my experiences

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The Time Is Now, So Don’t Wait

There are events or seasons in our life when the time is now and waiting for later won’t work.

The time is now so don't wait

It was a big birthday for me a few weeks ago, and I have to say that my family came through in a big way.

I’ve played the guitar for years – forty years, in fact. But during those years of playing, there were a lot of wasted years. 

I began by learning three chords and a few songs. Over the span of a year, I added a few more chords so that I could play a bunch more songs. 

Then I stopped learning. I got stuck playing the same chords. 

I didn’t practice and only pulled out my guitar when I needed to play at church. My fingers would get so raw every time. 

I was a guitarist who didn’t have calluses on his fingers and basically that’s not a guitarist. 

That was my guitar experience for the first thirty-six years. I was a guy with one year of guitar under his belt, spread over thirty-six years. 

Then I retired and decided to take some guitar lessons to see if I could improve. 

In the last four years my guitar playing has improved hundreds of percentages over the previous thirty-six years. 

And just so you don’t think I’ve reached some guitar guru status, I’ve only scratched the surface. There is still way more that I can’t do on the guitar than I can do.

But the difference now is that I’m learning and I’m playing every day. At my age, however, the learning comes slowly. 

I’m not progressing like a young kid, and certainly not as fast as I would like to. But slowly I’m make a little progress.

That brings me to my big day. 

Several weeks ago my wife, Lily, and I were driving up to our cottage and a conversation popped up about guitars. 

I’ve only had acoustic guitars for the last four decades. Lily asked if I’d ever thought of getting an electric guitar like our son has.

I had never said anything to her about electric guitars so she was shocked when I told her that some day I wanted to get a Fender Telecaster.  

As she probed further, she found out I knew a few things about them, how much they cost, the colour I wanted among other things. 

Lily was astounded by all this and commented, “You’ve never said anything about this before!” 

My reply was, “I didn’t think I was ready for an electric guitar and that it was something for down the road.”

Then she laughed, “When were you thinking of getting one? When you’re 80?!”

And that is when it dawned on me that the time is now. If I’m going to get an electric guitar, this is the season. There’s no point in waiting. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but Lily came to the same conclusion and several weeks later I was holding my new Fender Telecaster. 

The time IS now, and now I just have to learn how to “shred”.

Here’s the thing: When it comes to spiritual things, God says the time is now. You can looking it up in 2 Corinthians 6:2. The writer states that your time for salvation isn’t some distant time from now. It’s not tomorrow or next week. The time is now. If you have not placed your faith in Christ for salvation, I would encourage you that this is the season for you. Now is the time! 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When have you delayed acting on something only to miss it? Leave your comments and questions below.

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An Old Tie Won’t Help You In The Future

The other day I put on a suit and went looking for an old tie. I have a million ties in my closet but only two or three are wearable.

An old tie won't help you in the future

Have you ever noticed that, even though the style of ties change, an old tie somehow never comes back into fashion?

I’ve lived through a number of tie eras – the era when ties were so fat they covered your whole belly, but also the era when ties were pencil thin. And then there were all the times when ties fell somewhere in between those two extremes. 

I’m not even going to get into bow ties! But I will say for a high school event I wore a big, fat, fuzzy bow tie and it was “in” at the time.

I think tie companies must be among the richest companies on the planet. We are always buying new ties for this event or that occasion … and we never reach deep into the closet to find that gem of a tie from fifteen years ago that is perfect for my function this weekend.

When my kids were young, somehow I inherited a pile of ties from my father and father-in-law. And that’s another interesting fact about ties – they never get thrown out! 

They’re like an old Bible. What do you do with the old Bible when you get a new one? You put it on a shelf … forever. That’s what you do with it, because you can’t thrown them out. 

Ties are like that too. 

So we had this box of ties from my dad, my wife Lil’s dad, and a pile of my old ties.

My kids played with them. Sometimes they tied them around their heads like bandanas, pretending to be in a rock group. Other times they got Lily to wrap them criss-cross up their legs when they were pretending to be Roman soldiers. When our daughter was in her teens she even made a purse out of a bunch of those ties.

I googled old ties and found a billion things you can do with them, but no one suggested to keep them because they would be back in style in ten years. Yet there were no suggestions to just throw them out. 

