cottage

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Goodbye End; Hello Beginning

The end has come, but the beginning will start soon. … I never would have said those words years ago, but they are fitting today.

Goodbye end; hollow beginning

Today we close up our cottage for the season and we won’t be back until the end of April or beginning of May – that is six months from now. 

… The end of the cottage season has come to a screeching halt. There will be no more trips up here for six months. 

Today I will put the finishing touches on the close. The final task before turning off the power and locking doors is blowing out the water lines. 

They say that everyone has the same amount of time, that we all have 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year. 

We all work within those time constraints, but I tell you that time seems shorter for me these days. That 24 hours for me is not like 24 hours for a 7 year old. 

I remember being young and trying to savour every bit of my birthday because the next birthday seemed forever away. 

I remember thinking that grade two was never going to end and that grade three would never happen. Well, that’s partly because I repeated grade two.  

But there was this sense that, in some cases, time seemed to stand still. 

When the summer was over, it wasn’t coming back any time soon.

But that is not the case now. Today we will lock up the cottage and walk away from it for the entire winter … but that time seems to go so fast now. 

It won’t be long before we are back at this place. The leaves will be budding on the trees and not falling off as they are now. Everything will be turning green, new and fresh, and not brown, yellow, red and orange. 

Now all the foliage is decaying – I filled three big paper yard bags full of shredded leaves yesterday. When we come back the grass will be growing at a rapid rate.

Between now and then, the same amount of time passes as it always has. But the time seems to pass more quickly.

I know this because it doesn’t seem that long ago that we were making our first trip of the season to the cottage. 

And that time has gone so quickly!

Yesterday I shot some video with my drone – sort of my way of saying goodbye to our retreat place (you can check it out here).

That video will stay on my YouTube channel all winter long and through the spring. But any time I look at those clips I will not be thinking of that day, but about the days to come. 

Maybe that is why time seems to go so fast. We are looking forward to what is coming up ahead. 

Children live in the moment and time seems to stand still for them. Adults look to tomorrow and time seems to move at lightning speed.

Maybe we need a little balance between living in the moment and looking to tomorrow.

Here’s the thing: Christ will come one day and this life we have had here will seem like it was a flash in time. The eternity that lies ahead of us, what we have anticipated for so long, will stretch before us as endless days to be savoured moment by moment. We will be able to live in the moment AND look forward to tomorrow … provided that we have here and now made the commitment to follow Jesus and submit our lives to Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How would living in the moment help you? Leave you comments and questions below.

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My Peace Was Interrupted

Have you ever gotten away for some peace and quiet, to a place where you can relax and think clearly, only to have your peace interrupted with noise?

My Peace Was Interrupted

That happened to me the other day.

I made my annual trip to our cottage to think, pray and plan for the year ahead. One reason I go there is that I relax well there, and the other reason is that it is quiet.

Albeit the occasional noise of a lawnmower or circular saw breaks the quiet, but for the most part it is very peaceful. All our neighbours are seniors or their kids have grown up. Lily and I are the young ones in our little section.

But last year, near the end of the summer, a family moved in just kiddy-corner to us. This family broke the pattern. They have two young children, somewhere between 3 and 7. 

I remember having kids that age, but what I don’t remember is how loud they were. … either that or this is the loud family! It seems like it’s party central all the time at their place. The kids are up early and the parents are up late.

There is nothing wrong with it most of the time – except when I’m here specifically to be quiet, reflective, to think and plan.

When our kids were young, I never thought of how loud we were as a family – especially the kids. Kids’ high pitched voices without a volume control makes for some serious noise.

Even if an adult is loud, the lower tone in their voice usually only leads to muffled noise. With kids, however, you can hear every word distinctly and clearly.

Kids are busy, too. They are not going to just sit and read. … I’m not even sure one of the neighbour kids is old enough to read. 

These kids want action! They want entertainment! And they want it all the time! 

Right now there is a road hockey game going on at 10:00 in the morning right outside my window.  

It’s summer here in vacation land – who’s playing street hockey right now? 

Growing up I played plenty of road hockey. We played mostly in the spring and then in the fall. In the heat of the summer we were down at the river catching frogs or something. 

