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Going The Extra Mile

This last week my daughter was in town. Well, her car was in town. She was on a road trip with her mom.

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It was mother and daughter to Montreal for work and sightseeing. What I got out of the deal was the house to myself for a couple of days and Karlie’s car.

It wasn’t a bad trade off, her car for mine. Though her car is about six years older than ours, it had all the necessities needed to get around town.

However, there were a couple of things that were lacking or at least a little inconvenient, like no roof rack for my bike, so biking was out of the question. The trunk was pretty small and I could barely get my golf clubs and cart in it.

Then there was this squealing sound that announced itself when you turned on the air conditioning, and every time you stepped on the gas after stopping at a light.

Other than that, it was enjoyable to drive. … I guess I should say it was enjoyable until I had to do a highway trip.

I noticed the car would lose power for several seconds as I drove. It was strange and I didn’t know why. The worst thing about it was I knew Karlie was going to be driving back to Toronto later that day.

Something that I might wait a day or two to check out if it was my car, became an emergency because it was my daughter’s car.

I didn’t like the thought that she would be driving alone at night, for two and a half hours to get back home.

My mind started to produce scenarios like, “What if the car died on the way?” I sure didn’t want her being stranded on the highway in the middle of nowhere!

So I gave up a golf game I had arranged earlier in the day to make sure her car was working.

I called up my mechanic in the middle of the afternoon and pled my case that my daughter had to drive back home that night.

I knew he had daughters around the same age as Karlie, and I knew he was a sucker to do anything for them when they needed help. So I hoped those emotions would kick in when he heard my case.

Sure enough, he said, “How fast can you get it in?”

I answered, “I’m on my way now.”

You know if it had have been my car that was acting up and I had a golf game to go to, I would’ve dragged that car to the course and hoped I could get home later.

And if I had to take the car in first, I’d have been very upset about missing my game with the guys.

But for some reason, I felt I needed to take care of this issue. I didn’t mind missing something of mine in order to ensure my daughter could drive safely home.

Here’s the thing: I would do anything for my daughter or my son when they need me. And I don’t consider it a hardship. God has chosen to use us to do His work on earth. So what lengths do you go to to help Him in the work He is doing? Have that same attitude toward serving God as you would helping out your children or loved ones. Consider serving as a privilege and responsibility; be in it all the way.

That”s Life!

Paul

Question: What work is God doing that you could join Him in? Leave your comment below.

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Memories … Old, Faded Memories

Memory is a very powerful thing. It can access long stored information in an instance.

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Last week my wife, Lily, and I were in Toronto celebrating our wedding anniversary. We checked into our hotel, and when we got to our room, we found it overlooked City Hall.

Our vantage from the 33rd floor allowed us to survey a large portion of real estate below.

As we gazed out the window, my eyes gravitated to a spot just behind City Hall. From what I could see, it looked very different than I remembered.

“See that street down there?” I said to Lily. “I think it’s Elizabeth Street. When I was a kid we would eat there at the Nanking Restaurant on Saturday nights.”

It was the first restaurant I ever ate in. I believe I was just a month or two old when my parents took me for my first Chinese dinner.

I’m sure I didn’t taste a delicious egg roll directly, but I definitely got it second hand.

Lily wanted to go down to the street and take a picture of the huge “TORONTO” sign that was a remnant of the Pan Am Games held there just a month ago.

After we got down to street level and Lily had her picture taken sitting in the “O” of “TORONTO”, I kind of wanted to see if I was correct on that street I spied from our hotel window.

We walked around to the back of City Hall and sure enough, it was Elizabeth Street. When my family started eating at the Nanking, City Hall wasn’t even there. But now everything has completely changed.

The Nanking wasn’t there and it seemed like there was no trace of anything that I remembered. There was no Lichee Gardens on the other side of the street – just all new buildings.

But I wondered about the building where the Nanking was. It looked different. It was a government office now … the department of environment or something.

I was trying to figure out if it was the same building, but Lily thought the outside looked too new to be 60 plus years old.

