hot

by

No Complaints; Just Enjoy

I don’t want to hear any complaints about the weather. Let’s just take it and be satisfied.

We are experiencing a bit of a heat wave where I live. And it’s not just the temperature that we have to consider – it’s the humidity that sears the heat in.

It has been a long time since I’ve felt this kind of weather, other than in Mexico or the Caribbean. 

It was 36 Celsius yesterday and, with the humidity, it felt like 49! 

If you are not watering your grass, you don’t have any, and even then, the green stuff you see on your lawn may only be weeds. 

We went up to our cottage on the holiday and discovered that in our community there was a watering ban … and a ban on AC! The park we are in was experiencing brown outs and the only way to stop it was to cut the AC, since it’s such an drain on the power grid.

I say that’s okay; I’ll take the heat over air conditioning. I’ll battle the hot temperatures, keeping in mind that before long we will have a good five months of cold weather that I’m going to have to layer up for. 

It was so hot, we hung out on the beach until after 8 pm and then went back down at 10 pm to catch some John Tavares Day – I mean Canada Day – fireworks.

… I just can’t contain my excitement over the Leafs signing Tavares in the free agency sweepstakes! … but back to those fireworks on the beach. 

It was pitch black out after the light show and, though we headed back to our place, the beach was still littered with people.

Many still had their beach chairs set up! People were lying out getting a tan from the moon and the stars. That’s how hot it was. 

But the heat doesn’t stop some people from pining away for cooler temperatures. They would welcome some rain, because we really need it. 

Well, the farmers might need it, but we don’t. Summer should be a time when your grass is brown. If you can keep your grass green all summer, you either live on a golf course or you are experiencing less than perfect weather. 

Let’s enjoy this heat. Let’s celebrate it and not look beyond it to cooler, wetter weather. Just get out and embrace it. 

I realize there are many people for whom the heat is not ideal – the elderly and those with breathing issues. But listen, the weather won’t suit everyone all the time. They can treat those really hot days like a winter day. If it was really cold and snowy, they would stay indoors.

Right now we have a little heat. Let’s enjoy it. Spend more time at the beach; get out and do some things that you can’t do when it’s -15 outside. 

I don’t really want to hear people tell me they can’t wait for a break in the weather. Come on! Embrace what we have been given and be enthused about it. 

Here’s the thing: People are always looking for perfect. And if they find perfection in something like the weather, it is only short-lived. There is nothing or no one who is perfect except for God. So be enthused about Him; give yourself completely to God because it is only in Him that you will find perfection and true satisfaction.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What was the last thing you complained about that you really should have been thankful for? Leave your comments below.

by

Varying Temperature

We know that temperature varies from place to place, but 20° Celsius isn’t even the same across the country.

2015065592ef76de0b6

When you hear what the temperature is somewhere else, you immediately interpret it as what it would feel like where you are presently.

Of course, this leads to either jealousy or boasting. We either wish we had the temperature in that other city or we proudly admire the great temperature we have.

I was recently in Calgary for a conference and when I flew out of Toronto it was quite warm. When I got to Calgary, it was a little overcast and cooler.

The next day, however, was going to be around 20 C so I dressed appropriately for what 20 C would be back home in Ontario.

What I found, though, was I could have worn a light spring coat and been perfectly comfortable. It’s not that I was cold, but it wasn’t warm either.

The next day I wore shorts. It was supposed to be warmer and, though I was not chilly wearing shorts, I could have been slightly more comfortable in long pants. Choosing my attire based solely on the temperature, I should have been very comfortable.

Just before I was leaving Calgary, I stopped to grab lunch at a fast food restaurant. I placed my order, and while waiting, saw a young guy come in rather exhausted.

He said to me, “Man, is it ever hot out there!” I could tell he wasn’t kidding. The temperature had risen to about 24 C, but he seemed like he wasn’t going to make it through the day if he didn’t get some kind of relief.

He ordered water.

That’s it! It was like if he didn’t get water right then, he couldn’t go on. Fortunately, the place had lots of water and it seemed he had enough change in his pocket to pay for it.

I was ready if he had been short a few coins; I would have chipped in for the guy. He seemed a little desperate.

After I finished my meal in the comfort of the air conditioned restaurant, I prepared to head out into the blistering heat.

I thought maybe I should order a bottle of water to go in case I collapsed before I reached my rental car. … I simply took my chances.

Outside the restaurant the temperature was nice. I wasn’t sweating and I certainly didn’t feel the heat of the sun beating down on me.

I thought about the young guy inside and wondered how he would do in the same temperature in Toronto. He may have needed two bottles of water – one to carry in case it was a long distance between watering holes.

When I got into Toronto at 9:30 pm that night, it was about 19 C. It felt about the same temperature as it had in Calgary at midday with the sun shining down on us.

Someone pointed out to me that in the winter -10 C in Toronto feels a lot more severe than -10 C in Calgary. I guess it’s all relative.

Here’s the thing: In life we deal with the same circumstances in different ways. We have different thresholds for what we experience. Aren’t you glad that God is personal and deals with you, helps you, listens to you, responds to you, not according to the degree of the issue, but based on how it feels to you?

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What issues cause “severe temperatures” for you? Leave your comments below.

by

All Work and No Play!

What a week – maybe the best week of the summer! What could be better than to experience it all at the cottage? The sun, the sand, the waves – what could be better than that?

Work_piled_up

Well, not much if I hadn’t been stuck INSIDE that cottage all week doing my yearly planning. I take a week there every August to pray, plan and seek God’s direction for my church for the coming year.