I realize that some kids are louder than others. Some instinctively play quietly. They play with each other. 

But these kids need to be yelling and they need their parents involved. All their play is a big production. 

They have two full-sized hockey nets on the road right now. I don’t think the game is going that well for the oldest kid because he’s telling everyone that the game is over. 

No one seems to be paying attention to him, however, so he keeps reminding the adults and his sister over and over again as they play around him. 

It’s noisy, but it’s also Saturday morning. They didn’t arrive until last night … and I’m leaving in an hour or so. 

So glad they were not up for the week.

Here’s the thing: You can do your best at setting up a quiet place to spend time with God. But what you still may have to battle is how loud your thoughts are, and how distracted your mind can get. Sometimes you just have to work through those noisy sessions and find a way to focus. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What distracts you the most when you are spending time with God? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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Break The Busy With A Getaway

When you are really busy, sometimes getting away is the best thing for you. 

… I don’t mean getting away in the sense that you drop everything that is creating the busyness in your life. I mean taking all that’s making you busy with you on your getaway.

It’s that old saying, “A change is as good as a break.” 

There have been times when I’ve taken my computer and headed to a coffee shop and worked there for part of the afternoon. 

If you know me, that’s a very odd thing for me to do. 

First all all, I don’t like coffee, tea or anything mocha. I can go months without stepping inside a Tim Horton’s, and when I do, it’s for a donut, not a coffee. 

I’m never in line for a macchiato espresso grande with a shot of cream. … You get the idea; I don’t frequent coffee shops. 

But the other reason this would be strange for me is that I need quiet to study.

Coffee shops are not quiet; they are community gathering spots. People go there for coffee but also to talk, to catch up, to share coffee and conversation. 

When I study, I don’t like music in the background or I will start drumming on my desk. I don’t like noises outside my office window or I will be poking my head through the blinds to see what’s going on out there. 

I like silence or I get distracted; I lose my focus. 

But for some reason that I don’t understand, the times I’ve gone to a coffee shop to work, I’ve found that I can get things done. 

I’m able to shut out the individual voices and settle down in the hum of background noise. 

I look like I fit right in … except I’m the only one sucking back a three dollar water and nibbling on an oatmeal and raisin cookie.

I don’t do this all that often, but the break, the change of scenery, the different environment helps me to get my work done. 

Well, this week I was anticipating a very busy week, so Lily and I headed up to our cottage … you know, that “change of scenery” thing. 

I worked long mornings both days we were there, but I was working in the environment where I spend most of my vacation time. 

I worked from a sofa, with the sun breaking through the windows. I didn’t walk around; I didn’t sit looking at the scenery. It was just a different, quiet, relaxing atmosphere to work in. It was a getaway. 

I was able to get a lot of work done, while also getting a much needed break.

Maybe the incentives of the cottage helped me get more done because, along with work, I was able to get in a bike ride, a little time on the beach and take in an amazing sunset (check out my quick video here: vimeo.com/292474748 ).

All in all, this getaway helped me accomplish what I needed to set me up for what would take place from Wednesday to Sunday.

Here’s the thing: Have you ever found yourself in a rut when spending time with God, like you are going through the motions? Maybe there is no emotion when you are doing your devotions, nothing stirring your heart towards God. Well, perhaps you need a getaway, a change of scenery, a fresh place to spend that time. Try something different and see if your time with God isn’t transformed by a getaway.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How could you be refreshed by a getaway? Leave your comments below.

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Three Things In Two Hours

You have two hours and three things you want to get done … how do you decide which things you are going to do?

That was my dilemma the other day. 

I was at our cottage and planned to pack up after lunch to drive home. But there were three things I wanted to do before lunch and I only had a couple of hours: I wanted to go for a 30-minute bike ride, write a blog post and fix the leaky taps in the bathtub. 

I really wanted to do all three. In the back of my mind I thought I could only do one, but I rejected that thought, focussing on what I could do first. 

Though I would only ride my bike for about 30 minutes, getting ready, cooling down afterwards and taking a shower would bump that activity up to an hour minimum. 

Writing a blog post might take 40 minutes minimum, but it could take up to an hour. Since I hadn’t thought of a subject to write about, it was likely going to take an hour. 

