my day

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Is Christmas Early This Year, Or Is It Me?

I’m having a late start to the Christmas season this year.  I’m not sure why, but in some people’s minds that makes me the grinch.  My associate sure thinks so.  When he told me he’s been listening to Christmas music for the last few weeks, I kind of shuddered at the thought.  That’s when he said, “You’re the Grinch!” and screwed up his face to look like him … all he was missing was green coloured skin and the picture would have been complete!

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I don’t think anyone’s ever compared me to the Grinch before – and I don’t think it’s a fitting description of me!  I check my heart rate every day and it beats the same.  There’s no way my heart has grown smaller, and I’ve never dreamt about those “Who’s down in Whoville”.

My mood started on November 26th, Thanksgiving Day in the US.  For us in Canada, it was just another work day; we had our Thanksgiving early in October.

I was in my car with my radio tuned to my regular rock station.  There was a Christmas song playing.  I didn’t think too much of it until the next song was also a Christmas song.  That’s when the announcer said they were only going to play Christmas music until Christmas Day.

I immediately turned to another station and haven’t tuned back in since.  It just seemed way too early to be listening to old rock stars like Bruce Springsteen sing “Merry Christmas Baby” or the Beach Boys harmonizing their “Little Saint Nick” tune.

It’s not that I cringe when I hear Christmas music or see things like Christmas lights on other houses.  … Mind you, my wife had been reminding me that Christmas was only a few weeks away and I still hadn’t put up the lights on our house.  Okay, so I was a little late with that.  (I finally did put them up on the weekend.)  I figure it’s saved us a few dollars on our electricity bill and that’s not a bad thing.

There are reasons why I’m late with the lights.  That job used to be something I did with my daughter.  Every year we would try to pick the coldest day possible and then we would go out together and put up the lights.  Well, she’s been out west for the last six Christmases – abandoned me – so, I don’t have her help.  My son, well, he has yet to be inspired to pick up the yearly task with his dear old dad.  You can see why I’m a little tardy with the lights.

And though I’ve been working on Christmas themed messages for two weeks at work, I still haven’t got into the Christmas mood.  Even all the decorations at church haven’t seemed to penetrate my emotions.

You know, now that I think of it, maybe I AM the Grinch, or am having grinch-like symptoms.  I wonder if I caught it from someone or whether I’m just run down and the virus found me?  Maybe it’s none of that; maybe it’s that we don’t have snow, the grass is still green and it’s +10C (50F) out today and raining!

Here’s the thing:  We have made Christmas into a season, a feeling.  We have built it up into this amazing time of good cheer.  There’s nothing at all wrong with that, but if all that replaces our appreciation of Jesus’ birth and worship of Him, that’s when we miss the point.  … I’m still looking forward to Christmas dinner!

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What distracts you from the real celebration of Christmas?  Leave your comment before.

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I Knew He Was Out To Get Me!

I find myself wondering what goes through people’s minds when they do something that just seems wrong.  I wonder that a lot when I drive … like the person in front of me the other day who slowed down to about 10 km/hr just to get into the other lane. What were they thinking?!

It happens often to me, so maybe it’s me and not them … or, maybe everyone is out to get me.  Ya, that’s it.  People are trying to mess with me … Ok, enough of that nonsense.

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This week I was playing hockey and a guy just smoked me (hit me really hard).  Out of nowhere he knocked me flying.  I never saw him coming.  Lying on the ice, I had that thought, “What was he thinking?  This is NOT contact hockey.”  In fact, I said it out loud a few times, “What were you thinking?!”

When I’m in my car, I never get an answer to that question.  On this occasion, I did.  He said, “You turned right into me.”  I couldn’t believe it!  Even if I did, he should’ve stopped or gone around me.  But no, he decided to run me over from behind like a freight train!

I was sprawled on the ice – not hurt, just annoyed.  As I got back to playing, I noticed the guy.  In the old days, I would have marked him and stuck it to him later in some way. But, I’m pretty chill now, and put it out of my mind.

I did notice, however, that he was pretty big, but not all that agile out there.  I figured he had a head of steam behind him and when I turned to the net, he either couldn’t stop in time, or didn’t have the maneuverability to change direction.  I got shmucked in the process.

As I kept playing, I started to notice that my knee was a little sore (not really bad, not enough to stop playing, just enough to notice).  I wondered if it was going to be worse after the game.  But I kept playing.