So the other day, as I was trying to decide which of the three possible ties I might wear to my event (out of the thirty ties hanging in the closet), I realized that now that I’m retired I don’t wear ties very often anymore. I might not need to wear a tie for six months or a year … or more. 

There’s a real possibility that, for my next formal gathering, I’ll have to go out and buy a new tie because I’m fairly certain that the tie I wore in the nineties with a picture of Fred Flintstone on it won’t fit the bill.

I’m just wondering, how do I get shares in an old tie company, because I think I could get rich.

Here’s the thing: Having a relationship with God is a lot like our relationship with an old tie. We continue to have new experiences with the Lord. We learn new things about Him and discover greater depths to our relationship. But we don’t throw the old experiences away; we keep them and cherish them, and they encourage us. But we don’t rely on those old experiences. We always need something new. Don’t ever be satisfied with an old memory of who God is or what He has done in your life. Keep seeking to grow in your relationship with Christ and you will always have something fresh and new to wear.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How old is your newest experience with God? Is it time for a new one? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Got Hijacked And Now My Day Is Not Mine

I just had my whole day hijacked by my wife. Now I have to figure out how to reorganize my day so that I get done some of what I had planned to do.

I got hijacked and now my day is not mine

Having your day highjacked happens out of the blue when you least expect it. 

Sometimes it can be an emergency, where you just have to drop everything and fully immerse yourself in what’s before you. When that kind of highjacking happens you don’t really think twice about what you’d planned. The emergency obviously takes precedence and you just go with it. 

But when there’s no real emergency, rather just someone else’s agenda that highjacks you, that’s frustrating.

Most mornings I go for a walk when I first get up. If I’m at the cottage, I will walk along the beach. If I’m at home, I will walk around my basement. And while I’m walking I plan my day. I identify things I need to do and things I want to do, and slot them into portions of the day that fits best. 

For instance, if I want to write a blog, I’ll do that after my time with God and before I eat breakfast. I never write in the afternoon or evening. 

Well, this morning I had already figured out what I planned to tackle for the day. I was just finishing my time with God when Lily, my wife, appeared with a plan for me.

Highjacked!

She was on a kick to get her garden in order after two years of not being well enough to care for it. Did you notice I said “her” garden? Not “my” garden or “our” garden. I have nothing to do with it. The garden is all hers. 

She wanted me to put some wood against the fence so she could build up the soil in her garden. 

I had to go outside and figure out what kind of wood and how much wood she needed, and then go to the hardware store to purchase this said wood. Then I had to dig down a little and attach the wood to the fence.

It was not an all-day highjacking but it meant I had to cut a few things off my list for the day – things that I had thought about and made decisions concerning them. 

The interesting thing was that Lily didn’t seem to care. She wanted to get going on this garden and the boards needed to be put in place first. 

It was like she felt she could highjack my day because somehow my day was just part of her day, that our days just melt together into one. 

This is how she thinks so there’s no point me thinking that this was a one-off highjacking!

In the end, Lily got what she wanted: my time and energy spent on her project. 

… Well I guess now it’s my garden too.

Here’s the thing: There are always attempts made to highjack our day. Well-meaning people need or want what we can provide. Sometimes we can refuse to be highjacked and focus on what we had planned. Other times it’s to our advantage to get highjacked. There are also times when God will attempt to highjack your day. When He does, it’s best to go with God’s agenda because, when your faith is in Him, your day is a part of His day. The end result is for your own good. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When was the last time your day got highjacked by someone? By whom? Leave your comments and questions below.

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In An Instant Things Changed

Some things take a long time to develop, but there are other things that can change in an instant.

In an instant things changed

When you see a river with all its turns and bends, you know it has taken decades for that shape to develop. You also know that in twenty or thirty years there will be new bends in that river. The changes will happen very slowly. 

This is also true in politics. When a policy or bill is passed, it often takes a great amount of time before we see the impact of that legislation. So much time passes that when the outcome occurs we often don’t even connect it back to what was voted on.

On the other hand, some things happen incredibly fast and the impact is realized in an instant. 

A car accident is like that. One little distraction, one slip of the hand, a heavy foot on the gas pedal or brake and impact occurs. 

The other day I was playing hockey and things changed for me in an instant. I had brought the puck into the opposition’s zone and then passed the puck to a trailing teammate. At that point, I coasted along the boards down toward the net. I saw my teammate’s shot and that the puck was going in the direction of the net. 

