my experiences

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My Eyes Need A Fine-Tune Adjustment

I don’t think my eyes are as finely tuned as some other people’s.

My eyes need a fine-tune adjustment

Lately I’ve been working on some projects using saws, drills, screws and what not. 

I built a teleprompter using an old picture frame, plywood and an aluminum strip. I just made a rig for my teleprompter and camera to fit on a tripod stand. 

I also got the parts to make a jig for my router. I need to cut a groove in some 2x4s for the top of my fence. 

Now you need to know a few things about me. Woodworking and making things with my hands have never been things I am proficient at. In fact, there was a time when I was banned from using anything sharp … well, I was allowed to use a knife to cut my food. 

You see, I had had a couple of accidents. 

First, I was cutting off the bottom of a door. I did a few things wrong: I used the wrong saw and, instead of cutting the door while on a flat surface, I held it up with my hand. The saw slipped off the wood and the very toothy saw blade ripped into the base of my index finger. 

… Let’s just say we had to replace a few ceiling tiles that had red stains from when I flung my hand up. 

That was a trip to the hospital. Fortunately, I missed a tendon and still have full use of my finger.

About three months later, I was using a utility knife to cut a strip off some hard board. The knife slipped and sliced the same finger, only this time near the tip.  

That was another trip to emerg in order to stop the leakage.

Besides my issues of cutting myself with sharp objects, for some reason I can’t seem to get anything straight. My eyes are just a little off. I can get things close, but not perfect. 

When I am cutting things with a circular saw, my cuts go straight for the first part but end up veering slightly to the left or right. When I’m drilling a hole, I can’t seem to make a hole that isn’t on a slight angle. When I screw two pieces of wood together, they might not come together perfectly inline.

I’m not saying that my measuring is off. I think I just need my eyes adjusted. I’m usually close, but close isn’t good enough. 

It’s like my eyes need to be tuned a bit, brought into sharper focus. 

I’ve been watching YouTube videos, getting tips on making these projects and they look great on the screen. The carpenters seem so precise. They do it with ease. 

But when I go to make something, I’m off just a bit. My end result is not quite like the example. 

Now I’m about to make a jig, and I am going to have to drill about 32 holes, evenly spaced, around an 8×10 piece of plexiglass. What are the chances I will actually be able to drill in the middle of each of my markings? 

Here’s hoping. 

Here’s the thing: At times in your life, things don’t come together the way you would like them to. Even with all your trying, you can’t make it work out right. You are just not seeing the situation correctly and you need an eye adjustment. God will be your expert help to fine-tune what you don’t see correctly. Don’t live with something that isn’t quite right. Seek God for what you don’t see and let Him adjust your eyes to see clearly. 

That’s Life!

Paul 

Question: What do you have trouble seeing clearly? Leave your comments and questions below. Hit the like button if you found this helpful, and subscribe to keep these posts coming.

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Hesitation Can Lead You To Disaster

They say that caution is a friend, but I just saw how hesitation can lead to great disaster.

Hesitation can lead you to disaster

Sometimes you miss out when you hesitate … 

When you get a hot tip regarding the stock market, if you snooze, you lose.

When a store has a one day sale on something you have really wanted, but you question whether it is the right time for you to purchase it, that little hesitation could cost you getting in on that sale. 

I’ve noticed when you want to walk across certain traffic intersections, if you don’t start walking right away, an orange hand sign starts flashing. Your hesitation on the walk sign could mean you spend the better part of a day just trying to get across the street. 

The other day my wife, Lily, and I were in our car heading down the street to an appointment. 

Up ahead a squirrel dashed out to cross the road as we kept moving towards it. The little rodent stopped about half way across the road and looked back at us. He could see our car was bearing down on him. 

He continued to cross but then hesitated and stopped. He started to dash back the way he came when we were almost upon him. He stopped again, then ran for the other side. 

It was such a close call that I looked in the rearview mirror to see if there was a dark splat on the road. 

Somehow – and to be honest, I don’t know how – he didn’t get run over. 

So the play-by-play went something like this: “Look a squirrel is running across the street; wait now he’s stopped. Okay, he’s going to keep going. No, he’s stopped again. Now he’s going back; but wait, he’s stopped again. He’s going to cross the street. Did we get him? I don’t see any marks.” 