I was still curious. I walked through one of the doorways, and my memory was pricked; it was foreign yet there was something that seemed to fit.

I motioned to Lily, “I’m not so sure this is a new building. I think the entrance was here and you could either go to the right into a smaller lounge or to the left into the large dining room” … which probably wasn’t as large as I remembered as a child.

Lil didn’t think I was right. There was a stucco kind of treatment on the building that gave it a 70’s look.

But as we walked past, down the side street, and turned to look at the back of the building, sure enough you could tell by the back, where there was no updated exterior facade, that this building was old.

Just as I remembered! I hadn’t accessed that information in years, hadn’t been on that street for 45 years, yet I could recall it all. Amazing memories we have!

Here’s the thing: Your memory of how God has worked in your life can encourage you, give you hope that He will continue – even give you determination. But don’t rest on just those memories, only use them to fuel knew adventures with God. Don’t get stuck in the past.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What past memory has kept you from moving forward? Leave your comment below.

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How To Capture What Your Eyes See

My new iPhone still doesn’t capture pictures the way I’d hoped it would. I’m not saying the camera in the phone isn’t very good; it takes great pictures, but it can’t capture what my eye sees.

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Most of the time, we are too busy to notice the difference. Something grabs our attention so we take a quick picture, or we’re somewhere special (or not) and we take a selfie to memorialize the moment.

It’s all good, standing on a beach looking out at a sunset that spans the world from edge to edge … to try to capture that on a cell phone camera is impossible.

The scene is before you in all its glory. Your eyes span such a wide spectacle, it takes time to let the details of the colours, the images, seep into your mind to be processed by your senses.

And though your mind is a great hard drive that records and recalls beautiful and amazing images, there is an urge to stop and frame it on a camera so you can do more than just remember it in your mind. You want see it again and again even when you are not there.

That’s when the camera let’s me down. I want to have a photo of what I’m looking at – all that I’m looking at – but the camera can only give me a section of it.

Lily and I hiked in about two kilometres to the Grotto up on the Bruce Peninsula. The path takes you through a wooded area that is filled with beauty in its own right.

There were several times when we were tempted to stop and take some pictures along the way. But when we got to the end of the trail and walked out of the woods to the edge of a cliff, well I just want to show you a picture of what we saw.

The problem is I can’t because I couldn’t take a picture that did justice to what I was looking at. I kept taking pictures, in hopes that the next one would be the one that would capture it all.

Sadly, when I look at all those pictures they just look the same and they don’t reproduce the full jaw-dropping beauty of the vast panorama that was below me and before me.

We even tried to use the panorama feature on the camera in hopes that it would do it, but it only distorts and changes the persecutive into something far less spectacular than the real thing.

In the end, I’m left with a less than perfect picture and my own memory to build a model of the real image I took in that day.

Here’s the thing: We have this same problem with Christ. We only see a poor picture of what He is like; we don’t get to see Him in all His glory. I read in Colossians 1:17-18 that Christ is before all things and holds everything together, that He has supremacy over everything. It dawned on me that my image, my understanding of Him, is so limited that it is only a fraction of what He is really like. We only have something like a photo to go on to comprehend Christ’s glory, His majesty, His magnificence. We have to wait for the jaw-dropping moment when we actually see Him. But then we will never need a picture again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What amazing scene do you will wish you could capture in its fullness? Leave your comment below.

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What To Do When You’ve Misheard Something

When we don’t hear correctly, it can cause all kinds of complications or problems.

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However, it’s pretty normal to have to say, “Pardon me, could you repeat that please?” You often hear people saying something like that … and the older we get, the more often we have to say it.

It doesn’t help that some people mumble or let their words trail off, making it hard to hear what they’re saying. It gets embarrassing to have to stop people and continually ask them, “What was that again?”

Often we just carry on and go with what we thought they said. We can make up pretty great stories when we do that!

Years ago on the TV show, Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner played a character called Emily Litella. She was a senior citizen who had an opinion spot on their news segment. Emily’s problem was she didn’t hear very well.

