Author: Paul Silcock

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I’m Not A Truck Guy – Maybe I Should Be

A truck is so convenient when you want to pick something up and take it home in your own vehicle. … I should have bought a truck. 

Truck guy, SUV

But I did buy the next best thing: an SUV. You can pack some serious loads in that kind of vehicle. 

When I think of it, I have always used my vehicles like they were trucks. Even when I had a two-door hatchback Buick Skyhawk, I used it like a truck. 

When I was in college, my brother and I shingled the roof of our parents’ house. We didn’t have a truck to transport the packages of shingles from the store, but we had the Skyhawk. My brother made about a hundred and fifty trips to deliver them. 

He learned really quickly that the shocks on the car couldn’t sustain more than a few packages of shingles at a time.

… But still I never thought of buying a truck. 

A truck was never something I wanted, even though I have driven home from the hardware store with wood resting from the dashboard in front of the passenger seat, through to the back seat, out the open rear driver’s side window, as I hung my arm over the wood, like I was trying to make a move on the planks.

When I was in need of a vehicle to move to Alberta to begin my first job as a pastor, I asked my dad what would be a good car for me. His answer was, “Why don’t you buy a truck?”  

I thought that was a crazy thought coming from him. My dad had never bought a truck and I could never see him owning one.

I asked, “Dad, why would I want to buy a truck?” and his reply was, “They all have them out there!”

I bought a four-door sedan.

Ya, I’ve never really considered owning or buying a truck, but I sure have used all my vehicles like they were trucks.

In this last month alone I’ve hauled a freezer and a treadmill in my SUV. 

Both times the back seats had to be folded down, the front seats had to be moved as far forward as possible, and I had to bungee the rear gate down because the loads were too long to fit inside my truck … I mean, sport utility.

I have loaded so much stuff in my vehicles over the years, strapped things to the roof, and used a red flag to warn people driving behind me that I had long cargo.

… Maybe some day I will just break down and buy a truck. 

But who am I kidding? My vehicles think they are under-sized, and under-classed trucks regardless. 

Besides, by not having a truck I get fewer requests to help people move.

Here’s the thing: There are a lot of people who get by in life with their skill, wisdom, personality, cunning and luck. Most of the time, this collection of attributes serves them just fine. They can do pretty much whatever they need. But there are times when they also reach out to God, whether they believe in God or not. They ask Him for help when they are in a tight bind. They will call out His name in desperation. They will even wonder where He is in certain situations. They don’t see the need for God most of the time, but they will use Him like He is one of their attributes. What is best is to give God your life and enjoy the full benefits that come with belonging to Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you recently called on God for that was beyond your capacity? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Taking The Plunge On The Right Opportunity

When the right opportunity presents itself, you have to take the plunge.

plunge, hockey stick curve

If you don’t, you end up kicking yourself later – like when you missed the sale and the store is now out of the product you want … and they don’t know when they will be getting more.

It’s a bad feeling. When you have experienced it once, you don’t want to experience it again.

So I bought the hockey stick last week. … That’s right, that was my right opportunity. I found a stick with my curve pattern. That might not sound like a big deal, but stores don’t normally stock my stick pattern. 

Hockey sticks all have a pattern name and number unique to the curve of that stick, and specific to their manufacturers. I’ve been using the same curve for twenty plus years. But fewer and fewer people are using the heal curve and now it is near impossible to find it. 

So when you see one in the stores, you really have to consider taking the plunge and doling out the $100 or more to get it. 

There are lots of people who spend more money on their hockey sticks, but not many who spend more time on them than I do. 

Finding a stick is a long process, but so is getting it ready to use. 

I cut my sticks down. In fact, the guys I play with tease me for using junior sticks.  

But not only do I cut my sticks down by maybe eighteen inches, I also use a six inch wood insert at the top of the handle. And before I’m ready to tape it, I take a rasp to that wood handle and shave it down so that it comfortably fits in the palm of my right hand. Then I take a heat gun to both the stick and handle to insert the handle into the shaft of the stick. 

Finally, I’m ready to tape the stick. 

The other day I was in a sports store, checking out their selection of hockey sticks … because that’s what I do. 

