New Christmas Lights Have Been A Challenge

Bringing something up to a new standard always presents its challenges.

new Christmas lights have been a challenge

It doesn’t matter what it is, upgrading or moving to a new system is never smooth, such as going from analogue to digital – it’s a process. 

I was looking at a number of home movies we shot years ago when our kids were little. I had brought home the big, massive VHS video camera from the church, plunked a regular-sized VHS tape into the unit and shot birthday and Christmas events.  

… That was great while VHS players were a thing. Now VHS tapes and players are a thing of the past. 

The change in technology makes it difficult to save those memories for the future. I’ve almost lost the window to transfer those tapes to a digital format. But I still have a VHS player and I think one of my old video cameras can be plugged into it to transfer the recordings to digital.

I remember upgrading how I wrote sermons, from pen and paper to typing them onto my computer. I’ll admit I sometimes had a hard time reading my own writing. 

But when I forgot to hit “save” and my computer crashed, sometimes I lost pages of type … and you can’t even try to decipher what isn’t there anymore.

I learned the painful lesson that you should hit the save button every time you pause to make sure you don’t lose anything.

Well, last week I tried a new upgrade with our Christmas lights. 

I’ve been forever using the same strings of lights to give a Christmas feel to the outside of our home. But now our incandescent strings of lights are wearing out. Some of the sockets no longer work and lightbulbs are always going out.

I decided to go LED all the way. 

I headed to the store thinking it would be seamless to replace the four strings of lights I put on our house, only to find that the new strings are not 25 feet long like the old ones. They are 16.1 feet long.

My quick trip to the hardware store turned into a half hour of humming and hawing over what strings to buy. 

I also had to buy all new clips to attach them to our house.

I ended up getting five strings, but two of them had five colours of lights when I only wanted two. It took some time to swap out the colours I didn’t want.

When I finally got them all up, one string didn’t work. Sure enough, it was one of the multi-coloured strings. I had to switch the lights back to the originals and return them to the store. 

The new set I bought worked when I got them home but, by the time I’d swapped the lights out, the string didn’t work. I took that set back too, plus the other matching set that had multi-coloured lights. 

The time I spent on this project was as much time as I’ve spent over the last three years putting up and taking down lights. 

It’s all good now … but the updating was a royal pain. 

Here’s the thing: It’s never easy to make changes to your life. But if you don’t, at some point you will be unable to make changes or you might think it’s too hard and miss out. Jesus came to earth to pay for your sins and enable you to have a relationship with God, now and forever. Yes, the change may cause some challenges but, in the end, giving your life to Christ will be far better for you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to update or upgrade this Christmas? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email weekly. 

I Was Oblivious To What I Already Knew

Sometimes you can be oblivious to a reality even though you’ve been informed about it.

I was oblivious to what I already knew

… That statement might need a little explanation. 

Recently I needed to see a doctor. Though there is lots of news concerning the deficiencies in our medical system, it didn’t hit me until I tried to use the system.

In my previous post I wrote about poking myself in the ear with a Q-tip (read here). Well, after several days – a week, to be precise – I decided to make an appointment with my doctor.

I thought it would be as simple as phoning the doctor’s office to make an appointment – boom, done. Instead I was told I couldn’t get in to see my doctor for a couple of weeks! 

The receptionist and I thought maybe I should try a quicker solution, but it wasn’t an emergency so going to the hospital didn’t seem like the right approach. 

The decision was made to try the after hours walk-in clinic my doctor’s office is connected to. Even though the words “after hours” didn’t have a good ring to them, at least I could go that day. I was told to go right when it opened to make sure I got into the clinic. My wife, Lily, then warned me to get there even earlier. 

When I arrived twenty minutes before the walk-in clinic opened, I was fourth in line. 

I had twenty minutes to kill standing outside in line to get in to see a doctor.

I‘ve stood in lines before. One time back in 1974, I stood in line on Yonge Street in Toronto outside A&A Records to purchase tickets to see Elton John in concert. Now that was standing in line! We were about ninth in line and waited from 9 pm to around 7 am the next morning when the tickets went on sale. 

… The stories of that night could fill a few blog posts. But that was late summer and warm outside.

Not the other day, standing twenty minutes outside in damp, 0° Celsius weather. 

