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Live the Dream or Live the Reality

When it comes to weekends, there is the dream and then there is the reality.

The dream we have for every weekend in the summer is to soak up the sunshine and warmth. You want to be outside in the garden, at the lake, or on the links. You want to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin; you want to be wearing shorts and T-shirts.  

On the weekends, you plan to get out camping, be out on the boat, enjoy dinner on the patio, or a walk by the lake. You want to BBQ with friends and sit outside until the mosquitos drive you insane. 

You want to live as much of the weekend outside as you possibly can. 

That’s the dream; that’s what you want every weekend. But the reality seems to be very different from that.

The reality is clouds, overcast, cool, and rain. I don’t know how it can possibly work out this way but it seems that that pattern is the standard weather for weekends.

You have great hope every week that the next weekend is going to be amazing, but by the time that weekend rolls around, you are looking out your front window changing your plans to doing something inside.

As I’m writing this blog post, the sun is shining as bold and bright as it can possibly be. I can’t see one cloud in the sky from where I’m sitting. 

The temperature is rising and it looks like an amazing weekend day … except for the fact that it’s Monday morning. 

The forecast for the rest of the week looks great as well. 

And by the way, last week we had great weather too, with lots of sun … except for the weekend – it didn’t have any. 

Saturday the cloud cover was about eight miles high. It was dark; it rained; it was cool – not a great day for a weekend. 

Then there was Sunday. It looked like it was going to rain at any moment; the sky was dark, and the clouds kept rolling through. 

It just happened to be the day of our church picnic.

It’s too bad the weather couldn’t have been like today or Friday. We would have had a great picnic outside in the sun and shade.

Instead, we had our church picnic inside. 

We tried to fix it up to look very picnic-like. We even moved some pews back to have some open space at the front of the sanctuary so people could sit on blankets and pretend they were attending the service on the grass. 

We had a few picnic tables in our gym that made it look a little different than a regular church lunch. We had a sun tent set up in our foyer and a couple of beach umbrellas to give an atmosphere of the outdoors.

But from start to finish the church picnic day was all inside. It was going to be all outside, but we didn’t get dream weekend weather. We got reality.

We did, however, create the dream inside the church, and no one went home disappointed.

Here’s the thing: You live out your reality, but God has a dream for you that is far greater than the reality that you are living. Tap into God’s dream for you by asking Him to open your eyes to His dream. Then seek to live it out and make it your reality.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What would you like to change about your reality? Leave your comments below.

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The End Will Make Up For The Beginning

Sometimes the end can make up for all the disappointment that’s gone on before it.

That kind of sums up yesterday for me. I woke up to rainy drizzle which kind of set the tone for the day.

I checked the weather to see what I could expect and, though the rain was supposed to stop, it was to remain cloudy and cool for the rest of the day.

The outlook was not favourable to hit the beach, or really do anything outside; I wasn’t sure I would even be able to get my exercise in.

I have a radar app on my iPad which I also checked and noted that once the rain had ended there would be no more.

However, that proved to be a lie because there seemed to be a blowing mist in the air that made me feel like turning around and going back inside every time I attempted to go outside.

So what do you do when the weather is like that? … There were some who went golfing, but at 16° C with precipitation in the air, that’s not my kind of golfing weather.

In those conditions, if you hit a shot thin, your hands start to vibrate and, even if you don’t have arthritis, you’ll feel like you just got it for a few minutes. Sometimes your whole body feels like it’s vibrating – like a cartoon character that has just been electrocuted.

That’s not for me.

So the beach was out and golf was off my list. The only thing left to do was go shopping in town.

I went to a few big box stores but, though I didn’t have to focus on the weather while I was shopping, I wasn’t having any success finding the things I was looking for.

Another disappointment.

By late afternoon I was done with shopping and back at the cottage, a little more depressed and kind of tired from all the walking I’d done in the stores.

It didn’t help my mood that I had to have the windshield wipers on intermittent the whole way back.

I couldn’t bring myself to exercise so I just flopped on the couch for a while. Then out of sheer determination and fear that I would break my exercising streak of about half a year, I braved the outdoors again and exercised.

It provided little comfort, however, and didn’t put me in any better of a mood.

Well, that was until about 7:30 pm when the clouds rolled away, the wind stopped swirling and the sun came out and brightened things up.