I am sure, in that one afternoon, that squirrel went from being a young squirrel to being an old senior who no longer crosses the road without help. Years were taken off that wild little critter’s life in a flash. 

Both Lily and I could not believe we didn’t run him over. We must have missed him by inches, maybe even just a fraction of an inch. 

He would not have had any issues getting across the street if he had have just gone straight across. It was his hesitation that got him into trouble. 

And even his first hesitation may not have been that scary, but three times he stopped moving and considered going the other way. … The fast moving tires and the evil grin of the car’s grill probably had him in a complete panic. 

That squirrel was not the only one of his kind to find himself in that kind of a situation. Squirrels are notorious for their hesitation. 

That is why many of them live on the edge of disaster all the time. 

Here’s the thing: Hesitation is not our friend when we face temptation. When confronted with something that is enticing us into a poor decision, a sin of some kind, hesitation causes us to flirt with disaster. When temptation comes, don’t hesitate. Know the right course of action and take it immediately to avoid potential disaster.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: In what area(s) of your life do you tend to hesitate? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I’ve Just Witnessed A Modern-Day Miracle

The other day, right in my kitchen, I witnessed a miracle take place.

witnessed a modern-day miracle

I can’t say that I saw the transformation happen before my eyes but, without a doubt, a complete recovery took place that no one could deny.

It was a tulip that had died. I didn’t check its vital signs, but you could tell. It had been drooping for a day. I had actually tried to prop it up a bit so it matched the other tulip in the vase that was standing up straight. 

But by the next morning, the petals were curled and the stem was bent over the vase like a dead cowboy slumped over the back of a horse. It was kind of like a scene you’d see in an old western movie. 

Some might say it still had life in it, but I could tell this tulip was a goner. 

At very best it was only “mostly dead” … I picked that up from the movie, “The Princess Bride” where the hero was killed by the villain. His friends took him to Miracle Max to see if there was anything that could revive him. Miracle Max said there was one thing in his favour, that he was only mostly dead. 

But even Miracle Max didn’t think there was much hope for the hero. He sent them off with a pill and, as they waved goodbye to the hero’s friends, his wife asked him if he though it would work. Miracle Max simply said, “It would take a miracle.”

Well, that is what I witnessed in this tulip this morning. 

You could call it “all the way dead” or just “mostly dead” but this poor little purple tulip did not have a chance to revive outside of a miracle.

It was mid-morning when we noticed that the flower had gone the way of the flowers in the field – it was blown away. 

… That sounds like another reference to the old western gunslinger movies. 

There was nothing more we could do for this delicate, limp tulip. 

But then my wife recalled something. She had heard that if you put a penny in the water, the flower would come back to life. 

I didn’t believe this for a minute. I would have bet more than a penny on it not working. And unlike most people, I still have pennies … in a big container I use to collect coins in. 

Pennies themselves have been wiped off the face of the Canadian landscape. I may be the last bastion for them.

I went to my stash and got two pennies … because I didn’t think there was enough healing power in just one of the cheaply made little coins that have been discontinued. 

To our surprise, by lunch time that tulip was standing up straight as an arrow, and the shape of its petals looked remarkably like it was smiling at us. 

There you have it – it’s a miracle! 

Here’s the thing: The real miracle happens when a person, who has lived his life for himself, discovers that God loves him and sent His son, Jesus, to die for his sins. For that person to receive Jesus as his Saviour and then see the change in how he thinks, how he treats others, what he put his energy into and what he holds as important is an absolute miracle. No one could do that – only God, the great miracle worker. God has a miracle for you if you want it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What miraculous thing have you witnessed? Leave your comments and questions below.

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How Fanatical Are You About Coffee?

Somebody, remind me why people are so fanatical about their coffee! I just don’t get it. 

How Fanatical are you about coffee

I can get passionate about a lot of things. I even watched a hockey game the other night from 2007. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen it or didn’t know the outcome; I watched simply because I had a hankering for some hockey … and because right now we’d be in the thick of the playoffs – two games a night on TV.

So I do understand getting a hankering for something. 

And I do know coffee drinkers love a hot cup of joe first thing in the morning. … My daughter has a sign in her kitchen that reads, “… but first, coffee”. 

Some people go to extreme lengths to make a cup of coffee just down right difficult. 

