sweet and I now realize that’s why my wife’s cookies taste so sweet.

If she used cooking molasses, which is a combination of Fancy and Blackstrap molasses, her ginger snaps wouldn’t be quite as sweet and I would be able to eat 5 or 6 more at a time.

… It’s possible that she knows this and it’s on purpose that she makes them sweeter to cut down on my consumption per serving, but I’m not sure about that.

I think she uses a recipe that calls for fancy molasses because the person who came up with that recipe had a bit of a sweet tooth.

I’m just not sure how to break the news to Lily that she needs to change the molasses in her ginger snaps. Though she sees me as a cookie eating machine, verging on a Cookie Monster, she doesn’t respect my culinary skills or knowledge.

I think the best I can hope for is when she reads this post she will be swayed to try a different kind of molasses the next time she makes her ginger snaps.

By the way, why don’t they call these cookies “molasses cookies” instead of “ginger snaps”? There is way more molasses in them that there is ginger.

You know, if we called them “fancy molasses cookies” I bet they would start showing up in snobbier places and events … I’m just sayin’.

Here’s the thing: We all have different tastes, likes and dislikes. That’s why it’s important to create your time with God in a manner, method, and way that you relate best to Him. There are no cookie cutter relationships with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you structure your devotional time? Leave your comments below.