Author: Paul Silcock

by

My Train Got Derailed

Your day can easily get derailed and it can happen so slowly that you don’t realize it until you are well off the tracks.

That’s what happened to my day last Monday … and it unfolded like that story of how to cook a frog. 

If you put a frog in a pot of water and slowly heat up the water, the frog won’t jump out. He will willingly let himself be cooked to death. 

The frog is comfortable in water and, if the temperature rises slowly enough, his body will adjust to the temperature until it’s too late and he’s frogs legs on someone’s plate.

Early last Monday morning, I was looking at a brand new day with all its opportunities yet to be discovered. I had thought about doing a few things but had no real plan for the day.

My wife, Lily, and I were at our cottage; it was my day off and I was relaxed – maybe too relaxed because I should have had a more specific plan.

Sadly, Lily and I never got to the place of carving out a plan. 

Instead, at 10 am we remembered that the NBA World champion Toronto Raptors’ parade would be starting. We turned on the TV and, sure enough, the party was all over the screen.

Commentators were commentating and people had arrived at the main stage and were gathering all along the parade route. There were millions of people – literally millions! Some estimated that 2,000,000 plus flooded downtown Toronto for this spectacle.

The video from the helicopters was amazing. The crowds looked like bees gathering on a honeycomb.

Soon the players arrived at the open top, double decker busses to get the show on the road. Fans overwhelmed the streets and the police from keeping the route clear for the procession. 

It was 12:30 before we realized we hadn’t had lunch and the busses had barely exited the Princess gates of the EX where they were starting. 

All that time there were interviews with the players, celebrities, sports experts and fans – all happy and delirious.

Like all the crowds of people, we were anticipating something special. We didn’t know what, but it was something we didn’t want to miss.

By then we’d given hours to this parade. We wanted to do something else but we’d invested so much time watching that we couldn’t just walk away before we saw the big culmination to this momentous event.

When all the players and dignitaries finally got to the stage, the people right up front had been there for ten hours … some had camped there all night!. 

There had been talk about a mini concert with Drake performing, but when it was all done there were only a few speeches, greetings from several of the players and that was it.

There had been so much build-up and promise of something that would be remembered for years and years. It was all anti-climactic compared to the frenzy along the way. 

Lil and I had invested a good portion of our day watching something that we had hoped would be inspiring, but instead left us feeling like we’d wasted several hours and missed out on the good things we could have done. 

We got cooked.

Here’s the thing: There are people who spend their whole lives looking for the next thing that will be exciting, bring a thrill or inspire them to do more. But much of that is just heating up the water in your pot. When you look back, it wasn’t really worth it. Every day seek Christ for a plan and give yourself to that plan, because that will inspire you. In the end, when you look back, you will be thrilled with the treasure you’ve stored up in heaven.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you wasting your time doing today? Leave your comments below.

by

I Choose To Believe it

We believe what we want to believe, and if we can’t prove it we make it up.

We look for some small truth in the thing we want to believe and exploit it or exaggerate it into something that seems significant.

This week, at the women’s world cup of soccer, the USA woman’s team beat Thailand 13 to zero. 

That doesn’t even sound like a soccer score. That would be a high score for a hockey game. Baseball scores sometimes get up that high. 

For soccer this is extremely rare. In fact, I’d watch soccer more if they scored like that every game. 

In the first round of the tournament, out of 11 games, the average score was only 1.7 goals per game. And the US scored 13 all by themselves.

As a result, there was a furious rage against the USA for this game, with all kinds of bad press all over the world against them. How could they run up the score on a team like that? 

Now, the bad press directed towards the US was not as much about the score as it was about their celebrations after they scored each goal.

They cele’d hard, acting like they were playing in the world cup title match – BIG celebrations! … players holding up the number of fingers of how many goals they had personally scored … group hugs after goals. 

Thirteen times they did this! 

The USA took a beating by the press on the world stage.

Later in the week, I was listening to a Christian radio station that is based in the States. The announcers were talking about the game and the reactions by other media. 

They defended the USA team, saying it was good for the Thai team to get beat, because it will make them better. 

“I love it” one announcer said. “When my kids get beat in soccer, I cheer it. I think it’s great, because it calls them to learn and improve their skills …”

“… So way to go, USA. You did the other team a favour.”