The line of people grew and there were several parents with children, young children and babies, lining up to see a different kind of rock star – a doctor.

I couldn’t help but think that the sight was something you would see in a war-torn, third world country. Sick people were standing out in the cold to get treatment for their sicknesses. 

I used to stand in line to play shinny hockey, but at least we could stand inside the foyer of the arena in a climate-controlled temperature. 

When they did let us in – one by one, after we signed in and took a number – you really got a sense of how sick some people were. There was a constant noice of babies, children and adults coughing and sniffling. 

I don’t think sick people should have to wait outside in the cold to get medical help. There has to be a better way.

I’d heard that there are deficiencies in our medical system but, until yesterday, I didn’t really get it. 

Here’s the thing: We can hear about God, about what Christ did on the cross, but still be oblivious to it. It is when we take the time to investigate the reality of what God has done for us that we really are able to get it. Seek who Christ is and what He has done. Then let that knowledge impact your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you know about but don’t really know? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this to your email twice weekly.

A Lesson Learned Is More Valuable Than You Know

There is a lesson to be learned from almost everything in life. Some of those lessons are enriching and guide us going forward.

a lesson learned is more valuable than you know

Other lessons, well, they are difficult and they challenge us to be better, to do things differently.

One of the lessons that has stayed with me my whole life was learned when I was about four years old.

I was colouring in a colouring book in the back seat of the family car. We had just arrived at home and, before getting out of the car, I turned the page to start colouring another picture.

My dad, who was watching, said to me, “don’t start colouring another picture until you finish colouring the picture you are on.” 

That little sentence has stayed with me my entire life. The lesson I learned was “finish what you start”.

There have been many lessons learned along the way. Many have not been as impactful as that lesson my dad taught me that day. 

Some of the lessons have hurt. 

For a while I had difficulty with sharp instruments – like hand saws and utility knives. People were even hesitant to let me hold a knife with a sharp edge. 

I had cut myself sawing off the bottom of a door … while propping the door up with my knee and my left hand. When the door slipped, I almost severed the tendon of my index finger. 

About three months later, I took five stitches to the top of the same finger while using a utility knife to cut some fiber board for a sliding door.

I learned that I should have the proper tools and properly secure an object before I cut it. 

But that is nothing like the lesson I just learned.

I was using a Q-tip to clean my ears. … I have been using Q-tips on my ears for decades, so really, what could I possibly learn about cleaning my ears? 

Ya, I’ve seen the commercials about the special screw-type ear thingies that remove ear wax like an auger. But I like Q-tips; I’m proficient with them. And I get the originals. I don’t settle for some cheap ear swabs that basically feel like you are using a stick in your ear.

Well, the other day, I had a Q-tip in my left ear when I noticed that some hair on my head was out of place. So I swiped at the hair … and literally drove the Q-tip into my ear. 

Oh, baby, that was painful!

After reeling for a few moments, I had to leave for an appointment. On the way, my ear still felt sore and, when I put my finger in my ear, I realized it was bleeding.

The last two days I’ve been picking dried blood from that ear. I may have to see my doctor to make sure there isn’t any permanent damage. 

So what was the lesson learned? Well, that’s simple: don’t use a Q-tip while looking at yourself in the mirror. That’s what got me into trouble.

Here’s the thing: With so many experiences in our life time, we need to wisely learn the lessons that will benefit us as we journey on. The greatest lesson we can learn is that we all mess up and sin, but God will forgive us if we will place our faith in Jesus Christ. We get tons of practice to learn this lesson. The question is will we learn it? 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What life lessons have you learned lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email inbox twice weekly.

Decisions On What To Keep Are Never Easy

When you have too many of one thing, you have some decisions to make. 

decisions on what to keep are never easy

Right now I have too many desks. If I had too many hockey or baseball cards I could trade my duplicates to someone. … But you can’t really call traders on desks. 

One time we had too many cars, so we gave one away to someone who needed a car. 

But each of my desks are different and it’s tough to decide what I should do with them. One thing for sure is that I can’t keep them all.  

Desks are not like shoes. My son collects running shoes. If he had his way, he would have a whole room for his running shoes, just like the guy in the movie “The Italian Job” dreamed of.