For example, she gave her opinion, with all kinds of emotion, about violins on television. She got rather upset and irate that they were showing violins so late at night on the tube. She thought they should be shown earlier so children could watch and get a little culture.

After about a two minute rant, the show’s anchor interrupted Emily to tell her that the issue was “violence” on TV and not “violins”. Litella faced the audience, paused and responded with “Never mind”.

Not hearing can cause problems or it can have a funny result. … But what happens when you mishear God?

Recently, our daughter had planned to move to another apartment; plans seemed to be going well. She found a great place that looked like it would be perfect, and made the proper arrangements with her present landlord by letting him know she was moving.

Then things started to fall apart with the new place. There was a request by the new landlord that didn’t seem right. When Karlie said she couldn’t agree, the landlord didn’t respond or say “no” right away.

Karlie was still hopeful, until she was almost out of time at her present place. Then she was informed the new apartment was given to someone else.

She had asked God to provide a place for her, but now it looked like she wouldn’t have a place at all! Almost every other accommodation she checked was already rented.

Karlie had thought that she was following God’s leading, listening to what He wanted her to do.

She had two final possibilities. She decided that if they didn’t reply to her calls, texts and emails within three days, she would then go to her landlord and ask him if she could stay. She heard nothing.

When she went to her landlord, he told her that he had not had one single phone call regarding the apartment. Karlie asked him if she could sign a new lease and he even agreed to the shorter term that she wanted.

Here’s the thing: When we misread God or mishear Him, we can get ourselves going in the wrong direction. From there it’s easy to make more wrong decisions or draw wrong conclusions from what we think God might be saying. If we have misheard God, it’s important to be willing to take a step back, listen again and then follow through on what He makes clear.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question:   How have you misread or misheard God? Leave your comment below.

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The Future Is Not What You Might Think

I’ve seen the future and it doesn’t look too bright. … Of course, that may have been because I saw the future in a dimly lit movie theatre.

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I don’t go to the movie theatre all that often, and even less to a matinee, but my wife and I were on vacation and we decided to do a movie and dinner.

Shortly after seating myself in the high-backed, swivel chair with my armrest ready to be loaded with a 40 oz cup of coke, I saw the future. Maybe it wasn’t my future, but it was definitely the future!

I started to notice that the people sitting around me were all quite a bit older that Lily and me. And as others came in, I noticed it took them a long time to walk up the stairs to their seats.

Some of them stopped half way to take a breather, others used the handrail like they had just dropped off their walkers and were in need of a little support.

There was some guy behind me who was rustling a bag of something that he probably smuggled into the theatre. I’m sure he couldn’t hear the constant noise that bag was making but  it was definitely not music to my ears!

At that point, it dawned on me how much we had paid to get in. When it seemed like we were only being charged for one ticket, I had questioned the cashier on the price. The girl assured me that it was cheap Tuesday.

I started to put it all together. I never really knew who went to matinees before; I had thought they was mostly for kids’ movies. I suddenly realized that it’s seniors who go to matinees – and not just young seniors, it’s those who are in their seventies and up.

The cashier must have taken us for seniors and charged us the seniors’ rate for cheap Tuesdays.

And now you too know the future: some day going to a matinee will be the normal thing to do.

It’s practical because there are no lineups and there are lots of seats to choose from. Movies are loud so no need to turn on that nasty, bothersome hearing aide. And you get out in time to have dinner at the seniors’ residence or at least before the evening rush at the restaurants.

The whole thing was an eye opening experience. It was the first time I came out of a movie theatre squinting because I’d just spent a couple of hours in the dark and the sun was still high in the sky.

It wasn’t a bad experience; in fact, some day I can see it being all the rage.

Here’s the thing: When we look to the future, we usually look ahead 5, 10, 20 years from now. We imagine and plan for what might be or what we want life to be like. But when we look that way, we miss the future we should be focussing on. In the book of Colossians, chapter three and verses one and two, it tells us to “set our hearts and minds on things above.” We often limit our thinking, planning and preparing to what’s coming ahead in this life. But God wants us to be thinking, planning, preparing and living with our whole being focussed on what’s above – on heaven. So in your future planning, think of things above as you prepare and live out your days here below.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you usually focus on when thinking of the future? Leave your comment below.

