sermon preparation

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Canadians and Hockey

There is something weird about us Canadians.  The other day I was out for dinner with my family – that would be 3/4 of my family because one quarter left us for Alberta five years ago and has not yet found her way back.

Anyway, we were in this restaurant having one of my favorite meals, hot wings. This particular restaurant had television screens all over and they were tuned to a sports channel.

I like sports so, even though the sound was off and pop music was playing through the speakers, I found myself watching what was on the screen.  About 5 minutes went by before I realized I’d been watching hockey highlights, goal after goal, great saves, and awesome hits.  But these weren’t highlights from last night’s games – they were from last year!  There’s a hockey strike on right now.

Now that’s Canadian.  It’s hockey season, so strike or no strike we’re going to watch hockey in some form or other.  It was funny because I was ogling the dekes these guys made on the goalies, and banging the table when the goalies made their out-of-nowhere glove saves.

I thought to myself, “Why am I interested in these highlights? I’ve seen them all last year.”  And after 5 or 10 minutes of watching in the restaurant, I’d seen them several more times.  But I kept watching, even though there weren’t many “Leaf” highlights.

I wasn’t the only one watching; my son was watching too.  We talked about what we were looking at as if it had some bearing on world peace or maybe war in the middle east.  There is just something about September that forces us to tune in; it flows through the veins of Canadians, like the urge to pack up the lawn mower and tune up the snowblower (man, I wish I had one of them!).

To be honest, I don’t think this NHL hockey strike is such a bad thing.  Right now my Toronto Maple Leafs have a perfect season going.  In fact, they’re in first place in the league.  I realize it’s a tie with every other team in the league, but hey, if the playoffs started right now, the Leafs would have a chance!

In one Toronto store, I saw on their TVs they were showing a hockey playoff game between Montreal and Philly.  I thought to myself, “This is Toronto and they’re showing a Montreal game?”  Then I remembered, if they showed a Leafs’ playoff game it would be in black and white!

Personally, I believe this strike comes at a good time.  The Leafs haven’t made the playoffs since the last strike so this strike should break the jinx … we’ll probably see them in the playoffs again regularly.

Here’s the thing:  We all have things that grab our interest, command our attention, draw our focus away from everything else.  But does that happen with God?  When you read the Bible, do you get lost in what it’s saying to you?  When you are alone with God, do you lose track of time and everything else around you?  I don’t think it will happen all the time, but at certain moments, seasons of our life, our God should grab our interest, grab our attention, draw our focus away from everything else.  If it doesn’t happen, we should look into why, and make some changes.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: When has God so grabbed your attention that everything else faded around you? Leave your comment below.

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I like Nostalgia Night … Once in a While

When I think of my ability to remember things, sometimes I find it amazing!  Sure, there are lots of things I don’t remember, like each week when the garbage has to go out … I still need a reminder for that.  Sometimes I need more that one reminder.  If you’re driving by my house at midnight on Tuesday (or, is it Wednesday?), it’s possible that you might see me putting the garbage out to the curb.

When you think of it though, on so many things our ability to recall is astounding.  Take phone numbers, for instance.  Some people can remember not only their own phone number, but they know all their relatives’ phone numbers and many of their friends’ numbers as well.  My wife Lily is like that; she’s my personal yellow pages if I need to call someone in our family.

The other day I was flicking channels on the TV and PBS had a special on the Ed Sullivan show.  (If you’ve never heard of that show, it was an entertainment show that ran from 1948-1971.)  This particular PBS special featured musical acts from the 60’s, so I tuned in.

It was great to see some of the bands perform from way back.  But what struck Lily was that I knew the words to many of the songs.  At one point she said, “You were 11 when that song was out and you know every word!”  I thought about it later, and I don’t even know how I learned the words.  They just got stuck in my memory.

Lily didn’t stay too long.  So there I was, alone, singing away with the likes of Herman’s Hermits, The Beatles, Jerry and Pacemakers, Lulu, and yes, even Tom Jones.  I was asked to shut the basement door as if that would create a sound barrier to my singing, that apparently got louder and louder as I got more into it.  What Lily was really hoping for was the “cone of silence” from “Get Smart” (another 60’s TV show).  When I came upstairs later, Lily had an ice pack on her neck.  She said that her neck had been bad for weeks, but I’m wondering if maybe my singing finished it off.