The thing about running shoes, or any other kind of shoe, is that you can only wear one pair at a time. You can’t even mix and match them, like wear the left shoe of one set with the right shoe of another set. That just doesn’t work … though I have seen guys wear two different coloured hockey socks on the ice and think that is cool. 

I’m of the philosophy that you only need one pair of shoes for each occasion. 

You need a pair of dress shoes for when you wear a suit, a pair of running shoes for when you are running or doing something sporty, and a pair of casual shoes, or as I call them “everyday shoes”. 

That’s pretty much it. I don’t go out and buy more shoes unless one of those three pairs is worn out. … and I sometimes even wear them past when they’re worn out. 

So I only really need one desk. Although for the way I work, I can get away with having two. 

Right now I have my dad’s old desk set that is made of yew wood, whatever that is. My dad thought it was special. The desk set is pretty special because it was my dad’s, but I don’t really need it. 

I also have my grandfather’s roll top desk. I am particularly drawn to that. I’m not sure what it is about them, but I like roll top desks. 

The third desk I have is a stand up desk. This is the desk I use the most. I find that working standing up is way more productive and enjoyable for me. 

I could keep one sit down desk and the stand up, but I don’t need two sit down desks. 

The question is, which one will I part with and what will I do with it?

I’m leaning towards getting rid of my dad’s desk and at least part of the other pieces of it, and just keeping my stand up and roll top desks. 

But before I do anything with these desks, I first need to clear them from all the junk and stuff that accumulated on and in them. 

That will be job number one. 

Here’s the thing: Many, if not most of us, are collectors – just google how much the average household pays in storage fees. We collect because we don’t want to make a decision; we want to keep our options open. What if we want that thing some time in the future? We can also do that spiritually. We keep things in our lives we don’t need, that may be holding us back from making breakthroughs with God. It’s time to part with those things. Focus your attention on Christ and live solely committed to Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to make a decision about right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email twice weekly.

A Dinner To Remember And Reflect

It was a dinner to remember and reflect on the past decades. Sometimes you just have to take time to reminisce.

a dinner to remember and reflect

We probably have all done this. It seems I’m doing it a lot more lately. 

It’s good to reflect on the past year, or years, and recall what you did, accomplished, or should have done differently.

Now that I’m retired, I’m doing a lot more of that. 

In our family room right now, there are eleven boxes of files and memories from the past almost four decades of ministry. I’ve started sifting through them and some of the files go back to when I first started in ministry. 

There are a ton of things like old youth event calendars that Lily or I made, or Graham one of our youth designed. He was a master creator.

But with each calendar, form or contact list that would cross my eyes, I had to pause. People and events needed to be reflected on before I could dispatch them to a keeper file or the trash. 

Some of these files I will never use again but I need to keep a sampling of them because they help when I go back and remember the past. 

This summer Lily and I spent a couple of hours with an old and dear youth leader, Audrey. We’re so glad we did because she passed away just a few months after our visit. 

When we arrived at her house she had a file for us to see. In it there was a list of the names of students who’d attended a certain retreat. 

We spent a lot of time just looking at those names and talking about each student and our memories of them.  

It was a special time.

You can’t just erase the past and start fresh; you need some hooks to remember the past. Sorting through my files will provide me with a point of connection to the past the next time I take a trip down memory lane. 

Two days after my last day of work, Lily and I went out for dinner. It wasn’t just dinner at a restaurant; we ate at the revolving restaurant at the top of the CN Tower in Toronto. 

It was significant and reminiscent of years ago when we would have dinner after the Christmas Eve Service in Edmonton. We would eat at the Chateau LaCombe Hotel, in their revolving restaurant that overlooked the river valley and city. 

Seeing the sights of Toronto as the landscape slowly changed before us reminded us of those days. 

At dinner we talked about ministry at our churches and the people who have walked through our lives, enriched us and encouraged us. We spent time reflecting on what we have experienced over so many years. 

After dinner we strolled around the observation deck and, as we looked out at the night and the lights that glimmered and sparkled, we talked about our future. 

Looking ahead capped off a perfect dinner of remembering. … for there is no point reminiscing if you don’t also look ahead.