But then, out of nowhere, I saw the puck about an inch from my face just before it hit my lower lip.

I learned later that the shot hit the goalie’s pad and he deflected it to the side, right when I was cruising by. It stopped when it hit my face.

Immediately I took off my glove and put my hand to my mouth. When I removed it, I saw the blood. It was flowing. I knew I was not dealing with just a scrape. 

I put my hand back to my mouth to keep the blood from drenching my jersey and the ice while I made my way to the dressing room.

Fortunately it was minor; just my bottom front teeth went into my lip. I was able to stop the bleeding. And the end result was just a sore jaw and a few cuts on the inside of my now swollen, bruised lip.

What amazed me was how things changed in an instant. I didn’t see it coming; it happened so fast and the impact was immediate. 

What a contrast to the things in life that take so long to develop that we think they have always been there. 

Either way, whether things happen over a long time or in an instant, we need to pay attention because the impact may cause some degree of discomfort. 

Here’s the thing: Life rolls along year after year, decade after decade. We make choices, decisions and deals that cause our life to take a certain shape. Mostly things develop slowly over time. We might not even pay attention to the direction in which we are heading. But there comes a time when things will change in an instant. That will be the moment we die. The impact will be immediate and if you’ve been lulled by many years of much of the same, you might not be ready to face God.

In that instant it will be too late to make a change or make the right move. It’s far better to consider God’s offer now and live accordingly. God’s offer is Jesus, who died for our sins, will take our sin away and put us in right standing with God. Put your faith in Jesus and allow Him to help shape the rest of your life. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How well have you handled those events that happen in an instant and make an immediate impact? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Getting Old Doesn’t Have To Be A Slow Decline

There is more than one way to get old, but there is only one way that will slow the aging process.

Getting old doesn't have to be a slow decline.

And I’m not talking about some skin product that will keep you looking like you’re 45. Even after you start collecting your pension.

There are people who look old and then there are people who act old. Acting old is a sure way to get old faster. But acting younger, I believe, will keep you from getting old.

They say you are only as old as you feel and I think there is something to that.

Recently my wife, Lily, and I were on a Caribbean cruise. It was an amazing two weeks weather-wise. While our neighbours were piling snow to heights they could barely reach, Lily and I were soaking up the 28° Celsius air on one of the seven islands we visited.

When I told one of the guys I play hockey with about the trip, he laughed and said, “What I find funny is that you’re almost 70 and you said all the people on the ship were old.” 

But it was true. It seemed like 90% of the people on board were over 80.  

If we happened to see a couple in their 30’s or a family with children, we sat up and commented, “Hey look, there are young people on this cruise!”

Everywhere we went on board the ship I was stuck behind some old person walking like they should be in a nursing home with a walker.

I know that most people looked at Lily and I and thought we fit in just fine. But to me people seemed way older. 

I know I would not have enjoyed a ship that was filled with kids running wild and free. However, I think it would have been nice if we were the old ones on the cruise rather than being on the younger side. 

… Which brings me to the point I want to make about staving off aging.

I think you just have to keep doing things that you’ve always done. Don’t stop because you’re getting older. 

I still play hockey 3 to 4 times a week and don’t have any intention of stopping. 

When someone says, “I hope I can still play when I’m your age”, I tell them to keep playing now and they’ll be able to later.

I’m still doing the activities I did in my thirties: I play hockey, mountain bike, and play golf. 

Recently I tried pickle ball and I think I’ll play that again. I laughed at myself getting frustrated when I missed shots. In my head I thought I should make all the shots, even though it’s been about 35 years since I played racket sports.

Hang out with people younger than you. Try new things and don’t quit doing what you did when you were young. 

That’s my theory for slowing the aging process. 

Here’s the thing: It is interesting that in the Bible God often refers to people as children. God sees us as young, flexible, moldable, in a posture of learning. If we become old it becomes harder for us to transform into the image God desires for us. We get stuck and begin to put God off. Don’t get old in your mind; stay young and available for God to do great things in you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can you do to slow down the aging process? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Torn Between Two Choices. Which One Will Win?

Have you ever been torn, wanted to be in two places at the same time? Well, I sure have, and it seems to be happening every fall now. 

torn between two choices. which one will win?

