devotions

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Inspiration Can Be Unexpected

Inspiration can come at any time – sometimes when we least expect it.  This week I was woken up at 5 am with inspiration.  I don’t normally get up at 5.  My alarm regularly goes off at 6 am and if it doesn’t, I’m afraid that I would naturally wake up around the time my 21 year old son does on a Saturday.  Does noon sound like a good time to get up?

Five in the morning was pretty early for me to wake up on my own, but there I was, wide awake, looking at the red glowing numbers on our ceiling.

I like my projection clock because I don’t find the blazing white light of an alarm clock staring me in the face when I turn in bed … that’s too much like heading down a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it!

This particular morning I wasn’t just awake; I was awake and focused.  My mind was fully engaged and I was ready to get out of bed.  I had struggled the day before putting my sermon outline together, and just couldn’t see how I should organize what the passage was communicating.  I was extremely frustrated and my deadline for completing my sermon was clearly on my mind and getting closer.

In the midst of my frustration I did what you are supposed to do when you are in a jam – I prayed. I asked God to help me complete my outline.  After all, I want to preach what God wants the congregation to hear; it’s really His message.  Maybe that bugged me even more when I didn’t get the outline by the end of the day.

The week before I had been in a similar place and somehow it all came together by Friday.  But that was last week.  That was little comfort given my current situation; I was not happy.

It’s totally quiet in our house at 5 in the morning … not even the turtle is stirring at that time of day.  What woke me up, and what captivated my thoughts was my message.  I popped out of bed, and for the next hour I finished putting together my outline.  It was all in my head; my mind was brimming with words and verses and how they connected together.  It wasn’t like I was working; it was more like I was a secretary taking dictation. God had filled my mind with what He wanted communicated.

I closed my computer at 6:08 and got ready for my 7 am men’s prayer meeting.  I was energized, my outline was complete, and I wasn’t just ready to write my sermon, I was eager to get at it!  It’s funny how God didn’t give me the outline piece by piece the day before when I had asked Him.  Instead, He put it all in my head during the night.

Here’s the thing:  I write a sermon every week and I can become comfortable thinking that it is my sermon, my message that He’s helping me complete.  This week God reminded me that it is His message, and His sermon that I preach.  No matter what we do, we work for Him; He doesn’t work for us.  How often do we forget that?

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What has God inspired you with this past year?  Leave your comments below.

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10,000 Steps A Day

You may have heard this before, but then again maybe you haven’t – I hadn’t until recently.  Research shows that we should take 10,000 steps a day.  Doing so can help to lower your BMI, reduce your waist size, and increase your energy.  It can help with hypertension and lessen your risk for Type II diabetes and heart disease.

If this is true, TVs should be hooked up to treadmills to make them work.  Doctors’ offices shouldn’t have parking lots, forcing us to walk to see our doctors!

10,000 steps equals about 8 kilometers (based on about a 2.5 foot long stride).  That’s about the distance I travel to work each day … and, uh, I would walk it if I … uh … didn’t need my car.

Some people have jobs where they walk all day, but not me.  As a pastor, I don’t walk very much.  I work at a desk and mostly walk to or from my car.  Tapping my feet to music while I work on my computer certainly doesn’t add any steps to my day.  I bought a pedometer to track my steps and, by noon some days, I’ve only taken 500.

So, to get a few more steps in, I started to walk for 30 minutes a day at a fairly brisk pace.  I walk with Lily around our neighbourhood, or go on our treadmill while watching TV.  I would take our turtle, Winston, for a walk but his legs are pretty short and I think I would end up dragging him around.

A thirty minute walk can give me about 4000 steps, which is pretty good, but still a far cry from ten grand!  So I’ve started to do something else: I get up from my desk mid morning and mid afternoon and walk for ten minutes around the sanctuary of the church.

It’s not the most interesting walk – it’s a little boring walking up and down the pews.  The only break is walking up the outside aisles and looking out the windows.  The problem with that is, if you see something interesting, you can’ t stop to get a better look.  You have to keep moving and just hope that it’s still visible on your next lap!

