my experiences

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I’ve Had It With Falling Off My Bike

I went for a mountain bike ride today and noticed a few things that I’m not crazy about. It was my first time riding this trail this year and it has lots of technical and rocky sections to it.

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Though I know the trail well – I’ve been biking it for years – I found myself stopping, and falling off my bike more frequently than I normally do. One time as my tires slipped, I clicked out of my peddle to put my foot down, and what I thought was moss covered rock was actually moss over a hole. I step down into it hard.

The whole ride I felt a little clumsy. I started to think, “I didn’t have this trouble last year. What’s up with me?” Maybe, as we get older, we start to revert back to the junior high days of not being in control of our limbs!

Junior high kids are always tripping over their own feet or someone else’s. I remember when I worked with junior high kids and a kid would have a mark on his forehead. I would ask what happened and the reply would be something like, “Oh, I walked into a door.” He would say it like it was an every day occurrence, certainly something he’d done before.

I don’t really want to revert back to those clumsy days. I’m still in my fifties. If I’m starting to regress now, I can only imagine how bad I’ll be when I’m 65 or 70. I’ll have to be clothed in bubble wrap! … It will look strange and it will hamper my movements, but you can’t beat the protection. I wonder if I’ll be able to get it in blue and white?

The other thought I had was that as I get older maybe it takes a little longer to get my balance back for riding those trails that are cambered. If that’s the case, I better have my balance back the next time I go riding. I don’t want it to take half the season to get comfortable on that terrain.

Maybe it’s worse than that! Maybe it’s a combination of regressive clumsiness and faulty balance. I’ve known some older people who get vertigo; maybe this is just a real bad case of “clumbalansy” – that’s a new word I just made up to describe this medical condition that seems to be attacking my equilibrium.

I’ve never had anyone tell me that they have experienced this as they got older. My doctor never warned me that I might contract clumbalansy as I age. I wonder if there is some medication I could take to clear it up fast?

They have products to help junior highers with their acne – what about some ointment or pill for my clumbalansy? … I might just have to fight through this one on my own.

Here’s the thing: You would think that the older we get, the easier it would be to stay close with God. But what I’ve found is there are all kinds of reasons, pressures, interests that make it difficult to persist in seeking God. Growing as a Christian is something we do for life. It’s really becoming more like Christ, and that will never get easier. So we have to keep fighting through and keep seeking, keep drawing close to God, dedicated to becoming more like Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find more difficult the older you get? Leave your comment below.

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Living in the Shadow of Riches

I find the contrast between wealth and poverty difficult to get my head around, especially when they’re found together.

I remember visiting a village in Laos, South East Asia in 1992 that took two hours to get to by boat. When you say, “middle of nowhere” it refers to that little dot on the map. The place had no running water, requiring the women to climb up a hillside to get it from a stream.

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The chief’s home was on stilts and the home’s only furniture was a chest and a few mats. There was a big old pot-bellied pig that lived below the thatch roofed hut.

What I found amazing was, at the time I was there, the chief was in Los Angeles, California visiting his son who was attending university. The thought of a man from that tiny primitive village being in the abundance of LA blew my mind. The contrast seemed to be too extreme.

Being in Atlantic City this week, I saw similar contrasts. But you could miss them all together if you stayed in one of the casinos along the boardwalk. When you stay in a casino resort, you never have to leave the confines of wealth, luxury and beauty.

For that matter, though you are at one of the best beaches in America, you never have to see the light of day – but you certainly can get carpal tunnel from pushing the buttons on the slot machines!

We stayed in a hotel about a 10 minute walk to the strip. On our walks to the world famous Atlantic City boardwalk, we saw some huge contrasts to what we found in the casinos. From the vantage point of our 10th floor balcony, we saw homes that could – and probably should – be torn down, in spitting distance from a casino that cost $2.4 billion to build.

It boggles my mind to see prosperity and dearth coexisting beside each other. How does one live in the shadow of lavishness and how does one ignore impoverishment? There are no simple answers to those questions.