I was steamed at this point! What bugged everyone was that the US team didn’t just beat up on the Thai team, they humiliated them. 

These announcers chose to ignore the truth and make something up that they could believe … because that’s what they wanted to believe. 

They made up a fanciful story to go with their belief.

I would love to see that announcer comfort her son or daughter the next time he or she gets trounced. I bet she doesn’t go off on her kid, saying, “This was great, Johnny! You learned so much today. You are a better player now.” 

The truth is, if the USA players had have gone out and played their game and not whooped it up, not tried to humiliate the Thai team, but just did their work, there would have been far less criticism from the press. 

… And the whole story would have slipped by those radio announcers unnoticed.  

Here’s the thing: We all have a propensity to believe what we want to believe and so we bend or mould truth to fit our beliefs. With your faith, be sure that you are not making up a story to support what you want to believe. Study God’s word so that what you choose to believe is based on what God says is true and not just what you want to be true.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When have you bent the truth to fit your beliefs? Leave your comments below.

by

Enough With The Regulations!

Regulations can protect, help and ensure quality, but we can also take them too far. And the government of Canada has gone overboard with this one … 

For the past two years, I’ve owned drones. I started out with one that I flew in my basement. From there I progressed to two outdoor drones that were not very expensive … and also not very good.  

Then last summer I bought a drone that would change droning for me. This drone could take great quality video and was a dream to fly compared to my other ones. 

I was in.

Since then I’ve been making drone videos and posting them on YouTube. (You can check them out here.) 

In January, however, our government announced that they would change the regulations for drone operations in Canada as of June 1st. 

They made two mandatory rules: First, you have to register your drone with the government, and second, you have to pass a test to obtain a license to fly it. 

There are two license categories: basic and advanced. 

It doesn’t cost much to register your drone or take the test to get your license, but to pass the test they recommend you take ground school … and that will run you between $200 and $400! 

I was able to pass my basic license test without taking ground school, but let me tell you, it took a lot of work and research to get all the information I needed to be equipped to write the exam.

But we are only a dozen days into the new regulations and I already realize this license I have is not good enough. 

I really need to get the advanced license, and for that I think I will have to take ground school. 

I remember back when I was a kid that fireworks were a big family thing during the Victoria Day weekend. In fact, on the Monday night of the holiday weekend, there were fireworks displays at the end of every driveway on the street. 

And it was the kids who were setting them off! – every kid did it.  

Fire crackers were awesome – they prepared young people for throwing grenades in the army. The Canadian military would automatically enlist a new recruit if he had two or more years’ experience throwing these little hand grenades … just kidding!

Fire crackers were eventually deemed too dangerous. But even though I set off my fair share of them, squeezing the end really hard and having them explode in my fingers, I still have all my digits.

The government first set age limits for buying fire crackers. Then the age limits kept getting higher and higher until they stopped selling fire crackers all together. 

My kids don’t even know what a fire cracker is, let alone what it does. They would never pass hand grenade training in the military.

My fear is the government is going to do the same thing with drones. The regulations will become so restrictive and complicated that they will just stop selling drones in Canada. 

Here’s the thing: Maybe it’s human nature to add regulations and make things more complicated. God, on the other hand, made having a relationship with Him so uncomplicated and easy – it’s easy if you will humble yourself and place your faith in Christ Jesus. Many people try to complicate this relationship with God. But really, God has made it so that we talk, listen, and follow His lead – it really is that simple. If you find yourself getting complicated with God, it’s you, not Him. Cut out the regulations and simply relate to Him as you would your closest friend or parent. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you put too many regulations on? Leave your comments below.

by

I’ll Be Smarter This Time

I’m going to be smarter this time. I’m not going to start back to playing sports until I’m fully healed.

Someone mentioned to me recently that I should act my age. I thought I was … but maybe when it comes to sports I still think like I did when I was in my 40’s.

I shouldn’t be treating my body that way. 

Zedano Chara, of the Boston Bruins, is playing in the NHL playoffs with a broken jaw. But, hey, he’s only 42. I did that kind of stuff when I was 42 as well. But I shouldn’t be thinking I can still do that stuff now at my age. 