Later on after hockey, as my knee WAS getting worse, I realized I wouldn’t be able to do my exercises that day.  That was upsetting since I had just stopped taking one of my medications to determine if it was causing some muscle pain I’m experiencing.

This was an official trial, by the way.  A nurse had suggested I stop the drug for a week to see if the symptoms went away.  Here I was, one day in, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to exercise much for the next week.  The trial was a bust.

Hey, maybe people are trying to mess with me!  Just kidding … I started back on the drug the next day and will resume my trial when my knee is feeling a little better.

Here’s the thing:  When a few things happen, we start to wonder if there is a conspiracy out there.  Sometimes, we over spiritualize by thinking we’ve done something wrong and God is punishing us, or Satan is trying to get us.  We make up scenarios in our minds about what is happening, and they’re always bigger there.  In reality, mostly it’s just life.  It’s not an act of God, or Satan, or a conspiracy against us.  So, the key to dealing with things that happen is to depend on God THROUGH them.  Don’t point a finger, blame, or make things up; just trust Him through it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  When life happens, how do you keep yourself from creating theories in your mind? Leave your comment below.

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Why Do Things Have to Change?

In some ways, things change, and in other ways, they remain the same.  At our prayer retreat this year, a ball hockey game was organized and to play we were requested to show up to the tennis courts at 2 pm.  Everyone heard the announcement; anyone could come.

I hummed and hawed a bit, mostly because I had forgotten my knee brace (usually essential equipment for me).  I convinced myself I could take it easy and not run a lot (pretty much hang out in front of the other team’s net and wait for the ball).

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Really, though, there was no decision.  You see, when I hear the word “hockey”, somewhere inside my brain an automatic switch gets turned on and I can’t really help myself.  And, of course, I always have my sticks in the car ready to go!

Not so for many of the guys – they had to use the sticks available from the resort.  I guess the people who normally stay at Deerhurst Resort shoot right because all the sticks were right-handed … total frustration for the guys who were left-handed.

I noticed something when I got to the game.  I was in a different category than everyone else.  There was a bit of an age gap.  I was born the year Elvis Presley released his first hit song, “Heartbreak Hotel”, and none of the others playing were born till after the Beatles broke up!

When I first started as a pastor, I had all kinds of buddies in ministry and we would dominate when we got together.  Back then, the old guys wouldn’t even consider trying to compete with us.  They just smiled as if to say, “You’ll get old like us one day”.

I remember being at our National Meetings, one year into ministry.  There was about 20 of us guys in our first 5 years of being pastors.  We decided to take one afternoon and hit the water park at West Edmonton Mall.

We took over the place – we were loud and created a ruckus.  The lifeguards couldn’t control us; they were yelling at us not to run or climb up the side of the pool, or get too close to the turbine that drove the wave pool.  We just laughed and kept having fun.

That was a long time ago …  “Where were those buddies now?”, I wondered.  Then they announced we were going to play “old guys” versus “young guys” and I thought, “What? I have to take them all on myself?!”

Apparently, now you only have to be 35 to be an old guy (I was thankful).  And things do change: we “old guys” hammered the young guys; they barely got a goal on us (they must have been embarrassed).

But then, some things stay the same: I still answered the call to play when the invitation was made.

Here’s the thing: God desires for us to change and grow.  He never wants me to stop growing in my understanding of Him, or in my trust of Him, or in my service to Him.  God always calls me to more, to a deeper, richer, fuller relationship with Him.  But as I continue to change, I can be confident that He remains the same.  The target isn’t moving.  It is always clear, always in reach, always right in front of me: become more like Christ (He’s “the same yesterday, today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8).

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What do you do to ensure you keep growing?  Leave your comment below.

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Lasting Memories

This past week Lily and I attended our 27th district prayer retreat.  Prayer retreat is a getaway for pastors and their wives.  It’s a time to be refreshed and renewed, and focus on ourselves both emotionally and spiritually.  I look forward to these retreats every year.  Just three days, but they’re special.

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Over the years, the retreat experience has varied in a number of ways.  When I started in ministry in Alberta, our prayer retreat was in Banff.  Now THAT was a tough place to be with the mountains, the hot springs close by, and the shops lining the main street that Lily loved to check out.  I’m not sure we ever bought much there, but we did have to go in every one of them!

