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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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Why Cover Bands Never Get A Recording Contract

Right at the end of our vacation each year, Sauble Beach puts on a festival called Sandfest. It’s a weekend with activities for the whole family, right on the beach.

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There is a sandcastle building competition that brings in some professionals (I never knew there were pro sand events), and amateurs alike. Everyone gets a plot of sand and about eight hours to build something.

It’s pretty amazing and creative what some come up with.

There is also an antique car show involving a couple hundred old cars parked on the beach. They’re judged by officials and the crowds of people walking the rows of cars, taking pictures and oohing and awing at them.

Some of the cars I’ve seen don’t look like antiques to me – in fact, some of the models I drove when I was younger! … That’s when you realize that you’re an antique too, so you just keep quiet about it, say “nice car”, and move on.

There is always music that is a focal point of the weekend. They usually have bands Friday and Saturday.

They’ve had bands that are starting out and trying to get noticed, old bands that just do gigs on the weekends, but also some bands that were once well known and had songs on the radio.

But probably by far, most of the bands at Sandfest are cover bands – you know, bands that try to imitate a famous group from the past.

These cover bands, or imitations in some cases, look like the original band members, talk like them in between songs, mimic their mannerisms while singing, and, of course, try to sound like them vocally and musically.

I watched bands that dressed like the original band, but after that weren’t that close to the real group’s sound. Then there were those whose voices sounded pretty much like the original, but they weren’t dead on with the music. They just didn’t have it instrumentally.

The thing about cover bands is they try hard to look and sound like the real group, but there is something that isn’t quite right.

There is always something that is off. And where you notice it the most is how they carry themselves, how they conduct themselves onstage.

They are acting; they are not themselves, and just don’t come across as the real thing. The real group doesn’t act; they are just themselves, and not trying to be something they are not.

There is a sense of authenticity that the real group has that a cover band can never manufacture.

Even when they are able to get so close to the original, they are not being themselves. They are pretending to be something, someone they are not. And everyone knows it.

Here’s the thing: We must be very careful that we are not merely imitating a real Christian – looking like one, acting like one, even talking like one, but just performing to please an audience who expects to see and hear a certain presentation. The only way to be  sure you are the real thing is to look inside yourself. Are you interacting with God, applying the things He says to your life, then living that out for everyone to see? If so, you are authentic, and people can tell. If not, you’re “covering” the Christian life and no matter how good you get at it, you’ll just be a cover band, and you’ll never make it with the true audience, God Himself.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: In what part of your life do you find it easier to imitate than be real? 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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How To Prepare For Being Startled

Some people get startled more easily than others. It doesn’t take much for me to jump when someone happens to show up in my office without me hearing them come in or seeing them out of the corner of my eye.

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I don’t know why it is; I’m not a nervous person. But if someone appears out of nowhere and even says “hi”, whoa, that gets my heart pumping fast.

I remember years ago when I was a youth pastor, we would play a game called “Sardines”. It was a version of hide and seek, where we would turn out all the lights in the church, making it pitch black dark.

One person was “it” and his job was to hide. Everyone else tried to find him and then hide with him in the dark until there was just one person looking for the whole group.

During the game, I took it as my job to scare the life out of the junior high girls. I would go in a room and wait for a pack of girls to enter. They could see nothing but, of course, they couldn’t stop talking.

At a quiet moment, I would yell at the top of my lungs and, though I couldn’t see them, I knew by their reaction they had hit their heads on the ceiling they had been scared so badly … but that was a long time ago.

A few weeks ago, Lily and I were sleeping, pretty much sound asleep, when there was a loud crash. It woke both of us up. I definitely was started, but Lil … I thought she was going to have a coronary!

She couldn’t calm down after that; she was concerned that someone might be in the house. I tried to convince her that everything was alright, but nothing would get her to settle until I checked the house.

So I went to get up and that’s when I saw what had startled us and ruined our sleep. It was a wood valance that was over our closet doors. Apparently, the manufacturers thought that 3M made a double-sided tape that was strong enough to hold up a 6 foot light piece of wood … forever.

For whatever reason, the tape lost its grip in the middle of the night – at 1:57 am to be precise.

Though I wasn’t startled nearly as badly as Lily, being woken up at that time in that way got my mind going and I had a very difficult time getting back to sleep.

I think for Lily, her heart rate shot up so high so fast that it exhausted her and she fell back asleep rather quickly.

The effects of being startled don’t last a long time, but it probably take a few years off your life every time it happens. So my advice is be aware – always.

Here’s the thing: There is going to be a time when either we die or Christ returns that will definitely be startling. It will shake us all to the core, but the only way you will be able to get calm after that, the only way you will get peace is to know Jesus Christ as your saviour. Otherwise, that startle will be just the beginning of an eternity of fear. I suggest you prepare now if you haven’t already. Find out about Christ, who He is, what He did and how He can change your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What startles you? Leave your comment below.

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Perfect Timing Is Over-Rated

Timing is everything! A split second off and you miss the shot, you hit the car, you don’t catch your plane . . . well, maybe not.