Here’s the thing: Reminiscing should spur us on to what is next. When you recall your past, be sure to recall the times God provided, answered your prayer, supplied your need, protected you, gave you wisdom and helped you make decisions. When you do that, you will boldly continue to move on with Jesus as your guide and strength. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When will you take some time to reflect and remember? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and received posts like this one twice weekly to your email.

That’s A Wrap, But It’s Never The End

“Well, that’s a wrap” are words we say when we’ve finished something significant. 

that's a wrap, but it's never the end

I recently put these words up on the sign board in our home. 

But the truth of the matter is that when you wrap something up, you’re not really done. Something else has to take its place. 

When a film director says, “that’s a wrap”, he’s just referring to the filming of the project. There is still the whole editing work that must be done.

Even when you finish wrapping your presents for Christmas, there is still Christmas morning when people are going to unwrap all the wrapping you did the night before. 

… I’m speaking from personal experience, but your story might be a little different.

The reason why I put the words, “That’s a Wrap”, on my sign board is because I’ve just retired. The end of a 37-year career has been wrapped up and it is complete.

The reality of this hit me, more than anything, when I had finished packing up all my books, cleaning out all my files and finally taking down all my pictures and memorabilia from my office walls. 

I turned off the lights in the office, looked back inside for a moment and paused. 

The room was empty; there was nothing personal left in there. It was now just a generic office space, dark, lifeless, devoid of personality.

Can an office have life and personality? Well, it can if you put your own life and personality on its bookshelves and walls.

It was a sad moment realizing that over 26 1/2 years, I’d spent a lot of time there. 

It was all over now – “a wrap”.

But like with anything that gets wrapped up, there is something after it. There is something new or different, something that will take its place.

“That’s a wrap” just leads to what comes next.

For me what comes next will unfold over time. But what first needs to happen is to establish a new routine. 

I’ve only been retired for five days now, so I’m not an expert. I’ve also spent most of that time at my cottage, so it feels more like a vacation than a retirement. When I get home, that’s when it’s going to be important for me to establish a new routine. 

I will end up with a routine no matter what, but I want my new routine to be something I design, something I desire and not something that just unfolds. 

When that first Monday morning hits, what will I do from 6 am to dinner time? How will those hours break down? 

I know that for me, I need things that will motivate me to get at tasks or activities and stick to them … or else I could revert back to those summer days when I was 15 years old. 

Remember them? – sleep till noon, wander around for the afternoon until you finally do something with your friends at night. 

… I don’t want to go back there. 

Here’s the thing: There is no real end when “that’s a wrap”; we roll into the next thing. And at the end of life, we will roll into eternity; our soul doesn’t end. It’s so important that you have a plan for what is next. The only way you can be sure that your “next” will be good is to plan now. Be sure you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. He came for you, paid for your sin and is waiting for you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How are you planning for what’s next? Leave your comments and questions below. 

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one twice weekly to your email.

Out-Of-Hand – Don’t Let That Happen To You

There are some things you need to stay on top of or they get out-of-hand. … I know this from experience.

out-of-hand - don't let that happen to you

There are so many things that can get away on us and lawn care is one of them.

When I was young and living at home, my brother and I had to share the lawn cutting duties. One time I would cut the lawn and the next time John would cut it.

Cutting the front lawn was a piece of cake. It maybe took ten minutes to give the grass a haircut. 

But the back lawn, that was a different story. It would take an hour to an hour and a half to get through cutting it all. Both John and I would avoid getting to it as long as we could. 

The only problem was that the longer we left it the more out-of-hand it got. The grass would get so long that we would have to go back and forth with the mower, otherwise it would get all clogged up inside with grass. 

This was back in the 60’s and 70’s. We cut the grass with an electric push mower, not one with a battery. We had at least two one-hundred foot extension chords to make it to the far reaches of the lawn. 

It was a bit of a nightmare. 

Recently I’ve been looking out our patio window at the house across the way from us. A new family moved in there in the last three months. 

All I can say is the guy’s definitely let his lawn get out-of-hand. 

The previous owner meticulously kept her lawn. The lawn was fertilized, over-seeded, weed free, always neatly trimmed. 

Not the new guy. The people on either side of him have cut their grass three times since he last cut his. His lawn is long, lush and thick … you could hide a baby deer in that lawn, it’s so long!