But I’ve found two things that make those walks exciting.  I either take time to think about what I am presently working on, taking my phone along and dictating into it any ideas that come to mind, OR, I use the time to pray.  I’ve found that I have some good times with God in those 10 minute intervals of walking in the sanctuary.  The time goes so fast as I walk that rather boring route.

Here’s the thing:  I’ve done my devotions early in the morning for years.  But I don’t have blocks of time later in the day that I spend in prayer.  I’m finding these 10 minute walks perfect for telling God what I’m thinking or feeling about right then.  I can talk over with Him what I’m wrestling with or what’s captured my immediate attention.  These short spurts of prayer or thought are inspiring and stimulating.  They’re like an injection of energy into my day.  I never would have thought of it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What do you do to keep God in your day?

 

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Bring Back My Old Appliance!

My wife, Lily, was away on the weekend.  She had left me some things to eat that I could just heat up.  I thought it would be a nice idea to try out some of the kitchen appliances I hardly ever use.

I decided to toast a bun and then put some peanut butter on it – that would be natural peanut butter, not the Kraft kind.  You can tell the difference because when you open a fresh jar of natural peanut butter, there is about an inch of oil on top that you need to stir into the peanut butter.  If you have ever mixed cement, that’s pretty much what you have to do with the peanut butter.  You get out an auger and  . . . okay it’s not quite that bad.

Anyway, I decided I would toast the bun in our toaster oven.  We haven’t had it that long and I don’t use it all that often.  We had an old one that is now up at the cottage.  We inherited it from my dad; it’s pretty old, but it does the trick.

I noticed with this new toaster oven, however, that though it was clean and shiny and looked all modern, it takes forever to heat something up!  Normally, things progress by getting better and faster and more efficient.  I’m not sure this new toaster oven is more efficient or better, but I’m positive it’s NOT faster!

I put the bun in, set it to toast, and watched.  Nothing seemed to be happening.  I finally went and read the paper.  I almost forgot it was there.  Finally, after a section of the paper and two flyers, the bun had sufficiently been toasted.

What is the deal with that?  Why so long?  I wondered if maybe some two year old child had tried to stick his head in a toaster oven one time and some activist got the idea that we have to make toaster ovens safer.  So instead of heating things up fast, now they’re designed to heat things up over the course of a day.  That would give a two year old and his parents enough time to get his head out of the toaster oven before he singed a hair or something.

I’m longing for our toaster oven at the cottage.  You can burn yourself on that one if you’re not careful.  But you’re supposed to be careful; it’s an appliance that combines electricity and heat – two things that kids shouldn’t be playing with!  So maybe they could turn up the heat on new toaster ovens if we just promised to keep them off the kitchen floor, or out of the baby’s bedroom.

If we promised to place them on the kitchen counter that should be sufficient.  We had a climber in our family, but he was at least three and a half before he could scale or mount cabinetry.  By then he knew what to keep his head out of.  Hey, but what do I know?

Here’s the thing:  When I pray I want answers fast, preferably immediately.  But I don’t control the timing, I don’t even know all the details that go into answering a prayer.  It’s possible that to answer my prayer God has to answer several other people’s prayers.  I also don’t know whether it is best for God to say “yes” or whether “no” would be the right answer to my prayer.  All I know is I want my answer quickly, and I want it to be “yes”. God will do what’s best; I just need to be patient.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What do you need patience for?  Leave your comment below.

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It All Changed in an Instant

They say things can happen in a spilt second.  One moment everything is fine, and the next everything has changed.  That happened to me this week when I put my back out.  I was feeling good, keeping up with my aerobics and weights, and looking forward to playing hockey later in the day.  Then in one moment, aerobics, weights and hockey were all put on hold.

Sometimes things don’t happen quite so fast.  I remember a time shortly after getting my driver’s license, when I was returning home with my brother after a late night hockey practice.  It had lightly snowed while we had been practicing and there was a fresh, thin blanket of snow on the road.  Everything looked so peaceful.

As we left the arena, we turned onto an access road that took us to the main street.  It was a short, two lane strip of road, with no one in sight, and not one tire mark in the snow.  I thought I would show my little brother how to fishtail the car down a street.