So while every day was a picture of niceness, I was slaving away inside or on the porch, reading, praying or hunched over a computer.

It was so nice – even unseasonably warm at night. After our vacation of cool temperatures and rain, this week really made up for all that. But I didn’t even get down to the beach, let alone go in the water.

Since I never know how my week will go, I don’t plan anything fun throughout the week. I need to stay on task until I’m done. So, by the time Friday rolled around, I was hoping for a little fun.

Things had gone well and, by late Thursday night, I knew that I would finish in good time on Friday. In the back of my mind I had a plan. I would work until about 3 pm and then go golfing.

When I got up Friday, I pictured myself standing on the t-box at the Sauble Golf Club, smoking a drive down the fairway on the way to a great round. But I needed to work first, so I got to it.

It was the first day all week that I wasn’t sure about the weather. It was warm alright, but the sky was overcast. It did sprinkle in the morning, but it only lasted a few minutes and I thought, “That’s nothing. It won’t keep me from enjoying my round later.”

By noon I wasn’t as far as I hoped to be and the weather didn’t look any better. I decided I would get the grass cutting out of the way. I took about 20 minutes to do the lawn and then made my lunch. Still overcast, but warm, and still no wind at all … Oh, that is golfing weather!

I quickly got back to work, making good progress. It looked like I would finish in time; in fact, I thought I might be done by 2:30 pm. I disciplined my mind to keep those images of the golf course at bay while I worked.

Then at about 1:45 pm I heard a very distinctive sound. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like the sound of a squirrel scurrying across a shingled roof, or like the sound of a bug flying straight into a glass window. It’s quiet, it’s faint, but you hear it.

Only what I heard sounded like hundreds squirrels scurrying all over the roof. It was raining! My first reaction was, “Really? I’m almost finished here and now it rains?!”

This was no sprinkle either. There was thunder, and it started to come down hard. I couldn’t believe it. All week the weather had been great. All week I kept myself focussed on my task. And now, now that I was done, the clouds couldn’t contain their moisture any longer.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I was. It’s not right for a pastor to express those thoughts and words … Oh well, I did get to see my daughter for a few hours on my way home from the cottage.

Here’s the thing: I have a tendency to delay gratification until the end, to get the work done first, then have fun. But we don’t know what the future holds and sometimes in doing that we find that the gratification we were hoping for vanishes. When life is busy, it’s easy to think, “I will spend time with God later when my work is done, when I can slow down and take a break, at the end of the day”, only to get there and find something unexpected or that you’re too tired to spend time with God. Day after day we have good intentions, but they don’t materialize. Start your day with God – the work isn’t going to vanish.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How has waiting until the end to get what you want left you with nothing?  Leave your comment below.

by

Just Blame the Weatherperson

This week the temperature has soared, and already people are complaining. We humans are pretty hard to please. At one time, I thought it was just the farmers who complained about the weather. But honestly, we all do it

It_s_National_Weatherperson_s_Day__561970000_20130205195510_640_480

It’s either too hot or cold or rainy or snowy or a combination of them all. I think we could just blame the weatherman for all this, or should I say “meteorologist”? They are the ones that tell us it’s hotter than it really is and colder than it really is.

When I was a kid, 80 degrees was hot. It didn’t matter if you were in the shade or in the sun. It was hot and you knew it and everyone else did, too. Today, however, it’s worse than that: 80 degrees is 27 Celsius, but we are told that it really feels like 35 (95 Fahrenheit).

In the winter, they do the same thing. It might be -20C (-4F) but they add their little jab by saying that with the windchill, it feels like its -29.

And we buy right into this fake weather! We complain about how bad we have it when it’s hot and how unfair it is when it’s cold. These weather people are controlling our emotions and, most of the time, they aren’t even correct.

There was a time when the weatherman was a guy training to be the anchorman at the radio or TV station. All he would do is lick his finger, stick it outside and make a guess.

We accepted that. We knew the guy was guessing at the weather. It was forgivable. After all, the guy didn’t want to be doing the weather; he just had to put in his time before he could give us real news.

Now they go to school to learn weather patterns and cloud formations. They sound all fancy and technical when the give the weather and they are just as wrong as they ever were. Can we really blame that on global warming?

They have all their maps with bright colours and animation showing the clouds. … I still think the guy that would write backwards on a piece of glass had more talent.  At least it was entertaining.

Let’s not give in to their hype and drama. Let’s accept the weather for what it is.

I’m not complaining about the weather. Maybe it’s because I’m on vacation and can dip into the semi-frigid waters of Lake Huron any time I want. Or, maybe it’s because I can walk down to the strip any time of the day and enjoy a cone at DQ or Scoopers, or get a cup of raspberry gelato.

Sure, maybe I’d sing a different tune if I had to go to work everyday. But every time you start to whine about how hot it is, remember it could be a windy-cloudy-snowy-rainy day instead.

I don’t want to hear any more comments on Facebook or twitter that “Satan called and wants his weather back.” I like this 30-degree-feels-like-37-with-a-humidex-of-60, sunny hot weather. . .  I’m going to the beach. See ya!

Here’s the thing: We so quickly complain and criticize God when things are not perfect: when our prayer isn’t answered at the exact moment we’d like, when it’s not what we want, when we don’t get the justice we think we deserve, or when our circumstances seem more difficult that others’. Like the weather, enjoy, and rejoice in what you do have.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you quick to complain about when it’s not perfect? Leave your comment below.