I have lived with a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in my left knee for about 35 years.  

I still play sports because I have a custom-made brace that has worked amazingly for me. In fact, I’m on my second brace. I had my knee scoped 27 years ago and have had my second brace about as long as my first one. 

It may need to be replaced soon. … I’ve been thinking more about that since my knee has been bothering me this last month. 

I’ve notice over the last few years that after a game of hockey my knee feels a little unstable. So now I don’t play two days in a row. 

It got sore several weeks ago and I’ve kind of been both resting it and playing through it – going mountain biking.

Soon afterwards I was going over my sermon before I preached and noticed that, after standing still, my knee wouldn’t bend easily. I was walking on the platform like Frankenstein. 

To not scare any of my congregants away, I drove home and put on my brace. My knee felt more secure and I moved better. I did that for two weeks. 

This past Sunday I didn’t need my brace. I thought my knee was pretty much better and it was … not 100% but mostly better. 

Well, I played hockey on Tuesday and the next day was wearing my brace to work. The knee was swollen and sore again. 

Back in my 40’s I could have gotten away with playing. But I can’t any more. 

I need to be a little smarter and, for me, that means I need to be a little more patient and wait until it feels completely better – not just mostly.

When we were kids and would scrape our knees, our mom would give our knees a kiss and say, “It’s all better now.” 

Somehow, though there was still some pain, and the red lines of the scrape were still visible, we believed our mom. Her words were comforting enough to get us out playing again. 

But for me, now, I need to be smarter with my body and give the healing process a little more time. 

Here’s the thing: Sometimes I think that God must wonder if I will ever get smarter with Him. I go to Him with the same confessions, same requests, same needs. It’s like I’m not getting any smarter. I fall to the same temptations, the same inner pressures, when what I should be doing at this stage in my life is depending on the Holy Spirit’s power more. That’s what being smarter with God is all about.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How could you depend on the Holy Spirit more this week? Leave your comments below.

by

I Was Prevented From Being Fined

The other day I was prevented from doing something that could have resulted in a big fine.

At the time I was a little frustrated, but now I’m glad the situation stopped me. A fine could have been thousands of dollars.

I’ve experienced this kind of unwanted, unsolicited restraint in the past and, to be honest, it can be downright maddening … until you discover what you’ve been saved from.

It happened when I was driving, speeding on the highway, passing cars. 

I consider it sacrificial driving because all the cars behind me could up their speed a bit, knowing that I would be the target of any radar up ahead. 

As I was cruising along, a truck pulled out into my lane. I had to slow way down, to probably about 15-20 km’s slower than I was going. 

The passing took an eternity and I was thinking all kinds of bad thoughts towards the truck driver in front of me. 

The longer it took, the more frustrated and furious I was with the hold up … that was until we passed a highway patrol car with radar pointing my way.

I would have been caught for sure; it would have been a big fine. 

That truck that was ticking me off saved me big time. 

Then the other day I took my drone to fly it around some locks on the Rideau waterway system. There are a number of locks around Kingston. 

I thought it would be picturesque to film above and around the locks and nearby rapids. 

The first lock I drove to was packed with people. There was some kind of art festival there, and it also looked like there was a wedding about to take place.

So I drove past and kept going to another lock up the river. This one was off the main road a bit and I thought maybe there would be no one there. 

But when I arrived there were five cars in the parking lot – enough people around that I couldn’t really fly my drone in a safe manner.

So I drove on, a little frustrated that I was prevented again from capturing what I thought would be some amazing footage. 

In both attempts it was the people who were present that prevented me from flying my drone – not that they said anything, but legally I can’t fly my drone within 30 meters of people. 

Later when I was mulling over a possible day or time when no one would be around, I started thinking about the symbol I saw on the sign there. I began to wonder who operated those locks. So I looked up the symbol and found that the locks are controlled by Parks Canada. 

… And the fine for flying a drone in a national park can be as high as $25,000!

All those people and events just saved me a good chunk of change. I would have flown my drone completely unaware that I could have been fined big time for doing it. 