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How Distance Gets In the Way Of Your Relationships 

We have all become distant from someone or something at times in our lives. Sometimes it’s due to personal issues that have arisen; sometimes proximity or miles are at the core of the issue.

 

I remember when we moved from Edmonton to Kingston. Our kids were just 6 and 4, and didn’t completely understand the whole distance thing. We were at the end of our third day of travel, and had arrived at the motel we were staying at for the night. I don’t think we’d even unpacked our bags.

Our 4 year old son was sitting on the bed beside his sister. It was one of those moments that no one was saying anything; we were just kind of getting ourselves adjusted to the room for the night.

Out of nowhere Michael said, “I want to go home.” It was a sad comment coming from a little boy who didn’t know where he was or where he was going. What made the comment worse was his big sister’s response.

Immediately after Michael said “I want to go home”, Karlie replied, “Michael, we don’t have a home.”

… A killer comment to a couple of parents who were taking their kids away from what they knew as home and were feeling a little in limbo ourselves!

At that moment we all felt distant from everything we were close to, familiar and comfortable with.

There are other times when disagreements, arguments or even interpretations of events cause two people to feel distant from each other. You could be in the same home at the time, and that distance might only last a few minutes or an hour, but there is a sense of distance between the two individuals.

The other day, I experienced yet another kind of distance. Lily and I were staying in a hotel room. The room was great, very comfortable; we liked the room from the moment we entered it. We felt at home in it.

One of the features of the room was that it had a king-sized bed … and for two nights, Lily and I felt distant from each other.

We didn’t have an argument, and we didn’t sleep in separate beds – we just lost each other in the king-sized bed!

In a bed that big, you can go a whole night and never even bump up against each other. It’s like you are sleeping by yourself because as far as you can stretch or move, there’s no contact with your spouse.

You actually have to work at not becoming distant from each other in a king-sized bed. Both mornings I found myself on one side of the bed while Lil was way over on the other side.

I don’t know what it was, but we just drifted apart in the night … both nights. We didn’t want to drift apart, but it happened in spite of our desire and intent.

Here’s the thing: You can become distant from God when sin in your life keeps you running from Him. You can feel distant when you hold something against God because He didn’t answer your prayer request. But you can also just drift away from Him, become distant from Him, by not working at staying in close proximity. Make sure that you are actively seeking God, talking to Him, spending time with Him and His word. Make time to worship Him everyday. Don’t become distant.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you become distant from in the past year? Leave your comment below.

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The Secret To Getting Past Procrastination

I’ve discovered an easy way to tackle projects. I wish I knew this secret a long time ago; it would have helped me to get moving on school assignments and generally anything I wanted or needed to do.

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This year, in early spring, I decided there were a few things I wanted to do around our cottage over the summer months. There were five projects in all.

Five projects seemed like a lot when we got up on vacation and I hesitated getting started on any of them. But finally I decided to start with the one project I wanted to do most.

Deciding which project to start on seemed to be the key to get me going from doing nothing to doing something. … And that’s the kickstart you need to get a project completed.

When you are facing something big, like five projects, it can seem like there’s too much to do, or you don’t know where to start. You can talk yourself right out of doing them.

It doesn’t have to be many projects either. It could be one large project or just a complicated one. When you think of all that it takes to get from start to finish, it can be overwhelming.

… And that thinking or feeling can stop you in your tracks from making progress.

The secret is to not think of the whole, but to think of only the first thing. Another way to look at it is to ask, “What’s the one thing I need to do first?”

That one thing can be as simple as deciding which of the five projects you want to complete the most. For me, that one thing was not that hard and it didn’t even take much time.

It only took me about ten minutes to decide which project I wanted to do first. Then what followed was just as important: I decided what I needed to do next.

That seems to be the key to keep yourself from stepping back and looking at the whole project start to finish, and in the process getting overwhelmed again. You just decide what the next thing you have to do is.