Then there were the leaky taps. 

This was a late entry onto my list. The taps had been dripping for a while, but for some reason it seemed like they were dripping a little more now.

I knew this project could spill over any time limit I put on it. 

What would you do?

In the back of my mind, I still (being delusional) hoped I could get all these things done by noon. 

While I was staring at my blank tablet screen, I thought, “Why waste time sitting here trying to think of something to write about?” So I got up and looked at the taps … I thought a bike ride and shower should be last on the list. 

You can probably figure out how those two hours were spent. 

When was the last time you attempted a home repair that fit into a nice, neat little time frame? When have you tried to fix a plumbing problem where everything went smoothly, without a hitch? 

I went to the hardware store to just replace the valves for the hot and cold water taps. But they don’t make a standard tap valve. There were many styles and it looked like they were out of some. The one the hardware employee and I settled on didn’t look like an exact match but I took a chance. 

When I got back to the cottage, I quickly discovered it was not the right one. So back I went to the hardware store for trip two. 

In the end, I decided to just change the washers … which would have been quick and easy except that the screws were stuck. 

I had to soak the taps in CLR to get the calcium off them. 

Guess what I did while I waited for the CLR to do its work? I ate lunch.

I blew right through my two hour window, and didn’t even get the taps fixed. … I didn’t even get one thing done in my time frame – brutal!

On a side note, after lunch when I swapped out the washers, the taps stopped leaking.

Here’s the thing: With all the things we want to do and could do, some things will get crowded out. We just won’t have time for them all. How often are we guilty of not having time for God, simply because of our wants and priorities? Put God in the first spot every day. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Lately, how have you crowded God out of your day? Leave your comments below.

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I Got Sold An Inferior Product

Is it ever okay to stand behind an inferior product? Is there ever a time that it’s acceptable to sell a poor quality item?

The other day I found someone who thinks so.

I was doing a little project at our cottage, trying to close in the sides of our deck by building frames and then attaching vinyl siding to them. 

The project was going well, but then I ran out of wood for the frames. I needed more 1×3 strapping, so off I went to the closest lumber store to get some more.

I purchased the lumber at a service counter and then drove my vehicle out back to pick the pieces up from the yard. 

The employee who was assisting me began pulling the 1×3’s from the rack and laying them out for me. When I first saw the pieces he was pulling, I thought he was putting them in a reject pile. I soon learned that this was the lumber he was offering me.

I started to take a closer look at them and replied, “This is no good, and this one’s no good either.”

After I rejected several pieces, the attendant asked me what I was using them for. 

When he heard that I was building frames with the wood, his response was, “Maybe you should be buying pine; it’s a much nicer wood.”

“It’s also a lot more expensive and I’m covering my frames with siding. I don’t need them to look really nice,” I replied.

He went back to pulling planks out of the pile. I kept rejecting half of them.

And then he said this: “You know this is strapping, don’t you?” … The look on his face and his attitude was really saying, “You know this is cheap wood; it’s not that good. You really need to take what you get.”

I was a little ticked at this point, looked at him and said, “You have given me nothing but the pieces that have already been rejected by other people. I’m agreeing to take four of them. You’ve done well at getting rid of your junk, so keep at it.” 

I wasn’t in need of 50 pieces or even 25 or 10 pieces of wood. All I needed was 6, and that guy did nothing but go through all the crappy pieces that had already been picked over! 

I ended up taking 6 pieces home, but when I started to use them, some of them were so badly warped that I had to take 2 pieces back. 

I may go somewhere else to get those final two pieces of strapping.

I guess the thing that bugged me the most was his attitude. He seemed to think it was reasonable to sell wood that was pretty much unusable.

I just needed some straight wood. How do you build frames with wood that is wrapped like a Bobby Hull hockey stick? 

If I was buying a pallet of strapping, I would accept that there would be some pieces that were unusable. But for only 6 pieces, I needed all of them to be good ones.

Here’s the thing: The world is trying to sell us an inferior product. It’s selling us a lie that this is all there is; there is nothing beyond this life. God says there is an eternity, and the life we have now is only a fragment. So don’t put all your hopes, dreams, and ambitions into this world … you’re only buying a cheap life. Instead, establish a relationship with God and enjoy real, full, everlasting life. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What inferior set of goods have you been sold? Leave your comments below.