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My wife and I recently needed to fly from Toronto to Thunder Bay.

Lily had figured out all the details, the flights, the car park, and of course, the time it would take us to get to Toronto, drop the car off and get to our gate with plenty of time to spare.

It all sounded good on paper, but then again, paper doesn’t say anything – it’s all what you read into it. What we didn’t read into the plan was the traffic we might encounter in getting to our destination.

Right from the get-go, the traffic was a little heavier that I had thought it would be. Our 2 1/2 hour drive to Toronto took us a little longer, but we had some extra time built in so I wasn’t fretting.

… until we got about 20 kms from the airport.

The 401 was bumper to bumper, stop and go. There was panic in the car from the navigator’s seat. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the words, “We’re not going to make it!”

There were hurdles all the way. Every time we thought we were catching a break, there would be a roadblock. I thought we were on the TV Show “Amazing Race”.

There was no way we would make the check-in time so Lil checked us in electronically using her phone.

When we finally got off the 401, we thought we maybe had a chance. Then I missed a turn. We drove right past the parking lot for our terminal, but unfortunately we needed to get to the off-site park-and-ride place we’d booked.

When we found the park-and-ride, we thought we might have a chance if they were fast, but there was a car ahead of us who was taking forever to register. Panic filled the air space along with suggestions that we should have paid the extra money and parked at the terminal.

When we finally registered, we were told to pull ahead and wait for the shuttle, then follow it to where we should park before going to the airport. Unfortunately, the shuttle guy didn’t know the script because when he showed us where to park he told us to wait for the back-up shuttle to take us.

More waiting! The waiting was killing my navigator, but it wasn’t long before our shuttle appeared. We told the driver of our predicament and he was pretty calm about it all … though he wasn’t the one scrambling to make a flight that left in twenty minutes!

We ran to security, and there were greeted by a long line ahead of us. Lil said something to the security guard and she took us to the front of the screening line, along with a scolding for not getting to the airport earlier.

Once through security, Lil ran ahead while I carried the bags.

We still had quite a distance to get to our gate and a wrong turn down a hallway didn’t speed up the run. We finally got there, tired and out of breath … and they were still boarding the plane!

We made it.

Here’s the thing: I started praying as soon as we hit traffic on the 401, and even though there were glimpses of hope, each glimpse was met with another impossible hurdle. Yet somehow, some way, against all odds God got us on that flight. Never doubt the power of God in any situation.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When did God come through for you when all hope was lost? 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.

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Why Comparing Will Result In Renting A Storage Unit

This morning my wife went for a walk. When she returned, she commented on how many garage sales were happening in our neighbourhood.

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I casually asked her if she saw anything she wanted and she quickly responded with, “Look around! We could have five garage sales with all the stuff we have here! What do we need with more?!”

That statement stuck with me. I don’t usually think we have a lot. In fact, compared to other people, we don’t have that much. … But that’s the problem right there!

That’s why there are so many garage sales. That’s why most homes in North America could have a garage sale every week.

We compare. And when we compare, we often compare with those who have more, not less.

So compared to the guy down the street, I don’t have all that he has … so yes, I do need a riding lawnmower.

However, if we didn’t compare ourselves to others, if we just evaluated our own situations in terms of what we needed, we probably wouldn’t be checking out garage sales – we would be hosting them.

Most of us collect things. We need storage bins and closets and lockers and garages to house all the stuff we collect. Many people can’t park their car(s) in their garages because they’re too full of their things.

They might not use those things any more, but they have them just in case.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have a garage. In winter we would have to brush the snow off the car and scrape the windows. Since I’ve been a homeowner, we’ve had garages and I have been determined to use those garages for my cars.

That alone has kept us from collecting a few things we didn’t need. When in doubt, we’ve always asked, “Where would we put that?”, and the garage is always off limits.

Self Storage in the U.S. is a six billion dollar business, and we’ve all seen the kinds of useless junk that people put in them from shows like “Storage Wars” and “Auction Hunters”.

There is another factor that adds to this problem and it’s that we don’t just want more, we want new. We compare what we have with the latest styles or colours or trends. We feel we need to update our stuff.

We just put the old into storage – like my tie collection … Who knows? Maybe my fat, colourful Fred Flintstone tie will come back into fashion … Was it ever in fashion?

So we go to garage sales and we have garage sales because, when we compare, we need more and the old stuff we have needs to be replaced with the latest stuff.

Who’s in control here? Certainly not us.

… Maybe we need to make a trip to Bibles for Missions with a load or two of stuff.

Here’s the thing: When we compare, we usually compare against something better or new and we always come out on the losing end, causing us to want more or feel we need to update. Spiritually, we compare ourselves against the Bible, against God’s standards. And unlike the comparisons we do in our society where the targets are always changing, God’s standard stays the same. So stick to God’s standard, and you won’t collect excess baggage or be mesmerized by the trends.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How much stuff could you contribute to a garage sale or a store like Bibles for Missions? Leave your comment below.