What amazes me is that he has a lawn tractor to cut the grass – that’s not even a hardship! It’s like riding around your yard on a slow moving go cart. He has no reason not to stay on top of it. 

Well, the other day he finally got to it … and I was able to solve a huge mystery. 

… You know those huge, circular rings that have appeared in farmers’ fields? Some think they are from UFOs. Well, they’re not. My neighbour has those circular rings and they are made with a John Deer 20756 lawn tractor. 

He even left the evidence, just in case someone might call NASA to investigate. 

His John Deer is still on the lawn. It’s been there for two days now, through at least a couple of rain storms.

I figure he either ran out of gas or clogged the cutter up and doesn’t know how to add fuel or extract the grass. 

I hope he’s learned that you can’t let your lawn go or it will get out-of-hand. I’m a little doubtful though.

Here’s the thing: Sin has a way of creeping into your life and settling in. When that happens, sin can get out-of-hand if you don’t address it. Don’t let sin take over. Regularly repent and confess your sins to the Lord. It will keep your life in check. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has gotten out-of-hand for you lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one delivered to your email twice weekly.

We Become Blind To What Has Become Too Familiar

We can get so used to something that we become blind to it and even stop being aware of what it is. 

we become blind to what has become too familiar

Recently I had something on my person that went missing and I didn’t notice it was gone for quite a while.

There was a commercial for an air freshener on television a number of years ago. The commercial depicted strong food orders or sweaty gym clothes and said we can become smell blind to them. 

We know it’s true, because you can cook fish for dinner and think nothing of it. But when you come back to your house after going out for the evening, all you smell is that fish. 

We get used to our environment. 

I played hockey this morning and the guy beside me in the dressing room must have become smell blind to his hockey equipment. There was definitely some potent stink coming from his hockey bag.

But this doesn’t just happen with smells; we can actually become blind to physical things that we look at every day. 

Maybe you had a knick-knack on a coffee table that had been there for years. You walked by it multiple times a day. Then one day you noticed it was gone and wondered how long it had been missing. 

I know this can happen because once my brother and I broke one of my mom’s figurines and we hid it. It took a couple of weeks before she started asking questions about that little Hummel.

Well, it got even worse for me the other day. I looked down at my wrist and noticed something was missing. 

For years I’ve been wearing a red band made of silicone on my right wrist. When I noticed it wasn’t there and started wondering where I might have lost it and when this might have happened. 

I had no clue how long it had been gone. I had to check the videos of my weekly sermons. It turns out that the last time I had it on my wrist when I was preaching was three weeks prior. 

… Three weeks! I have no idea when during that time it might have gone missing or where this might have happened. It was just gone and I had become blind to it. 

I wore that band literally every day for over ten years. I never took it off for showering, sports …never! 

In my defence, this wrist band was light. It weighed nothing and I couldn’t feel it on my wrist. 

But it was red and it’s not like I don’t look down in the direction of my hands about a hundred times a day. 

And it’s still warm out, so my wrists are bare – no long sleeves or coats.

How in the world could I become so blind to something that was so much a part of me every day for such a long time? 

I guess we get too familiar with some things that, though they are part of our lives, we can become detached from them.

Here’s the thing: Our greatest concern should be that we become so familiar with being a follower of Jesus that we kind of get detached or distanced from Him. We can become blind to our faith and not notice that it’s missing or not active any more. Stay aware of Christ in your life with regular prayer, praise and pursuing His Word, the Bible. … Oh, and attend church as well.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you become blind to in your life? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and received posts like this one to your email twice weekly.

A Pre-Sort May Be Required When Organizing

There’s a right way to sort things and a wrong way, but doing a pre-sort is generally not the best way.

a pre-sort may be required when organizing

I’ve read books and attended seminars on how to organize one’s life. Most of the information I’ve consumed deals with work – office files and paperwork that come across my desk. There are good systems out there on how to streamline the processing of paper, requests and tasks to maximize your time.

I worked for UPS when they first came to Canada. I was their first part-time employee hired. It has been interesting to watch the company grow from about fourteen vans in one corner of a warehouse to the whole warehouse and a fleet of the large package delivery vans we see on the road today. 

I started by washing those vans and then moved to an office job of processing the drivers’ time cards. I even drove the package delivery vans for a summer when I was in Bible college.