I’m ever hopeful that I will find a stick with my curve – it’s the Lidstrom curve. Nicolas Lidstrom was a NHL all-star who played for the Detroit Red Wings for twenty seasons but hasn’t played since 2012.

My stick’s curve pattern is still referred to as the Lidstrom curve. Every store clerk that knows anything about hockey sticks, even if he never saw Nick Lidstrom play hockey, knows the name. 

So when I found a Lidstrom stick last week, I bought it. 

The next day I used the stick for the first time and, based on how I felt about it after the game, I went back and bought another one.

Yes, I dropped $200 on two sticks, one of which I might not cut down and use for a couple of years. But I took the plunge because the opportunity was before me and the next time I need a stick, I might not be able to find one. 

Here’s the thing: When you are presented with the right opportunity, you need to take the plunge. Christ came into our world to live a sinless life and take upon Himself the punishment for our sin. He did this so that we could be accepted by God who is Himself sinless. There is no possible way we can be accepted by God on our own. What Christ has done is an opportunity we can’t get any other way. Don’t miss this opportunity – take the plunge.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What opportunity are you being presented with right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I’m Having A Dilemma With My Medications

I’m having a little dilemma right now over when to take my pills. A week ago I had no issues of when to take my pills. Now, I’m in a quandary.

dilemma with medications

For most of my life I never took a pill for anything. The number of times I took an aspirin or Tylenol was probably in the single digits.  

But at age 56 I had a heart attack and that changed everything. I started taking 7 pills a day and then went down to 5 pills after three months. One year later I was down to 4 pills a day. 

I was making great progress. A few years later I even managed to cut one pill in half, so technically I’m only taking 3 and half pills a day now. 

But since I started, I have always taken them in the morning with breakfast. For almost eight years that’s been my pattern.  

It’s hard to remember back that far, but I think I just decided to take them all together, no matter what the instructions were. 

For me I knew that I could remember to take my pills once a day. But if I had to take some at one time and some at another, I figured I would forget sometimes.

As a result, over the eight years, I’ve only missed taking my pills maybe four times … maybe.

I’ve been very consistent. I put them in my hand, throw them into my mouth, and down a full glass of water. That’s it – don’t have to worry about them for the rest of the day. 

But this past week my sister had a heart attack and I was in the hospital room when they were going over her medications. She was given all the same medications that I’m taking … but they told her to take one of them in the evening. 

I don’t do that! 

Then my brother-in-law piped up that his pharmacist told him to take this medication in the evening as well. 

Almost eight years into taking a medication and now I’m concerned that I am taking it at the wrong time. I’m thinking I now need to figure out a way to remember to take this one lonely pill in the evening, that maybe it would be better for me to do that.

I’m feeling that I’m at risk right now taking the pill in the morning like I do.

So I’ve decided to start taking this pill in the evening. This morning I put it aside and took my other pills.

But now I’m concerned that I might have side effects taking this pill at a different time because way back I had a muscle problem with it (you can read about that here). Since then it’s been good but I don’t want to upset the apple cart and experience muscle pain again. 

So I’m having a dilemma as to whether I should just take the pill now or wait until evening. 

… Life was a little simpler a week ago. 

Here’s the thing: When you are considering giving your life to Christ, or if God is calling you to go deeper with Him, it will require changes. One thing you will have to consider is whether these changes will be easy to keep. Will they cause a disruption in your life? Will you like them in the long run? When it comes to taking pills, I can’t tell you for sure, but when it comes to God, you can be sure that God will only ask you to make changes that will be in your best interest. And God doesn’t make mistakes – guaranteed!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What changes should you be considering right now? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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We Want To Know and Be Known

Have you ever known you know someone, but you didn’t know them all at the same time?

to know and be known

I’m sure this happens to every one of us and it happened to me the other day. 

I greeted someone in our church and, as I shook his hand, I knew that we had some kind of connection. There was something familiar about him but I didn’t know what. 

There was one time I was in a mall and spied a person from my church. I went up to him and said “hi”. And though he said “hi” back to me, I could tell he didn’t know who I was. 

This man had been in our church for years!  

Later I found out that he didn’t recognize me because he had only ever seen me at church and in a suit. The context was all wrong for him and, though he knew me, it just didn’t compute with him at the time. 