It wouldn’t work to take money from the wealthy; they would still find a way to generate more. Giving money to the poor wouldn’t necessarily mean they would use it to change their situation for any length of time.

This is not something that only exists in Atlantic City. In any city we could name, on any continent on the globe, this same disparity can be found dwelling side by side.

No matter how huge the gulf is, there is something that is consistent: we settle in and get used to living side by side. Though we should seek to do something to change the disparity, instead we shrug and accept it as the way it is.

Here’s the thing: In this life we all live together side by side, those who are bound for heaven and those bound for hell. In heaven one day there will be no co-existing. Those who have placed their faith in Christ, regardless of their wealth or lack of it, will be in heaven, while those who have not will be in hell. Those bound for heaven shouldn’t accept the disparity now, but seek to bring others into faith in Christ.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What contrasts do you see in life that you have a hard time reconciling?  Leave your comment below.

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You Can’t Beat The Real Thing

Though television and the internet have provided us with live images from around the world that we would never see otherwise, what they can’t do is give us a live experience.

Certainly television news tries to give us live experiences of wars and disasters. The commentary of the reporter is always dramatic. They somehow think that showing the same footage over and over and making the same comments seeps into our psyche so it becomes like an experience to us. … but it doesn’t really work.

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My wife, Lily and I took a trip to Atlantic City, for a week’s get away and to relax. No, not to gamble, though there are a plethora of opportunities to do that.

We aren’t even staying in one of the casino hotels. In fact, we are staying at the very end of the famous Atlantic City boardwalk. To be accurate, the boardwalk used to go past our hotel.

About six months ago, a hurricane came through and wiped out the part of the boardwalk that runs in front of our hotel. I’m surprised it didn’t destroy part of the hotel we are staying in as well.

I remember seeing the news reels on TV when the disaster took place, thinking that it was too bad. I even felt sorry for the people who lost homes and for the damage it caused them and the city.

But until yesterday, when my wife and I walked along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and saw the remains of the portion of boardwalk that was lost during Hurricane Sandy, I had not experienced it.

It’s not that we experienced the storm, but our experience of being right at the site of the damage is something television and the internet can’t give us. For example, there’s something better about going to a live sporting event than watching it on TV – even though on TV you get replays and commentary and all kinds of extras.

It’s the same with going to a concert or performance of some kind. There is something better about being there live. If you are there, it is an experience. If you’re watching on television, you are only tuning in to it.

There have been major events that were so pivotal that we remember where we were when they happened: when President Kennedy was shot, when Canada beat the Russians in the 1972 hockey summit, or when the twin towers were struck.

The experience was not the actual event in those cases. The experience was with the place, the people and the emotion of where we were at the time.

For instance, I remember being in the library of my high school, with wall-to-wall people watching the game on three little TVs. I remember the place erupting when Henderson scored his goal. I remember everybody hugging and cheering and shouting (yes, shouting in a library) when the buzzer went. I watched the game live but my experience was in my school.

The point is, our experiences are with live events we are present for, not something we see on TV or the internet.

Here’s the thing: We can see something about God, read something about Him, even be with people who have experienced God. But until we personally engage with Him, meet with Him, or have some dealings with Him, we can’t say we have had an experience with God. We have just been looking on

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What event can you remember in detail as to where you were and who you were with?  Leave your comment below.

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King of the Hill

It’s not often that I gawk at an accident. In fact, I purposely try not to slow down too much when I pass one, because it bugs me when people hold up traffic trying to rubber neck and get a good peak at the wreckage.

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But the other day, I was cruising through a parking lot and came across an interesting sight. I chuckled to myself when I saw it, but per my conviction, I kept driving past. Then  I thought, “This is too good to pass up!” so I turned around and parked the car.

This blue SUV was hung up on a mountain of snow. I was already laughing when I got out of the car and started to walk over with my iPhone. I had no intention of calling for help; I wanted a picture!  Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture when you’re laughing?

As I was getting the vehicle in my cross hairs, the woman who was driving the SUV saw me and blurted out, “Oh no! You’re not going to put this on YouTube, are you?” She was embarrassed, which just made me laugh harder, and for a moment I thought I should be taking video rather than still shots.

