It Sure Is Cold!

“Man, it’s cold out there!”, I said to a friend this week. I’ve made that same statement several times since and I believe it’s going to be one of my go-to statements for the next foreseeable future.

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I’m having visions of when I lived in Alberta. I remember driving across Edmonton one February day, on my way to a conference at another church. There were about five pastors from our church in an iced up car, traveling in what seemed to be fog, at minus 28 degrees Celsius.

I thought it was fog – for all intensive purposes it acted like fog – you couldn’t see the cars ahead of you on the road. But it wasn’t really fog; it was so cold that there were ice crystals in the air!

That’s what created the fog-like condition, and it created another phenomenon that fascinated some of the passengers in the car: sun dogs.

These sun dogs are not what you are thinking … dogs that love to lie out at the beach and tan their underbellies. No, these sun dogs are like phantom suns. The light refracts off the ice crystals creating a bright spot on either side of the sun when it’s still low on the horizon.

These mock suns took people’s minds away from the fact that the inside of the car was still ice cold despite the five bodies that were huddled together.

I didn’t look at the sun dogs that much. I was concerned that my eyes were starting to water, and I didn’t want my boss to have to use the car scraper on them so I could see again.

It was cold that day. I still remember it even though it took place over twenty years ago. I still get shivers thinking about it right now!

The next sun dog I want to see is my brother’s bulldog, Chopper, wearing sunglasses at the beach.

I was remembering all this because it’s cold here in Ontario right now. And I was talking with my daughter the other day, bemoaning the fact of how cold it is.

She wanted to comfort me, ease my pain, get me thinking nicer thoughts, so she said, “at least it’s sunny.”  My response to that was, “Karlie, that’s what they say in Alberta!” and immediately my mind went straight back to those sun dogs and ice crystals.

By this time of year, the snow on people’s front yards should be all stomped down by kids playing in the snow, building snowmen.

But it’s been so cold for so long that kids in Kingston have forgotten what snowmen are. They don’t know how to build a snow fort or form snow balls anymore.

This is a childhood right of passage, but with temperatures of -24 C the snow won’t stick together.

I’m afraid if this keeps up we’ll have to retrain a whole generation of kids. They will have to teach a class called “Snow 101” to our grade 3 kids … which would be better than some of topics they’re proposing to teach next year!

Here’s the thing: Have you gone a long time feeling cold and distant from God? Maybe it’s time to try a new spiritual discipline to help you enter into a warmer, deeper, richer relationship with God. In Richard Foster’s book, “Celebration of Discipline”, he gives 12 spiritual disciplines:  inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, study; outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, service; corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. Why not give one of these a try to warm up your relationship?

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: On a scale of 1 – 10, how warm would you say your relationship with God is? Leave your comment below.

Winter Time and Snow Tires

Today I’m appreciating a decision I made this winter. For the first time, I put snow tires on my car. Up to now I had no intention, no desire to do it, but circumstances helped me make the decision.

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A few years ago, I was given a set of old tires on rims but after time they were worn out.

So I had a set of good-for-nothing tires on rims just waiting to be used for something … I contemplated turning them into planters but I’m not the gardening type so I didn’t pursue that Idea.

The tires were no good but the rims were in decent shape. They were too good to use as a fire pit, so I just kept them in my garage … until this January.

Apparently, the farmers’ almanac said we were going to get lots of snow this year and I remembered that snow was in plenty supply last year as well. So I decided it was time to do what I had always been against … and that is to get snow tires.

I hadn’t driven a car with snow tires since they outlawed studs on tires back in the 70’s. I liked the clickity-clack of those studded tires as they danced along the 401, chewing up the asphalt in their wake.

Back then the answer to the removal of the studded tires was all-season radial tires. That’s what everyone bought for the longest time. I never heard of anyone putting winter tires on their car.

The only one who even advertised them was Canadian Tire and, with a name like that, you can understand why they would. But in the last ten years there has been a push to sell snow tires again.

It’s a pain because you have to store them somewhere. If you don’t have an extra set of rims you have to take them to a tire shop to have them put on and taken off.

My biggest complaint is, “What’s wrong all of a sudden with the all-season radials that we’ve used for so long?!”

I had noticed that the traction with my radials wasn’t what it used to be, but I drive a standard and the “slip-slidiness” only made driving a little more fun.

