hands

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Didn’t Fully Prepare For This One

There are times when you can’t fully prepare for an upcoming event.

didn't fully prepare for this one

You want to be completely ready; you know you’ll do well if you’re fully prepared, but you don’t have the time to do what is necessary.

Not that long ago I participated in cleaning up the sand left on our church parking lot from the winter. I knew it was going to require a lot of sweeping and I also knew that I hadn’t been doing much work with my hands. 

My hands are not tough – no calluses – so I didn’t expect it to be easy. I had full intention of bringing a pair of work gloves to give my hands a break, but forgot. I finished the day with about five blisters distributed over both hands. 

Even though I held the broom in different ways to change up the pressure, I couldn’t avoid the beating my hands received. 

Sometimes you have to face the consequences of not being as fully prepared as you wanted to be.

When I preach, I read over my sermon six times before I preach it. But sometimes I just run out of time or my schedule on Saturday doesn’t allow me to spend all the time that’s needed. Usually that means I will be looking down at my notes a lot more than usual.

Sometimes you just don’t feel as prepared or ready as you would like to be.

This week I will be going golfing with a couple of buddies, but I have yet to golf this year. In fact, over the last couple of years, I haven’t golfed much at all. 

I’m running out of time. I don’t have time to play a couple of rounds of golf before the match. I don’t even have the time to play one round prior to our game.

The only thing I can do is go to the driving range. I can hit balls. I can practice my swing … but it will only partially help. 

I can hit 80 – 100 golf balls at a range in less than an hour. Oh, it will help me be consistent with my shots on the course, but in that hour of hitting all those balls, I won’t move more than a few feet. I don’t have to walk to get to my next shot. I simply reach my club out and roll another ball towards my stance.

Without playing the game, I won’t be able to build up my stamina to walk that 6500 yards and hit the ball without any fatigue setting in. I won’t be able to practice hitting a ball out of a sand trap, or staring down an eight foot putt, accounting for a ball and a half break towards the hole. 

I’m looking forward to the game this week, but I will not be at my best. I will not play the way I want to play; I will not score to my potential. 

I’m just going to have to settle for what I can do to prepare between now and my golf game … and be happy with that. 

Here’s the thing: You may think you have not reached the place in your spiritual life that you should have. But if you are working at it to the best you can, with the time you have left, God is good with that. You can be happy with that.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What could you spend more time preparing for? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Look Mom, No Hands!

These days I’m trying  as much as possible not to use my hands. 

Look Mom, No Hands

As a kid, I remember that shortly after I learned how to ride a two wheel bike, I learned to ride it with no hands on the handle bars. 

When my mom came out of our house, I yelled from the street, “Hey look, Mom. No hands!” 

Right now I’m trying every trick in the book to keep from touching things just so I don’t have to wash my hands. The backs of my hands have been getting rough, sore and chapped from all the hand washing.

I even resorted to putting some lotion on them a couple of times. It was that serious. 

To provide a little relief, I’ve figured out ways to do things that don’t require hands. 

I push doors open with my shoulders, and when a door is half opened I chicken wing it the rest of the way. … If you don’t know what I mean by “chicken wing” it, that’s just sticking out your elbow to pry the door open.

I’ve been wearing gloves a lot too – not because it’s cold, but so I don’t have to touch things with my hands. 

On the few occasions I’ve had to go into a store, I’ve kept my gloves on the whole time. Then when I got to the cash I used the tap feature on the key pad with my Apple Watch. 

I never had to touch a thing. 

I don’t uses railings anymore either. It’s all hands-free for me. I’m just glad I’m agile enough not to need to steady myself up and down the stairs. 

I saw a hand washing demonstration on YouTube the other day and it was amazing. The guy made hand washing look like an art form. 

He had latex gloves on and took some black shoe polish or something to rub on his hands to simulate soap. You could see, as he was working it into his hands, the spots that he was missing. But then he used Olympic style hand manoeuvres to get at those often missed portions of the hands. 

When he was done, his latex gloves were completely black.

But to be honest, I can’t remember a couple of the advanced techniques he used to make sure he scrubbed the part of his thumb just below the knuckle. 

I have to say, my method has been paying off for me. I haven’t used hand lotion for three days and the backs of my hands are returning to their soft and supple state. 

I’m not saying I’ve stopped washing my hands. Believe me, I’ve been singing Happy Birthday and Mr. Brightside (Roman Josi version); I’ve been counting steamboats and checking my watch.

All I’m saying is I’m going out of my way to give the backs of my hands a break.

Here’s the thing:  Even if you’re living hands-free, you can still be coughed on. Someone can still sneeze in your presence and you’ll get infected. If you ask, people will tell you they try to live a good life and therefore feel that God should let them into heaven. The thing about trying to live a good life is that we aren’t perfect. We sin and therefore get infected by it. God is holy and perfect. The only way a sin-infected person can have anything to do with Him is to first have the virus taken away. That’s what Jesus did on the cross. Just ask Him for the vaccine – it’s called forgiveness.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How is your isolation going? Leave your comments and questions below.

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It Appeared Out Of Nowhere

Yesterday something just appeared on me and I have no idea how it got there. 

I had just washed my hands and, as I was drying them, I looked at my fingers and noticed something I hadn’t seen before. 

In fact, I was so surprised I exclaimed, “Whoa” out loud. I said it loud enough that others heard me.

I felt I needed to explain my surprise to them, so I walked over and showed them my hands.

You could tell the middle finger on my right hand was a different colour. It was dark red, sort of like it was going to develop into a big bruise. It went from the knuckle of my hand all the way past the middle knuckle on my finger.

The thing is I can’t remember what I did to get it. 

That’s not like me. I usually know what I did to get the aches and pains, bumps and bruises I incur.

But I couldn’t remember what I did to get this injury. I do remember hurting my knuckle, but what I did doesn’t seem memorable enough for me to be able to recall it. 

It’s sort of like my wife, Lily. I will see a bruise on her arm and say, “How did you get that?” And her reply is always the same: “I don’t know.”

She never knows, and I always walk away muttering to myself, “How can you not know how you got that?” 

I usually know exactly what I did to get a bruise … even when I was on a powerful blood thinner for a few months after my heart attack years ago. 

Back then my doctors didn’t want me playing hockey or really doing anything where I could get hit because of the chance of bruising. Even then I could tell you where I got bruises from. 

But not this time. 

I told someone it might have happened when we were doing yard work at the church, or it could have happened when I was playing hockey earlier.

But I just don’t know. It’s a mystery just like all of Lily’s bruises (not that she has a lot of them).

I don’t recall many times when something just appeared on me out of nowhere. 

I do, however, remember a time that something disappeared into nowhere. That was at our wedding. 

One of our bridesmaids fainted during the ceremony; the pastor made an amazing catch and got her before she hit the ground. 

Lily’s cousin had recorded the whole wedding so when we got the tape – yes, the tape – and viewed it, I was waiting to see all the action. 

But all you saw was her losing her balance and then poof, she was gone. Lil’s cousin edited the incident right out of our video.

It was amazing. One minute she was there, the next she was not. 

And that’s what I’m hoping for with my finger, that the redness disappears as quickly as it appeared out of nowhere.

Here’s the thing: The Bible tells us that one day Jesus is going to return, and His return will come as a surprise. There will be many who will not be ready. There are lots of predictions and sign watching right now about when Jesus will return. It could be soon. But my view is to be ready now so that you are not taken by surprise when Christ appears out of nowhere. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Are you ready now for Jesus’ return if He should come today? Leave your comments below.