I circled the site and I wondered how in the world she could have gotten her car on that pile of snow. There was no snow around in any direction. It was the only snow mountain in the parking lot and she found it!  Maybe she wanted to conquer it … which she sort of did.

When I was a kid we used to play “king of the hill” on the huge snow pile the snowplow pushed into the middle of our cul-de-sac. It was always the big guys that could stay up on top the longest. This vehicle was on top and it was staying there, so I guess she won.

I think if she had have called a dealership they may have given her some money for leaving the car there. It looked like it was on one of those fake bolder structures you see at car dealerships. It would create some attention.

After taking 3 or 4 pictures, I had to know how or why she did this. She told me she turned her head to look at a parking spot and drove right up the mountain. But why not stop when you feel the resistance? Or better yet, when you turn down the row, look what’s ahead before looking for a parking spot!

My theory – and it’s only a theory – is that when she hit the snow, she thought, “I can get over this”, and stepped on the gas. It was, after all, a SUV: Sports Utility Vehicle. Don’t they make them for rough and rugged terrain, and … for climbing up snow mountains?

When I left the scene, the tow truck was on its way. About 20 minutes later, I drove by that parking lot again and noticed the snow was still there, but the vehicle was gone, and that woman was no longer king of the hill.

Here’s the thing: There are obstacles we have to deal with in life only because we didn’t pay attention to God warning us to stop, or go around them. If we learn to listen to and heed His guidance, we can avoid some of the mountains we face.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question:  What obstacles have you avoided because you paid attention? Leave your comment below.

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I Got Me A Hankering!

Sometimes I get a hankering. It just pops into my head like an idea that won’t go away. The other night, for example, it was getting later in the evening and I suddenly felt like some popcorn.

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After Easter and all the candy I had to inhale during that holiday, I needed a break from sweet snacks. I was looking for something that would satisfy and I was thinking of watching a movie … the two kind of go hand in hand.

When I go to the theatre I still have a natural instinct to purchase a bag of popcorn. It doesn’t matter to me that I have to draw on my line of credit to afford a bag, there is something inside of me that urges me up to the counter.

Personally, I don’t even like theatre popcorn anymore. I used to get it with extra butter, but now it is a hot petroleum bi-product, I think. Whatever it is they put on the popcorn, I find it sits in the bottom of my stomach and begins to re-pop about half way through the movie.

I don’t like microwave popcorn either.  How can something that can be left in a bag for 10 to 15 years be any good? It’s quick and you can’t really mess it up, but it tastes like the chemicals they use to preserve it – probably the same ones the Egyptians used to  wrap a mummy!

I much prefer the popcorn we make at home with our air popper. I’m pretty good at getting the popper out, filling it up with corn kernels, and getting a bowl out for the popcorn to fall into. But that is about where I like to stop.

I’ve completed the process before, but if my wife Lily is around I like her to put the butter and salt on.  There is an art to it, and she has a special touch. It may go back to her college days when making popcorn in her dorm room was a nightly ritual.

When I do the butter and salt there’s always a fear that I’ll use too much or not enough.  But with Lily, it seems she gets it perfect every time. The other night I convinced her to help me. The popcorn was perfect. Good popping on my part!

Then I found a movie to watch and proceeded to pretty much devour the bowl of popcorn all by myself. I’m not sure it was any better for me than a hunk of my Laura Secord cream-filled egg or a handful of brightly coloured jelly beans, but it satisfied … glad I acted on that hankering!

Here’s the thing: Like I got a hankering for popcorn, sometimes a name of someone or an idea pops into our heads. Many times we dismiss it and go on doing what we are doing. But it may be that God has put that person on our minds. And, like any good desire, we should act on it. It just might be the case that God is calling you to pray for that person or contact them.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: Have you ever had a name pop into your head and it turned out that the person needed prayer right at that time? What did you do?  Leave a comment below.