Still those rims were staring me in the face every time I entered my garage. So now I’ve been driving with snow tires on my car for the last month.

I’m not ruling out that the reason we have so much snow right now is because I got winter tires but I’m blaming the weather man – they’re used to taking the blame for every kind of inclement weather.

I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised how well my car performs in the snow. I don’t spin my tires as much when the light turns green, and my car feels way more secure on the road.

And the bonus is I still have a little slip-slidiness to keep my driving interesting.

Here’s the thing: I resisted getting winter tires for years. I’ve had good excuses, like the cost, the storage, the hassle. But having snow tires is worth it. You may have some good excuses for keeping your devotional life the same, but things like making some changes, adding more time, changing up the questions you ask as you interact with scripture, will present you with a refreshed approach to meeting with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What changes could you make to your devotions? Leave your comment below.

I Got Left Behind

No one likes to be left behind, to stay put while others go somewhere. It doesn’t even matter where someone is going or why; it’s the fact that they get to go while you remain that’s the issue.

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That’s what happened to me this weekend. Lily left town and I’m left to stay home.

In our relationship, I’ve mostly been the one who’s gone somewhere while Lily has been left behind.

Going anywhere has some adventure, some intrigue to it; staying home is nothing but familiar.

Sometimes we try to trick our mind so it sounds like it’s better to stay behind. We might say something like, “Oh I hear it’s really cold in Florida right now.”

That might give momentary relief, hopefully long enough until the person leaves so they don’t witness you begging to go along as their luggage.

The fact is, it doesn’t matter how rotten the temperature is in Florida, going there has two very big selling points. First, it’s adventure – you are the going person and not the left behind chump.

And secondly, it’s Florida, and we live in Canada. We have three feet of snow on our lawn … the best Florida could produce on its worst day would be something that looked like manna from Biblical times.

And that’s where Lily has gone. No, not to some Biblical times place; she’s gone to Florida.

Yes, she’s driven to Florida with her mother and sister. I saw inside the trunk and I would not want to be part of their luggage. Nor do I think I would fit in very well as a tag-a-long.

They’re better without me and I’m better to stay home. See how my mind is working hard to adjust to being left behind?

It won’t be too bad here for me. I’ll probably shovel snow a few times this week. They may only get a couple of beach days.

I get to go to work everyday this week and have some evening commitments, too. They won’t even have a schedule to keep. They may have a hard time remembering what time of day it is.

I will be eating some of the finest foods, made and cooked by Lily’s own hands, then frozen solid in the freezer, so I can easily slip them in the microwave and nuke them.

They’ll have to spend money and eat out at restaurants like Applebee’s, Bob Evans, and the Olive Garden. Well, maybe not them, but they will have to eat out.

Here in Kingston we’ve been having quite a bit of sunshine of late; you can almost feel its tanning effects on your face … or maybe that’s frostbite from the windchill effect.

It doesn’t matter. If I stay outside long enough while she is away, my skin will be just as red as hers … though I will have to be careful I’m not out too long so the tip of my nose doesn’t chip off!

Here’s the thing: God wants you to journey with Him. It is a daily invitation to walk with Him, not just on your own, and to experience your day with Him. Go with Him. The crazy thing is, you are going that way anyway. If you travel with Him, however, you’ll experience the adventure and not be left behind.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What trip do you long to take right about now? Leave your comment below.

The World Just Got Small . . . er

 

They say the world’s a small place, that there’s not a lot of separation between all of us on this planet. I experienced this the other day.

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I now have under three hundred connections through “Linkedin” but they say that my network is over 5 million professionals. I’m not sure what that means or how that works, but just the other day I saw it in action.

Have you ever had a random encounter? I was once on a beach on Lake Huron (Sauble Beach), late in the afternoon when the normally packed beach had thinned out.

Sauntering up the beach towards us was a man who looked vaguely familiar. It turned out to be “The Great One’s” dad – that’s Wayne Gretzky’s dad, Walter, for those who don’t know hockey.

He stopped, and we chatted hockey in the middle of July on a hot, sunny day, on a beach half way up the coast of the third largest Great Lake.