I did enjoy myself though.  I could even remember guitar solos, drum beats – I sang them too.  For about an hour my memory was digging deep, bringing song after song to the front of my mind.  I guess I overtaxed it though, because I couldn’t remember where I put the remote when it was over.

Here is the thing:  God says that when He forgives us, our sins are gone, taken away “as far as the east is from the west”.  So when we have confessed our sins to Him, and then still feel guilty for them, it’s not God punishing us, or needling us with those sins.  It’s our own excellent memory that keeps them coming back!  What we need to do is be a little more selective with what we remember when it comes to our past sins.  We need to treat our past sins more like taking out the garbage or remembering where we put the remote control.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you prevent your past from plaguing you with guilt?

 

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Confessions of a Culinary Master

I’m not much of a cook; in fact I would say I don’t really cook at all.  Those who have the same kitchen skills as me might be able to say, “I make a mean Mac’n Cheese”.  But I don’t like Macaroni & Cheese, so I can’t even say that.

I do make my breakfast each morning that consists of cutting up half a grapefruit with a special knife that reduces the preparation time in half.  Along with that, I make a small bowl of Oat Bran Cereal that involves boiling water, 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 cup of oat bran.  You know, just writing that, I feel, makes me sound like I can cook.

Then recently when I was alone at our cottage, and had to cook for myself, I made a meal that looked so good, I took a picture of it.

I know what you’re thinking looking at that picture, it’s got “Chef Silcock” written all over it!  When I put together this meal, how it looked on the plate impressed me so much I was compelled to record it so I could share it with others … at the very least, brag to my wife and daughter who probably wouldn’t even give me a passing grade at cleaning up the kitchen after a meal!

When I ate the meal, it was even better than it looked.  I savoured every morsel of it and when I was done, I sat back and marveled at how it had all turned out.  I didn’t get a passing grade on the clean up though.  I tossed everything in the sink to wash up sometime later.

Now for the confession:  Although I made the salad and cooked the beans, the meat had been pre-cooked by Lily about a week earlier.  She knew I was going to be alone the next week so she prepared it and put it in the freezer.  All I had to do was nuke it (however, I did that to perfection).

For the salad, the lettuce came in a large container.  I just reached in, grabbed a handful, plopped it on the plate, and added some croutons from a box and dressing.  The beans, well, that’s where my experience making Oat Bran came in.  I’ve been heating water on the stove for years!  A little water in a pan, tossed the beans in after cutting off the tips, finished with a little butter on top … de-lish.

Here’s the thing:  I can’t cook, but by all appearances from the picture it looked like I could.  By withholding information on how the meal came together, and by using words that suggested I had cooked it all myself, maybe you had an opinion of me that wasn’t true.  So, how often do we present ourselves or use words to give an impression of our spiritual state that isn’t quite accurate?

We shouldn’t give the impression that we are doing well spiritually when we are not.  On the other hand, we shouldn’t downplay the condition of our relationship with God to others either.  God desires us to live a life of integrity.  If spiritually you are struggling, don’t cover that up.  Get busy and work on it.  If you’re doing well spiritually, let others see and be influenced.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you struggle with integrity before God?  Leave your comment below.

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The Doctor Is In

For the last several years I’ve been collecting watches.  I have several . . . actually I have more than several.  The watches I collect aren’t expensive or collector’s editions.  They’re not popular brand names.  They are cheap $10-$15 watches that I mostly get at a flea market.

Since I’ve been collecting these watches, I’ve been called the “Watch Doctor” by many … mostly my family and only after I told them I was the Watch Doctor.  If you say “Watch Doctor” out loud in reference to me, please pronounce it “Watch Docta”, it sounds better.

I’m not the Watch Docta just because I have a large collection of watches; it’s because I fix them too.  You see, with so many cheap, and cheaply made watches, there are always one or two needing attention.  If it’s not a battery issue, it might be the stem or the strap.  In order to fix them I need tools and I found a great little kit online.  So, if you see me with my little black bag, you’ll know I’m in “Docta” mode.