And even that late in the day, with very few hours to enjoy it, somehow the day was redeemed. The sun made an appearance in the end and it changed everything about the day.

Here’s the thing: That is what it’s going to be like when Christ returns for those who follow Him. It won’t matter how bad the day, or life has been up until that time. All the disappointments, the discouragement, frustration and even harm that has taken place won’t be a consideration. When Christ comes it will be like the sun coming out at the end of a cloudy, rainy, cold day. And it will change our outlook and our disposition completely … forever.

It will be a great day.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Are you prepared for Christ to change your day? Leave your comments below.

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I Got Caught Dancing In the Rain

Have you ever just wanted to go outside in the rain, just to feel it and enjoy it?

When I was a kid, there were the odd times during the hot summer months that we wanted to go outside in the rain. I even remember begging my mom to let us go out.

… That seems like a long time ago, and a silly, childish desire now.

I don’t know too many people, especially my age, who purposely try to get caught in the rain.

We protect ourselves from getting wet. We will take a water repellent jacket with us if we think it might rain, or carry an umbrella just in case.

We don’t want to get soaked.

I kind of tossed all that advice and thinking out the window the other day when I went for a mountain bike ride.

I’ve gone before when it looked cloudy and have just made it back in time. But the other day was a different matter.

I got caught – big time!

I’d been looking at the weather app on my phone and it was supposed to rain at 3 pm.

That should have given me enough time to eat lunch and get my ride in before the wet stuff came.

Those weather apps are pretty good at telling you when it’s going to rain. I even have one that shows where the rain clouds are currently positioned, and the direction they’re travelling so you can estimate how long it will be before they get to you.

All this seems great but it didn’t do me one speck of good the other day.

What those apps are not that awesome at is informing you of the volume of rain that will be hitting the earth.

I thought I had a good window of time for my ride, but less than three minutes after I hopped on my bike I felt the first few drops of the liquid sunshine.

I decided to keep going, thinking once I hit the trees it wouldn’t be too bad. Before I made it to the woods, however, the rain came down in buckets.

I got completely soaked, but I thought it would be better under the cover of the trees. … Well, not that much.

The thing about trees is they only have leaves. They do a great job of blocking out sunlight, but rain just blows right by them.

The amount of water hitting me in the woods was a little less intense, but I was not getting wind blown dry by any means.

When I got off my bike, everything was a mess. I hosed all the dirt and forest debris off my bike.

But me? – I had enough tiny twigs and woodsy, leafy material stuck on me to provide the kindling for our next fire.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad ride for getting caught in the rain.

Here’s the thing: How many times have you been caught in something you didn’t want to be caught in? You never planned for it, and you didn’t think you were at risk, but there you are – caught. Do you turn back, give up, complain about it, or see it through with all that it brings? God may be showing you something new; He may be preparing you for something special. It’s best to see it through and grow. It just might turn out to be something good.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you been caught in and how did you respond? Leave your comments below.

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I Didn’t Think The “Wet Lands” Meant My Basement

It sure has been a wet spring where I live. There have probably been years where we’ve had more moisture in April and May, but I can’t remember any.

It always strikes me that when you have a record-breaking day, it is only record-breaking to a certain point, like “this is the hottest day on record … since 1923”, or “we haven’t had this much snow for 31 years”, or “this is the most rain we’ve had since Noah finished building his ark”.

It seems that with weather there is always a day somewhere back in time that was cooler, hotter, wetter that what we are experiencing today.

But I will say that, in the last month, my sump pump has NEVER gotten as much exercise as this … period.

I probably I need to qualify that too, however; we’ve only had the sump for 8 months.

We’ve lived in our home for 21 years, and when we bought the house it came with a sump pump in the basement.

I was not too familiar with sump pumps, having never lived in a house that had one before. So I didn’t pay too much attention to it.

For several years it would turn on and suck some water from the reservoir in the corner of our basement spare room. Any time I got to see it I was amazed at how fast the water shot out of the tube.

I remember one time being on our deck in the back yard and a firehouse volume of water came shooting out of the tube that extended from our house’s foundation.

It truly was remarkable.

But for many years I just forgot about the sump pump. I don’t think it did any pumping for years. I lost track of the last time I remember hearing it work.

One time we were looking at that area of the house and I tried to manually get it to pump. There was nothing; it didn’t work at all.

I figured that it was old and had stopped working due to lack of use. It had been that way for years.

