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Scary Bike Ride

Since my heart attack at the end of February, the only exercise I have done is walking.  Lily and I started walking soon after I got out of the hospital. At first our walking pace was slow – my normal walking pace is like a teenager walking to school in the morning, not fully awake and not in a hurry to get there.  But, after a while, our walking pace started to increase until, eventually, I was walking about as fast as I could.  Lily, on the other hand, has another gear somewhere in her that causes sparks to fly from the bottom of her shoes.

 I just knew that if I was to increase my exercising, I needed to move beyond walking. That decision, however, was much to Lil’s disappointment because she has really enjoyed walking together (I guess I could keep walking with her, but that’s another story). I decided it was time to ride my bike around the neigbourhood to increase my cardio exercise.  So, last week I took the bike out and it felt really good to get on it again and ride.  At first the streets were pretty flat, but then I went down a hill, a long hill.  Well, you know what happens when you go down a hill – you have to come back up the other side at some point.  But somehow, when you are flying down the hill and speeding up with no effort, you don’t think of what is waiting for you when you get to the bottom.

 Once I reached the bottom, I was faced with a long climb that seemed much longer that the decent.  I didn’t think much of it at first, but as I got about two thirds of the way up the hill, I started to realize something.  For the first time since my heart attack, my legs were feeling like they were getting a work out, I was breathing heavy, and my heart was beating rather fast.  Normally, I would be feeling good about all those things, because that is what you want when you exercise.  But I got scared.  I had this thought, “Should my heart be beating this fast; should I be breathing this heavy?”  I was afraid that I was hurting my heart and not helping it, so I stopped.

I took my pulse to figure out how fast it was beating and I started to think I was crazy for going on this bike ride.  After about a minute or so, I decided I better just get home.  So I took a short cut and rode straight home, feeling discouraged and defeated.

I was thinking later on of how fear is a great tactic of Satan.  Fear causes us to stop and quit what we are doing, but even more than that, it causes us to feel discouraged and defeated so that we don’t want to try again.  The solution to this is to check in with God and get his perspective, through prayer and through his Word.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (NLT)”.  Fear should not stop us from obeying God and following through on what he wants us to do.

I checked in with my doctor about my fear, and now armed with some advice and a proper perspective, I am going for another bike ride today.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul

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The Coffee Shop

I’m not much of a coffee drinker, in fact I don’t drink coffee at all.  I don’t think I have ever bought a coffee for myself, and if I have, it wasn’t to savor the flavor. Recently, my wife and I were in Calgary visiting our daughter who happens to love coffee.  As a result, I have now visited more coffee shops in the last 5 days than I have in my entire life.

Being new to coffee shops, I observed the various places we visited and made some observations. I found that coffee shops often use black boards to display their menus.  I’m not sure if that’s because they often make mistakes and chalk is easy to erase, or if the people who work there are really neat printers and like to show it off.

 I also found these shops unique.  They each had their own unique decor and expressed their owner’s personality.  There were a couple of things, however, that were common in all.  The tables were small and very close together.  Strangers were sitting inches from me and nobody seemed to mind or even notice that they were in my space.

The other common thing was the noise level.  It was loud in these coffee shops on two levels.  First, the coffee machines make an incredible amount of noise for only working with water, milk and coffee beans (our coffee maker at home is virtually silent).  And then there is the talking. People have to talk over the noise of the machines, but also over the voices of the people sitting about 4 inches from their right ear.

Also, from the “research” I did, people like to frequent the same coffee shop often. Apparently, it’s because they like the atmosphere, or the location, or maybe it’s the coffee they like … but I can’t really comment on that – I just had water.  It was good tasting water, mind you, and I am now becoming a connoisseur of fine water.

I started thinking about the similarities between the coffee shop and the church, and I think there are some parallels to make.  Churches have a personality of their own just like coffee shops, and people sit close together when they are in the sanctuary and stand close together in the foyer after church. You might even find yourself right next to someone you don’t know well or have never met.  It’s loud in church when we sing, or when the pastor is trying to emphasize his point, and it is loud in the foyer before and after church with people talking.

There is one difference, however.  People don’t mind going to the same coffee shop over and over again, sitting by people they see often, while never interacting or getting to know them. It’s different at church.  People will soon look for another church if they come and no one talks to them.

The biggest difference between the coffee shop and the church is God.  His love for us has connected us together and should draw us towards those who enter our church for the first time. His love should motivate us to take that first step toward them or open our mouths to say hello.

