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     I have certain expectations of any supper that I have at my own home.  If it is a ‘normal’ porkchop supper with Sara and the three girls I expect that the four of them will share three and I will eat the other four.  Now, before I get too far–I am very thankful when this occurs.  So, when we recently had my sister’s oldest daughter staying at our house for a week I had to ‘re-think’ my thankfulness.

     We were all set to have a ‘normal’ porkchop dinner when just as I was about to grab my second chop–up pops our niece’s fork as she grabs another for herself.  She could tell I was quite perplexed by this and she shrugged her shoulders and asked ‘WHATTT?’  ‘Nothing’ I replied.  Then to my surprise she grabbed a third porkchop.  Please count with me–7 porkchops–2 shared by Sydney, Sara & Olivia, 3 for our niece and what do you know?  Only 2 for me!  Only 2?  Do I even have to ask if I should have been thankful?

     In all reality–one of the most important actions we can ever take according to Solomon when dealing with life and it’s unexpected turns is to recognize the simple things of life as gifts from God and needed to be thankful for.  The smile of a child, the laughter of a couple, the ability to kiss, the joy of a good cooked meal, and so many other things–if we are not careful to be thankful for them now–we might regret when we no longer have them!

     How many people have wasted their lives looking for some great thing only to miss  on the great simple gifts given to them by God each and every day?

     What kinds of things today do you need to take stock of and be thankful for that if tomorrow you didn’t have you would greatly miss?

God Bless and Have a Good Day

     I would say that the second time was a little easier on Sara at least physically (probably emotionally also).  It was quite a nice evening for my wife and me as our oldest daughter was baptized this past Sunday evening. 

     When it comes to young people and baptism (at least in our experience) it has always been filled with concerns:

Who is making the decision to be baptized (the person or their parents)?

Is this a decision based on some kind of external peer pressure?

Is it properly understood (which leads to the better question–how much is needed for ‘proper’ understanding)?

It really comes to this–is it the person’s faith that has led her to make this decision or someone else’s? 

Anyway–it was quite the night of emotions as we saw her make the decision to take this new step in her spiritual walk.

What is baptism and what is it for?

Of the many things that could be said about it–

baptism is always pictured in some form or another in the New Testament as the means by which we enter into the family of God.  It is in this sense–a new birth.  Which leads to another picture–it is a picture of life–new life–recreated life.  We are told as Jesus died on the cross and rose to new life–we too rise to new life because we are baptized into his death.  Which leads to another picture–being cleansed–Jesus’ blood washes sins away and in our baptisms we encounter that blood that washes us clean and gives us that new life which secures us a place among God’s family.

There are many other things that the Bible talks about with baptism–the Spirit given, forgiveness of sins, salvation etc.  But, it is quite a sight to not only witness someone’s birth into this world, but to witness her birth into God’s promised new world!

(For some scriptures that speak of baptism–look at Acts 22:16, Romans 6:3-5, Colossians 2:11-14, 1 Peter 3:18-21, Galatians 3:26-29)

God Bless and Have a Good Day

When I look at both of the above pictures I imagine that these are perhaps some of the images that come into our minds when we talk about true love.  In this post I am not so much going to express my views (although that will certainly come out) on the subject but I am really interested in what people think the glory of love really is?  How do we know when we have found the ‘glory’ of it and it is not simply a selfish agenda?

A lot of times when people talk about love in lofty language there will come a remarkable story of sacrifice and such.  Those stories are good and do express love to a great degree.  The problem is that many of us will never have a personal experience with such extreme circumstances.

This post is not about how does love act–but what is the glory of it? 

Why does love make us feel so alive, so worthwhile (even after times where we feel unworthy), know who we are (it really does serve to give us an identity) and so many other things?

If love makes us feel so ‘glorious’ what is it like when we love others?

When Jesus said the most important command was to love God and the second is ‘like it’ which it to love our neighbour–was he on to something that in love there is glory?  Was he also reminding us that no matter how ‘right’ we are, no matter how ‘much more we know’ then everyone else, no matter how ‘much our way is the better way’–if we are not loving and being loved we are missing the real ‘glory’ of life?

So, what is it about love that can be said–that’s the glory of it?

Tell me what you think–

God Bless and Have a Good Day.

P.S.  this A-Rod thing is really bothering me now as it has the entire Yankee ball club in a funk–he has got to connect and he has got to soon!

     So, I wonder what everyone thinks of President Obama being on the view!  This is not the same as asking what people think of President Obama–either as a man, a family man, a politician!  People sometimes get those two questions mixed up in the present state of politics.  One of the things that made the rounds in the discussion through it all was whether or not such an appearance was ‘unpresidential’!  That lead me to think about that term for a minute–what does it mean to be unpresidential?  Who decides?  What would an appearance on a television show have to do with whether or not someone is filling his role properly as president?  Sometimes people make the claim that a president being a ‘man of the people’ is a good thing but then how far does that go?

