God

by

We Just Got A Laundry Room Makeover

In a lot of homes, when you have guests over for a visit, one thing you are sure to do is close the door to the laundry room. … You don’t want to show off what’s happening in that part of the house because it just might scare people off.

It’s like if you ever worked in the kitchen of a restaurant, that’s one eatery you are not going to frequent in the future … you know what goes on back there!

I don’t know this first hand, but when my son was 15 he worked at a fast food place and, let’s just say, probably some customers’ life expectancies got lowered by a few years from eating there.

But back to our laundry room … I would almost consider taking the door off the room to let people see inside now.

This transformation happened because we needed to purchase a new washer and dryer.

It never ceases to amaze me how the need to do or get one thing has a ripple effect on so much more.

There was a lot of research that went into that decision and the new appliances are quiet and don’t leave black marks on the clothes like the old ones did.

The last straw for Lily was the black marks on the white towels. But for quite some time we had put up with the sound of a jet engine taking off when our washing machine was on the rinse cycle.

It was time.

In order to get these new machines in our house we had to do something with the laundry room, just to create some space to get the old ones out and the new ones in.

Lily had been thinking of keeping the laundry door closed to even the delivery guests. That was not going to work; we had to let them in.

There wasn’t much room to move around in there. There were boxes, files, and other equipment cluttering up the floor. You always felt like you had to get in and get out as fast a possible.

Not now. You could hold a small meeting in our laundry room. In the middle area, there’s a part of the floor that I haven’t seen for about 10 years!

It’s really great.

The downside is that we lived with a laundry room that collected things that didn’t have any place to go. It took a new purchase to motivate us to do something about all the stuff that had piled up in that room.

To be honest, there are several things that we still have to do something with. There will be a garbage run, and electronic waste run … and a run on old sentimental trunks that aren’t worth anything.

As a bonus to the neat and more spacious laundry room, I got a do-over of our exercise room. We reorganized the room, and made a space for another piece of equipment (treadmill) that had been lurking in the laundry room.

And it all happened because somebody from outside the home was going to see inside the laundry room.

Here’s the thing: There are parts of our lives that we don’t want anyone to see, so we keep them hidden. We are all good at hiding things from the people around us. But God sees it all; there is nothing that is hidden from Him. Keep that in mind and be quick to confess your sins. Don’t leave them to clutter up your life and your relationship with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to spend some time cleaning up? Leave your comments below.

by

I Need More Automation In My Life

I need a little more automation at a reasonable price.

This week I was putting together some booklets for a seminar I am running. It was a multi-step process that began with printing the material in a half-page format. The paper then needed to be cut in half, with care, so that the pages would be in the right order.

Then there was the binding – a two-step process in itself. There were holes that had to be punched and then the paper had to have the curly rings inserted into the holes.

The first part went smoothly; I have a program that arranges the pages in the order they need to be in.

From there I needed a little more automation. I didn’t have a cutting machine that would cut more than about 7 or 8 pages at a time.

The book was about 100 pages double-sided, so to cut the paper for one book took about 5 cuts. I don’t have an electric cutter either, so it required some arm effort on my part.

For this project, to get a cutter that would cut my time down (pun intended), I might have to mortgage my house.

I remember when I was a kid, my dad was in the printing business and he would take me to work sometimes.

I got to see some pretty wild printing presses and cutting units. There was one machine that just put numbers on invoices.

Back in the day, invoices came in triplicate – that’s three together with a carbon between each page. That meant that each invoice needed the same number stamped on each sheet, and then they had to be glued together.

This machine was like the old mouse trap game. There were little vacuum-like tubes that would suck one sheet and move it over to be printed. Then another set of tubes would move it to the assembly section, waiting for the other paper to be numbered and added, then the invoice would be glued along the top.

That was just one page! It was amazing to watch this machine, and listen to it make all kinds of noise while paper was flying from one part to the next.

If back in the sixties they could have a machine that did all that, how come now it costs so much money to punch holes in paper so it can be bound?