I remember the days of the coffee maker. You put the water in the reservoir and could almost immediately see the same stream of H2O come right back out, now steaming hot and with that dark roasted lustre to it. … People like me would say it looks closer to the colour of mud but, as you can tell, I’m not a coffee drinker. I never have been.  

What I don’t get is the extremes coffee drinkers go to to get their coffee – whether it is standing over a chemistry lab-style carafe with a filter shoved in the spout, pouring small amounts of water over the coffee grinds, or whether it’s standing in line at a Starbucks for your special blend.

During the pandemic, Starbucks says they have mobile service. The only thing they have correct in that statement is “mobile”, as in you stay in your autoMOBILE. 

There is no service to what they do, even on a normal day when operating at full capacity. 

As one comedian put it, “you need a cup of coffee to be able to stand in line that long to order a coffee at Starbucks”. 

Well, the other day, my wife, Lily, had a free coffee voucher for Starbucks (for her birthday). She placed the order on her phone through an app. 

She was notified that it would be ready in 6 minutes. Now that’s fast for Starbucks! I was impressed; we hurried there. 

When we go close, we found that there was a lineup of cars that weaved through the parking lot, all of them trying to go through the drive-thru. 

… Nineteen cars ahead of us by the time we got to the back of the line! 

We hadn’t calculated that in our timing. Lily’s coffee was to be ready in 3 minutes. 

It took another 20 minutes to actually get the coffee passed to us through the drive-thru window. 

… That means Lily’s coffee sat on some counter for 17 minutes, and not under one of those heat lamps either. 

Why someone would want to go through all that just to get a taste of their favourite poison, I don’t know. 

Anyway, it’s a good gig. If you order ahead you either stay in line or you lose your week’s pay on that overpriced drink that’s already been charged to your credit card. 

Here’s the thing: When you truly love something, you will go to incredible lengths for that love – to the point where others who don’t share that same love think you are a little crazy or foolish. Well, let me ask you, how much do you love God? Would people who don’t love God think you are crazy for the lengths you go to to demonstrate your love for Him? Think on that.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you show your love for God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Curbside Service Is Not As Simple As It Appears

Today I’m trying out curbside pick-up and it’s not as simple as it is made out to be.

Curbside Service Is Not As Simple As It Appears

It sounds simple – you order something, drive up to the store and someone hands you your ordered product.

It’s sort of like A&W back in the 50’s and 60’s. You would drive up to a stall, order your food through an intercom and then an employee would run out or roller skate out to your car with your food order. 

It was pretty easy, but everything you ordered was known to you. Everyone knows what a french fry looks like and, though different restaurants sell them in different sizes or shapes, each restaurant only has one size for them.

The other day I needed to order some hardware products – one item was a threaded rod. 

It sounds simple, but I needed to choose the size of the threading and the online pictures of the different rods were all the same picture! 

I couldn’t tell which was larger and which was smaller. And the sizing was weird – M5 32×24. I’m not a handyman so these numbers didn’t help me at all. 

I didn’t know if a M5 was thinner than a M6. … I do know that with electric wire, the sizes go in the opposite direction: the higher the number the thinner the gauge of wire.

Who does that anyway? The electricians guild long ago must have thought it would be funny to mess with people’s minds and make 10 a really thick gauge, while making 18 a really thin gauge of wire. 

My problem was I didn’t know if people did that with threaded rods too. And since the pictures were all the same, I couldn’t tell.

If I could have gone into the store, I could have picked up each size, compared them and chosen the one I wanted. But with having to order online, I first needed to take a course in hardware management … and I needed to take the course quickly, so I could finish my order and get going on my project. 

Before long I had about three or four windows open on my internet browser, scrolling back and forth. 

What I discovered is the “M” stands for metric, and the number next to it stands for the diameter in millimetres. The next number is the pitch or the thread count. We are not talking about cotton sheets here either. The last number is the length … that one I figured out on my own. 

By the time I sort of knew what I wanted to order, I could have driven to Home Depot and back two times! 

… The lengthy process was just preparing me for when I pick up my purchase, realize I need a different size and have to do it all over again … plus have to learn how to do a return via curbside drop off. 