Thousands of packages got picked up every day and needed to be sorted to get on the right delivery truck for the next morning. That was the job of a particular crew. 

They would arrive early in the morning, somewhere around 2:00 am. Their job was to take all the packages and place them in the trucks for delivery later that morning. 

They were called the pre-sort crew. It was a pre-sort because later the drivers would come in and organize their parcels in the precise order they were going to deliver them in. 

But that pre-sort was essential. It provided the driver with all his packages. He didn’t have to go searching or sorting around a big pile of packages for the ones that would be on his route.

A pre-sort may not be the prescribed way to handle office files, paper and requests. But it might be the best for my situation right now. 

The proper way to deal with office mail, paper, phone messages, etc., is to handle it once. When you pick up a piece of mail, you attend to it, file it or trash it. And if something can’t be processed that quickly, you schedule a time when you are going to deal with it and then move on to the next item. … Simple, right? 

Well, I’m in the process of cleaning out my office. It’s a slow process; I’m doing it, bit by bit, over about seven weeks. But I’m realizing, to my wife’s chagrin, that much of what I’m bringing home from my office is only a pre-sort.

I’m not done determining exactly where some of this stuff will go, so there are books that are lining one wall in our basement and boxes of files that are being stacked in a corner. Lots of it is just a pre-sort. I will have to spend more time organizing where it will all specifically end up. 

… It’s not the right way of doing it, but it’s the best way for me right now. 

Here’s the thing: Life is uncertain at the best of times. We don’t know what is around the corner and the end of life is an even greater mystery. That scares people. You can’t know what’s around that corner, but you can pre-sort your life so you get it in the right place. Place your faith in Christ. You may not know what heaven will be like, but you will be sure of your destination. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you have trouble sorting in your life right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email twice weekly.

Equipment You Like Is Going To Stay With You

When you have good equipment, you wear it out before you give it up.

equipment you like is going to stay with you

It doesn’t matter what the equipment might be – a kitchen appliance or a tool on your work bench – if you like how it feels when you pick it up or how it works when you use it, it will wear out before you toss it out.

I was recently thinking about equipment I’ve had over the years at work and in sports. I have had equipment that has stayed by my side or in my bag for decades.

The skates I wore before my present pair, I had for 23 years. I loved them and hated to give them up. I don’t know how many blades I put on those skate or how many blade housings I had to replace, but I just kept doing it because I loved those skates.

The other day I was playing golf with a couple of high school friends. About four holes in, one of the guys came over to me on the green and showed me his putter.

It was the same putter as mine. … I’ve had this putter since I was 22 – that’s a 44 year old putter! 

There have been times I’ve thought about getting a new one, but as much as I might like to blame my putting on the putter, its the guy holding it that’s missing the putts. 

Over the years I’ve cut a few inches off the shaft and I’ll probably get it re-gripped one day, but I don’t think I’ll ever replace it. It’s like a part of me. 

Equipment you like is comfortable. It’s like that old sofa in your family room – it’s soft and you sink into it like a big hug that’s wrapping its arms around you. 

You could stay there all day … and, frankly, sometimes I do. 

I have a baseball glove that’s been with me for 39 years. The pocket is deep and wide and the leather has been soft from day one. I’ve caught many a fly ball with this glove. I’ve restrung it countless times. I love it and won’t part with it. 

As I’m winding up my career, there has been equipment that has been with me a long time, like my main Bible. I have lots of Bibles but there’s one that I use every day. It travels with me and is the Bible I preach from each week. 

I got one of these Bibles in 1988 and really liked it. I still have it. I used it the last two years for a Bible Study I led.

Its cover is worn out, the binding is shot and some of the pages are torn and held together with tape. The cover acts more like a file folder than a book. I can’t take it anywhere any more. I can’t preach from it; pages could fall out. 

But this beauty has memories and I’m not getting rid of it. It’s the kind of equipment you don’t toss out.

Here’s the thing: There are several verses in the Bible that state that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Those verses are addressed to those who love Him. The thing I like about those verses is that no matter how worn out or torn up we get, how old we become or tattered we look, if life has been rough on us or we have had tough falls and failures, God is not going to leave us. He’s going to keep us. … Pretty comforting, don’t you think? 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What equipment have you kept and don’t want to part with? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email twice weekly.