Not long ago I needed to change the battery in one of my watches.  For those of you who are laymen regarding watches, there are basically two different ways to get the back off a watch.  Some watches are the pop-off kind, and you use a special knife for that.  The other kind screws off.  There are little notches so you can apply a case opener tool to twist it off – and yes, I have that tool.

This watch had the notches so I got out my case opener for screw types and got started.  But I couldn’t get the back off. I turned the back one way and then the other way, but it would only move slightly and then tighten no matter which direction I turned.

Soon I began to get quite frustrated, and in passing, my wife Lily commented, “Why don’t you try to pop the back off?”  I gave her a look only a well-trained Watch Docta could give, as if to say “Whach you talkin’ ‘bout, fool?”  Then I kept at it.

After a while I began to get angry at the watch.  I would put the watch down for a bit and then pick it up and try again.  Nothing.  I got nowhere. Finally I got out my knife – because I didn’t care any more – and funny thing, the back of the watch just popped right off!

Those markings on the back of the watch were just decoration!  It wasn’t a screw type watch at all.

Here’s the thing:  The appearance of the watch indicated to me that I needed to take the back off a certain way.  Lily had no idea what type of watch it was.  She just threw out another possibility.  Her suggestion didn’t make sense to me because of the appearance of the watch.  But she was right.

Sometimes we get our mind set on something that we think we know about, and we don’t listen to God.  We think we don’t need His advice, that we know what to do.  But God knows better than we do.  Even when it looks like something we know, listening to God will give us the best way to proceed.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  How have you been guilty of not listening to God when you think you know the way to proceed?  Leave your comment below.

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End Well

Sometimes my wife just wears me down.  For the last sixteen years we’ve lived in Ontario, 2 ½ hours from Toronto, and Lily has said she would like to visit Casa Loma (http://www.casaloma.org).  I wouldn’t say she has insisted on going, but she’s suggested it with a really big smile, batting her eyelids and stretching out the word “please” for a long time.

It’s not like she’s never been, she just wanted to go again – together. I’ve put her off many times, but recently we were in Toronto for our anniversary and were looking for one more thing to do before we came home.

She had me at a weak moment.  I had very little options, no alternate plan, and if I wanted to keep those romantic anniversary feelings from crashing on the rocks, I needed to cave on this one.  In the end, it wasn’t a bad choice of activities.

If you know nothing of Casa Loma, it is this enormous home built at the turn of the 20th century.  It’s not a castle but it looks like it could be a castle. And if you owned it and lived in it you would feel you lived in a castle.  Now, however, it’s a great money-making tourist attraction for the city of Toronto.  The day we went they made thousands of dollars; there were people everywhere.

It has 98 rooms, secret passages, gardens, and an underground tunnel to the stables.  Still, I figured, if we went through the rooms quickly (the way I like to go through show homes when Lil gets the opportunity to drag me through them), we could be done in an hour.

But Lil wanted to get the self-guided tour with a phone-like device giving a commentary on all the features of the house – yes, all 98 rooms.  As soon as they slapped one of those devices in my hand, I knew we were going to be putting an offer in to buy the place.  This was not going to be a short in and out viewing!

What I found interesting from all the commentaries was the background on the owner, Henry Pellatt.  The commentary painted him as a generous, wealthy, kind man.  At one time he controlled one quarter of the wealth in Canada.  The home he built was supposed to cost about $500,000 but ended up costing $3.5 million, a hefty price for 1911.

Then one thing after another happened to Henry:  he lost a lot of money when the government took his electric power company from him without compensation; the stock market crashed; and he made some deals that didn’t work out.  In the end, he was bankrupt, and the city took ownership of Casa Loma due to back taxes owed to the tune of $27 million in 1933.

Henry ended up penniless.  When he died, at the age of 80, he was living in a room in the home of his former chauffeur.  His son hadn’t even taken him in.  … A magnificent house, a sad story.