Here’s the thing: During this time of isolation there are lots of church curbside services available to us. We can tune in and pick up a message, a talk, or a devotional here and there. But unless you open up your own Bible, you can’t really compare what you are hearing with what God is really saying. Make sure you show up online with a Bible; don’t take someone’s word for it. Compare what the Bible says to what the online service is offering and get the right message with no returns. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Have you been engaging online with your Bible or without it? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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My Time with Screens Needs To Increase

Experts say we look at screens too much, but I’m realizing I’m not looking at them enough.

my time with screens needs to increase

I know mothers have complained about this since the invention of the television, but we’ve been staring at screens ever since.

And it has only gotten worse. 

With all the technology built into phones, people can have their eyes glued to a screen anywhere and all the time. 

There have been studies that show this is not good for us – not good for our brain development, our attention span, our eyesight and then, depending on how close we get to the screen, our health for the risk of cancer. 

But none of that worries most of us. We gravitate back to the screen after the slightest break. 

Have you ever stood in line waiting for something? How long do you study the back of the shirt of the guy in front of you before you pull out your phone and check your email, or scroll through some Instagram photos? 

The other day we had a rare occasion to have both our kids for dinner at the same time.  Everyone pulled up to the table and just before we were about to say grace, both our kids had their phones out and were looking at them.

There were no words exchanged, just a look and the phones were put away.

I guess what I’m saying is that we are always looking at screens. And with the coronavirus, we are probably spending even more time gazing into screens: TV screens, computer screens and the rest. 

But for me, I don’t think I’m looking at screens as much as I should be. 

With our new isolation reality, I’ve been doing much more online work. I preach my sermons online, lead a Bible study online, and give a once-a-week devotional online now.

This is all new to me. It’s also forcing me to look at screens more often, and specifically to look into cameras more. 

And what I’m realizing is, I’m not doing it as much as I should be. 

You see, I have notes that I use when I speak, and I have to look at my notes when I’m talking to a camera or I would be staring at the camera … but just staring and doing nothing else. 

Even when I’m preaching and the camera is way at the back of the sanctuary, it is really noticeable when I look down at my notes or look to the corner for some direction from our camera operator. 

When I do my devotionals, even though my notes are right beside the screen, you can tell when I look away. When I do that, I lose connection with the people who are watching on their own screens.

So the other day I found a cheap – actually free to me – way of making a teleprompter. 

It’s crude and a little makeshift, but it works. I’m going to use it for some of my onscreen appearances because I can look right into the camera and see my notes in front of me.

I can’t wait to have more screen time. 

Here’s the thing: Let me encourage you, during this time of virus isolation 2020, to keep yourself looking straight ahead. It is easy right now to get looking away from God and onto other things. But now, more than ever, we need to be staying focused on Christ and His Word. That’s how we can make the greatest connection with Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How could you connect with God more during this time? Leave your comments and questions below.

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A Tale Of Contradictions

We are all supposed to practice social distancing right now, but there are lots of contradictions.

A Tale of Contradictions

The other day I needed something from a store … well, maybe “need” is too strong a word.

I’d ordered a part to help me livestream online, but when it was delivered I discovered that it didn’t come with a power source.

Do you remember commercials for kids’ toys years ago? At the end of the commercials the announcer would say, “batteries not included”. Well, it turns out I ordered a product like that. It ran on DC current or rechargeable batteries but came with neither.

I headed straight for a store that sold both.

The store was practicing social distancing – which I completely understood – but there were obvious contradictions. 

I was first asked to stand in a line outside the store, marked with tape every six feet. 

I happened to be the only one in the line and, judging by the number of cars in the lot, there were probably only about ten customers in the store. 

In front of me was a store employee, standing a good six feet from me. He informed me how my shopping experience was going to go.

First there would be no cash, no paper receipts and, when I did enter the store, I would have an advisor who would assist me with my shopping. 

Okay, that was fine. 

The employee asked me what I was looking for and when I told him, I got the impression that what I wanted wasn’t really worth his effort. 

He said the two employees in the store that could help me were both busy with customers, so I would have to wait. 

In the mean time, he asked me for details about what I wanted. When I told him I needed a battery, he looked it up on his phone and promptly exclaimed they did not have that battery in the store.  

Unfazed, I replied, “Then I need a power adapter.”  

He wanted to know more about the adaptor so I pulled out the user guide and read the specifications to him. 

He apparently didn’t believe me, so he entered my six-foot bubble and asked if he could have the guide. He gave it back after he’d touched it with both his hands.

Armed with information, he went inside the store and several minutes later emerged with a box and another employee.