With my cut and assemble job, I had to be extremely careful because the machine was finicky and would only punch holes through a maximum of 10 pages at a time.

Oh, and if I made a mistake, and the puncher was misaligned on one section, I basically had to scrap that whole book!

There should be a cheap machine out there that can punch holes in paper with a press of a button, and can handle 20 to 30 pages at a time.

We’ve made so much progress in so many areas, with new discoveries and great advancements in technology … how about someone spending a little genius power on book binding?

Here’s the thing: The more automated our world gets, and the faster technology changes the things we do, the more we want all of life to be faster, easier, effortless. But there is no short cut to growing your relationship with God. It’s going to take time and you have to put in the effort. Keep at your routine of meeting with God daily.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life would you like automated? Leave your comments below.

by

Super Bowl Comeback

It’s what dreams are made of – the Super Bowl on Sunday night was an amazing comeback.

It was supposed to be a high scoring game; both teams had high powered offences.

But for the first three quarters, it looked like the story had already been written. Atlanta looked destined to win Super Bowl 51.

New England had the ball for much of the game, but there were dropped passes, quarterback sacks, and a couple of turnovers that just kept them from turning their possession time into points on the board.

By late in the third quarter, the score was 28-3 for Atlanta. New England finally crossed the goal line with 2 minutes left in the quarter, but then missed the convert.

New England went into the fourth quarter in a hole that seem insurmountable – it had never actually been mounted before.

People turned the game off, wrote the team off, got into that sorry funk when your team is out of it.

Then New England got a field goal and, with it, a glimmer of hope that if they scored two touchdowns with two point conversions they could tie the game.

Not likely; you’d need the comeback kids to do that.

… I remember playing road hockey on our street. My team was a little weaker than the other team. My brother was on that team and they also had the oldest and biggest guy on the street.

When he took a shot, everyone got out of the way. No one wanted to block his cannon.

We were behind in the game by about 4 goals, and dinner time was fast approaching. We huddled together and determined to beat those guys.

We scored a goal quickly and then it started … we muttered to each other, “the comeback kids.”

We got another goal, and our mantra got a little louder, “We’re the comeback kids!”

After the next goal, we actually believed what we were saying and the chant picked up some swagger to it.

After that we put in the goal to win the game, just before dinner. We were ecstatic, hugging each other and cheering, “Comeback kids, comeback kids, come back kids!”

That was the greatest comeback story of all time … but last night’s Super Bowl game came pretty close to it.

One of New England’s sure-handed receivers (Julian Edelman) had dropped about 3 passes in the game. But with 2 minutes left in the final quarter, he made one amazing catch that put them into the category of the comeback kids.

A pass to Eldeman was tipped, but the receiver stayed with it and tracked it down, getting hold of the ball about an inch from the ground.

It was something else! A Falcon defender said it best; looking up at the replay on the score board, you could see him mouth the word “wha . . .wha . . .wha . . .wha . . .wha . . .t?!”

That’s right, this catch got everyone out of their seats, and set up the greatest comeback (next to the comeback kids of ’69) in Super Bowl history. Awesome!

Here’s the thing: When do you quit when it seems impossible to make the change that God wants you to make? The answer is never! That’s what comeback kids do; they keep coming back to see it through to victory.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need a comeback on right now? Leave your comments below.

by

I Was So Tired After My Recent Road Trip

There is something about being on the road that tires me out.

I’m not sure what it is … maybe it’s not sleeping in my own bed or maybe it’s keeping later hours, but being away from home just tires me out!

I don’t know how many times I’ve come home after a vacation and said, “Man, I need a vacation from my vacation!”

The whole idea of vacation is to relax and rest, but I’m always tired after my rest and relaxation time way.

It must be a bit of a mental thing, because when I lived in a dorm for four years I was able to feel rested, even though home was really halfway across the country.

Home is where you tell yourself it is, but once you settle on it, you get your full rest there; anything else kind of drains you a little.