What I’ve found is that there are usually several small, easy steps I can do at the beginning, before I need to spend a lot of time on the project.

And those beginning easy steps serve to get me going. By the time I’ve completed them, I want to keep going and I’m mentally ready to invest more time and energy on the project.

In other words, I’ve slowly got myself to fully commit to and embrace the project to completion.

I completed the first project, moved on to the second and, in the process of completing that, realized I didn’t need to do two of the projects. … That leaves me with one left.

And today I will do something very small to kick-start the work on that. All it entails is to take off some duct tape, open an access door and survey my hot water tank. That shouldn’t take more than five minutes.

Here’s the thing: When you feel you need to discover more about Christ, draw closer to Him, or sense your relationship with God needs to move to the next level, just decide on one thing you need to do to kick-start that process. Maybe that one thing is deciding on a time, a book, a method. Start there and don’t forget to determine what the next step will be as well.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What project have you been procrastinating with that needs a kick-start? Leave your comment below.

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Why You Should Sit Still For Needles

In my last post, I wrote about not being too keen on going to see the doctor. One of the reasons is they like to stick you with needles.

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Actually, the doctor doesn’t often give the needles; he gets a nurse to do it. That way the patient doesn’t have any animosity towards his doctor; it’s directed towards the nurse!

So not only does the nurse have to do all the dirty work, she also has to be the bad guy. I’m sure that’s why doctors go to school so long, so they have the upper hand on the nurses. It’s a good gig.

Anyway, I said in my last post that I’m not a real fan of needles. I’m not sure when this started, but If I can avoid them I do. It’s not that they hurt – sure, there’s the prick and maybe a little discomfort, especially if they are injecting a boat load of typhoid in you for going over seas, but it’s not bad.

My problem with needles has to do with the whole process: someone sticking something sharp in you while you are sitting still letting it happen. That’s not natural. … You squirm, you move, you fight back to protect yourself – THAT’S the proper response to any kind of personal invasion.

It also bugs me to see that pointy end go into a vein that’s been all pumped up (man, I’d make a terrible drug addict).

You put all those things together and that might be the reason I don’t like needles.

I don’t even like to get them when they can keep me from another kind of pain. For instance, I don’t get freezing when I go to the dentist. I’d rather face the drill on my own than get a needle.

Besides, I like walking out of the dentist’s office not being numb or feeling like my lips are three inches thick.

I don’t want to be that guy who’s unaware that he’s drooling out the left side of his mouth when being introduced to someone for the first time. I have enough problems with spilling food on my clothing, I don’t need a growing wet spot down the front of my shirt as well.

I once had a fifteen minute discussion with a nurse in a hospital emergency room in Regina, weighing the pros and cons of getting a tetanus shot. When I finally said yes and started to roll up my sleeve, she said, “Oh no, it’s going in your rear.”

Well it took me another five minutes to agree to that. I had visions of tensing up so much she would have to put her foot on my rear to yank the needle out!

… It wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it would be.

My latest adventure of having my blood tested last week brought back all my memories. The nurse wasn’t the best at giving needles, but she was quick and that’s maybe just as good.

Here’s the thing: Temptation is like getting a needle, where you purposely put yourself in a place of having a painful experience. If we don’t have an exit plan, or try to avoid being tempted in the first place, it’s like sitting down, keeping still and letting someone stick a needle in you. When temptation has its way with us, it leads to sin and, though maybe the pain of that sin is not felt immediately, there will be pain. I’d urge you to avoid that pain. Don’t sit and take it; have a plan when temptation comes.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of a plan do you have for temptation? Leave a comment below.

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Why You Shouldn’t Wait To Commit

It’s no secret that I’m not a frequent flyer at the doctor’s office. I will see my doctor if there is something wrong with me, or on occasion when my wife pleads with me long enough to get checked out.

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Last summer was one of those occasions. In a weak moment, I said I would see my doctor or at least get my blood checked.

I got the form about a year ago, but it was so close to my vacation that I decided to wait until after to go to the lab to let them extract some blood from me.