Here’s the thing:  If for almost or all of your life things go your way, but you die without a saving relationship with Christ, your life ends up to be just a very sad story.  Jesus came to turn any life – good or bad – into a great story … and that’s worth checking out while you’re still living out your story.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What kind of story will your life tell when its done? Leave your comment below

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He’s Got Your Back

When I was a kid, having a brother was great.  We played together; we always had a buddy to do something with.  On the other hand, we also fought a lot.  It was quite predicable:  one little thing like an innocent bump would lead to a push and then a harder push and a hit.  Then the fight was on.

My brother and I had some pretty classic fights growing up.  Some of our fights could have been on WWE (Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment).  People would have paid good money to see them!  On WWE they use chairs and tables on each other; we used hockey sticks and the threat of knives (just the dull ones you use at dinner).  When we got older, our poor mother would throw her arms up, and walk away saying, “You guys are going to kill each other!”

We didn’t, and we’re still great friends today.  The funny thing was, all those fights we had never lasted.  We would be playing one minute, then fighting, and then a couple minutes later playing together again.

One of the greatest things about having a brother was having someone to stick up for you.  Maybe you never had this feeling before, but having someone come to your side, and stand with you when there’s trouble is an amazing feeling.

One time when we were 10 and 12, we were with a bunch of friends when some other guys came up to us.  One of them was a couple years older, had a reputation as a fighter, and for some reason started picking on me.  My friends didn’t want anything to do with it and kind of backed away.  I’m sure they were thinking he would beat me to a pulp.

But my brother was there.  Though it’s always nice to be able to say, “I’m going to get my big brother and he’s twice your size”, my brother was two years younger and the same scrawny size as me.  It didn’t seem like a great advantage.

Still he was there and he didn’t back away like my friends did.  He got in there and basically the two of us laid a beating on that guy (I think it was all our practice that helped).  We were pretty pumped about what we did and how we felt about each other and we never had any trouble with that kid again.

Here’s the thing:  The other day I was reading Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

As I read that verse the feeling that I got was that same feeling of having a brother come to your side in a fight. The trouble is not necessarily dismissed, but I have someone fighting with me, someone helping me in my trouble.

Reading that verse, I got this amazing feeling of how much God cares for me, to battle with me.  And because He’s God, we’re going to win in the end, and walk off arm in arm victorious together.

God isn’t off somewhere helping remotely; He’s right there with you, and He’s got your back.  God is watching out for you.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  When you are in a difficult place, how do you feel about God?

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Get Out of My Way!

I’ve been known to get a little frustrated in traffic. City traffic infuriates me, but highway traffic, it infuriates AND bewilders me. I don’t understand how you can be driving at, let’s just say a little over the speed limit, on a 4 – 6 lane highway and have traffic come to a complete stop.

I understand a lane closure or an accident would cause it, but when there is nothing to block the lanes from moving freely, how can I go from traveling at 120 km/hr down to 0, and then have to putt along between 0 and 40 for what seems like forever?  There are no traffic lights on the highway, people! (If someone can explain the science of this, I’d appreciate it).

Recently, I was traveling through Toronto up to Sauble Beach.  I planned to stop at the Apple Store at Yorkdale Mall right beside the highway … but I left a little late.  I knew I would have to make good time on the road to get there before the store closed.  When I started, traffic was moving well.

By the time I was half way there, I was optimistic that I would make it to Yorkdale in time.  The traffic had been light and, let’s just say, I was making pretty good time.  Then my world caved in.  Being late Sunday afternoon, people were returning from their cottages and every route was funneling a ton of cars onto my highway.  Sure enough, seconds after passing a major on ramp, I saw brake lights and my car literally came to a stop.

I drive a standard so the constant speed up and slow down is rather annoying, especially if you have to do it for a good 40 minutes.  I kept looking at the clock and my hope of making the Apple Store was fading.  But just when I had almost written off the possibility of getting there on time, the traffic picked up.  Why?!  I have no idea, but I was ecstatic and it bugged me all at the same time (you see, I really need that explanation).

I drove as fast as I legally could – well, maybe a little faster – and kept looking between the road signs and the clock to judge my timing.  I knew it was going to be close.  But there was another hitch:  the off ramp from the highway to Yorkdale was closed.  I would have to exit off another street and negotiate my way back to the mall.  I looked again at the clock . . . I only had 10 minutes.