This past week both my wife, Lily, and I were away from home – in separate directions. I was in the Toronto area for three days and Lily was in Ottawa for that same period of time.

I stayed one night in a hotel and the next night at our daughter’s place. Lily spent her nights at her mother’s. We were both in pretty familiar and friendly territory.

But when we both arrived home Saturday afternoon, we were wiped. If we hadn’t had things to do, both of us could have easily taken a big ol’ afternoon nap.

In fact, that might have made us more productive!

Our time away was spend with people we knew well. Both of us had a mixture of business and family time in our itineraries. But it seemed to drain us and not give us renewed energy.

I’ve talked to other people who share similar thoughts. The consensus is if you can make it back home after a full day away, it’s better being home than staying overnight somewhere else and getting back the next day.

You might think this feeling would be detrimental to hotels and resorts, but they seem to be able to sustain a good business. We like home, but obviously we also like to travel and experience other places.

I’ve been on vacations, missions trips, and business trips, some lasting as many as four weeks. But no matter where I’ve been, or how long I’ve been away, when I get back home it feels different.

When you get home, that’s when you really are at rest. Your whole body relaxes physically and mentally … that is unless you’ve been at home for a long period of time and find yourself a little stir-crazy. That’s when some time away from home will “reset” home for you.

It’s like a computer that’s been working for a while but then freezes. You can’t get it to do anything; the mouse won’t work and pressing the buttons does nothing.

All you have to do is hit reset and the computer comes back on, working like it always did.

A brief time away resets home so that coming back, walking in the door, flopping on your bed brings you back to the rest that comforts your body, soul and mind.

It’s home!

Here’s the thing: When you spend regular time with the Lord, that’s home. You know the place, the setup, the atmosphere; there is rest there. But sometimes that regular time gets disrupted, making you spiritually tired. You need to reset, get back to your time with God and find rest.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When was the last time you reset your time with God? Leave your questions below.

by

The Father Daughter Game

She took me! My daughter took me to the game!

Karlie took me to a Toronto Raptors’ game; it was her Christmas present to me. We just went, having planned it for a time I had some business in the area.

I haven’t been to a Raptor’s game in a long time, so I wanted to go to a really good game. You always want your team to win, but especially when you attend a game live.

The trouble with this game was that the Raps were on a 5 game losing skid and their big star, DeMar DeRozan, was injured and not in the lineup.

The good news was they were playing a team that was well below them in the standing.

But my focus was on how my daughter was going to take in this game.

… The last time I took Karlie to a basketball game was in Edmonton. Now Edmonton has never had an NBA basketball team, but a minor league team was operating out of the city for a few years when we lived there.

I took a group of students from our church to a game and had an extra ticket.

I can’t remember the reason why, but I brought Karlie along to the game … she was three.

I’m not sure what I was expecting – an instant love for the game? an ability to understand the intricacies of the play? a keen interest in the players’ skills?

But what Karlie zeroed in on was the team mascot. Though we were sitting way high up in the stands, this fuzzy, energetic animal captured her attention.

I don’t think Karlie watched the game; she just kept her eye on that mascot.

When the game was over, she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay. I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t want to get going – the game was not a big hit for her. Then she started pointing right at the mascot.

I realized that this event wouldn’t end well without us at least trying to see the mascot.

We headed down to the floor level, and I maneuvered us over to where the mascot was giving high fives to all the kids swarming around him.

We got close but then he turned and started walking away from us. I thought we had missed our chance for Karlie to  get up close with the star of the game.

Just then the mascot stopped. He turned around, looked right at Karlie, got down on one knee and put out his arms.

That was all the invitation Karlie needed; she ran to him and got engulfed in his fur.

That was the highlight; we could go home.

This time around for Karlie, it was all about the skill, the plays and the intricacies of the game – not the mascot … oh, how 24 years changes things.