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I Was All Ready, But Not Really

I was ready; I had my things all set to go. I just needed to get there in time, or so I thought.

We were up at our cottage and the sun was finally going to come out at the end of the day. I thought this was my chance to finally film a sunset with my drone.

Not long ago, I wrote how I lost a drone in an attempt to get some video of a sunset over Lake Huron (read here).

Well, after that disaster, I got a replacement drone and this was the first time I was back at the cottage with it.

I wasn’t sure I would get a chance to capture a sunset; it had been cloudy most of the day. But I was going to be ready … just in case.

I had charged the battery and had my phone, which acts as the controller for the drone, charging as well.

I knew I was set, but as it got closer to the time that the sun would sink below the horizon, I got busy doing something else.

So though I was all ready to go, I suddenly had to fly into hurry mode, to gather my equipment and head down to the beach.

I walked as fast as I could, but my sore ribs from a mountain bike crash a week earlier (read here) kept me at a slower pace than I wanted to go.

The sun was still in the sky as we got onto the beach, but I knew it would drop fairly quickly out of sight.

I synced the drone with the controller and waited, not very patiently, as it acquired the necessary satellites to operate.

It seemed to take forever, but finally was able to take off. I cautiously wanted to keep it from flying out over the water like the last time I tried to film a sunset, so I didn’t take it up too high.

I thought I would snap a few pictures first, although when I went to do that I didn’t hear the usual shutter sound. That didn’t stop me from taking a few more.

Then I turned on the video camera and that’s when I realized I had all my stuff ready to go except one thing.

Nothing happened when I pressed “record”, but a little dialogue box came up on my screen. It read, “no SD card on board”.

“Whaaaaaat?!”, I muttered. And then I remembered the one thing I didn’t do was put the SD card into the drone. It was back at the cottage.

Unbelievable! I had been dying to take some sunset scenes at the beach; I even lost a drone doing it. Now, after anticipating it for so long, I had forgotten to bring the little card that would enable me to record the sight.

This picture is the scene I missed capturing with my drone.

Here’s the thing: You can think you are ready for what is coming next. You can have your relationships in order, your finances in order, even have your health right where you want it to be. But if you miss one thing – a relationship with God through Christ – you will miss capturing what will matter to you eternally. Don’t neglect those things that you think are secondary or down the road. Be ready now.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you missed that was really important? Leave your comments below.

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I Was Stuck At This Red Light Forever

The other night I was stuck at a red light for an inordinate amount of time.

I was on my way to our cottage for my yearly planning retreat. On one stretch of highway, that is only one lane in each direction, there was work being done on a bridge.

I don’t know what it is with little bridges but they seem to be the hardest things in the world to fix. It takes months and months and, in some cases, years to repair them.

This bridge is no exception., I think they could build a huge suspension bridge over a vast canyon quicker than completing the repair work to this bridge.

With the work being done on the bridge, it is down to one lane … That’s it! – one lane for traffic going in both directions.

This bridge is maybe only 30 feet in length, but it completely controls the traffic flow.

When I got to the bridge, and saw about 10 vehicles ahead of me, I naturally thought we would get our chance to cross the bridge in no time.

At first I didn’t even put the car in park; I just kept my foot on the brake. I didn’t think this would take long at all.

Boy was I wrong! The cars coming the other way just kept coming. The worst part was there were breaks in the traffic.

Seven, eight or nine cars would pass by going south and then there would be nothing. Every time there was a break, I thought, “Okay, the light changed and now it’s our turn to go.”

No. Just when I thought it would be time for us to start moving, I would see headlights coming from the other direction and another 10, maybe 12 cars, would drive by.

Ten minutes we waited with no sign that we were going to get a green light in the next little while … or month!

But there was a sign of hope.

Just a few yards ahead of me was a gravel road. I quickly looked at the maps on my phone and made a real fast decision to cut out of the line and take a detour.

No one else was doing it but I thought, “Someone has to start it up.”

I cut out of the line and made a break for it. The detour took me about 10 minutes but I came out well beyond the traffic interruption.

When I got to the crossroads to join up with the original highway I had been on, there was a stop light and I had to make a left turn.