Well, it was a similar kind of setting for me the other day. I could tell by looking at this man’s eyes that this was not the first time we had met. He recognized me, but right then and there I just had no idea who he was.

What made it worse was that there was no time at that particular moment to try to explore our previous relationship. I just had to go back to my seat to wonder and ponder who this man might be. 

Nothing came to me. 

Then I got up to preach and, every time I looked his way, there was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t figure it out. 

My brain was working like one of those TV crime show identification computers. You know the scene: they get a picture of a suspect, pinpoint some markers on his or her face and then run it through their database. All the faces flash repeatedly on the screen until they get a hit and they identify the criminal. 

That’s what was happening to me on the platform, only there was no hit. The computer wasn’t turning up any useful information on this guy. 

My only hope was to do investigative work the old fashioned way. 

After the service I saw him standing in the foyer with his son. I went to shake his hand again. This time I could tell he knew that I didn’t know who he was, so he mercifully told me his name. 

And then the computer in my brain got a hit and all his information came rushing into my memory banks. 

… I really need to get my old computer checked out; it should work a little better than that. 

What made it more embarrassing to me was that ours was not a quick meeting or greeting that we had had once upon a time – I’ve had this man speak in our church on two occasions! 

But once the connection was made, it was amazing how familiar he seemed and how our conversation flowed because we knew each other. 

Here’s the thing: In a world of 7.5 billion people, you might expect that you are not much more than a number to God, that God really doesn’t know you that well. In reality, God knows everything about you. And you can be sure that He will never have a time when He knows He knows you but doesn’t know you at the same time. God knows you right down to the hairs on your head; He knows you intimately. Make sure you know Him in the same way. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can you do to become more familiar with God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Pleasant Surprise Turned To Disappointment

Recently I had a pleasant surprise, but it’s all gone now. In fact, now I’m disappointed.

pleasant surprise

Pleasant surprises are nice – like when you didn’t study for a test and then it was postponed. 

…Or when you planned a golf game, then saw the forecast called for rain, but when you got up on the day of the game, it was bright and sunny. 

You are more joyful playing that game of golf than you would normally be, just because it was a pleasant surprise.

Well, back in the first week of November, I wrote about us getting a dump of snow and how cold it was (you can read about it here).

It was too early for the snow and cold. I even commented to people how this weather seemed more like it was the middle of winter – like January or February weather. It really had that kind of feel to it. 

Because the weather was so bitterly cold, and the amount of snow so great, I didn’t think we would see the grass again until the snow melted in the spring. 

I didn’t think there was any possible way for all that snow to melt, and especially the piles of snow created by the snowplow on the edges of the roads and parking lots.

One day my grass was green and then the next it was covered in snow. There was no process of watching the grass slowly turn brown before the snow came.

It was green, then gone.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised because, over the course of a couple of weeks, not only did the weather warm up again (we had some days in the double digits), but all the snow melted. 

… even the snow piled up on the edges of our church parking lot.

Gone. All gone. 

Even more than all that, the grass was still green. It hadn’t stayed cold long enough to turn the grass brown and yellow. 

It really was a pleasant surprise … but that all came to an end the other day.

Not only was the surprise over, but a disappointment set in. The first day of December we got a major snowfall.

It started in the afternoon and it just kept coming down. Traffic was snarled; there were warnings not to go out if you didn’t have to. Travelling on the major highways was treacherous with multiple car crashes and injuries reported. 

There was nothing good about it. 

Once again the grass went from green to being covered in a blanket of white. 

And disappointment has set in. 

It’s still too early to be fighting with shovels and scrapers. It’s too early to be carrying gloves in my coat pockets. 

Probably the biggest disappointment is that this time the snow is here to stay. 

Just like when you got that pleasant surprise of a test being postponed, it never happened twice. 

Well, the snow won’t melt again before the end of the year. 

All I can hope for is an early spring. … Who’s got a farmer’s almanac?

Here’s the thing: No matter how hard life might get, no matter how many disappointments you face, even if you have been defeated time and time again and don’t have much hope left, with nothing to look forward to tomorrow, remember that if you know Jesus Christ as your saviour, one day you will wake up and you will stand in the presence of God. It will be the most pleasant of surprises … and you will never be disappointed again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has been a pleasant surprise for you lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

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We Are More Renewable Than I Realized

There is a big emphasis in society to use renewable energy rather than just consumable energy. 