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I’ve Really Let Myself Go

Not very often, on rare occasions, every once in a while, I’ve seen a picture of someone and thought, “Man you’ve really let yourself go!” It’s like they just stopped caring about themselves and let age and gravity do their thing.

I feel like I’ve let myself go lately. It’s only been for the last couple of weeks so there isn’t much to notice. But the bothersome thing is, how easy its been to start letting myself go.

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There are a couple of things that have got me off my game lately: one is busyness and the other is sore body parts. Where I have let myself go is keeping up with my exercising and staying on top of my computer maintenance.

If you were thinking that I’ve gone all puffy, my hair was greasy and down to my shoulders and I hadn’t shaved in a week, you can dismiss that image from you mind (ha, maybe you can’t now).

My appearance hasn’t really changed. I’m still showering every day and shaving when I have to, but I’ve not been doing my daily walks, aerobics or weight lifting.  I know that it takes three weeks to make a habit, but I’m afraid that I’m forming a new habit in record time!

I guess, it’s natural.  When things are let go and unattended, they don’t get better. A lawn gets weeds, a car breaks down, food goes bad . . . when you let them go.

My computer has gone that way as well. My busyness has left me with 33 files and folders strewn all over my desktop, and emails mounting in my inbox. I’ve had too many other pressing things to keep up with.

It all started with a sore knee and elbow I somehow picked up from playing hockey. Nothing serious, but they were bothering me just enough that I thought I better rest them rather than push too hard.

After a few days of non-activity, I started to get pretty good at finding other reasons or excuses for not exercising … and that’s when I stumbled onto this busy thing.

The busy excuse has been working like a charm even after my knee started feeling better. I also found I could use it for a number of other things as well, like my computer.

Now here I am, two weeks into creating my new habit of letting myself go, and the things that were making me busy are completed. I don’t have an excuse now. I could say that I’m always busy but I know I’m not too busy to exercise and execute files and emails.

I’m thinking now that I have to stop creating a habit of letting myself go and start creating a habit of getting back to what I should be doing. But one habit seems so much easier than the other.

Even though I’m a little busy today – I have to travel out of town, and have a few things I need to do before I go – I’m going to get back to my exercises and clean up some files starting today.

Here’s the thing: Things come along to break up your routine of spending time with God.  Sometimes they are legitimate reasons, and they may be unavoidable. But it becomes easy to let them become excuses to keep you away from your time with God. Don’t keep using the same excuse or make up a new one. Decide today to get back to your time with God. He’s waiting for you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is your most used excuse to get out of things?  Leave your comment below.

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Get Out Of The Line!

Last weekend I took part in a funeral. It all went very well until it came time for the interment. Getting to the cemetery meant a twenty minute drive through the city and in the country.

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Only family and close friends attended, while most others opted not to take the drive … probably a good thing because they never would have made it.

You see, most people don’t follow other cars very well, driving too far behind the person they’re following. It’s like they’ve watched too many TV detective shows and they try to follow so the lead car doesn’t know they’re on their tail.

I once had a person follow me to a destination they had never been to, yet they kept going slower and slower and falling farther and farther behind. At first, I slowed down to make sure they wouldn’t lose me, but then they slowed down even more! Finally, I just decided to drive and let them keep up to me. They never made it; they got lost and went home.

In a funeral procession, people really need to drive close to the car they’re following, especially through intersections. Personally, I like to get close to the car in front of me so the vehicles traveling in the other direction see that I’m part of a procession and don’t T-bone me when the light changes green for them.

Those other drivers on the road can be a real problem. Most of them act like they have no clue what’s going on. They see the hearse, the flashing lights, the long line of cars with little flags on their hoods like it’s a diplomatic motorcade, and they STILL try to jump into line like they want to be part of the parade! After all, their shopping trip to the mall has been timed down to the last minute, and they didn’t calculate running into a funeral procession.

There was a time when cars pulled over to the side of the road when they came upon a funeral procession – like we’re supposed to do with emergency vehicles. But then again, some people are not good at that either. I’m not sure whether people drive without looking around or whether they just don’t understand the unwritten rules of the road.