As I waited for the light to turn green – because, of course, there was no way I would get a green light when I approached the intersection – I noticed a truck pass by.

I had a suspicion that I’d seen that truck before.

After I got back on the highway, and caught up to the traffic, I was sure it was the same truck. … And I was in the exact same position behind the truck as I was when we had been stuck at the light.

I didn’t gain one inch.

Here’s the thing: Impatience gets us to act, but sometimes our actions don’t really do us any good. When we are impatient with God, our impatience can lead us to take action that just gets in the way of what God is doing. It might delay things further or worse, it could set us back. Wait on God and don’t let your impatience cause you to try to circumvent God’s plan.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What delays have caused you to be impatient with God? Leave your comments below.

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The Grass Isn’t Much Greener On The Other Side

We arrived at our cottage last night, just before dusk, and I noticed the grass had not grown very much. The grass was long but it wasn’t any thicker than it was when we were here the last time … and we had seeded it then. 

We don’t get up to our cottage all that frequently, just a couple of days in each of the months leading up to our vacation.

We do the same thing after our vacation as well. That means there is not a lot of time to really take care of our lawn and encourage its growth.

Last year we put in an underground sprinkler system on a timer to make sure the lawn gets the water it needs.

If you’re asking, “WHO put in an underground sprinkler?”, well, we did it ourselves and it’s more like we McGyver’d a system together on the cheap.

Anyway, I thought this would make sure our grass was green and lush.

We do have a rather sandy base to work with, so a beach volleyball court would probably have been easier to achieve than thick, green grass.

All that aside, I really thought that when we arrived yesterday there would be new grass growing and we wouldn’t be able to see the ground in between the individual blades.

It’s not like that at all.

It’s been a good three weeks – maybe even four weeks – since we’ve been up. (My brother cuts the grass in between our visits.)

But I thought the grass would be greener and thicker and newer.

We put grass seed down before we left last time, but what a disappointment.

It’s in the same scraggly state as when we left it. Neither Lily nor I have a particularly green thumb, but how green does your thumb need to be to grow grass?

There are only a few things that are needed to grow grass. You need dirt, water and sun. My dad proved that you don’t need anything else.

Before I was born, my dad and mom moved into their first home in the late fall.

They decided to wait until the spring to deal with their non-existent, all dirt lawn. In the spring they noticed little green shoots coming up, so they let them grow and later went on their summer vacation.

By the end of the summer they had a lawn. It was green and that’s all they cared about … though they were afraid that it was 100% weeds.

The next spring the back yard was a sea of yellow dandelions. But when the yellow was gone, it was green again.

For years my dad was afraid to have the weed man spray our lawn for fear that it would kill it all.

The bottom line is, I know it doesn’t take much to get a green lawn.

So during this visit, I’m scheduling our sprinkler system to come on more often and we are going to lay down a heavy layer of seed.

By my vacation, I better need a swather to cut my lawn!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes when things don’t work, we just give up. When God is developing you, urging you deeper into relationship with Him, sometimes it doesn’t seem to be working. Don’t give up; just keep allowing God to finish His work in you because what He has in store will be well worth it all.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s growing in your life right now? Leave your comments below.

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It’s Always Amazing When The Impossible Happens

Sometimes we wish for the impossible and sometimes the impossible happens.

We opened up our cottage last week and spent our time relaxing, cleaning and walking on the beach. The weather was up and down; it was like Calgary weather.

Calgarians have a saying, “If you don’t like the weather now, just wait fifteen minutes.”

We didn’t have snow but at times we needed jackets, at other times our umbrella, and then one day we just needed shorts, t-shirts and sandals.

That’s right, one day it was hot, humid and 26 Celsius (79 F). It was like a mid-summer day … but it was short-lived.

We were back to wearing jackets later that evening and for the rest of the week, so it was not a difficult decision to leave the cottage early.

But it wasn’t the weather that triggered our decision.

Our daughter, Karlie, had spend three weeks in Cambodia and was flying home Saturday morning. We decided to pick her up at the airport.

Our cottage is a couple of hours away from the Toronto airport so we had a bit of a drive. The traffic wasn’t heavy, but we left kind of late.