More Renewable Than I realized

The other day I realized that we humans are maybe the greatest source of renewable energy.

The idea of the energizer bunny that keeps going and going is a nice thought … good advertising gimmick, but it’s limited. They would like you to think that he never runs out of energy – or batteries, that is – but we know that batteries do wear down. 

If they are rechargeable batteries, however, they can renew and be used again and again and again. Still, they need a time out on the charger to keep going.

… Have you ever thought of how little down time you need to be renewed enough to keep going? 

I was playing hockey last week and we only had one sub. I went off the ice to take a break, but another guy needed to come to the bench no more than 30 seconds after I sat down. 

I didn’t hesitate to get back out there. Even a 30 second rest renewed my energy enough for another shift. 

There is no battery in the world that can renew or refresh that quickly!

But it’s not just physically that humans are incredibly renewable. 

Yesterday I was writing my sermon and around 2 pm I hit a wall. I was tired mentally, had trouble focussing, and found myself being distracted by little things. Even more than that, I was looking for something to distract me so that I didn’t have to keep working on my sermon. 

I decided to take a break. I sat and read something that had nothing to do with my sermon or the subject I was going to speak on. I answered emails. I even got sidetracked on a YouTube video that I subscribe to. 

When I looked at my watch, I realized a lot of time had passed. It was now late in the afternoon and it didn’t look like I would be able to finish my sermon.

I would have to work on it on Saturday … and I hate having to write my sermon on Saturday. 

I had just a little time left before I had to go to an appointment, so I thought I might as well see if I could get a little more of my sermon knocked off.

I began writing again, and thoughts started coming; I started typing fast. I felt refreshed and inspired as I wrote against a deadline. 

I still shake my head a little because, although I ended up being a little late to my next appointment, I actually finished writing my sermon. That break that I took from writing in the middle of the afternoon renewed my energy. 

Human energy is extremely renewable. 

Here’s the thing: As renewable as we are, we don’t compare to God in this way. God is with us all the time. He is always working; He never takes a break. God never needs a break. There is never a time when His energy is low, or that He is not able to give to you His complete fullness.  God is also the source of energy, so when we need to renew and refresh, we can be charged by Him. Think about each day plugging into God to supply you fully, renewing your energy every day. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you seek being renewed by God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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An Amazing, Quick Turnaround

It is amazing how quick things can turn around. It doesn’t take much to get the mind going in a completely different direction.

Amazing, Quick Turnaround

Just over a week ago, the team that I chaplain in the OHL was riding an eleven game losing streak. 

I could see the frustration in the players’ eyes, hear it in their voices, and could tell they were losing confidence. They were wondering if there would ever be an end to the streak they were on. 

When you can’t buy a win, you begin to doubt yourself, your teammates and even your coaches. 

It’s like being on that teacup ride at Disney World where you are spinning at a dizzying pace. You just want off. You can’t control the spin of the cup you are in, and you want the operator to shut the ride down. In the meantime you keep spiralling downward, feeling sick as your stomach moves closer to your mouth.

I’m sure the team felt much like that. You lose hope that there is anything that will change your circumstances. 

I remember being on a team that went a whole season with only two wins. It was brutal. By the end of the season we were not even thinking of winning. All I could hope for was to maybe score a goal so I had something to feel good about.

But when you have been down for an extended time, you find you don’t have the hope inside you to even wish for a little thing that would be good.

If something small changes, however – even the slightest encouragement – it brings hope back like the tide coming in from the ocean. 

It’s like winter that can drag on and on, pushing you down and down. But when you see that first little bud on a tree, even though it’s still brown and shrivelled, or one blade of grass that is green, your hope of spring comes rushing back to you.

What was amazing about my team was that, just over a week later, they won four straight games and have had points in five consecutive outings.

They are riding on a huge wave of hope right now. They’ve even climbed out of the basement in their division. 

It started with a loss in overtime. They still got a point and could have easily won. That’s when their hope emerged. 

That hope gave them something to believe in the next night and they won that game. 

Their hope was alive, and it was like it had never left them. Their hope was new and fresh; it was bold. You could see it on their faces; you could hear it in their voices. 