But that’s nothing! I’m on my way to single-handedly prove the theory of “Six degrees of separation” to be true. The theory states that everyone is just six steps or fewer away from any other person in the world. And this is how it works …

I was out shovelling the other day with my wife. We stopped to talk to our next door neighbour at the bottom of our driveway.

Meanwhile, there was a man playing in the snow with his children, in this same neighbour’s yard, and I noted to myself that there was something familiar about him.

As we continued to talk with our neighbour, another woman came along. She and her family were staying with our neighbour for the weekend.

In our conversation, my wife, Lily, asked the visitor where she was from and she replied, “Toronto”.  Now Toronto is a big place – over 6 million people live in the GTA.

It’s not the kind of place you say, “Oh, I know someone from there. Do you know my cousin Vinny?” That’s ridiculous.

But Lily did ask another question, “What part of Toronto are you from?”  And the reply came “Etobicoke”.  That’s when I – a born and raised “Trontonian” – got into the conversation.

I casually said that I grew up in Etobicoke, more specifically Rexdale. At that a smile came over this woman’s face and she said, “We’re from Rexdale! What street did you live on?”

I was sure our game would end here. I said it was just a little, tiny dead end keyhole street …Restever Gate. Hearing that name, her eyes got really big and jumped out of her sockets about three inches before they snapped back into place.

When I saw her reaction, in a flash it all came back to me. I twirled around, pointed at the man in my neighbour’s front yard and shouted the man’s last name.

This guy grew up on the same street I did, just two doors down! Though I’m a lot older than he, I remember him as the little guy my brother and I would have fun conversations with at the end of our driveway.

Now he’s 45, and I haven’t seen him in about 38 years. We had a great chat and I can’t stop thinking about that encounter.

Here’s the thing: If you think that’s as wild a connection as I do, try this one:  you are only a prayer away from the Creator of the world, AND you can talk to Him every single day and He can be with you every moment of every day.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What amazing encounter have you had? Leave your comment below.

What Your Freezer Reveals

Our freezer has gotten pretty full this week and it’s not that we have found all kinds of great deals on food. That would be a reasonable conclusion, but that’s slightly off the mark.

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My wife, Lily always looks for great deals on food. I’ve watched her comb the grocery store flyers that come to the house. If the flyer is from a grocery store it goes into one pile and the rest of the flyers get bunched together in another pile.

Sometimes I have to hunt for the Best Buy flyer amongst the hardware store, drug store and all the other random ads.

But not the grocery ads – they are all separated out, stacked together so that it is a smooth transition from one to the next.

Lily will shop at probably three or four grocery stores a week looking for the best deals on produce or meat or what have you.

I had a conversation once with a retired gentleman who now had some time on his hands and took on the task of shopping. He knew where I could get the best deal on grapes. I was amazed he knew that information. I just smiled and later passed the details on to Lil.

I don’t shop. Lily doesn’t even really like me to go with her. She finds things in the cart that she would never buy that adds to the bottom line and nullifies all the painstaking work of searching for deals in the flyers.

But still the freezer is getting quite full. It’s because Lily is making meals and freezing them. She’s pretty pleased about it too. You see, she’s going away for a week and she’s freezing these meals for me.

That’s right, me – the guy who’s not great with knives, nor does he work the stove or oven very well, either. However, I’m not too bad at making the microwave sizzle … thus the frozen meals.

Lily’s happy for a number of reasons. The first one being that she loves me and feels she’s taking care of her husband while being away. But close behind, on the heals of that reason, is that she doesn’t want me to eat out while she’s away.

And you might think she doesn’t want me to eat out because I’ll just be eating greasy food that’s bad for my health. No, the main reason is she doesn’t want me spending money while she’s away.

She’s making all these meals, and she’s hoping I will eat them.

You see, while she’s spending money, living it up in Florida with her mom and sister for a week, she doesn’t want me to be living it up, spending money and clogging up my arteries on some of my fast food favourites.

I realize that by writing about this I’ll have a few extra eyes on me and voices speaking her motto of “don’t eat out”.

Well, all I can say is my son is still around and he’ll probably need me to take him out for a few meals.

Here’s the thing: There is something about us that we can have what we need right before us but we still long for something else. It happens in many areas of our lives and it leads us to spend money on what we shouldn’t, expend time on the needless, commit sin that is harmful to our souls. Take stock of the resources you already have in Christ; build them up and keep your heart from wandering elsewhere.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find yourself wandering to? Leave your comment below.