Every once in a while we would get some moisture in our basement, but I never equated it to the sump pump not working.

This past fall, we took a look at our sump pump again and, sure enough, it still wasn’t working.

Now I’m not sure if the weatherman was warning people of a wet fall or not, but for some reason Lily and I thought we should replace our sump pump with a new one that worked.

I bought one, installed it, and I think it worked a few times last fall.

But that was nothing like this spring! We had a stretch of about 5 days of solid rain in which our sump pump came on every 2 – 3 minutes.

If we hadn’t had that sump, I’m sure our basement would have been about ankle deep in water.

Back in the fall, the thought of buying a new sump wouldn’t leave us. It stuck with us until we bought one … I’m sure glad it did!

Here’s the thing: God is speaking to us all the time, but often we are good at ignoring or dismissing His voice. Start listening and paying more attention to His voice; you’ll be glad you did.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What thought have you had that you are glad you acted on? Leave your comment below.

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I Have Special Privileges

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

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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.

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When It Rains, Make the Best Of It

I know the rhyme that goes, “April showers brings May flowers”, but I can’t say there is ever a time I like the rain.

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If I was a farmer, I’m sure I would change my tune. I understand that we need rain for things to grow, but given my life, rain doesn’t really fit into the picture that often … at all.

It especially doesn’t fit into my plans when I’m on vacation – it puts all kinds of restrictions on us and creates the need for extra planning.

That’s where we are right now – on vacation in the rain.

Sometimes you can associate a place with the kind of weather you experienced there. Like when I was about seven, my family took a vacation to the east coast of Canada. The only things I remember were cool days, overcast skies, rain and the smell of dead fish.

Needless to say, that over 50 years later, I’m still not eager to take another trip to the Bay of Fundy. The rain took all the fun out of the bay for me.

I don’t want my trip to Quebec City to be etched in my mind the same way. And that’s where I am right now, listening to the pitter patter of the rain on the window, as I contemplate the day ahead.

If it rained only at night that would be awesome. We could do all our sightseeing and traipsing around in the sun and be inside at night. I could live with that. It’s still April; it’s not going to be that warm at night anyway.

The best would be if it never rained, but the dew from the night would be enough to give the earth the watering it needed. That’s that way it was before God brought the flood.

If it hadn’t have been for Adam and Eve and their relatives ruining what God had originally made, it’s possible that no golf course would ever need a sprinkler system to water its course. It would all happen naturally at night.

Well, we know we’re not headed back in that direction, so rain is what we are stuck with. We need it, but we dislike it. It gets in the way of what we want to do, but if we didn’t have it, we would be crying for it.

So on our trip to Quebec, it’s umbrellas for sure! it’s planning our day around the rain and it’s making the best of what we have.

We are looking for those windows of sunshine to visit the places that would be miserable in the rain. And we are planning those indoor sights during times when it doesn’t matter how hard the rain comes down.

So far so good. Yesterday we managed to manoeuvre our sightseeing around the rain like we had a degree in meteorology.

No, that’s not true – weathermen are never right – more like a farmer who has an arthritic left knee.

Here’s the thing: We should make the best of what we have. Look for what we can do, instead of what we can’t. We should see the possible, not the impossible. There is something in us, however, that is drawn to the negative. We remember it so well. When that emotion starts to take over, seek the God of hope, who is with us, so we don’t lose hope in our present situation but believe God has a plan that will negotiate any condition we find ourselves in.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What typically has the power to get you thinking negatively? Leave your comment below.

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How To Persevere 

Sometimes we are better when we have to persevere. You know, the struggle makes you focus more, work harder, come together or rise to the challenge.

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This week my son, two of his friends and I were in a golf tournament. It was a fundraiser for Youth Unlimited Kingston (Youth for Christ). This was the same foursome we entered the year before.

Last year we won the event (you can read that blog here), and this year the outcome was the same … but that wasn’t the only thing that was the same. The weather was brutal both years!

Last year it was cold and rainy; this year it wasn’t much better … though I do remember completely changing my entire ensemble after last year’s round, while this year I only changed my shirt.

The first year no one really knew what to expect from our team, but this year people were talking before things got going. I had the feeling that people saw us as the team to beat.

As one team was driving their cart past us on the way to their first tee, we heard the comment,  “You guys can’t win this year.”  To that one of the boys casually said, without looking up from his golf bag, “We probably will.” I just chuckled to myself at the confidence.