My wife, Lily, and I closed up our cottage earlier than ever this year. For several years we closed it the week after Canadian Thanksgiving, the second Sunday in October. But the last few years it’s been the first weekend in October. This year it was the last few days of September. 

That seems crazy early to me, especially when the sun is shining and it’s still 23 degrees Celsius during the day. When you can walk on the beach and be greeted by a sunset like this picture almost every night, it’s tough to leave it all behind.

My first impulse is to squeeze every ounce of summer-like weather out of the fall and there is no better place to be for that than at our cottage.

It should be a simple decision of when the weather starts to turn, you close up and say goodbye until the spring. 

I remember going to college in another province and when school ended I had no problem packing up my belongings and turning my back on Regina for the summer. But there was really nothing to keep me there, nothing I felt I would be missing out on when I left. 

Leaving my cottage behind is a different story. 

I want to be there. I like the relaxed atmosphere of a beach town, the walks on the sand and up the strip, maybe with a stop at the ice cream shop for a scoop of black cherry on a sugar cone.

Though I want to be there, and though I miss so much there, home is calling and I also want to be there. 

Much of what is happening at home could wait till the weather turns sour at Sauble. But one thing at home seems to be starting earlier and earlier. 

It’s hockey season. 

Though the NHL season doesn’t start until the first week of October, my hockey starts the first week of September. And to make matters worse, the OHL Kingston Frontenacs team that I’m the chaplain of start tryouts and preseason at the end of August. 

I feel torn between being home and being at the cottage because if I’m enjoying an incredible sunset I’m also missing out on playing hockey with my team. 

Have you ever had to choose like that? … Suppose you were with your family for the weekend, let’s just say Thanksgiving weekend. You’re having a good time with everyone; everything is going well.

Then on the last day you get a text. You had planned a family pickleball match before everyone went their separate ways. However, the text is an invitation to watch a Toronto Blue Jays playoff game … sitting in box seats. 

Now that’s being torn. Do you bail on the family game and go to the Blue Jays game. Or do you say no to the tickets? 

Tough decision, right? 

Well, that’s how I was torn between the cottage and home. Hockey won, that’s all I can say. 

Here’s the thing: God wants you to be part of His family for all eternity. But it comes with a choice. By faith will you believe that Jesus died and rose again to pay for your sins, or will you trust in your own self for your future? You may be torn in making that decision, but eternity is a long time. For me, being part of God’s family is the best choice to make. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are the big choices you are torn between making? Leave your comments and questions below.

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When Creative Juices Flow, Don’t Stop Them

One should never let their creative juices dry up. It doesn’t matter in what way you are creative, the important thing is never stop being so.

When creative juices flow don't stop them

Creativity is the spice of life. It’s what makes ordinary things fun, exciting, heart-pumping. 

Last year my brother and I bought scooters for using up at our cottages in the summer. We turned some heads in our sleepy little summer town of Sauble Beach … not because we were riding electric scooters, but because we are in our late 60’s bombing around at 30 km/h on these two-wheeled platforms. (Read about it here.)

To be honest, I think we started a little bit of a trend in Sauble because I’ve seen a lot more adults riding scooters since we started.

Not only are electric scooters fun to ride around on, but they are also practical.

Our cottages are in a park that has a few designated structures to take garbage and recycling to. Instead of walking our bags and recycling containers to the garbage barns, we can now zoom over to them on our scooters.

However, sometimes there is too much to carry on a scooter. Sometimes things get a little precarious – like taking my recycling container to the barn. I have to place it on the platform of my scooter and squeeze my knees against it so that it doesn’t fall off and spill everything out.

Even more difficult is getting a 30-pound propane tank refilled at the station. Just imagine pressing both legs against a round tank going about 20 km/h. It takes some skill … not that we can’t do that, because we have on multiple occasions. 

… And that is where the creative juices comes in. So when they start flowing, you can’t stop what’s produced. 

My brother, John, and I recently got the idea to make trailers for our scooters. … I know, it sounds rather funny. Still we get smiles on our faces thinking about it.

We started imagining how to make them, watched some YouTube videos and came up with a design. We used pvc piping, thinking it would be cheap and easy. … Let me just say that all those T-joints and elbows really add up ($$), not to mention that the wheels ended up being a lot more expensive than we thought!

We figured out a way to attach the cart to the scooter and then began cutting the piping and dry-fitting all the joints and elbows together. When it was all together, we tested it out and it worked. 