Here’s the thing: We are supposed to grow in all areas of our life as we get older. To stay the same in an area doesn’t make sense and really only stunts us. Be sure you are still growing in your relationship with God. Don’t be stunted spiritually.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What area of your life have you seen growth in over the last five years? Leave your comments below.

by

Oh, The Sweet Taste Of Victory

I can almost taste the victory – that’s the victory of completing the Apple watch fitness challenge.

I’m not sure if Apple thought that we weren’t using their watches to succeed at keeping up with our fitness goals or routines … maybe they just wanted to help us all be a little more motivated to get exercising at the beginning of the new year.

At any rate, they put out a challenge to Apple watch owners to complete their fitness rings every day for a week in January.

There are three fitness rings that the watch measures. One is standing. You complete this ring by standing a minimum of one minute per hour for 12 hours a day.

This sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? But if you work at a desk or sit in a car, or do both, those hours can easily tick away without you standing in every hour.

You have to be conscious of it and get out of your seat for at least a little bit each hour.

Then there is the move ring. This measures the calories you burn simply by moving about in your day. You don’t have to put out much effort at all to get this ring swirling, but it won’t budge if you are sitting down most of the day.

And then there is the exercise ring. This ring measures when your heart rate is elevated – not like in a stress-filled meeting, but by exerting yourself physically.

These three simple rings wind around my watch face, and this week I’ve completed all three rings for six days.

Tomorrow is the last day and I know I will be able to do it.

I haven’t set the bar too high, but it did require me most days to do specific workouts for at least 20 minutes. For me, it’s either I play hockey, or use my stationary bike and rowing machine to get my exercise in.

It wasn’t a cinch but it also wasn’t hard for me to accomplish. The trick was to be aware of what I needed and make sure the day didn’t slip away without me getting in those necessary, needed elements.

For example, I knew on Thursday that I had an evening meeting in which I would just be sitting. During that day I was mostly sitting as well.

But I did have a midday meeting outside the office and so I decided to also spend a half hour on my bike and rower to ensure I completed my exercise ring before my evening meeting.

So what’s the prize for all this? Do I win a new Apple watch or get a discount on a new Mac computer?

… It would be nice to win some free software or something.

Unfortunately, none of the above. All I get is an achievement award that shows up in an app on my phone.

It’s not much; it’s sort of like the online course I took at the end of the year. When I completed the work, I got to print out a completion certificate with my name on it.

Wow … it probably won’t get framed or put on the wall.

But along with the satisfaction of completing the challenge, there is the knowledge that a healthier body will enable me to live longer and with more energy. … Sweet victory!

Here’s the thing: Though there may not be any big wow’s for daily living for God, you do experience God working through you and you get to spend eternity with God in heaven. … Sweet victory!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find satisfaction in? Leave your comments below.

by

Frustration Won Me Over

I was frustrated last night and I carried that frustration to bed with me.

It was the day that determined the two teams that would go on to the Super Bowl.

My frustration was not with the games or the teams; in fact, both the teams I wanted to win, won.

The first game I watched rather intently, but the second game … well, I was interested; I wanted to see it, but I had watched so much football already that I was a little football weary.

I didn’t want to entirely miss the game, so I turned to multitasking.

Now, I am not a great multitasker; I need to focus on one thing at a time. So when I do a couple of things at the same time, my productivity goes way down.

Yesterday that was okay; I didn’t mind. The game was going to be on all evening; I had time on my hands and just needed a slight distraction, while still being able to follow the action of the game.

There were a couple of multitasking possibilities for such a situation: I could play pool – the TV was right there; all I’d have to do was turn it – or I could fly my new drone around the family room.

… I tried both of these activities and still there were 3 1/2 quarters of football to go.

I then resorted to my go-to TV multitasking standby: my computer. I wanted to make some changes to our church website that I hadn’t gotten to in a long time.

Since I was doing two things at the same time – watching a game and working on the computer – I wasn’t frustrated at first when I ran into problems making the changes I wanted to make.

I knew that I had plenty of time while the game was on, so I just turned my attention to the plays for a few minutes.

As the game neared the end, I really wanted to be at the end of making those web changes … but I still couldn’t figure out how to do them.