Why You Should Pay Attention To Seconds

Seconds count. They’re such a short period of time that we can often over look them, but they count. Seconds happen in the blink of an eye but they matter; you can’t discard seconds.

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In Canada we’ve done away with the penny but it still counts. We don’t make them or use them in cash transactions but they are still our smallest unit of currency.

I’m happy my pocket doesn’t fill up with them, but they still matter. They get rounded up or rounded down when paying cash. Pennies are counted “to the penny”, when using debit or credit cards or cheques.

It saves the country eleven million dollars a year not having the little copper coloured coins kicking around in the coin collector of your car, but they still count.

Often we don’t have much to say for the small things, the seconds or the pennies in life. They go unnoticed, they are too inconsequential to pay attention to.

The thing is those small things like seconds carry weight, they are significant, they’re important. Just ask James Reimer of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He was 2.3 seconds from getting a shutout last Saturday night, when the red light went on behind him and the puck was found on the ice in the back of his net.

Tell Reimer seconds don’t count and you’d probably get an earful right now. He was working at back-to-back shutouts against the Edmonton Oilers and it was in the bag, just 2.3 seconds away. Nope, not gonna happen.

Two point three seconds is “One thousand, two thousand, Thre-“ and it’s over. It takes you that much time to get up out of your lazy boy chair.

How memorable was that, the last time you did it? It takes 2.3 seconds to retweet something – that’s not too exciting.

But a roller coaster in California launches at 84mph in 2.3 seconds. And the fastest pit stop ever, changing 4 tires, took 2.3 seconds. Now that’s fast! And you’re not going to forget those 2.3 seconds if you experienced them.

We can easily forget about the seconds in life but they count; they add up and they carry weight.

With just 6 seconds to go in the Leaf game, all 5 Leafs were clumped around the puck like a 7 year old Tyke team. That left two Edmonton Oilers by themselves at the points.

It only took a second for the puck to travel across the ice to the point man, and 1 1/2 seconds for him to get his shot off. Then it only took a little over a second for a free Edmonton Oiler to put in the rebound.

Seconds count, and sometimes they are more memorable than other times. Some seconds we’d just as soon forget. But it’s tough when they are the last memory, the last seconds of the game.

Here’s the thing: It takes seconds to turn on your radio in your car. It takes a mere 2.3 seconds to roll out of bed. And when you do, what happens next? … Do your thoughts go to what’s on the radio or what you’ll have for breakfast? It takes mere seconds. It takes a heartbeat to decide to pray instead. Seconds count and what happens in those seconds can change your day, change your direction, change your focus. That decision will have a significant impact on your day. You won’t easily forget that second.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find difficult to change in a split second? Leave your comment below.

It’s My Bread And Butter

This week I attended a lunch at our church for our Evergreen group – it’s a monthly meeting for those 55+. Centring a meeting around food is always a good idea … we all have to eat, so why not do it together?

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This week we had soup and bread. Now the soups were homemade and very good. I only had the one because the other was a butternut squash soup, and the problem with that was the word “squash”.

I don’t eat squash, and it doesn’t matter how you serve it, I’m not going to eat something that has squash in the name … except squash pie, but that’s only because my grandmother tricked me once and fed it to us as pumpkin pie. Only after we had eaten it did she tell us what she made it with.

I did smell the butternut squash soup and it actually, surprisingly smelt very good … but I still wasn’t about to let it touch my lips.

The soups were good and healthy, but the other part of the meal was bread.

I know the maker of the bread, and I’ve tasted his bread before and it tastes great. He makes a fine bread, and it’s a healthy bread, but you can’t eat bread without butter and that’s what was causing me the anxiety.

If I’m going to eat bread I have to put butter on it. Bread doesn’t taste the same without butter.  And don’t get me started on margarine! I don’t care what they call it. They can call it “I can’t believe it’s not butter”, but I believe it – margarine doesn’t taste like butter.

My mother spent years trying to fool me with different kinds of margarine in my sandwiches and she finally gave up. I don’t eat something that has squash in the name and I won’t eat margarine either.

So I had my bread at the Evergreen lunch and there were several different kinds so I had to try them all. Some of them I liked more than others so I had to try them a few more times.