We were driving my dad’s ’74 Buick LeSabre, with a 350hp engine, and rear wheel drive.  Looking back, it was a Sherman Tank without the caterpillar tracks!  As I started down the road, I began fishtailing the car back and forth.  Then . . . I gave it a little too much gas, and the car started to fishtail too far.  I panicked and jammed on the brakes with complete inexperience.

The fishtailing stopped but we started sliding, heading straight for a fire hydrant.  It was like slow motion.  There was no way to deviate from the course.  My life flashed before my eyes – not because we would die in the crash – because I knew my dad would kill me when I wrecked his car.  It seemed like an eternity, as we just kept sliding closer to the fire hydrant.

And then a miracle . . . the front tires hit the curb just before the hydrant and the car bounced back.  That was a long time to experience very little change.  I told my brother not to say anything to Dad and that was that.

The other day, however, feeling fine, I bent down to pick up a knife I had dropped.  In a split second I knew the next few days would be uncomfortable.  I got this sharp and stabbing pain in the base of my spine.  It was like that knife had been dropped into my lower back.

Immediately I realized my error.  I had bent with my back and not with my knees.  I’ve heard of people putting their back out by bending over to pick up a sock or something that weighs next to nothing.  I’ve seen Lily put her back out, without picking up anything.  I always thought that was weird.

Now I know what it’s like.  It sounds funny, “I put my back out by picking up a knife”.  But it wasn’t funny to me and it changed my life for the next few days.

Here’s the thing:  Sometimes we can see outcomes unfold from the decisions we make, and sometimes they happen so quickly we can’t anticipate the outcome.  If I am in a regular habit of bringing my decisions to God, and then following His direction, it will cut down on those times I find myself edging towards a big disaster, or suddenly appearing in the midst of trouble.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What’s your plan for ensuring your decision-making doesn’t lead to trouble?  Leave your comment below.

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Does a Seminar Count as a Date?

This past weekend, my wife and I attended a marriage seminar.  We had been planning on going for some time, though truthfully, I wasn’t super excited … maybe I would have been if it had meant a weekend away in a nice hotel with my wife!

I know what happens at seminars: someone talks for long periods of time, you take all kinds of notes, and leave feeling overwhelmed, not knowing where to begin.  Often you get right back into your life and work, and don’t have time to process it all … so you end up doing nothing.

Afterwards, people ask you how the seminar was, and you reply, “It was great; I learned so much and the speaker was so good.”  But the reality often is that you didn’t do anything with what you heard.

A week earlier, I had been to another two-day seminar with ten speakers talking about leadership.  Talk about overload!  I decided there were three things that three different speakers said that I wanted to pursue further.  Still, it’s a struggle to take the time to incorporate them into my life, so that it makes a difference.

I have to say, this marriage seminar was more than I thought it would be.  Not that I found out things I didn’t know before, but I came to understand the “why” of what I already knew.

Let me explain:  I know that when I bring flowers home, it does something to melt Lily’s heart.  I don’t know why.  I look at flowers and they don’t do anything for me. The reality is the flowers are in the process of dying and will be dried out in a week or less.

Still, she marvels over them, and feels something when she looks at them … and I know those feelings are directed towards me!  I don’t understand it one bit; I just know flowers work this way on Lily.

Well, what this seminar did was help me understand why Lily works the way she does.  It gave me context to her thinking, actions, and responses.  In the end, women came away feeling good about being women and men felt good about being men.  Now that’s something amazing in this men-bashing culture we live in!

Still, the key is not just understanding each other, and feeling good about being a man or a woman.  The key is in the follow up, what you do with what you now know.  For that seminar to make any impact on my marriage, I need to implement some things.

Here’s the thing:  As good as that seminar was, as funny and insightful as the speaker was, it all comes down to what I will do with what I learned.  I need a plan, or I need to commit to doing a couple of things or it won’t have been a help.  The same principle applies with sermons, devotions, small group study.  If I don’t take something from the message and do it, or commit to it, then God’s Word won’t help me.  It will just be good information.

By the way, the seminar was called “Love and Respect” (you can google it),  and ran on Friday evening and Saturday morning … and guys, Saturdays morning was the best part!