Long after the game was over, some show was on TV that I was not one bit interested in, but it provided background noise that kept the frustration from really taking hold of me.

I looked at the time – it was way later than I wanted to be up and working on this! Then the frustration set its hooks into me and I laboured on it a little longer, with a little more angst building inside me.

I finally gave up for the night; frustration had won, but I planned to try another approach the next day.

It was time for bed, but how could I sleep? I was all keyed up, frustrated and not really ready to settle down.

So I put on a movie and let my mind chill out. It worked; it wasn’t long before I started to nod off.

… I had just needed to turn my attention to something else.

Here’s the thing: Frustration captures and controls our thoughts and emotions. If you turn your frustration over to God, and focus your attention on Him instead of your frustration, He will give you relief in mind and emotion. He will also give you a way out or through your frustration.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kinds of things frustrate you most? Leave your comments below.

by

I Just Renewed My Muscles

I finally have some life back in my muscles. I am feeling better than I have in a long time on the ice.

It’s sort of like Popeye in reverse. Remember that cartoon character? Popeye would get beaten down, usually by Brutus, and just when it looked like Brutus would finish him off, Popeye would say, “That’s all I can stands; I can’t stands no more.”

Then he would pull a can of spinach – yes, a can of spinach – right out of his shirt.

It’s only through the magic of television that he could hide that spinach there.

But once he ate that spinach, he got new strength and “he was strong to the finish cause he ate his spinach. He’s Popeye the sailer man (toot toot)” … You have to see the cartoon.

I did the opposite. I didn’t eat anything to give me renewed strength; I cut something out.

Back in November, I wrote a post about how my muscles were really giving me some pain when I played hockey. I was trying to figure out what was causing it – maybe medication, maybe my heart, maybe sugar. You can read that post here.

I decided to try cutting out sugar … well, not cut it out entirely; we were just about to head into the Christmas season.

My plan was to reduce sugar by cutting out snacks and junk food.

It’s been two months, and I said I would report back on this topic. This is what I discovered …

I dropped some weight over these two months – about eight pounds to be exact – and I didn’t do anything other than reduce my sugar intake.

Yes, I still have my hot wings and a can of Dr. Pepper on Saturday nights, but that’s pretty much the only time I have pop or fried food all week. … I’ve tried to cut out french fries as much as possible.

I purposely didn’t try to exercise any more than I had, so the weight loss is due solely to the diet change.

Here is something else: I feel good. I actually want to remember how I feel right now because that might keep me going when I get tempted to get back into sugar.

The other thing that seems to have changed is my hockey playing. I was experiencing muscle pain and fatigue in a huge way. That pain and fatigue is gone.

Now, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not ingesting sugar like I was or if it has to do with me having a few less pounds to carry around on my skates.

But I will take that mystery and live with it.

The last several times playing hockey have been a treat for me. I don’t feel like an old man out on the ice.

I feel more like Popeye – strong to the finish. I like how this feels, and it’s way better than the momentary enjoyment of a chocolate bar.

Here’s the thing: After you have confessed your sin, take a moment to think about how you feel, how close you feel to God, how grateful to God you are, how you want to please Him with your life. Then remember that feeling because you will be tempted to sin again. And when you’re tempted, remember how you feel pleasing God with your life. That may keep you from falling to sin again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to add to or cut out of your life? Leave your comments below.

by

We Need More Than Product Selection

I’m all for more product selection in Canada, but they should also be serviceable.

The United States has a plethora of products available for purchase. One of the painful things living in Canada is finding out that, “Oh, that product is not available in Canada”.

We get so much advertising from the States that it seems like everything is available to us, whether in stores or through the internet.

But there are many products we just can’t get. For instance, if by accident you get onto the amazon.com site and then you try to find the same thing on the amazon.ca site, sometimes it’s not there.

We are used to that up here in the north, and we don’t get too bent out of shape when it happens to us. That’s just the way it goes.

There are more people in the US than in Canada so they have more of a selection and cheaper prices.