It was then that I had to give up and realize I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t get off at another exit, make my way along the streets, park the car and get inside the mall to the Apple store in just 10 minutes.  I kept driving.  I looked at Yorkdale from the highway as I passed by.  I was so close, if it wasn’t for that blasted traffic.

Here’s the thing:  When life throws us a roadblock, we look to blame someone and often times we look to God.  Why did God do this to me?  Blaming doesn’t help; it makes us even more angry, and it doesn’t move us to a solution.  What we should do is pour out our sorrow to God, let Him know how we feel, and seek His help.  Ask Him for strength to go through the roadblock, and/or a solution to get past it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: Who do you blame most when you hit a roadblock in life?

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I’m Messy; Deal With It!

I’ll admit it:  I’m kind of a messy guy.  It’s never hard to tell where I’ve sat at a table for a meal.  There are usually more than a few crumbs that escape my plate and leave clear evidence.  However, I’ve never seen crumbs form the word “Paul” so one could argue that someone else was sitting in that spot.

I’ve been messy as long as I can remember, and it may even be a genetic trait.  My dad was a notorious spiller.  I could share many-a-story of his spectacular spills – stories our family still gets a good chuckle over years later.  All I have to do is mention the word “marinara” and a smile appears on the face of everyone in my family.

My son has a good chance of proving the messy gene theory because, when we eat at the same table, sometimes it’s hard to determine who sat in what spot.  But my wife, Lily, says I’m messy because I don’t eat properly.

Somehow, in all my years, I never learned to eat right.  If you ask me, this is a major slam against my mother who, after all, was the one who taught me how to eat in the first place.  But the curious thing is, it also incriminates Lily because she’s the one who taught our son to eat … and apparently he hasn’t learned to eat properly either!

Lily says the problem is simply that I don’t have my plate close enough to me, and therefore, things spill.  I am either sitting too far away from the table or my plate needs to be closer to the edge.  In fact, the other day she actually pushed my plate closer to me … and I promptly spilled something on the far side of my plate.  If she hadn’t have moved my plate I wouldn’t have spilled.  I get the blame but I’m telling you, it was her fault.  I wanted to pick up the food I spilled and place it on her placemat, but I restrained myself.

And, by the way, placemats are overrated, especially for messy guys like me.  A hard, smooth surface is much easier to clean and to quickly hide the evidence (one quick swipe, if you know what I mean) than fabric where the crumbs get stuck and remain for the CSI team (Lily) to investigate.

It really doesn’t matter if I’m spilling something on my shirt (and becoming more like my dad every day), or if I leave a ring of crumbs around my plate when I eat, that‘s who I am.  I’m messy.  If I’m going to be eating at your house, you have to be prepared for that, or reconsider having me over.

Here’s the thing:  We like to change people, but the reality is we can’t.  We can get quite frustrated with people who don’t want to place their faith in God.  We can try to change them, but it won’t work.  We can just walk away and not have anything to do with them, or, we can just accept them as they are and allow God to work in them.  Who knows?  God might even use you to push the plate a little closer to them.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How hard is it for you to just accept people whom you want to see changed?

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I Hate Borrowing Stuff

Don’t you just hate it when you borrow something and then break it or damage it in some way?  That’s one reason I would rather buy something than borrow it.  I really hesitate asking anyone if I can use something that I could possibly damage because I am pretty good at breaking things.  In fact, when we were young, my mother once told my brother and me that we should go into the wrecking business when we grew up because we were so good at it!

Well, against my better judgment, I borrowed a neighbour’s sledge hammer to put landscape ties around a garden at our trailer.  Really what can you do to a sledge hammer?  It’s made to take a pounding; the word “sledge” makes you think of something that inflicts damage, not gets damaged. It’s strong, heavy, and has been called a persuader, punisher, the big guy.

I borrowed an 8-pound sledge – not the biggest you can find but there was no question that it would do the job.  We had twelve inch galvanized nails to go through two landscape ties … no problem.  However, I managed to break the handle.

I’d like to say that it was my brute strength that powered through the nails and put such force on the sledge hammer that the handle couldn’t compensate for the torque I put on it and, therefore, it broke (sounds good, doesn’t it?).