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  How do you ensure that you implement what you learn, whether from a book, a sermon, seminar, Bible study or your personal time with God? Leave your comment below.

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Ya, It’s Nice to be Back!

Recently I went back to playing hockey.  I felt good enough to play, but since I did have a heart attack after the last time I played hockey, I also felt a little weird about it.

Since I left the hospital back in March, I have had to carry a nitroglycerin spray … just in case.  I haven’t had to use it, but when we got to the bench, I told my son Mike where it was in the dressing room, in the event I might need a little shot.  I just felt it would be good for someone to know where it was.

When I got onto the ice, I found that my skates didn’t fit right.  I don’t understand how a heart attack could affect my feet, but my skates which have fit perfect for the last 18 years put my feet into agonizing pain.  It didn’t matter whether I was on the ice or on the bench, my feet just hurt.  That lasted about 45 minutes before the pain went away.

I’ve never experienced that before, nor have I experienced aching muscles around my hips when I skated before.  But that, too, seemed to be a relatively new change for me.  I feel I have aged over the last seven months.

And then there were all the “mothers” that showed up to play.  It was a little embarrassing.  Every time I came to the bench, someone would ask me how I was feeling.  If I looked out of breath or in a little pain, if I slipped or got bumped by someone, these big guys dressed in full hockey gear got all tender on me and asked, “Are you okay?”  One time I answered back, “Yes, dear” and I don’t think he asked me again.

I also had to get used to a new routine.  Apparently, hockey is kind of hard on one’s heart.  That’s why they have installed defibrillators in all the arenas in the city.  It’s not that hockey isn’t a good way to exercise, but when you go from racing up and down the ice to sitting on the bench, your heart rate rises and drops rapidly.  Well, that’s not ideal.

So, now I have to coast at the end of my shift, or walk a few laps around the bench before I sit down.  Let me tell you, that gets a few looks and comments from the other guys.

But in the end, I felt good that I got that first game under my belt.  It was great to be on the ice again.  Hockey has been the last thing I’ve returned to after my heart attack.  Now I’m back participating in everything I used to do.  I just do it at a slower pace, I think.  But maybe that will get better too.

Here’s the thing:  When we get off track with God in some way – whether it is sin in our life, or just a drifting away from Him – coming back to God may seem a little awkward, not as natural as it did before.  It may mean trying something different or new, or changing something in you life.  But coming back to God, seeking His forgiveness, knowing you are right with Him, feels good.

It gives you a peace, a comfort, a knowing you’re in the right spot, that you’re in a good place … you feel like you’re back where you should be.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What has caused you to feel distant from God?  What keeps you from moving closer to Him?  Leave your comment below.

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Live vs. Prerecorded

This week I attended a conference on leadership.  It was the annual Global Leadership Summit that Willow Creek Church puts on.

Years ago if you were to attend this conference you had to travel to Chicago to be there in person.  Then they made it easier for people by having simulcast sites all over North America so you could still attend the conference “live”, in your home town, or at least close to where you lived.

I’ve done both in the past, and though being there live is kind of special and you get the real feel of the conference, I have become pretty comfortable watching the speaker on a screen.

What helped was realizing that even when I was in Chicago, because the auditorium was so big, I found myself watching the screens there.  You could see the speakers better that way.  So being somewhere else watching a screen wasn’t a difficult adjustment – at least you knew it was happening in present time.

Now this conference has taken things to a new level.  Not only do you not have to be in Chicago for the conference, but now you don’t even have to attend when the conference is taking place.

I attended this week, but the conference actually took place and was recorded in the middle of August.  This week, Bill Hybels (the host speaker) was probably speaking some other message, somewhere on the other side of the world, while we were taking in the conference like it was happening live.

The host sites do a good job, though, of keeping it fresh, and “live-like”.  We had a live band to lead us in some songs and a live host, who lead us to the all important refreshments at break times.

But we were also encouraged to respond to things like it was happening live.  For instance, at the end of a message, the audience in Chicago (back in August) all clapped.  We were encouraged to do the same, but our clapping was pretty feeble, since we were only clapping to a screen.