At prayer retreat we reconnect with all our friends, many whom we had gone to college with.  After the evening meeting we couldn’t wait to get to the restaurants or hot springs just to hang out.  We’d even hang out at the Christmas shop on the main street. It had a bench just inside the door, I called it the husbands bench. My buddies and I would sit there and make comments about and to those coming into the store, while our wives shopped. We had some great times, a lot of laughs together.

Because prayer retreat was always in the off-season when the rates are cheap, we got amazing deals on great accommodations … except for one year, and my friend, Dave, and I continued on and on about it until our wives were ready to kill us.  (But Pastor Dan’s room WAS bigger than both our rooms put together!)

So, it was a real change moving to Ontario and attending our first prayer retreat at Joy Bible Camp.  The contrast was extreme!  We were in the middle of nowhere; we stayed in tiny rooms where we either shared a washroom with another couple, or had to walk outside and down a flight of stairs to get to the shower.

But Joy Bible Camp had a gym, and every night after our meetings many of us hit the gym for some ball hockey, or basketball.  It was so different from the retreats in Banff, but in some ways, the retreats at the camp had their own charm.  Oh, those afternoon broom ball matches, with Gerry knocking bodies around!

And, at the end of the retreat, there was always the bonus excitement of whether the cars would start … retreats in those days were at the end of January with temperatures well below zero!

Well, this year prayer retreat came full circle.  The retreat was in Huntsville, at Deerhurst Resort (that’s right – where the G8 Summit was held).  Our accommodations certainly rivaled those days in Banff.  And, like the retreats at Joy Bible Camp, there was even a ball hockey game!

Now, I haven’t said much about the speakers and times of prayer.  Over the years, I’ve been challenged, encouraged, made fresh commitments, prayed for others and been prayed for by others.  We have had rich times with God and each other.  And Lily and I have experienced them all together!

Here’s the thing:  God puts a variety of experiences in our path, and He brings a variety of people along to experience them with us.  God uses those experiences and those people to shape us and mold us along the way.  We should treasure each experience we have and cherish every person He brings alongside.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What experiences has God used to shape you? Leave your comment below.

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Another Amazing Burger King Experience

The other day, my wife and I ate at a Burger King.  It’s not our habit to eat there; in fact, neither of us could remember the last time we had a whopper.  But we were traveling, needed to eat, and BK was all we could find.

So, here’s a question:  What does “Burger King” stand for?  Maybe they mean their burger is the biggest (they don’t call it the whopper for nothing).  Maybe they mean it’s the best burger out there (that’s debatable).  I’ll tell you what they don’t mean – they don’t mean they have the best, most efficient, and fastest service of all the fast food restaurants!

When we went in, there was a crowd of people standing in a semi-circle in front of the serving counter.  You don’t see a line up like that everyday, so I was a little confused as to where I should stand.  I asked one person if he was waiting to order, and was told he was waiting for his food.  So I went right up to the counter; there was no one else ordering.

Just before the server asked me for my order, I looked over my shoulder at this semi-circle of people.  I noticed two things:  they all had little white pieces of paper in their hands that resembled receipts, and none of them were smiling.

As I started to get an uneasy feeling, the server asked, “Can I take your order?”  His voice reminded me of my hunger and the smell of food caused me to forget about the semi-circle of people behind me.  I gave him my order and paid.  Then I turned around and found my place in the semi-circle.

I wanted to look frustrated like everyone else, but I just couldn’t.  You see, years ago I had a similar experience at another Burger King, and as I stood in that semi-circle I had a flashback …

I was with my whole family, and our kids were about 15 and 13 at the time.  When we got inside that Burger King, the line up to order was huge.  But strangely, no one was taking orders.

There was lots of activity behind the counter, and about seven bags of food sitting on the counter.  The person who was supposed to be taking the orders was busy opening the bags to see what was in them.  Apparently, they kept making food but couldn’t seem to figure out who it belonged to!

People in line were mad; some even left to eat elsewhere.  We debated leaving, but we had started conversations with people around us and didn’t want to abandon our new found friends!

The manager was a little man, who looked like Quasimodo or Mr Creeply from the Flintstones.  He was running around with a shifty looking smile on his face.  At one point, he took five bags of orders out to the drive through (because no one out there had gotten their orders either!).  When he came back in, he still had the five bags!  He put them back on the counter and chuckled in his sinister way.

After we finally got our food that day, we sat down and watched the show from our seats.  We were laughing so hard at the workers and the customers – it was great entertainment!  Hey, maybe that’s what “King” stands for … best fast food entertainment of all!