My frustration is all gone. Thanks people!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes you may find yourself frustrated with God. You’ve asked Him, pleaded with Him, even begged Him, but the answer you are looking for is nowhere in sight. You can’t understand why God would not answer you. Just consider that your current frustration may be preventing something unwanted and unpleasant from occurring in your life. … Let your frustration with God go. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What frustration in your life might be a blessing in disguise? Leave your comments below.

by

Unnoticeable In Plain Sight

There are times when things blend in so seamlessly that they are unnoticeable, even though they are in full view of everyone around them. 

In the animal world, they are called chameleons. These little creatures take on the colours of their surroundings. They look like they are part of the tree, leaf or rock they are standing on. 

When people blend in we call them wallflowers.

Objects can also blend in. Have you ever been looking for something, know you’ve seen it, but can’t locate it? It can be right in front of you, on the floor or table, but it takes you a long time to actually see it. 

Even though we know what we are looking for, and it is visible, for some reason – maybe distraction – we don’t see it right away.

It also happens when we are driving.

The other day I was driving home from Toronto (TO). It’s about a two and a half hour trip on the 401. For the first part of the journey there are lots of lanes and lots of cars. 

As you get farther away from TO, the road narrows to only three lanes of traffic in each direction.

At this point in my journey, I didn’t take much notice the 18 wheelers travelling in the same direction as I was. They have to drive in the far right lane and are allowed to pass other vehicles in the middle lane. 

Me, well, I was humming along in the middle and far left lanes, trying to make as good a time as I could without going too fast and drawing the attention of the police.

Eventually, however, about an hour and a half out of TO, the highway narrows again down to two lanes. … And all of a sudden I started to notice the trucks and how many of them there were on the road!

I noticed them because, with only two lanes, when they passed they had to move from the right lane to the left lane … where I was driving.

Normally, you pass a vehicle very quickly. But when a truck is involved, it takes forever to pass another vehicle!

You can find yourself stuck behind a truck for five minutes as it seesaws back and forth with the rig it is trying to get past. 

It is so frustrating. 

Before we narrowed to two lanes, the trucks were not noticeable; they were like chameleons in the lanes beside me. 

I never noticed just how many big rigs there were on the road. 

It is amazing how something that big – that long and massive – can become so unnoticeable with just one extra lane. 

Let’s make the 401 three lanes all the way to Montreal.

Here’s the thing: You can go a while and not notice your Bible sitting on your night stand. You can go day after day without paying any attention to the fact that you are not spending time with the Lord. But when you life narrows, when difficulties, health issues or family problems crop up, then you will notice you need to pay attention to God in your life. Learn to keep Him in your sights when your life lanes are plentiful and you will seamlessly notice God when life is hard.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Why has God become unnoticeable lately? Leave your comments below.

by

I’m Having Trouble Connecting Right Now

I’ve been having trouble lately connecting to some of my devices. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the weather, but I am completely in the dark as to why I can’t connect.

Years ago when you said you were not connecting, it was easy to find the problem. Usually someone forgot to hang up his phone, or was on the phone talking to someone else. 

There was no mystery as to why you were not connecting. You just needed to wait until the phone was back on the hook. 

You could also fail to connect to someone in person. That meant that the person you were having a face-to-face conversation with was not understanding what you were trying to communicate.

As frustrating as that might have been, it was still easy to understand. We would chalk it up to the other person being thick in the head and move on.

Probably the most common reason for not connecting was with electricity. You were not connected because the cord was not plugged into the outlet … or you had blown a fuse.

Now with technology, however, when we are not connecting there are a myriad of possible reasons why. Many of them we don’t even understand … now we are the ones who are thick in the head! 

One of the things I do each morning is jump on the scale. But for the last few days, I’ve had trouble when weighing myself.

I have a smart scale – at least that’s what it’s called. Right now, however, it’s not acting all that smart.

Normally when I step on the scale, my weight is automatically recorded in an app on my phone. Lately it isn’t connecting. 

And there is no apparent reason why it’s not connecting. There is nothing to plug in and no one else is using it when I weigh myself.

The scale just won’t connect to my app.

I’ve scoured the internet and still haven’t found a solution. All it says is “the certificate is invalid”. 

I didn’t know the scale had a certificate. I don’t even know what the scale’s certificate is in. Is it possible there is a school for scales and my scale fraudulently got a certificate in hygiene and body maintenance?