Then came the hard part of gluing all the pieces together. The gluing wasn’t difficult, but keeping all those pieces in correct alignment when we glued and set them was. We couldn’t make any adjustments or tweaks after about ten seconds.

Now when we drive by, people are not just smiling at the two old guys on scooters, they are doubled over laughing! 

Here’s the thing: When you look at the world around you – trees, rivers, lakes, sunsets, mountains, fields – you know they point to some amazing creative juices at work. And while no one laughs when they gaze at them, they do think they are amazing. That is what God has made, not random, not by chance, but by design. Discover God through nature and learn about Him in the Bible. 

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What gets your creative juices flowing? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Your Mind Doesn’t Always Lead You In The Right Direction

Your mind is a curious thing, you can be out of your mind, but still in your right mind all at the same time.

your mind doesn't always lead you in the right direction

Now this could be an age thing. The older you get the more your mind plays tricks on you. And your mind doesn’t work as fast at it used to. 

There are times you can know something but not know something at the same time. 

Let me explain.

Not that long ago my wife Lily and I were discussing what to do for dinner. When we have one of these discussions I’m always up for going out to eat or getting take out. 

So as our conversation leaned towards getting some food from a restaurant we started listing the same old suspects we usually do. 

Many of those restaurants are fast food joints and that particular night we didn’t feel like fast food. 

So we came up with a different idea, we would order from a sit down restaurant but do it take out style.

We picked Montana’s because I was particularly feeling like ribs was what I had a hankering for.

Lily placed the order and I was on pick up duty, which usually the way it works.

When it came time to get our food I hoped in the car and made my way to Montanas.

I was a few minutes late so I figured our food would be sitting there waiting for me. I was greeted by a little guy who may have been a busboy slash pickup orders gofer. 

He hurried off to get the food we’d ordered and I started looking around. 

I said to myself, “they’ve really changed this place”. It had been a while since I’d been there but wow it looked so different. 

Soon the little man came back with no food. He said I can’t find your order. 

There was an older hostess at the door by then and so she asked me a few questions. I told her what we ordered and she thought the order sounded a little odd.

I even should her the app showing that my order was ready.

She started to do some checking on line. She even got out a menu at one point. And tried to find what we ordered.

I casually asked the hostess while I patiently waited for my food if they had done some renovations in the last while. 

To that she said they done a little bit about 4 months ago. I thought to myself “it looks like they did a complete gut job and started over.”

It was about at that time when she said “are you sure your ordered from this restaurant.” 

And that is when a light bulb went off in my head. I said “what restaurant is this?”

To that she said this is Kelsey’s. I said my food is at Montana’s and started to laugh. 

She laughed too and I took off quick, because my food was getting cold at the restaurant just kitty corner to where I presently was.

I knew something was not right about my surroundings but I was completely out of my mind as to where I was. 

Here’s the thing: In your mind you can be convinced that our whole world including you came about by random chance. But your mind also tells you that everything in this world including yourself has great detailed order to it. How does random chance lead to anything but more random chance. Order leads to order. To prevent being convinced you’re in the right place when you aren’t at all. You need to challenge your mind to think not just follow it. So to when considering how ordered your body is, challenge your mind to think. Then God creating you and this world in order and detail starts to make a lot of sense.

Paul

Question: When has not challenging your mind got you into trouble? Leave your comments and questions below.

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You’re Often In Your Own Way Of Progress

Have you ever got in your own way from obtaining the progress you desired? I have been doing that for a while now.

you're often in your own way of progress

In my last blog post (click here to read), I mentioned how we had a significant snowfall over the course of two days. What I didn’t mention is that I had been shovelling my neighbours’ driveway as well as mine. The end result was that I tweaked my shoulder during that battle with the snow.

“Tweak” may not have been the correct word to use, however, in describing the soreness of my shoulder. It was closer to the Monty Python skit with the knight who kept losing limbs in a sword fight with King Arthur, but said, “it’s just a flesh wound”.

My shoulder was really sore. … Sore enough to wonder whether I should play hockey two days later. But, of course, I played.

And to my surprise, my shoulder didn’t bother me one bit. I felt 100% out on the ice. 

However, about an hour later when I was driving home, as I reached to put my turn signal on, I got a stabbing pain in my shoulder. I had to reach across and through the steering wheel with my right arm to lift up the turn signal. 