No matter how much you love that black stuff in your cup, or the atmosphere of the shop, coffee will never move you to open up to the person next to you.  Only God can do that.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul

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Presence of Mind

There’s a song called “Holiday in my Head” by a group named Smash Mouth. The song is all about how we can travel to fantastic places and have a great time, while never leaving our home.  One line in the song states, “I’m just looking for paradise in my living room.”

We all remember being in class when we were young and hearing the teacher get upset at a student who was gazing out the window instead of paying attention.  The student was day dreaming.  He was present in class but he wasn’t there in his mind. In his mind, he was either somewhere far away or maybe just playing soccer on the field with another class.

I used to do that.  There were times, while playing with my kids, that I would get very tired.I would end up sprawled out on the living room floor, fallen sleep while my kids would continue to play around me and on me, using my body and limbs as their toys. When Lily would come into the room, she would just shake her head to the kids’ response of, “Look Mommy, we’re playing with Daddy.”  The truth is, I was present in body but certainly not with my mind. We can, at times, be present but not really present.

During my devotions the other day I read a verse from 2 Peter 3:8 which reads, “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.”

I have read this verse before but I’ve never really thought too much about it until now. What struck me was what this verse reveals about God.  I started to think about how the Lord is present all the time, in every situation.  If a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, then every day is under a microscope for him.  Every second, every moment the Lord takes in. He’s present, he’s active, he’s personal in it all, right down to the minute detail of the day.

But, then Peter says a thousand years is like a day to the Lord, and here it suggests to me that He sees how all the days unfold before him, that nothing escapes Him. Therefore, the Lord is present, active and involved, knowing how each day and moment of my life fits together in His overall plan and picture.

So this is what I thought: if God is present in every moment of my day, it means he is interested and available to me at any time in my day.  And, if God oversees how all the moments of my day fit into the big picture of my life, it means he is involved and active in the big picture of my life as well.

Unlike us who daydream at times, or me, who at times, played with my kids without really playing with them, God is alway present.  He is interested and available, active and involved in our lives, moment by moment.  God is always fully present with us. That is great to know.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul

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Birthday Cake

April 26, 2012

When I became a parent, life became dominated by doing things for my kids. At first they needed help with everything.  I remember the day before Karlie was born, we decided to go to the store. We just grabbed our coats and went out the door. The day after she came home from the hospital we decided to go out.  But first she needed to be fed.  Then she needed to be changed.  We had to pack a bag for her (just to go to the store). When we were finally ready to leave, I didn’t feel like going to the store any more.

In time, our kids became more independent.  I remember Mike, at one and half years old, telling Lily, who was trying to get him dressed, “I do it myself.”  But as they grew they still needed lots of assistance with things like tying shoes, homework, and driving them places.  And when they got older, the assistance they needed just became more expensive (car insurance, trips, university costs).

The other day however, I had an experience that seemed to turn the tables to them helping me.  Lily was turning 50 and I decided to make a cake for Lily.  Having a birthday cake on her birthday has always been a big thing for her.  Usually I buy one, but this was her 50th – a special birthday – and I knew it would mean a lot to her if I made her birthday cake.  The only trouble with that was, I’ve only made about two other cakes in my life.  I knew making the cake would not be too hard as the instructions are on the cake mix package.  But the icing, I didn’t have a clue what to do for that!  Well, a quick text to my daughter got me some help. She not only confirmed what flavour of cake to make, but she told me the kind of icing to make and she texted, “I’ll email you an easy recipe.”

That gave me a funny feeling.  It wasn’t me helping my daughter, it was my daughter helping me.  It was actually a pretty nice feeling.  She’s an adult now, and she’s looking out for her dad, doing things for him.  I kind of like that feeling; I look forward to more of these types of experiences.

The whole experience reminds me of how God longs to change our relationship.  Some of us spend years doing everything for ourselves and everyone else. But God wants to come alongside us and help us.  We are so used to helping ourselves, that we sometimes resist God’s help.  But having His help is a blessing.  And when we come to realize this truth, we will begin to appreciate His help.  We may even begin to seek His help more and more. You will find that God wants to help in the decisions you make, the problems you face, and the thoughts that race through your mind. He wants to direct your life.  You can resist and keep doing it yourself or you can receive the blessing He offers and let Him help.  The greatest thing we can do, is allow God to help us through life. Begin today to take Him up on His offer to help . . . with that career decision, with the purchase you are contemplating, or the life path you are considering.  We will experience the blessing when we seek Him for things we have always done ourselves.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul

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Hello world!

Welcome to Kingston Alliance’s blog.

We are just getting started and in a few days we will start adding posts to this blog.

We hope you will check back April 26, 2012 when the first post will be available.

We plan to add about 2 posts per week.