I really don’t know what to do. 

My scale works. It shows me what I weigh each day, but it won’t record it on my phone. 

My connection trouble with this device is typical with many electronics. It’s never as simple as, “Hey look, we didn’t plug it in!”

No, you need tech support to solve these connection issues. You need someone who has a certificate in IT to diagnose the problem. … You just hope that the IT guy doesn’t have an invalid certificate, because then you would really be in a mess.

I don’t know what the solution is to my connection problem, but I sure hope I can figure it out soon.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes you might find that you are not connecting with God. Everyone experiences that from time to time. Though it’s not as easy to diagnose as telephone connection problems, there are some common reasons why you might not be connecting to God: Is there sin in your life? Have you failed to forgive someone? Are you only listening for what you want to hear? There are other possible reasons why but these are the basic ones. And all these connection problems are on your end. God is waiting for us to clear our connection problems because He wants to connect with us.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you doing to ensure you don’t have a connection problem with God?  Leave your comments below.

by

How To Clean Things Up In No Time

Creating the visual of clean can be as satisfying as actually doing the hard work of cleaning.

For example, your living room is cluttered with things and someone is on his way over to your home for a visit or a meeting. You don’t have the time to clean the living room from top to bottom so you take the clutter and you stash it.

You put those items behind things, underneath things, out of sight. 

Then, just before the visitor arrives, you stand back and admire how neat and tidy everything looks.

You get the same satisfaction you would have if you had taken an hour to put everything away in its proper place. 

I do this with my office. Over the course of a few weeks, paper will start to gather on my desk. 

I don’t know how it happens. It’s a little like how snow starts to fall from the sky. At first it melts quickly and you don’t see it on the ground. But as the snow persists, it starts to accumulate. 

It begins to pile up.  

That’s what happens on my desk. Dealing with all that paper that has accumulated takes a lot of time – sometimes hours. Who has hours for filing and sorting and what not?! 

The downside is that I can’t work with the piles of paper; I keep looking at them. So, from time to time, I simply gather up all the papers and put them on a table in one neat pile.  

Then my office desk looks neat and clean and I can work. It’s fantastic. And I don’t have to spend all that time dealing with each individual piece of paper to give me that feeling. 

Today I cut the grass. At this time of year the dandelions are in full bloom … and we definitely have our fair share of them. 

No, that’s not correct. We have way more than our fair share! 

Curiously, most of those dandelions are on our side of the street. The houses on the other side of the street must have some kind of deal with a weed company. You don’t see the weed guy coming around spraying their lawns but none of them have these lovely spring flowers … certainly not like us!

This morning when I cut the grass, I cut the heads off of every dandelion on our lawn. It was a major killing spree. Then I stood back and looked at how green and even our grass looked. 

I was proud of myself. 

However, I really didn’t do anything to the dandelions. The roots are still there; the leafs are still there … and they will grow right back in their place again. 

But today – right now – looking out my front window, I don’t have any of those little flowery devils.

The one downside to all this is that, although I have immediate satisfaction with my lawn looking so clean, in reality I still have a mess on my hands that will have to be dealt with at some point … which sucks!

Here’s the thing: You can clean up your life in a very superficial way and it will look good to you and to all those around you. But unless you do a deep hard clean, you will always be looking for places to stash things. A deep clean can only be accomplished by dealing with the junk in your life – that is confessing it to God and doing the necessary work to keep it from coming back.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life do you need to do a serious clean of? Post your comments and questions below.

by

The Waiting Is Killing Me

I may be waiting to exercise for a while because I overdid it this weekend. 

Elton John once recorded a song called, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word”. “Sorry” is a hard word, but I have another contender for the hardest word … waiting.

No, you’re not waiting for me to say the hardest word, “waiting” is the hardest word. 

There is no spring in this spring, there is no jump in this spring’s step. I think I’ve noticed that the leaves on the trees that had started to come out are now shrinking back a little.

We all want to get outside and do things, but the weather is not letting that happen. 

And we are all waiting – waiting for some sunny, warmer weather to come along. 

At this point it doesn’t even have to be that sunny or that warm, just not raining and windy.