And they kept riding that hope to another and another victory – four straight wins.

Hope – just a little of it – can spark something in us that keeps us going until something else comes along to increase our hope. 

It is amazing.

Here’s the thing: Wherever you are at in life right now – riding a crest of hope or scratching to find any semblance of hope – understand that true hope is not found in you or anything you can do, not even a fortunate happenstance. Hope is with you; hope is always with you. Real hope is found in Jesus Christ. And if you will seek Him, spend time with Him, speak to Him, He will show you the hope that you can have in any situation. Your mind can be changed in a moment. That’s truly amazing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need hope for right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Was Persuaded By Something Little

The other day it was a little thing that persuaded me to think, embrace, and cheer for something against my intentions.

I Was Persuaded

On Sunday I watched the Grey Cup, which is the Canadian football equivalent to the NFL’s Super Bowl. I’m not saying these two championships are equal in any respects. I’m just saying that what the Super Bowl is to the NFL, the Grey Cup is to the CFL – the national championship.

I won’t get deep into all the differences, but the NFL has bigger, faster, more skilled players than the CFL, while the CFL has a bigger field, uses bigger footballs and has more players on the gridiron.

But that’s all a side note.

Now you can persuade me on many topics; I will listen to logic. But when it comes to sports, I will not be persuaded for any reason. 

… Well, maybe one little reason. 

And it was a little reason that had me cheering for a team that I had no previous interest in.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats went head-to-head on Sunday to determine who was the best in the country.

Neither team was my favourite, but if there was some kind of pull or rationale for cheering for one team, it should have been for Hamilton. 

You see, I’ve never lived in Winnipeg. I’ve only ever driven through it and flown into the airport on maybe three occasions. I’ve only stayed there to attend a conference, and stayed overnight in another part of the province maybe three or four nights in my life. 

Whenever I’ve driven through Winnipeg I’ve taken the ring road that goes around the city – except for one time before the ring road was built. 

I have no ties, no history, no probable cause to cheer for the Bombers.

On the other hand, Hamilton is in the same province I was raised in and currently live in. My son worked there for a couple of years – though he refused to live there – and I have slept overnight in Hamilton while attending conferences.

I guess what I’m saying is I have more reason to cheer for Hamilton than Winnipeg.

Hamilton is known as the Hammer, the armpit of Canada, while Winnipeg is the Windy City with mosquitos the size of Canadian geese.

If I had to choose who to cheer for in the Grey Cup this year, it should have been the Ti-cats … but I cheered for the Blue Bombers instead. 

Even more out of place, the week before I had cheered for Winnipeg over Regina, though I went to college in Regina for four years, and attended a few Roughrider games at Taylor Field. 

What persuaded me to cheer for the other side?

One little thing: a friend of mine bleeds Blue and Gold. I’ve seen this man’s heart trampled by his team so many times I can’t count them. This guy is passionate for Winnipeg like no one else and the team has gone 29 years without a Grey Cup victory.

The little thing that persuaded me to cheer for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was that I couldn’t bare to see this guy go down in flames again. I felt so bad for him.

… Maybe my cheering paid off. The Blue Bombers defeated the Tiger-Cats decisively.

Here’s the thing: Maybe we don’t think enough about Christ’s sacrifice for us. If we did, we might be persuaded more often to side with Him, and to say no to sin and yes to following His will.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How much does Christ’s love sacrifice mean to you? Think about that for a while.   Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Right Size Shouldn’t Be Hard To Find

Finding the right size of something that you want to buy shouldn’t be all that complicated. Yet that is what I’m experiencing.

right size freezer

We’ve had a freezer for about 28 years. It’s one of those appliances that you put in your basement and never think about replacing. They seem to last forever. 

Sadly, however, our freezer is showing signs of its age. Ice builds up under the lid and it’s not as efficient as the new ones are. Plus it’s just the two of us at home now so we don’t need a freezer that is as big as what we needed when both our kids were around. 

I’m also concerned that my wife, Lily, will sometime reach down to the bottom (because that’s where all the food is) and accidentally fall in! 

So we are in the market for a new freezer – a more “our sized” freezer.

But it’s not as simple as purchasing a slightly smaller one. The capacities are different with every brand, and the size of the freezers are surprising us. 