This other employee also got inside the six-foot perimeter to ask me more questions. He also touched my guide and had his hands all over the product they brought out to me. 

Once I decided to purchase the adaptor – and the possible accompanying coronavirus all over it – we went inside the store to complete the purchase. 

I decided to pay with my watch since I wouldn’t have to touch anything. It worked perfectly. 

I was told they were going to email me the receipt – perfect! But I had to agree to that by selecting “yes” on the key pad – crazy! I couldn’t do that without touching the screen with my finger or picking up the attached pen to select “yes”. 

Are you kidding me? How many others had touched those things? 

Their measures were strict but not consistent. Their contradictions made me want to wash my hands immediately … but there was no sanitizer anywhere!

Here’s the thing: We can find contradictions everywhere in life. We contradict ourselves when we say people need to be tolerant, but then we are intolerant of those who don’t agree with us. We can’t get away from contradictions. But God never contradicts Himself. When you align your life with Him, you can be sure you won’t be disappointed. 

That’s Life! 

Paul

Question: What’s a contradiction that has bugged you lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Days Are Getting Longer

The best part of early spring is how the days just keep getting longer and longer.

My Days Are Getting Longer

One thing I really like after the time change is how much later it stays light out in the evenings. It’s a big deal for me. 

For people who lived before there was electricity, they must have been ecstatic. They had so much more time to do things, to get things done. During one part of the year they would be shutting things down around 5 pm, but as the days got longer they could extend their work to 7 or 8 pm and later.

I remember when we lived in Edmonton and in the summer we could still be on the golf course at 10 pm! 

There were, however, some downsides … like when we ran summer camps. We wanted to end each day with a camp fire, but there is something lost when you’re sitting around the fire with the sun still high in the sky! 

Though the daylight is now extending later, I’m finding that my days are getting longer as well.

During this time when people are working from home, some not working at all, and others practicing self-isolation or forced isolation, there is less work being accomplished. 

More and more stores and businesses are restricting hours or closing their doors altogether. 

There is less that we can do. The normally busy parents, chauffeuring their children from one club or activity to another, have all stopped. 

For many people their days of work and activity are less. The light is increasing, but we have more time on our hands. … But that’s not what I’m experiencing right now. 

As the sun-filled skies linger longer into the evening, I find that my work is keeping pace with the ever-increasing light of day.

Some of the reasons my days are getting longer is that I’m having to learn new things right now to address the current COVID-19 conditions we are facing. 

There are also a number of different tasks or jobs I’m having to add to my day. 

I’m feeling a little like a green garbage bag. You know, there is always a little more you can stuff into one of them … the plastic stretches to make room.

It’s a huge contrast to when I’m on vacation. On vacation, I get up and decide what the one big thing is that I will do that day – maybe go to the beach, or hike a trail to a hidden lake. Everything else in the day then supports that main activity in one way or another. 

Right now, unfortunately, I need to make sure my list is constantly in front of me and that it is up-to-date so I don’t miss something important. 

Right now, all I know is that there is a part of me that wishes the days were getting shorter.

Here’s the thing: Whether your days are getting longer or have been shortened for the time being, be sure that on your list for each day is time with God. It is easy to get busy with work or busy with other things. At this time especially, don’t neglect time with God … and pray that He puts a halt to the coronavirus. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How will you make sure God is a big part of your day at this time? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I knew It Would Come To This

Last Monday I knew that we would have to cancel our church service. Even before the NBA announced it was postponing their season, I knew it would come down to this. 

I Knew It would comer to this

I just didn’t think it would happen as fast as it did.

This week has been a whirlwind of landmark announcements, precautions, instructions and down right fear. 

For the fear part we don’t have to look any further than the hoarding of toilet paper that happened this past week. If people contract COVID-19 they will get a high fever, cough and respiratory symptoms … and with all that toilet paper, they may also get a clogged bathroom throne! 

As the week progressed, I thought it might be good for me to think of a way to stream our church service to our congregation. As I said, I knew it would come to that eventually, but I thought I had a couple of weeks to work out the details. 

On Wednesday I signed up for streaming services on YouTube. I already had a YouTube channel to which I post drone videos that I make. All I had to do was click on the request and in twenty-four hours I was able to livestream through my account. 

… But I was just doing that because at some point – maybe in a week or two – I thought it would be necessary. 