We knew people would be out to beat us, but the boys were gamers and wanted to repeat. I was more concerned that it would stop raining so that my clubs wouldn’t fly out of my hands when I swung at the ball.

But the rain didn’t want to go away. The clouds were dark and looming even when it wasn’t raining, and when it was it made playing golf as much fun as waking up this winter to my driveway full of snow for the fifth day in a row!

But there were highlights … one of the guys hit all three consecutive shots on one hole which gave us an eagle. Then on another, when three of us had missed the green on a par 3, the fourth stepped up and threw a dart at the pin, ending up 4 feet from the hole.

And that was the story of the round. When we needed a shot or a big hole to pick us up, someone provided something special to keep the momentum going.

In the end, we were a little disappointed; we had set a big goal and didn’t reach it. But we decided nine under par was all we could do and we just hoped that it would be enough or close to it.

Go figure, the weather caused everyone else to have the same struggles, and we won by 2 strokes. Now it’s off to Wooden Sticks for a $700 round of golf for four – our first prize winnings!

Here’s the thing: In life there are times when we have to persevere through things. It’s not easy to do it alone. Just like in our golf game when three of us blew a shot, and one of us came through with just the right touch, God is with you as you persevere through the game of life to provide the right touch when needed. Sometimes it won’t be until the last chance, but persevere. Turn to God and watch Him rise to the challenge.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you found God there with you when you have persevered? I’d really like to hear from you; you can leave a comment below.

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Here’s Your Weather Warning!

Here’s a declaration I’ll admit: sometimes the weather man is correct.  The other day I went golfing with my son.  The weather was calling for rain, but since it hadn’t rained all day, I figured the evening would be rain free as well.

I have come to trust in looking outside to predict the weather rather than checking in with the guy who’s paid to give us 37% (approximate) accuracy on any given day.  But this day I didn’t look outside.  It was an opportunity to golf with my son so I jumped at it.

When we started, the sky was a little overcast but there was no hint of rain in those clouds.  By the time we got to the fourth hole, I was noticing some rather dark clouds coming our way.  But we kept going, as if somehow the clouds would part and go on either side of us, leaving a dry channel for us to golf through.

By the time we stepped up to the sixth hole, we were staring at black clouds that were now not that far in the distance.  There were rumblings of thunder which should have been a clue to us.  But we kept going.

It was no big deal – we were just carrying 13 lighting rods apiece in our golf bags, and when we pulled a club out of the bag, it was like saying, “Come on lightning, try to hit this little club.  I’ll swing it a few times to make it a hard target for you to track.”

We were brave, and stupid, but really brave.  We finished the hole, with the clouds almost over top of us.  Though it was only 5:45 pm, it seemed like it was about 7:30 pm with not much daylight left.

As we waited on the 7th tee for some people to clear the green, we saw some flashes of lightning followed quickly by thunder.  Mike took his shot and then I took mine.  It was a short par 3 so we got to the green in no time.

I walked to my ball on the green; Mike was already by the hole when I thought I heard something in the distance.  I bent down to check my ball, and I heard what sounded like a hundred horses running towards us.

I said, “What is that?”, then looked at Mike and yelled, “The rain’s coming!”  I took off running for the cart.  I don’t normally golf with a cart but I wasn’t complaining at that moment.  I jumped in just as the rain came pouring down.

Mike pinned the petal to the floor, but golf carts only go so fast.  With the wind and the angle of the rain, we got soaked.  We were driving through puddles, with rain and hail coming down all around.  When we made it back, Mike beached the cart by the overhang of the patio, as if that would keep us from getting more drenched.

It was like a flood; some guy was walking through a puddle that was over his ankles. Someone else said it would clear in about 15 minutes.  We went straight in to get a rain check.  Neither Mike nor I had any desire to preserve our rounds.  It would be best to start again another day.  At least we didn’t get hit by lightning.

Here’s the thing:  In life, God gives us warning signs that we are going down the wrong path or making a wrong decision.  Sometimes those signs seem so far off in the distance, rather than reacting to God’s warning, we keep going, feeling like we still have time.  What happens is we get comfortable living with the warning and even braver as they get closer.  We need to act on God’s warning signs early, because the storm comes in quickly and hard.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  How comfortable have you become continuing on in spite of God’s warning signs?  Leave your comment below.