I later spoke with my son-in-law who told me I’d probably pulled some ligament in my shoulder attached to my bicep. It wouldn’t affect my arm movement playing hockey but picking up a glass of water was another matter. He said I needed rest. 

So I gave it rest. I didn’t play hockey for an entire week after that … until Wednesday rolled around again. 

My shoulder wasn’t feeling better after playing hockey the week before, but it was a little better. So, of course, I played hockey again. 

And guess what happened? It didn’t bug me at all playing hockey. But afterwards it was like I’d taken two steps back in the healing process.

I sort of got in my own way of recovering.

I decided I better give my shoulder another week to heal. So I went from playing hockey four times a week to one time.

Each week had the same results. My shoulder would start feeling a little better and then I would play hockey and it would regress. … Getting in my own way again.

That was until last Wednesday. 

On my first shift, I reached for the puck and I felt something like a pop in my good shoulder. I felt like I lost the strength in my arm for a bit.

Now both my shoulders feel really messed up. Ever try putting on your shirt or coat with bad shoulders? It’s not a good look.

So for the first time in a month, I’m not playing hockey this week at all. 

And hopefully I will start to recover. I’ve been getting in my own way of getting better. 

One thing I’m settling on is getting a snowblower so this shoulder thing doesn’t happen again.

Here’s the thing: Often we get in our own way when it comes to getting right with God. We either make excuses for our actions, or we invent our own storyline. But God’s right there; He sees what we are doing and He still waits for us to give in to Him. Stop getting in your own way with God. Go to Him, put your faith in Christ, ask for forgiveness and stop getting in your own way. God’s waiting. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you been getting in your own way lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Snow Changes My Perspective On Things

This last weekend has reminded me of what winter snow was like when I was a kid.

Snow changes my perspective on things

We’ve had a fairly mild winter up until this last weekend – not much snow and not very low temperatures.

We typically don’t get any snow until around Christmas Day. This year we had a light dusting, enough to make the landscape white. Even the new year didn’t bring a lot of snow. With just a little here and there, shovelling was at a minimum. 

But this last weekend sure made up for it. 

I remember winters like this as a kid. The snow was up to your knees and made walking through it burdensome. I always thought there seemed to be so much snow because my legs were shorter back then, but I think there was a lot more snow back in the 60’s. What I’m looking at out my front window agrees with my memory.

Obviously weather has changed over the years. As a kid they would flood a portion of the school yard and put up boards for us to play hockey on. But by the end of the 60’s when I was in junior high, they started building tennis courts at schools – tennis courts with an ice plant attached to them – to have tennis in the summer and artificial ice skating rinks in the winter. 

The city (Toronto) did that because the temperatures did not stay cold long enough to sustain flooding the ground for a natural rink. 

In high school I remember going to the school rink and skating when it was plus 1 or 2 out. 

I remember my first winter in Edmonton (‘85, ’86), driving in snow ruts for a portion of the winter. … I don’t think that happens much anymore. 

As time has marched on, the cold and snow conditions have lightened up.

But the mountains of snow piled up on each side of my driveway remind me of days gone by when it was colder and snowy. 

I can say for sure that I like that we no longer have winters like this all the time. 

Sunday I shovelled my driveway three times and then again on Monday morning. 

In fact, I think my contract with snow shovelling is pretty much up. I need to renegotiate my price with my wife before the next snowfall or she will have to drive over the snow rather than on clear pavement.

I’m also a little ticked because I tweaked my shoulder and I’m concerned it may hamper my shot when playing hockey. 

My wife, Lily, should be thankful that I’m a hockey player and not a baseball player. They demand hundreds of millions to play.  I’m happy to keep shovelling for the league minimum of $775,000 … though I’m not sure I’ll get it, since Lily’s funds have been considerably reduced since she retired.

I guess it better not snow anymore this winter.

Here’s the thing: So many things change in life as we grow up and grow older. For some things that’s good, but for other things it makes life more difficult or more uncertain or stressful. But there’s one thing that does not change and that is God. God never changes. So you can expect from Him His same presence, His same love, comfort and care no matter what changes you experience in your life or situation. Place your faith in Jesus to take you through all the changes that life throws at you. He won’t disappoint you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is a big change you’ve noticed in your life over the last 10 or even 2 years? Leave your comments and questions below.

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