Here’s the thing:  There are things on earth we call “king”, and there are some heads of state we acknowledge as “king”.  But the Bible says there is only one King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  All others pale in similarity.  All others are laughable comparisons.  The Bible also says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What counterfeit “kings” vie for your loyalty? Leave your comment below.

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How Do You Feel About Your Cell Phone Company?

I wonder if there is anyone who is completely thrilled with their cell phone company.  We seem to have a love/hate relationship with them.  It doesn’t really matter which company; they all irritate us to some degree.

It’s either that monthly mystery fee, or the plans they offer that are never exactly what we want.  But the biggest problem with cell phone companies is communication.

That’s right! – these communication companies are horrible at communication, the very business they’re in.  I have two family members who are ready to tear their hair out over the ineptitude of two different cell phone companies.

If I owned a communication company, I would want to communicate to my prospective customers in the simplest, clearest way possible to instill enough confidence in them to try my company … NOT in our country, though!

Cell phone websites are some of the most frustrating, complicated and deceiving places you can spend your time on the internet.  The plans offered can’t be taken at face value; you have to investigate what they really mean by things like “local minutes”.

Do local minutes refer to calls I make from local area or calls to local numbers?  Finding yourself on hold for long periods of time with your cell phone company normal.  They sell phones!  They should have a few sitting around for people to answer!

If you have a problem with your phone or with ordering a phone, they don’t blame you necessarily, but they certainly don’t take the blame for their mistakes or incompetence.  You hang up or walk away from the store feeling unsure the issue will ever be resolved.

My daughter has been waiting since September for a phone!  They actually charged her credit card in October.  At last count, there was a problem in the warehouse.  Here’s a solution:  someone go to the warehouse, grab a phone and courier it to her today.  Three weeks later she still doesn’t have the phone.  I wonder what that warehouse problem was?  Did it burn down?!

My wife’s battle to get a phone has been much shorter.  She’s been dealing with the business department of a cell phone company.  I wonder if they really want to sell their phones to businesses.  Hours have been spent on the phone (lots of “on hold” time).  Hours have been spent in stores waiting.  Interestingly, when the store has to call their own company, they get put on hold like everyone else!  In the end, it’s still a mystery how a simple authorization for a phone could get so messed up.

Heres my solution:  Cell phone companies, take that $6.99 access fee millions of us send you and hire someone to create a simple, straightforward website.  Then, hire someone to train your staff in customer relations.  And finally, hire more people to man the phones in Canada.  Oh, and if you run short using that $6.99 fee, fire a top executive and use his salary!

Here’s the thing:  Sometimes we feel like I just described when requesting something from God.  We don’t get an answer or we don’t like the answer we get.  We might be confused and unsure whether the seeming answer is from God or we just made it up.  However, keep in mind that with God, He has the resources, He has the solution, He has your best interest in mind, His timing is perfect.  So stop, cool down, and don’t slam down the phone.  And, by the way, He does hear you, you can ALWAYS get through.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What gives you perspective when a request to God seems to take forever?

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Inspiration Can Be Unexpected

Inspiration can come at any time – sometimes when we least expect it.  This week I was woken up at 5 am with inspiration.  I don’t normally get up at 5.  My alarm regularly goes off at 6 am and if it doesn’t, I’m afraid that I would naturally wake up around the time my 21 year old son does on a Saturday.  Does noon sound like a good time to get up?

Five in the morning was pretty early for me to wake up on my own, but there I was, wide awake, looking at the red glowing numbers on our ceiling.

I like my projection clock because I don’t find the blazing white light of an alarm clock staring me in the face when I turn in bed … that’s too much like heading down a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it!

This particular morning I wasn’t just awake; I was awake and focused.  My mind was fully engaged and I was ready to get out of bed.  I had struggled the day before putting my sermon outline together, and just couldn’t see how I should organize what the passage was communicating.  I was extremely frustrated and my deadline for completing my sermon was clearly on my mind and getting closer.

In the midst of my frustration I did what you are supposed to do when you are in a jam – I prayed. I asked God to help me complete my outline.  After all, I want to preach what God wants the congregation to hear; it’s really His message.  Maybe that bugged me even more when I didn’t get the outline by the end of the day.

The week before I had been in a similar place and somehow it all came together by Friday.  But that was last week.  That was little comfort given my current situation; I was not happy.