     Now, before getting too far with Obama–we have to be very careful allowing ourselves to, in the words of Jesus, ‘judge according to appearances’!  One of the things that stood out to me in all of the criticisms of Obama (don’t get me wrong–disagree with his policies as you see fit, criticize him if his actions do not seek the betterment of his people etc.) and his appearance on a television show as somehow being not fit for his role–is how often people felt the same about Jesus.  Look at his criticisms over and over again and notice how people are upset that Jesus acted a certain way, went to parties where certain people were, allowed certain types of people to touch him and even ate with certain people.  Over and over again a similar comment could be made by onlookers–’if this man were really any type of prophet, he wouldn’t be with these types of people or at these types of events.’  In other words–Jesus often appeared to others as being ‘unMessiahlike’!

     Without even realizing it–they were discounting the one who was healing the sick, feeding the hungry, helping the poor, welcoming the stranger and spreading good news to any who needed to hear it!  Instead, they were focusing on whether or not such a person should be seen in certain places around certain people. 

  Solely, judging according to appearances not only is very unfair to the one we judge, but in the end can make us look like we are missing the point!

God Bless and Have a Good Day

P.S. Really hoping that A-rod can get the 600th so the Yanks can move on and dominate the baseball world again!

Let me begin by warning you this is not a review of the great piece of literature by the same title.  For that you probably have to get a message from a buddy of mine named Jon.

There is a truth to the human experience that cannot be denied and that is we all expect certain things in life.  At times our expectations are very specific–we expect to receive a raise, we expect our children to clean their rooms, we expect the hotel room to be ready because we booked it a month and a half earlier etc.  Then, there are other kinds of expectations and maybe we could call them general–we expect good consequences for good behaviour!  If we speak nicely to someone we expect to be treated the same, if we work hard and dutifully we expect to be rewarded with job stability, if we never cheat on financial matters we expect to be taken care of etc.

One of the great difficulties with life is when what we expect doesn’t happen.  Would you agree that if we expect something that is unrealistic (to be a millionaire by the age of 21 because I saw a kid on t.v. who said if I just put my mind to it I could achieve it) it is something we need to simply mature from and learn how to set realistic goals?  But, what do you do if the thing expected is quite realistic and for the most part should work (I pay my bills on time, I don’t overspend and I work really hard so I should be all right) but then find ourselves in a turmoil financially?

Solomon comes to us in the book of Ecclesiastes with a simple message–life is absurd.  All that means is that one should be able to expect certain things to happen and then they don’t and you find yourself in a real struggle.  You should expect your spouse to be faithful to you when you are loving to them, you should expect that if you speak peacefully to another a fight shouldn’t break out, you should expect that if you grow wiser (not smarter, but wiser) that living should become clearer.  These are natural and there are a host of others–but we know there are times that the formulas of life don’t work and expectations become frustrations.

How do we live and how do we enjoy life?

Well we could live by the motto–expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed!  But there is no joy and no hope in such a viewpoint.

We could also live by the view that nothing bad will ever happen if you do what is right but there will quite possibly be no joy in that view when something of a crisis hits (and with a person like this–it doesn’t even have to be a major crisis).

Or, like Solomon advises us–we can live life expecting there will be moments of disappointment.  At times, we can realize that things won’t turn out the way we wanted them to.  We can’t control how life turns (which is why we need to look to God) and there will be things that happen that won’t happen the way we expected them to.

But the joy in living will come from rejoicing in the successes and learning from the tragedies.  It might not be the life we expected it to be but it is the life we are living–rejoice in it when you can and learn from it when you need to.

God Bless and Have a Good Day

     ‘Can I talk now?’  Who does that remind you of?  In our family, usually that is Olivia’s constant question after countless reminders that she shouldn’t interrupt everyone else while they are talking.  Usually, the answer to her question that Sara and I want to give is something like: ‘when haven’t you been able to talk?’  She is a treat most of the time and there are very important things that she needs to tell us even if it is every minute of every hour of every day!

     That question however is from a biblical character (at least in the form of it)–named wisdom!  So many people face so many different situations in life that while they are looking for a listening ear and while they are needing to vent their frustrations–most people are looking for wisdom.  Wisdom cries out (so says the book of Proverbs) to be heard, but our question is how do we hear what wisdom has to say?

     Whether we realize it or not, most of us live by a form of wisdom of one kind or another–it is basically an observance of how life works and this is what you need to do.  The challenge is to discover where the source of our wisdom comes from!

     One of the reasons we need to be able to people who are very attentive listeners–is so we don’t miss hearing wisdom’s voice.  When we are resigned to only listening to people who already support our views of things–we run a real risk of missing the assistance we sorely could use. 