And each time I tried a piece, I also laid down a layer of butter over the surface.

Even though the bread was healthy, the butter wasn’t. It contains saturated fats and salt … I could feel it going straight into my bloodstream and narrowing my arteries.

Yes, I know you can buy un-salted butter, but you might as well eat the bread dry. Why waste your time spreading something on it that doesn’t add to the flavour?

It was a bad combo: lots of bread (though healthy, it sure wasn’t in the quantities I was eating) and  butter … I’m sure I maxed out on my salt content and saturated fats for the next three days, or weeks!

This was a seniors’ lunch. I almost thought there was a devious plan behind it all.

Here’s the thing: There are things about spending time with God that we enjoy more than others. Maybe it’s the prayer, or Bible reading. It could be the devotional guide. All these are good and are part of a good balanced time with God. But too much spend time in one area breaks the balance. For many people prayer is what gets short-changed. We bulk up on the devotional reading and it leaves us full and out of time for much prayer. Keep prayer a main staple, you might have to cut back on something else that you like a little too much.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What gets in the way of you praying more? Leave your comment below.

Our Expressions Don’t Lie

Our expressions reveal our emotions and, without a mirror in front of us to monitor our expressions, sometimes our emotions leak out for others to see.

Richard Sherman expressions.001Mind you, some people are better at keeping their expressions in check that others. We call those people “tough to read”; it’s difficult to know what they are feeling or thinking.

I’m not that particularly difficult to read apparently, at least according to my wife. I can sit down with a plate of food in front of me and within a millisecond she knows what I think of dinner.

I don’t have to poke the meat with my finger or even pick up a fork – the look on my face tells her everything (eww, it’s stew).

I would probably make a pretty lousy poker player; everyone would know if my hand was good or bad.

I’ve even seen professional poker players on TV hide their expressions with sunglasses or hats shielding their faces.

The other day watching the Super Bowl, there were some pretty good emotions. Camera men are particularly good at zeroing in on faces when something in the game goes bad or good.

Early into the second half, after Seattle had scored to take the lead for the first time in the game, the look on the Seahawks’ coach’s face was, “I think we have this game”. He looked pretty confident.

His face didn’t show the same easy smile later in the game, however, when in the last 3 minutes the momentum of the game was moving up and down like a roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland.

When New England scored and there was still three minutes left in the game, the Patriots’ quarterback sat on the bench and couldn’t look up. There was too much on the line.

Seattle started moving the ball. Then a long pass, that at first looked incomplete, turned out to be a reception as the receiver bobbled the ball a few times and grabbed it while falling on his back on the 5 yard line.

Wow, the looks on both benches was telling. Only a minute to go in the game, Tom Brady (New England’s QB) had a look of, “No way! You’ve got to be joking!”

… One play later, the ball is on the one yard line. It is a guaranteed touchdown for Seattle. The game is over; there is no hope for New England. But Seattle decides to pass the ball and throws an interception.

The emotions go wild again. Brady is now jumping up and down on the sideline with his hands raised. The coach raises his arm in the air signalling victory.

Over on the Seattle sideline the emotions are prolific. One player will have his mug in the news for days as his facial expressions went from joy to sheer horror in a matter of seconds.

… The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Here’s the thing: As poor a job as we do hiding our emotions for others to see, it is impossible to hide our emotions from God. He sees everything; He knows our emotionally-charged roller coaster life. So instead of dropping the visor of your hat to cover your expressions when you pray, simply tell Him what you are feeling and thinking. He wants to hear, and He can help.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When do you have a hard time keeping your expressions in check? Leave your comment blow.

Distracting Conversations

One of my weekly events this year is to take in a Kingston Frontenacs’ home game. I usually go on Friday nights; it’s mostly been a date night with my wife.

Kingston Fronts action

It’s been a pretty cheap date too … I get comp tickets because I’m the team chaplain and Lily doesn’t usually want many snacks. We park far enough away so I get a few steps in and there’s no cost for parking.

Man, I’m cheap! Most nights it doesn’t cost me a thing … I hope Lily likes the hockey and me pointing out the guys on the team who come out to chapel.

However, last night I couldn’t get complimentary tickets – the game was sold out. But I was able to pull some strings and pay for a couple of tickets they made available at the last minute.