It’s totally quiet in our house at 5 in the morning … not even the turtle is stirring at that time of day.  What woke me up, and what captivated my thoughts was my message.  I popped out of bed, and for the next hour I finished putting together my outline.  It was all in my head; my mind was brimming with words and verses and how they connected together.  It wasn’t like I was working; it was more like I was a secretary taking dictation. God had filled my mind with what He wanted communicated.

I closed my computer at 6:08 and got ready for my 7 am men’s prayer meeting.  I was energized, my outline was complete, and I wasn’t just ready to write my sermon, I was eager to get at it!  It’s funny how God didn’t give me the outline piece by piece the day before when I had asked Him.  Instead, He put it all in my head during the night.

Here’s the thing:  I write a sermon every week and I can become comfortable thinking that it is my sermon, my message that He’s helping me complete.  This week God reminded me that it is His message, and His sermon that I preach.  No matter what we do, we work for Him; He doesn’t work for us.  How often do we forget that?

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What has God inspired you with this past year?  Leave your comments below.

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10,000 Steps A Day

You may have heard this before, but then again maybe you haven’t – I hadn’t until recently.  Research shows that we should take 10,000 steps a day.  Doing so can help to lower your BMI, reduce your waist size, and increase your energy.  It can help with hypertension and lessen your risk for Type II diabetes and heart disease.

If this is true, TVs should be hooked up to treadmills to make them work.  Doctors’ offices shouldn’t have parking lots, forcing us to walk to see our doctors!

10,000 steps equals about 8 kilometers (based on about a 2.5 foot long stride).  That’s about the distance I travel to work each day … and, uh, I would walk it if I … uh … didn’t need my car.

Some people have jobs where they walk all day, but not me.  As a pastor, I don’t walk very much.  I work at a desk and mostly walk to or from my car.  Tapping my feet to music while I work on my computer certainly doesn’t add any steps to my day.  I bought a pedometer to track my steps and, by noon some days, I’ve only taken 500.

So, to get a few more steps in, I started to walk for 30 minutes a day at a fairly brisk pace.  I walk with Lily around our neighbourhood, or go on our treadmill while watching TV.  I would take our turtle, Winston, for a walk but his legs are pretty short and I think I would end up dragging him around.

A thirty minute walk can give me about 4000 steps, which is pretty good, but still a far cry from ten grand!  So I’ve started to do something else: I get up from my desk mid morning and mid afternoon and walk for ten minutes around the sanctuary of the church.

It’s not the most interesting walk – it’s a little boring walking up and down the pews.  The only break is walking up the outside aisles and looking out the windows.  The problem with that is, if you see something interesting, you can’ t stop to get a better look.  You have to keep moving and just hope that it’s still visible on your next lap!

But I’ve found two things that make those walks exciting.  I either take time to think about what I am presently working on, taking my phone along and dictating into it any ideas that come to mind, OR, I use the time to pray.  I’ve found that I have some good times with God in those 10 minute intervals of walking in the sanctuary.  The time goes so fast as I walk that rather boring route.

Here’s the thing:  I’ve done my devotions early in the morning for years.  But I don’t have blocks of time later in the day that I spend in prayer.  I’m finding these 10 minute walks perfect for telling God what I’m thinking or feeling about right then.  I can talk over with Him what I’m wrestling with or what’s captured my immediate attention.  These short spurts of prayer or thought are inspiring and stimulating.  They’re like an injection of energy into my day.  I never would have thought of it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What do you do to keep God in your day?

 

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Bring Back My Old Appliance!

My wife, Lily, was away on the weekend.  She had left me some things to eat that I could just heat up.  I thought it would be a nice idea to try out some of the kitchen appliances I hardly ever use.

I decided to toast a bun and then put some peanut butter on it – that would be natural peanut butter, not the Kraft kind.  You can tell the difference because when you open a fresh jar of natural peanut butter, there is about an inch of oil on top that you need to stir into the peanut butter.  If you have ever mixed cement, that’s pretty much what you have to do with the peanut butter.  You get out an auger and  . . . okay it’s not quite that bad.

Anyway, I decided I would toast the bun in our toaster oven.  We haven’t had it that long and I don’t use it all that often.  We had an old one that is now up at the cottage.  We inherited it from my dad; it’s pretty old, but it does the trick.