At the very end of the conference, Bill Hybels challenged everyone to pray and give our all to making the local church the hope of the world.  He asked us to pray a set prayer for the next 30 days, and if we agreed to do it, to sign the card the prayer was on … and to do it in the presence of a witness.

And that is when any sense of it being live fell apart for me.  He said “If you don’t have someone who will witness you signing your prayer card, I will be up here at the front and would be happy to witness it for you.”  I looked, and I hung around at the front for a moment; Bill wasn’t there.  He was in Chicago, or Zimbabwe, or some place else.

Here’s the thing:  I’m good at pretending something is live when it has really been recorded.  For the most part, I don’t miss the live action.  God, however, is live all the time, 24/7.  When I want to respond or need a response, with God I’m never left hanging around, waiting for someone who’s not there to show up.  I never want to take for granted how much better my live God is.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  How often do you take advantage of God being live, 24/7? Leave your comment below.

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Mystery Phone Calls

The other day I had a phone message, but I didn’t recognize the name.  My secretary said he asked for me by name and seemed to know me.

I went to my office and hesitated making the call, not being sure what this person may want from me.  Instead, I made another call, just to warm up to the idea of returning this message.  It didn’t help.  I again looked at the message, to try to figure out who this person might be, and how I might know him.  I decided to give it a shot; I made the call.

Some people answer the phone and start talking like you know them, and if you don’t immediately make it clear that you have no clue who they are, the phone call becomes awkward.

It’s agony when that happens. You strain to pick up on any tip the person may drop as they talk.  About a month ago, I was five minutes into a conversation before I figured out who I was talking to.  During that time I thought it was one person and then I thought it was someone else.  When I eventually figured it out, what the guy was saying finally made sense.  I was sweating on the other end of the line.

Thankfully, this guy didn’t leave me hanging.  He could tell I didn’t have the slightest idea who he was and asked, “You don’t know who I am, do you?”  When I said “no”, he gave me some context to place him in.

I had played shinny hockey with him years ago. In fact, except for one game of hockey he played with me about a year ago, I probably haven’t seen him in about 5 years.  Let’s just say he hadn’t been in my circle of associates for a long time, and I had only known him by his first name.  He phoned me because he knew I was a pastor and thought maybe he could talk some things over with me.

The guys I regularly play shinny hockey with all know that I’m a pastor.  Somehow it comes out.  When they find out, their language usually changes for a while, and when they slip up they usually apologize … at first.

Even though I’ve been playing hockey with some of these guys for years and years, not often am I asked for anything other than a pass on the ice.  This call was pretty unusual, especially given the fact we had been out of touch for so long.

We talked about setting up a time to meet and then ended the conversation.  When I hung up the phone, I just sat in my chair for a moment, thinking about how that guy came to call me at this particular time in his life.

Here’s the thing:  What we do today may not seem like it makes much difference.  In fact, one day may not make much difference.  But over a long time, being genuine to those around you may trigger something in someone, years from now, in their time of need.  That’s when being a consistent Christian example before them will make a difference.  God reminded me this week, through this phone call, that the testimony of my life has no expiry date attached to it.  So, I need to keep living a life God can use.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How has your life, your testimony, your example made a difference years later?  Leave your comment below.

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Late Night Banking

It was late on a Sunday night, around 10 pm when I arrived at the bank machine to deposit a check.  It was dark; the parking lot was wet from a light rain; there was no one around – not another car in the parking lot.  I went into the bank, deposited the check, withdrew $120, got my receipt and left.

There weren’t many cars on the road; there wasn’t much open.  It was kind of a nice drive.  I had the music in the car cranked, yet it was peaceful.  I had other errands to make, but it was so enjoyable with empty streets and I was getting all the lights.

On my way home, when I got to the last set of lights before my house, for some reason a thought came into my head.  At the bank, I remembered getting a receipt for depositing the money and taking a receipt for the cash I withdrew.  But I didn’t remember taking the cash.