And since our daughter, Karlie, was in town on a day off, I took her.

There was lots of hype for the game. The number one draft pick in this spring’s NHL draft was going to be on the ice. I guess this 18 year old is filling up rinks in every city he plays in.

The night before, his team, the Erie Otters, were in Peterborough and they had their biggest attendance all year.

It was going to be a good game; I was really looking forward to it. Our seats were at the top of the arena and there was standing room directly behind us.

During the first period there were two women and a man talking rather loudly, not about hockey, but about their work. Personnel issues seemed to be on the highlight reel of their conversation.

I didn’t look behind me but I sensed by the way they were talking, they weren’t even looking at the game. At one point I overheard the following:

“Who are you cheering for?”

“Who’s playing?”

“Kingston and some other team.”

“I guess I’ll cheer for the other team.”

Give me a break! They were standing so close to me and talking so loudly that I could keep up with their play-by-play better that the play that was on the ice.

Fortunately, after the first period the corporate firm moved somewhere else and we didn’t have to suffer through a second period of listening to their possible sales forecast for the next six months.

I’m not sure how they got tickets or why they were even at the game, but since tickets were so scarce, I know there were more deserving souls who would have appreciated what was happening on the ice.

At least for me, it was a good time with my daughter, and you have to take advantage of those times when you can.

In contrast to the first period business commentary, we got to chat between periods with an NHL scout, who kept the conversation about hockey.

Here’s the thing: Spending time with God is so important and we may, with good intentions, want to add to that time to make it even richer. However, we need to be careful that we don’t add things that will complicate or distract from our time with God. For the most part, we need a Bible and a journal to record what God tells us. Reading devotionals and other things, though they can help, can also distract us by getting us focussed on their commentary instead of God’s Word.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What commonly distracts you when you’re spending time with God? Leave your comment below.

Staring At A Blank Page

This doesn’t happen often but this morning I spent quite a long time staring at a blank computer screen. No, my Mac didn’t freeze.

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It was more that my mind was blank and so I had a nice white page on my screen that didn’t have any words written on it.

If white’s your colour, it was a beautiful sight!

The Beatles have a white album titled, “The BEATLES”, recorded in 1968. And yes, it was completely white with the title embossed on the cover. That album has been dubbed “The White Album” ever since.

But despite all the “white” there was music on the vinyl inside, and that vinyl was all black.

All white isn’t that great when you’re trying to write something like a sermon or a blog.  They call an all-white page “writer’s block”, when you just don’t have anything to put down on the page.

But it’s not that I didn’t have any thoughts at all. While my page was white this morning, I had lots of ideas come to mind; just none of the thoughts I had were worth recording, or I didn’t feel like recording them.

My mind jumped from one topic to another. I would think of something to write about, but then,  for one reason or another, the idea would die in seconds.

I decided to change my scenery and do something else to maybe knock the “block” out of my system – you know, do something radical, like hold your breath when you have the hiccups, or sip a drink of water upside down.

The idea is to reboot your system back to normal.

So I left my white page, and went upstairs to have breakfast. I thought that filling my mouth with food and having a conversation with my wife would somehow spark words in my head that I could then type out onto the white page on my computer.

Sometimes that helps. … The other day I was having trouble with one of the apps on my phone. For some reason it was staying on and burning up my battery at a crazy rate. I powered down my phone, and when I turned it back on, whatever had been stuck on, got unstuck and my phone was working fine again.

Unfortunately, that didn’t help much with my white page. I came back to it and, not only was the page still white, but I still hadn’t come up with anything worthy of adding some black marks to it.

It sure is frustrating when that happens.

I had other things that I wanted to get to, other things I needed to be doing.

I almost left that white page white. And then I thought maybe I should write about having a difficult time putting black characters on a white page.

It didn’t take long until the black marks started to create an amazing contrast on the white page. My white page became a mere backdrop to highlight all the black letters that are now prominent, front and centre.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes you read the Bible and nothing seems to hit home. You feel like giving up on reading it. I believe Henry Blackaby once wrote that when he spends time with God he keeps reading the Bible until God brings something to his attention. Don’t stop reading God’s word because, if you persevere, God will cause those little black characters to stand out and apply to you, right then and there.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you do when you are blocked in some way? Leave your comment below.