When our procession of cars got out of the city, some cars pulled over to the side of the road, and two ladies who were walking stopped and just stood as the line of funeral cars went by.

But most cars just kept going and even drove around the cars that had pulled over.  These people were both young and old – I know because I looked at them, trying to stare them down!

We finally made it to the cemetery, with no accidents, and only missing one car with several of the family members in it. They arrived late because some car cut into the line and then didn’t go through and intersection with the rest of the procession.

Going home from the cemetery only took about 10 minutes … there were no funeral processions to stop for.

Here’s the thing: In a funeral procession, you need to keep up and others need to pay attention. If you don’t keep up, other cars don’t know there is anything to pay attention to. In your Christian walk you need to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25) so that others will pay attention and see a difference.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find difficult about following someone?  Leave your comment below.

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Some People Don’t Age Well

You’ve heard the line, “You know you’re getting old when…” There are all kinds of ways to finish that sentence: You know you’re getting old when you and your teeth sleep separately; or, you know you’re getting old when you’re the first guy to the public urinals and the last one to leave.

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Well, there is another way to tell you’re getting old, and that is go to a concert of a band from your youth. This week a friend of mine called me up and said he had two tickets to see Randy Bachman.

Now if you don’t have a clue who I’m talking about, you were born before the 1930’s, or after the 70’s and you’re not Canadian. Randy Bachman was a founding member of The Guess Who, and then went on to form another band called Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO).

This concert was a little different, as it was at the Grand Theatre in Kingston, and not at an arena. It was a little more intimate and wasn’t about the performer playing song after song. Bachman was there to tell stories of his life in the music industry and how the songs were written.

The stories and music were amazing. When the band would start to play an old classic, I found that I kept picturing myself back in my teens. But then I looked around and saw all these old people around me.

I couldn’t get over how many old people liked “BTO”. When I say old, I don’t just mean a little grey hair – we’re talking wrinkled skin, unruly eyebrows and white hair. These people were ancient!

I felt like a kid amongst them. I was trying to figure out how much older most of the crowd was than me, and they had to average about 10 years plus.

I knew going in that the crowd wasn’t going to be young. I’d been to a Rolling Stones concert when I was about 40 and everyone there was my age or older. But that was nothing compared to this group. I saw canes, and there was a line up for the men’s washroom … when does that ever happen?!

During the intermission, I found myself staring at people trying to figure out what they might have looked like when they were in their teens or early twenties. I would look at them and squint to see if I could picture them appearing wrinkle-free.

It was about then that I realized I had been remembering myself back when I was in my teens and, in reality, I kind of fit in with these old folks. Of course, I was on the much younger side of the crowd . . . but it probably wasn’t that obvious, except to me.

I thought to myself, “What happened to these people?” Then I thought, “What happened to me?!”

. . . We’re getting old, that’s what’s happening! It was all a little disconcerting.  But the music made me feel like I was 18 again. Thanks Randy . . .  both of you.

Here’s the thing: Even though we get older and mature physically and spiritually, God still sees us as His children. We need to remember we have that kind of relationship with Him when we are with Him in prayer. Enjoy!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What experience of the past causes you to reminisce about how your life with Christ has changed?  Leave your comment below.

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Whatever You Do, Don’t Fix It!

It’s funny how you can enjoy something, but then want something else that will take away the very thing you enjoy. If I have you confused, that’s okay. I’m a little confused myself.

Let me try to explain. For the last 5 months I’ve been helping with the dishes after the evening meal. My wife, Lily does the washing and I do the drying. Lily has really enjoyed the time we have spent after dinner each night, talking while we do the dishes together.

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I’ve not alway done the dishes – maybe it’s because of the example I had from my father, or maybe it’s because I’m full after dinner and I really need to relax on the couch.

But mostly, I haven’t helped much with the dishes in the past because we have a dishwasher (I’m not referring to Lily here). When we moved into our house almost 17 years ago, there was a large hole under the kitchen counter top.