In fact, we left so late that when Lily checked Karlie’s arrival time we knew there was no way we would be able to make it. It was pretty much an impossibility.

So I did three things to try to make the drive less stressful.

First, I told Lily we were not going to make it on time, so she would not be stewing over this fact all the way there.

Second, I drove really fast – not fast enough to have my car impounded, but not too far off.

The third thing I did was pray. I asked God to somehow get us there in time. … I felt like a hypocrite asking God for help and breaking the law to assist God in making it happen.

Periodically Lily would check the flight’s arrival time and every time the website indicated it was arriving earlier than before.

I wasn’t panicked by this but I did have unpleasant thoughts of our daughter arriving home and sadly finding no one at the airport to greet her.

That wasn’t a nice picture in my mind and it drove me to push the gas pedal down a little harder.

Along the route there were several little towns through which we had to slow down, but they were so small we’d blink and be through them.

However, coming out of one of those towns, we found ourselves behind a police car.

That really put a damper on our progress. It cut into what I could do to get us to the airport in time. While behind the officer, my speed was cut by about 35 km/h … and he stayed in front of us for 50 kms!

We had no hope of getting there on time in that unfortunate circumstance. But impossible happened …

Amazingly enough, Lily was standing there waiting for Karlie when she came out of customs.

Here’s the thing: In spite of my attempts to help God answer my prayer, the police car was like God saying, “I don’t need your help with this, Paul.” God can do what is impossible and He doesn’t need your help. He can do a really big thing, and sometimes will even make your selfish, personal request a reality. Don’t put off praying for anything and everything. God is able.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What prayer has God answered for you lately? Leave your comments below.

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I Hold My Breath When I Start Things Up

I love opening up our cottage after the winter and getting it all ready for a new summer season. But I have to tell you, I have my fingers crossed when I do it.

Kitchen-Faucet-Repair-Fix-Low-Water-Pressure-1606

You just never know if things will work properly after sitting dormant for a while.

There’s not a lot to opening up our cottage. You turn on the power from the source; you turn on the water and get it flowing; you turn on the gas so you have heat and a working stove.

Electricity is always first for me. It’s the easiest thing to turn back on … a few flicks of some circuit breakers and, voila, you have lights and a working fridge.

Having lights lets you do the other work without feeling around like everything is in Braille.

I get the gas turned on next because it’s also pretty easy. After turning on the propane tank, I simply light the stove burners and turn the heat on.

Then there is the water. It’s not hard; it just takes a little more work. You have to hook up the hoses, turn the water on at the source and then systematically turn the different taps on to coax the water out and start filling the hot water tank.

Those are the main things we need to do. The rest is set up and clean up.

But every year there seems to be some kind of issue with starting up. I think two factors play into that …

First, the place has been sitting for six months in a dormant state, and second, I only open the cottage once a year so I don’t have a well-oiled routine.

Last year I had a heater problem. You can read about that here: ______ It turned out I had forgotten to take some tape off a vent.

One year I needed to replace the filler, float and flapper in our toilet. It had frozen over the winter and was leaking in the spring.

This year – wow – it was a mystery. I turned on the water and all the taps were working.

But as I tested the hot water lines to see if the water was flowing out of them, the tap in the bathroom sink dried up. I was getting water out of all the other faucets but nothing out of the bathroom sink.

Then I turned the cold water on again … nothing. Every other water source worked except that one set of taps.

I just couldn’t figure it out. Fortunately, we could live without water from that sink so I decided to sleep on it and tackle the issue in the morning. Secretly I was hoping it would magically fix itself.

… Turns out, living at the beach, it’s possible to accumulate a fair amount of sand in the water lines. The aspirator on that faucet was completely beached! … Easy fix.

Here’s the thing: You know when you take a break from serving God in some capacity?  Maybe you needed a rest; maybe it was time to leave a particular ministry. Maybe you moved from one place to another and you haven’t jumped right back into ministry. When you do go to start up again, don’t think you will pick up where you left off. Starting up again is not as simple as flicking a switch. Seek God’s help, guidance and wisdom as you move into service so you don’t go into it in your own strength.

That’s life!

Paul

Question:  What have you started up recently? Leave your comment below.