We want a freezer that has an inside capacity of about ten cubic feet. 

We thought that this would be a much smaller unit overall than the freezer we have now, but it’s not. Some models have the same outside dimensions as our present one with far less capacity! 

When you shop at Costco you know that if you want a bottle of Ketchup you are going to have to buy a monster size tub of it, or a multipack that will add up to the same amount as that monster tub. 

If you don’t want that size, you go to the regular grocery store where they have small, medium and large sizes to choose from. You won’t have to buy a massive container of Ketchup to only hold a medium amount of the stuff. 

Yet when it comes to freezers, we could buy a freezer that is five cubic feet smaller than the one we presently own … and it will take up more space in our basement! 

… Maybe it’s like toilet tanks. In the 90’s they started putting a layer of foam in the tanks so that they would hold less water and reduce the amount of water used per flush, all the while keeping the toilet tank dimensions the same size.

Maybe the walls and insulation on these new freezers is really thick. Maybe there are secret compartments inside these new freezers that you could use as a safe … or hide a stash of chicken wings that you bought on the sly that you don’t want your wife to know about!

We are just looking for a smaller freezer, one that has a smaller capacity AND a smaller footprint. 

I don’t think that should be too hard to find, but, for the life of me, we haven’t found one yet.

Here’s the thing: As we go through life we have a tendency to collect baggage. Whether that baggage comes in the form of work heartaches, relationship fails, sins, hurts, injury or sickness, our life’s footprint seems to get bigger with every new chapter of our lives. God wants to relieve us of that excess. The latest, newest chapter of your life can be the leanest if you will trust Him with all the bulk you carry around. Give it up to God and find a perfect fit.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What baggage do you need to give over to God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Sometimes Being Counterintuitive Is Best

I’m always surprised when I do something that seems counterintuitive and it happens to be just the right thing to do.

counterintuitive

When you are hot and the sweat is pouring off you, your first reaction is to try to make yourself as cool as possible. 

After I have worked out in my home gym, I often take my t-shirt off because it’s wet, I’m hot, and I feel that I will cool down easier if my skin can breathe better. 

It makes sense … but not always. 

There have been times that I have had a cold or flu and have been running a fever. My head feels like it’s going to explode, I’m all stuffed up … you get the picture. 

I’m a bit of a mess.

Instead of getting under the covers and laying low, sometimes I have gone out and played hockey. In fact, I will wear an extra shirt under my pads and zip it up to try to sweat the cold or flu right out of my system.

I know that doesn’t sound like it would work, but it does and has … some of the time, on more than one occasion. There are times I’ve been just too sick to sweat it out. 

And when I have a cold, I will purposely go to bed in a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I’ll put an extra blanket over me with the hopes that by morning I will have broken my fever. 

My clothes may be drenched and I might be sweating, but many, many times I feel better when I wake up.

Sometimes doing the opposite of what you think you should do works in your favour.

The last couple of days I’ve had a stiff neck. I think a few muscle in my neck have been waging a little revolt on me for some reason. 

It’s sore. But rather than keeping my neck still, I’ve been doing exercises to stretch and compress the muscles that are in mutiny right now. 

It seems to be working, but let me tell you, I’ve gotten some strange looks from people when I’ve chosen to do these stretches in public. 

It looks odd to people when you are walking in a mall and are trying to bend your head in such a way as to get your ear to touch your shoulder, or at least move in that direction. 

It’s hard to see the road when you dip your head down and try to touch your chin to your chest. … I don’t do that one too often when I’m in the car.

This morning I played hockey. And even though my neck was sore before I started, as I played things began to loosen up until I didn’t even notice that my neck was stiff or sore.

We’ll see how I fare the rest of the day. Will my neck stiffen or become even more flexible?

Here’s the thing: The natural thing to do when you wrong someone or hurt someone is to stay clear. You pull back and try to avoid them. We do that with God, too. Maybe we are embarrassed; maybe we think He won’t forgive us, or that He will punish us. But doing the counterintuitive thing works best. It is amazing how apologizing to the person you’ve wronged or hurt actually makes it better. When we’ve sinned and go to God, He is waiting with open arms.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to do this week that seems counterintuitive? Leave your comments and questions below.