I’ve been known to be able to wait for things to happen, but I’m really getting to the limit of my waitability. … I don’t think that’s a word, but you know what I’m saying. My ability to wait is seriously being taxed to the limit.

The other day I played hockey and the following day my knee was a little sore. That’s not unusual. I have a torn ACL and I’ve found that, as I’ve gotten older, I need to rest it after an hour and a half of hockey.

It was sore the following day as well. 

But since it wasn’t that bad, and I did have hockey that morning, I played.

After the game, my knee was a little sorer than it had been the previous few days … but I didn’t think much about it.

We’d had some rain and the forecast showed more rain to come; but it was momentarily nice out. So though I’d already played hockey on Saturday morning, I thought I’d better get out and get a mountain bike ride in. 

I’ve only been out twice so far this year.  

I had a good ride but afterwards I noticed my knee was a little swollen. … That’s never a good sign.

I’ve lived with a wonky knee for years so often I just keep going. 

Late that afternoon I thought maybe I should cut the lawn. It didn’t really need it, but with rain in the forecast, I figured I needed to cut it while I could.

By the time I finished the lawn, I was really feeling my knee and walking like a cross between Frankenstein and a guy who just had a hip replaced.

It wasn’t pretty … and I was a little late in realizing I should give my knee a rest.

… Even though all this was caused by the weather we’re having and my inability to wait any longer. 

For everyone else out there, this might be a good thing. With me on the sideline for a little while, I’m sure the weather is going to be just fine now! 

Here’s the thing: Our inability to wait on God causes us to do things that either take us in the wrong direction or make things worse. The Bible is filled with examples of people who tried to help out God, or hurry Him along (Sarah, Saul, Peter). It never went well. The best we can do is be patient, and increase our waitability. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to wait for just a little longer? Leave your comments below.

The Challenge Just Presented Itself
by

The Challenge Just Presented Itself

Sometimes a challenge simply appears before us, tempting us to go for it.

There are lots of challenges in life – with many, we have no choice but to take them on. 

For instance, if you have a health challenge, there is nothing you can do to avoid it. You have to take it on as best as you can.

Work can provide challenges in the form of a goal or a milestone for you to reach. Those challenges often come with a great reward if you can accomplish them. 

But then there are challenges that, in many respects, are meaningless, provide no benefit to you if you succeed, but are satisfying just the same if you take on the challenge and beat it. 

This morning I was playing hockey and having a rather lacklustre game. 

I had been up really late the night before finishing some work, so though it was 7 am, I was really only operating on a few hours of sleep.

Twice I had breakaways and simply over-skated the puck – no pressure from anyone, no attempt at making some kind of move. I just over-skated the puck. 

I felt tired and had little energy on the ice. Maybe my focus was lacking as well. 

At the end of the game I had a puck and was going to fire it into the net but one of the guys moved the net out of the way for the Zamboni.  

I just wanted to take a couple of shots before getting off the ice, so I decided to just fire the puck against the boards. 

That’s when I looked up and saw my challenge.

My water bottle was sitting by itself, all lonely like on top of the boards by the players’ bench. What was I to do? I had a puck and no net to shoot on. Why not take the challenge staring me right in the face.

I looked at the bottle and took a wrist shot to knock it off. 

I missed … by about an inch.

That stirred the interest of two other guys still on the ice and soon they arrived with pucks and each took a shot. 

I took another shot a little high and wide.

We were going to do this until one of us knocked it off.

The other guys each took another shot.

And then I took a good look at the bottle and nailed it with a wrist shot. I knocked it clear to the back wall behind the players’ bench; water squirted all over. 

My shot hit with enough force that I shattered the bottle top, leaving the bottle pretty much useless. 

Some people might think that sums up a poor game of hockey for me, but I look at it as the best part of the game. 

I’m not sad I broke the bottle. I’m glad I hit it and not the other guys. 

Whoever put my water bottle on top of the boards, thanks! It provided a needed challenge.

Here’s the thing: There are challenges we will face in life where our trust in God will be required. But there are other challenges that God gives us as a gift to take on. When those fun, enjoyable challenges present themselves, don’t do them in your own strength. Trust them to God as well. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is a challenge before you now that you can trust God with? Leave your comments below.