It looked so odd that we had to get a dishwasher just to fill the space. As I recall, Lily didn’t really want to get it because she was happy to hand wash the dishes if we could do them together. But I convinced her that the hole under the counter really detracted from the esthetics of the kitchen and we needed to install a dishwasher.

All her dreams of washing dishes together evaporated in thin air because I got pretty good at placing my plates, cutlery and cups into the trays, though sometimes I noticed Lily had to rearrange the items because I hadn’t put them in the best place.

That all changed five months ago when our dishwasher stopped working. I took a quick look at it and determined that we needed a new one. Lily looked at it and determined that I should fix it.

The good news, for Lily though, is that we’ve been washing dishes together.  We’ve enjoyed time together, working together and talking. She has loved it; it’s like the dream she had came back to be a reality.

That’s why I found it strange the other day when we were in a store and Lily blurted out, “You really need to fix that dishwasher.” I looked at her and wondered, “Does she really know what she is asking? Does she really want her dream to disappear again?”

Now the chances of me fixing the dishwasher are slim. My opinion is that a new dishwasher is the best fix I could do. You see, our dishwasher is 17 years old. In human years that’s not old at all, but in turtle years that’s getting up there, and in dog years that’s really old! . . .  the dishwasher is a goner.

It still has a purpose though. It fills the hole under the counter and it looks like it’s supposed to do something. You can’t do that with a dead animal. I’m beginning to wonder if she really does like doing the dishes together?

Here’s the thing: We need to be careful that the thing we want, whether it’s an object, a job, or a change of some kind doesn’t take away the time we spend with God. Sometimes what we want can take away from what we now enjoy.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What “wants” can crowd out your time spent with God?  Leave your comment below.

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It Was My Own Stupidity

They say that if you put a frog in a pot and slowly turn up the temperature, it won’t jump out. It will allow itself to be cooked alive. I did that to myself, in a manner of speaking, the other day.

The weather reports had called for a massive snow storm through our area. My secretary was prepared; she had her work done ahead of time and left early. I suggested my associate get his things together and get home as well.

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That left me. Most people would also think they had better pack up, but not me. I thought I’d just work a little longer, since it was quiet and I wouldn’t be disturbed.

My wife phoned, and said the roads were terrible, that I should leave and work from home. But I just wanted to get a little more done on my sermon. Deep down, I believe I can drive in any condition under any circumstance.

After a while longer, I heard someone at the door. I thought, “Who would be crazy enough to be out in this snow storm?” It then dawned on me that I was the answer to my own question!

I opened the door, to find a friend. The first words out of her mouth were, “Paul, you are not going to get your car out of the parking lot.”

That’s when I really looked outside and saw that the snow was right up to the bottom of my car. I was cooked!

My friends told me they would help, so I packed up quickly and got to my car. I started it, put it in reverse and backed out. Well, I guess I should say I tried. I got stuck when I put it in first gear.

I don’t have snow tires, instead opting for all season radials. I think the tire companies have a scam going. For over thirty years I have only used all season tires on my cars with no problem. But in the last 10 years, tire companies have pressured us to buy winter tires.

I think they changed the rubber compound. That’s why my all seasons don’t work as well any more. It’s a conspiracy to get me to buy snow tires, or at least that’s my theory.

My friends helped me push my car. It took some work, but finally we were able to get me out of the parking lot.

The drive home was also pretty bad. My tires spun and I slipped around at every street light. When I got to my street, it looked much like the parking lot at the church. I didn’t have high hopes for success, but I just went for it and plowed through the snow.

I got stuck right in front of my neighbour’s house, who happened to be out snow blowing his driveway.  He came over and pushed me to the bottom of my driveway.

That’s when I called in the troops – Lily, that is. She came out and, along with my neighbour and his snow blower, we cleared the driveway so I could get the car in the garage … where it stayed for the night.

Here’s the thing: We get ourselves into all kinds of situations that are over our heads. Many times it’s our own doing … or stupidity. Sometimes, we don’t even have the sense to reach out for help. Know this – God isn’t just waiting for us to beg Him for help; He is actively working for us before we even ask.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When has someone come to your aid before you asked for help? Leave your comment below.