The department store, Target, learned that lesson the hard way. So many Canadians went across the border to shop at Target that they thought they could move into Canada and clean up.

The problem was they forgot two things – two very important things – price and selection. Those two things didn’t make it across the border and now we have empty department stores with large red balls at the front entrances, right across our country.

We know the prices are better and selection is better south of the border.

But if a company decides to ship their products to Canada for sale, they need to support their products.

My wife bought me a very small drone for Christmas. It wasn’t something I had been looking for, not an item I thought I would ever own.

She just knew I liked gadgets and toys and so she got it.

I’ve had some fun with it. Though it’s really tiny, it takes video and pictures.

And I’ve had fun learning to fly the thing in my basement, crashing into a variety of obstacles: Christmas tree, pool table, TV, chairs, walls – you name it, I’ve run my drone into it.

Since it’s only January, I figure I will need some spare parts if the thing is going to make it to the spring when I can try it outside without the confines of walls and ceilings.

So I got on the website and found some replacement parts I could purchase, just in case. The cost of these things was next to nothing when I totalled them all up.

I was all set to key in my credit card to make the deal when I got a pop-up window saying, “We can’t ship this product to this address.”

I’m not sure why – the world doesn’t stop at the US border! Even the US postal system will work with Canada Post to get things delivered.

… So I have this great little product, sold in Canada, but I can’t get it serviced if I need parts. Man, that bugs me!

Here’s the thing: Not only has Christ died for your sins so that you can be forgiven and live forever with God in heaven, but He will also speak to you about how to get through the obstacles and things that have you stumped today. Christ does it all: saves you completely AND helps you along the way.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: You trust Christ for your salvation … what could you trust Him for today? Leave your comments below.

by

Customer Service Frustration

Gone are the days when the customer was always right. I think things started to change when retail began leaning towards “self serve” rather than “we serve”.

Frustration with Customer service

Now you have to fight for everything you get from a company.

This Christmas I bought a present for my wife, Lily, and a few days later I noticed that another company was selling it cheaper.

I researched the product and whether it was available in the other store. And only with all my ammunition properly documented did I go in and get a price break.

What really brought home this change though was our satellite provider. We had ordered HD sports, so that I don’t have to struggle watching hockey in standard definition any more.

The price was clear on the website so we had ordered it. The transaction went through and we were informed that it would take up to 48 business hours for them to punch a code into their computer to give us the new service.

That was okay … the World Juniors were not starting for a few days.

However, after we received the HD channels, we got an email stating that, because we had a limited satellite package, the price of the HD channels was $3 more per month.

I guess $3 is not that much … $3 is almost the new loonie.

But the thing is, nowhere on their website do they mention there is a price difference for HD channels depending on your package.

We called and spoke with three different levels of customer service people. The bottom line was that’s their price.

… You know, if I go into a store and purchase a product with a price sticker on it, if that sticker price is lower than what they have in their register price, they sell me the product for the advertised sticker price.

Then they go and correct the sticker price for everyone else who will buy the product.

You shouldn’t be able to mislead people with your pricing policy.

Well, we stuck to our story and in the end the best they would do is give us a year free and then we would pay the increased price for the HD channels based on our satellite package.

It’s a good deal for this year, but then we will be paying more than most other people for the same service.

It took a lot of persistence and a lot of time on the phone to get the company to concede and give us some kind of deal.

They layer their customer service so that the first person you talk to doesn’t really have the authority to give you anything. I think they hope you will give up. It’s not until you talk to the next level or the level after that where you get a shot at getting some satisfaction.

Their idea of customer service?: wear the customer down so they just leave frustrated and angry.

… They are doing a good job because, even in the end, we were still frustrated with them.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we can feel like we are not getting the service we want from God. Our prayers are not answered the way we think they should be. Unlike stores and satellite companies, God knows what’s best for us; He gives us what we really need. Be persistent but also be accepting of what God brings you. He’s looking out for your best interests.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you generally found customer service to be? Leave your comments below.