I noticed with this new toaster oven, however, that though it was clean and shiny and looked all modern, it takes forever to heat something up!  Normally, things progress by getting better and faster and more efficient.  I’m not sure this new toaster oven is more efficient or better, but I’m positive it’s NOT faster!

I put the bun in, set it to toast, and watched.  Nothing seemed to be happening.  I finally went and read the paper.  I almost forgot it was there.  Finally, after a section of the paper and two flyers, the bun had sufficiently been toasted.

What is the deal with that?  Why so long?  I wondered if maybe some two year old child had tried to stick his head in a toaster oven one time and some activist got the idea that we have to make toaster ovens safer.  So instead of heating things up fast, now they’re designed to heat things up over the course of a day.  That would give a two year old and his parents enough time to get his head out of the toaster oven before he singed a hair or something.

I’m longing for our toaster oven at the cottage.  You can burn yourself on that one if you’re not careful.  But you’re supposed to be careful; it’s an appliance that combines electricity and heat – two things that kids shouldn’t be playing with!  So maybe they could turn up the heat on new toaster ovens if we just promised to keep them off the kitchen floor, or out of the baby’s bedroom.

If we promised to place them on the kitchen counter that should be sufficient.  We had a climber in our family, but he was at least three and a half before he could scale or mount cabinetry.  By then he knew what to keep his head out of.  Hey, but what do I know?

Here’s the thing:  When I pray I want answers fast, preferably immediately.  But I don’t control the timing, I don’t even know all the details that go into answering a prayer.  It’s possible that to answer my prayer God has to answer several other people’s prayers.  I also don’t know whether it is best for God to say “yes” or whether “no” would be the right answer to my prayer.  All I know is I want my answer quickly, and I want it to be “yes”. God will do what’s best; I just need to be patient.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What do you need patience for?  Leave your comment below.

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It All Changed in an Instant

They say things can happen in a spilt second.  One moment everything is fine, and the next everything has changed.  That happened to me this week when I put my back out.  I was feeling good, keeping up with my aerobics and weights, and looking forward to playing hockey later in the day.  Then in one moment, aerobics, weights and hockey were all put on hold.

Sometimes things don’t happen quite so fast.  I remember a time shortly after getting my driver’s license, when I was returning home with my brother after a late night hockey practice.  It had lightly snowed while we had been practicing and there was a fresh, thin blanket of snow on the road.  Everything looked so peaceful.

As we left the arena, we turned onto an access road that took us to the main street.  It was a short, two lane strip of road, with no one in sight, and not one tire mark in the snow.  I thought I would show my little brother how to fishtail the car down a street.

We were driving my dad’s ’74 Buick LeSabre, with a 350hp engine, and rear wheel drive.  Looking back, it was a Sherman Tank without the caterpillar tracks!  As I started down the road, I began fishtailing the car back and forth.  Then . . . I gave it a little too much gas, and the car started to fishtail too far.  I panicked and jammed on the brakes with complete inexperience.

The fishtailing stopped but we started sliding, heading straight for a fire hydrant.  It was like slow motion.  There was no way to deviate from the course.  My life flashed before my eyes – not because we would die in the crash – because I knew my dad would kill me when I wrecked his car.  It seemed like an eternity, as we just kept sliding closer to the fire hydrant.

And then a miracle . . . the front tires hit the curb just before the hydrant and the car bounced back.  That was a long time to experience very little change.  I told my brother not to say anything to Dad and that was that.

The other day, however, feeling fine, I bent down to pick up a knife I had dropped.  In a split second I knew the next few days would be uncomfortable.  I got this sharp and stabbing pain in the base of my spine.  It was like that knife had been dropped into my lower back.

Immediately I realized my error.  I had bent with my back and not with my knees.  I’ve heard of people putting their back out by bending over to pick up a sock or something that weighs next to nothing.  I’ve seen Lily put her back out, without picking up anything.  I always thought that was weird.

Now I know what it’s like.  It sounds funny, “I put my back out by picking up a knife”.  But it wasn’t funny to me and it changed my life for the next few days.

Here’s the thing:  Sometimes we can see outcomes unfold from the decisions we make, and sometimes they happen so quickly we can’t anticipate the outcome.  If I am in a regular habit of bringing my decisions to God, and then following His direction, it will cut down on those times I find myself edging towards a big disaster, or suddenly appearing in the midst of trouble.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What’s your plan for ensuring your decision-making doesn’t lead to trouble?  Leave your comment below.