In an instant my quiet, calm peaceful drive turned into panic.  I drove past my turn and put the gas pedal down.  I was about 7 minutes away from that cash machine and I was imagining someone arriving right then to find my bank’s slot machine (I mean, bank machine) had just cashed out, and they won.

I started praying, “Lord, I know there is almost no chance of this happening, but would you keep that money safe for me?”  My mind went back and forth from “maybe it will be there” to “there’s not a chance on the planet that money will still be there”.

The car was moving fast – faster than it should have been moving – but I had no control over it.  I was just trying to steer the vehicle and glad that the streets were clear.  There may have been the odd car that thought I must have had a pregnant wife who was about to deliver her baby, but I went by so fast they couldn’t even tell if there was someone else in the car or not.

I turned at a set of lights, all four tires barely on the road, then made a quick left up to the parking lot.  At first it looked clear but then I saw a car parked outside the bank and my heart sank.

For sure there had been others who had been to the bank.  After all, it had been a half hour since I made that withdrawal.  I screeched up to bank, got out in a flash and went inside the doors.  I looked at the machine . . . no money.  My heart sank, but its not like I  hadn’t pictured it this way.

I turned and went out the door.  That’s when the window of the car parked outside rolled down and a guy called out, “Are you missing some money?”  I said, “Ya, I left $120 in the machine.”  He hopped out of his car and said, “I have it here.”  I thanked and thanked him.  He simply said, “I hope someone would do the same for me.”  I couldn’t believe it.  It was a miracle.

Here’s the thing:  I prayed and asked God to keep the money safe for me, and even though I wasn’t sure He would do it, He even got someone to mind the money for me till I got there.  This reminds me that there is nothing I can’t pray about, nothing that God will refuse me of if I seek Him, even when I have my doubts.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  When has doubt kept you from praying and asking God?

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Being Ready on Time

A while ago, Lily and I had a function we needed to be dressed up for.  I worked around the house in the morning, and wasn’t ready to go anywhere.  Lily, on the other hand, had already been out a couple of times that morning.

At lunch we made a plan to get out the door in 20 minutes.  Lily said, “I’m ready.  I just have to get changed, and I know what I’m wearing.”  Me?  Well, I still had to shower, shave, and I hadn’t thought of what I was going to wear.

Getting up from the table we both got busy.  By the time I finished my shower and was on to shaving, I heard a disturbing announcement.  The words were “this outfit isn’t going to work”.

I ignored the comment and kept going; I had a deadline to meet.  When I finished in the bathroom, it appeared that Lily had already tried on and rejected a couple of outfits.  I went straight to the closet, looked in, saw my blue suit and made my choice.  Lily was still deciding what to wear.

Given how we started, how was she panicking and I was right on schedule?  I think I figured it out.  It’s our approach to clothes.

When I looked in the closet and saw my blue suit, the only decision I had to make was which shirt to wear with it.  I have three:  a white one which was in the wash, a blue one which was not really appropriate for the occasion, and a grey one which would work just fine. It was that simple for me.

However, when Lily goes to the closet she sees individual pieces of clothing.  She has to determine which pieces might go together and look the best, kind of like choosing to purchase a new outfit.  She’s had the same clothes in her closet for some time and used them in different combinations, yet still she doesn’t think of what has worked before.  It’s a brand new outfit she is looking for!

I think that’s why there are so many women’s clothing stores in shopping malls.  Women are so used to looking for brand new outfits at home, the store becomes an extension of their home closet.

My solution would be to make an outfit playbook, like they have in football.  You lay out the outfits on the bed or put them on and take pictures of all the combinations.  Then, print them out and put them on your wrist band for easy access in making the call.  You just pick the combo that looks best to you given how you feel and how the defense is shaping up.

In the end, Lily found a combination that worked well and we made it to the function on time.  (I can’t help but point out that, despite how we started, I was still waiting at the front door for her – not that unusual.)

Here’s the thing:  We’re going to get ready for God.  Some will get ready quickly and some will take some time to figure it out.  But we will all get ready to meet God one day. I want to be sure that I’m fully dressed when the time comes and not caught still deciding about Him.  That will be one function I don’t want to be unprepared for.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  If you stood before God today, and He said to you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?”  What would you say?