I was wrong. As the weekend approached, there were more and more health suggestions and warnings. 

By Friday afternoon, I knew that we didn’t have a week to prepare – we now had one day!

Along with securing a livestream platform on YouTube, I also had downloaded a piece of streaming software, which I hadn’t yet installed on my computer. I wasn’t even sure what it did. 

Now I knew I was going to have to find out more about this software and actually use it. But maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself … 

It was clear that no one was going to force us to close our doors on Sunday. There were, however, recommendations on the size of gatherings organizations should limit themselves to. 

I couldn’t help but think of all the people out shopping in stores, stripping the shelves bare of essentials and non-essentials, purchasing what they “needed” while putting themselves at greater risk of catching or passing on the virus to other shoppers. 

People who were shopping this week were probably in closer contact with others than if they were attending a church service.

Though our church was under the size limit recommendations laid out by the health officials, I knew that there would be many people who, just to feel safe, would not want to come to church.

There were also a good number of seniors in the church who probably needed to avoid being in contact with people.

What went through my thoughts was to hold our service but offer a livestream for those who would stay home. 

That ended up being the plan we executed. How we put the livestream together, I’ll share with you in my next post.

Here’s the thing: Big changes can happen quickly, quicker than you expect or anticipate. If a face-to-face meeting with Christ comes quicker than you expect or anticipate, you will really want to be prepared for that meeting. The preparation is straight forward: place your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and make Him the boss of your life. That’s what you need to do to be ready for the unexpected. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What unexpected decisions did you have to make this last week? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I May Be Politically Incorrect Here

This is my politically incorrect blog post, so if you are easily offended maybe you should not read this one.

I May Be Politically Incorrect

I’m not normally very politically correct, but this one just might be considered by some to have gone too far. 

It all started with a trip to Costco. We don’t usually do any shopping on Sunday but we were hungry and there were two things – which grew to five things – that we needed to get.

Disclaimer: toilet paper and Gatorade were not what we went to Costco for.

We also really needed lunch and thought at Costco we could kill two birds with one stone. 

… After looking at the “two birds” statement, I should clarify that that wasn’t the politically incorrect part of my blog, so if you are offended because you love birds, sorry.

After we picked up the two/five items we needed, Lily and I headed for the cash. And no surprise, the lines were long. 

A lot of people were shopping on Sunday afternoon. The store was so busy; the checkout lines were six carts deep and more. 

When we finally got through, we went straight to the food counter and found their new feature of express ordering stations. We just tapped pictures on a screen of the items we wanted and paid for them right there. It was quick, convenient, and the only time there was no line. 

Then reality hit. We were stopped with many others waiting to have our number called to collect our food. 

After picking up our tray of food, we turned and gazed at the sea of humanity that was seated in the food court section. 

That was disheartening. Everything had gone so well, but now we had nowhere to eat. I was holding a tray of food and Lily had a cart in tow with five measly things strewn across the bottom. 

I went to get my cup filled, while Lily spied a vacant spot and made her way there with the cart. Someone beat her to it. 

There were no other empty seats … except the handicap table. 

We looked around and saw no one in wheelchairs, so we sat down. I even sat with only one cheek on the seat in an attempt to make it look like I was not really sitting there and was almost ready to leave. 

I wondered for a moment if we might get fined for sitting at the table, but then remembered fines apply to cars, not seats. 

As we ate, we started to get comfortable in our seats, not really looking around … until Lily spotted someone in a scooter. 

The jig was up. We started to pull our food together, telling the man we were getting up. He said it was okay; they didn’t have their food yet. 

Then we had a little conversation with him as we kept eating in the handicap seats while he waited for his wife to arrive. 

And then it struck me …

Who needed that seat more? The guy who was already seated in his scooter or the other guy (me) standing, juggling a tray with food and drink and trying to eat all at the same time? 

It seems to me, in that situation, I was more handicapped than the guy in the scooter was. He already had a lap to rest his tray on. I was helpless.

Here’s the thing: We are all helpless before God. We have nothing in ourselves to help our cause or case with God. We have no rights to petition Him with. We have no abilities that would make us valuable to Him. But oh, the loving grace of God that saw His Son, Jesus Christ, pay for our sin, and make it possible for us to be admitted to heaven … if you place your faith in Jesus. We are helpless without Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you thought would be your bargaining chip with God? Leave your comments and questions below.