I’m really not a fan of needles so it’s not something I do just on a whim. I avoid needles at all cost (I’ll write about that in my next blog). I’ve even been known to understate the last time I had a tetanus shot, so they didn’t have to stick me when I was getting stitches.

After my vacation, I delayed going for another couple of weeks, but by the first week of September I got the job done.

Then there came the waiting game. Would I hear from my doctor or would everything check out just fine? I kind of kept my fingers crossed for two weeks, and I didn’t hear anything.

I thought I was in the clear but I still held my breath for another week, just in case.

Then, at the end of the third week, my doctor told me my cholesterol was high. He gave me a couple of options: increase my cholesterol meds or lose weight.

I wanted to try to lose weight because, along with not being a fan of needles, I’m not a fan of medication either.

I was pumped and energized to get going. All fall the weight started coming down … then Christmas came and I lost my focus.

In the new year, my weight bumped up a little bit, so I couldn’t get my blood checked to see if my cholesterol had gone down. I wasn’t near my goal.

By February my doctor gave me the form to get my second blood test. I kept holding off because I couldn’t discipline myself to reach my goal.

Finally, this summer I made some headway on my weight loss again, and though I didn’t reach my goal, I’m hoping that my weight will be low enough to give me a good cholesterol score.

The other day, a year after I received my first lab requisition form, I took my second form (which I’ve had for six months), and got my blood tested.

I’ll let you know how things turn out.

Here’s the thing: When God calls us to make a commitment to something or take on a ministry role of some kind, sometimes our response is that we just need to work on an area of two before we say yes. The problem is there will always be something that causes us to think, “I’m not ready yet”. … If God is calling you to something now, just do it. He knows what you need to work on and He will work on you as you are obedient to His calling.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has kept you from moving forward with God? Leave your comment below.

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How Unfinished Projects Become Invisible

We can get used to living with something that is unfinished. The other day when I was the passenger in a car, the driver pointed out a house to me. He said the owners had been working on that house for over a decade.

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It was a big house but the yard was a mess, all overgrown, with at least two construction vehicles parked haphazardly around the property.

It looked to me like people were living in the house, but the outside of it needed bricks or stucco or something to finish it off.

My first thought was to wonder how they lived for ten years in a house that wasn’t finished. But then I remembered that I’m living with an unfinished project myself.

Recently we changed the railing on our deck. But when it came time to do the stair rail, we kind of put the brakes on. I was a little unsure of how to proceed with one part of it, so we just held off until we could get some advice.

We were so busy for the next couple of weekends that we never got to the store to find out how to finish the task.

Finally, this past week we made it to the hardware store and inquired about what we needed to know.

But now it’s not a priority any more. You see, the railing looks pretty much finished. When we look out our patio doors, all we see is the new railing; we don’t see the part that’s unfinished.

It’s just the steps that don’t have the railing and, though it would finish off the project and look complete, it doesn’t look bad.

When we were working on the project we wanted to get it all finished. I didn’t like leaving the job half done. But the more time that passed, I became less and less concerned that it wasn’t complete.

I’m sure the people living in the unfinished house I saw have the same feelings. They may twinge a little bit when they pull into their yard, but once they get into their house, they don’t see the outside and it’s probably liveable on the inside.

We can get so used to living in that unfinished state that we don’t see what it really looks like any more. We look at the finished part and are satisfied.

Even some visual reminders don’t motivate me. For instance, every time I step into my garage I see a pile of old railing pieces that need to be taken to the dump and some 4×4 posts that need to be cut and are waiting to be placed at the bottom of the stairs.

That doesn’t phase me any more; I’m used to that now.

However, other people take one look and notice what is unfinished and that becomes their focus. … I guess I better put a man on it, and finish it off.

Here’s the thing: While our outer life looks fine to everyone, our inner life can be left unfinished. If we care more about how things look to everyone else, we may not take the time to work on the interior. And we can get very comfortable living in an unfinished state, to the point that we don’t even notice what needs to be worked on any more. Take an inventory of the spiritual work you need most, and put a man on it. Don’t neglect that unfinished work.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you left unfinished and just gotten used to? Leave your comment below.