Well, it didn’t happen that way.  I had hammered in the first nail only to realize things weren’t aligned properly and I needed to take that nail out and start again.  Rather than use a pry-bar, I grabbed the nearest thing and wedged the sledge between the two pieces of wood.  Using my brute strength, I yanked on the handle with such force that the sledge hammer couldn’t compensate for the torque I put on it and it broke.  Ok, so basically I used the sledge hammer as a wedge instead of a hammer.

Now I had done two things I didn’t want to do:  I didn’t want to borrow the sledge hammer in the first place, and I certainly didn’t want to break it.  So, it was off to the hardware store to either purchase a handle or buy my neighbour a complete new sledge hammer.  When I saw the $40 price tag for an entirely new one, I decided to buy a handle for only $12.

I’m not going to write about changing the handle as I have yet to process that brutal experience, but here’s the thing:  Sometimes when we pray we try to get God to agree with what we want Him to do.  We try to put God in a place of having to respond to our request or need the way we want Him to.

Often times we get upset when God doesn’t respond the way we think He should.  We should get upset, however, because we are praying the wrong way.  It’s like we are breaking our prayer.  Prayer is meant to align us with God’s will, not get God to align with what we want.  When we use prayer in the proper way, it works really well.  When we don’t, and use it for our own purposes, we’ll find it breaks.

By the way, when I used the sledge to hammer the nails, they went in like butter.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: When you pray, how can you align yourself with God’s will rather than forcing your will on God?  Leave your comment below.

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Life is a Buffet

Recently Lily and I celebrated our anniversary by going to a dinner theatre. The play was secondary; I was thinking more about the buffet and what I would be eating than what I would be watching.

The food was okay.  At a buffet it’s the volume that really matters … and there was volume!  I noticed some people piled the food on their plates as if it was their last meal.  Others went back for one or two more rounds.  Being a little conscious of what I’m eating these days, I kept my plate portions to a respectable side, but did visit the buffet more than once.

I find it amazing that if I had just ordered a plate of food, I would have been satisfied.  But because I can go back for more, something inside me says, “you’re still hungry, get back up there and get another plate”.  Or possibly it’s my wallet that speaks to me saying, “you’re paying $X for this meal; make sure the theatre isn’t making any money off of you … make them pay!”  It’s a crazy attitude to have, but somehow it pops into my head at the thought of a buffet.

A second plate wouldn’t have been that bad, but there was a dessert area that had not escaped my notice the two times I had been in the buffet line.  In fact, by the time I was ready for dessert I had already pictured what my dessert plate(s) would be filled with. Did I mention I had two runs at that line as well?

I had to visit the desserts again.  It wasn’t that I really wanted to; it was more that after my first plate I didn’t save anything to nibble on during the performance.  That, and there were still some things that I had noticed that I wasn’t able to fit on my first plate.

When I got to the line for round two, it was long.  It seemed I wasn’t the only one with an idea of having a plate full of goodies to carry me through the production (as if I might get a little peckish if I didn’t!).  I noticed some people taking dinner sized plates to put their desserts on, and I thought, “that’s not right”, but when I got close to the desserts something overtook me and I grabbed a large plate too.  It didn’t look right with just a few things on it so I had to put enough on the plate to make it look, well … uh … full.

When I got back to our table, I told Lily that some of it was for her, but she wasn’t interested in much, so it was left to me to finish.  I didn’t do a bad job; I kept at it right through the play.  And when it was all over, I waddled out of the theatre, like everyone else.  Oh, and the play was not bad either; it was a musical.

Here’s the thing:  in life we can fill our time – our daily plate – so full that when we get to the main attraction (the main reason we’re really here) that becomes secondary. You see, God has put us here to glorify Him and enjoy Him, and often we are so busy filling ourselves up with all kinds of goodies, that the production we came to be part of becomes an after thought.  I need to put more time and effort into the main thing, more focus on what I am here for.  Maybe if I did, I wouldn’t feel liking I’m waddling around in this life.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What are you gorging yourself on that is taking way from your main purpose of glorifying God and enjoying Him?  Leave your comment below.