     Too often, people live by formulas and have everything spelled out in neat little packages–when observing the difficulties of the home life of a friend or political strife or even the way society is struggling–we tidy things up and offer very simple answers.  They may not be ours, but we can find them in ‘7 habits of…’ or ‘don’t sweat the small…’ or ‘everything I ever needed to know I learned in…’.  Then there are the ones that sound like they come from the community of faith–’just gotta believe baby’ or ‘all you need is love’ or ‘if you can conceive it, you can believe it and if you can believe it, you can achieve it.’

     What happens when the person who is told to develop 7 habits and not to sweat small stuff and just apply the things of kindergarten and just believe or love or imagine his outcome comes home one day and has been laid off from work for the past 13 months, his medical insurance is done and he has inoperable brain cancer and he’s wondering how to provide for his family when he is gone?

I wonder–what habits does he need to have that covers his situation?  Is his situation still only small stuff?  Does the kindergarten teachings help him know what to do?  He believes, but in what?  Love–that’s what causes some of the concern!  What outcome is he supposed to conceive and it for sure will happen?

No, true wisdom is needed and for that to come, we are told over and over again we need to have a listening ear.  An ear that listens to things when life doesn’t work out the way the formula says it should.  We need to be open to the possibilities that there are other factors in life that might not play by the rule: ‘if you work hard, stay out of trouble and treat others well, things will be okay’. 

P.S. God Bless and Have a Good Day

the grad choir--just a sample

Last night was a night of reminiscing for Sara and myself along with I suppose 57 other sets of parents as we all saw our 13-14 year olds walk across the stage and receive their grade 8 diploma and look so grown up compared to the pics they showed from their kindergarten years. All those girls and guys who have spent many years together now proceeding to the next stage of their lives. What a night to celebrate!
As we thought about the past and saw all the pictures of the years in the grad video–my mind went to the following people: Mr. Thompson, Mrs. Zakoor, Miss Howe, Mrs. Hastings, Miss Howe again (no Sydney didn’t get sent back a year–the teacher moved up two), Mr. St. Louis, Miss Maki (now Mrs. Price), Miss Lukino, Mr. Fleming & Mr. Fleming again. These, as you have guessed, were her main teachers of her years of elementary school. Sara and I have been blessed to never have one complaint about either the teaching capability of any of them nor the influence each of them had on Sydney in all these formative years. We owe all of them probably more then we know–they took a very shy, quiet girl and helped her tremendously succeed in many areas.
Any way–one of the things that also struck me last night was how wonderful the diversity of her class was–we had students from Taiwan, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq, United States, Syria, Romania, Slovakia and I guess Canada. There were Christians, Muslims, Jewish, Hindu and perhaps others. You could add that besides the native countries that so many of them had come from–so many different ethnic backgrounds as well.
I was pleased to see how all the children interacted with one another, how they can be friends despite the many things that are different about them, how each of them truly cares for the other and that left me to one positive conclusion: public education can take some credit for this! I am not denying that each of the parents/homes/social structures of the children play an important part–but I wonder how much our children being with all these other children helped things along?
I for one, know that through Sydney’s constant interaction with those of other faiths and backgrounds, many things that I was either ignorant of or simply misunderstanding of has been either cleared away or stretched and re-thought.
Left to only one voice and one perception–many prejudices are left untouched and people never feel the need to actually look seriously about what ‘truths’ they are thinking are absolute.
That brings me to one more difference that is overcome–you had kids from very wealthy, to middle class to those who come from more humble means–all cheering for each other, arms around one another, dancing and laughing together–one more thing that made her experience beneficial.
It is one thing to tell someone they shouldn’t have any prejudices. It is one thing to tell people they can hold their beliefs as true but still respect those who are different without judging–it is another for that person to have to live it out day by day.
Often people worry about the ‘quality’ of education or the ‘morality’ they discover–usually they are worried about family ‘values’ and the like (not that it isn’t a serious matter), but I am just here to say that I was overcome last night by the wonderful moral quality that Sydney’s public education has helped instill in her concerning respect of people who maybe look different, sound different and even believe different. That there may be people she will never share some belief/class/background with but can still call friend!
I am not here to suggest that all other forms of education are worse or harmful–just here to give a positive word about our experience for our daughter in the public system.
P.S. God Bless and have a good day

‘honour your father and mother‘St. Paul told the Ephesian Christians so long ago.

Parents are very peculiar people–we beg and desire to have kids to call our own and then we worry constantly that our children won’t ‘live up to par’. We claim to be accepting of our children no matter what but how do we feel when they don’t live as well behaved as they are supposed to having been raised by us? We must go about bragging about their successes but either turn a blind eye or pray no one hears or sees their failures.
Why do we get like this? Because we believe that our children are a reflection on us and when they have problems or difficulties or issues it is us parents who look bad. We all know what it is like for children to be embarassed by their parents–there are those ‘fun’ embarassing moments–dad wearing gym shorts with black dress socks, mom singing the words of a popular song to the wrong tune etc.etc., then there are those harder ones where the parents didn’t intend to be an embarassment but ended up being so. Paul would tell us in those moments–make sure you honour your parents. If your mom and dad happen to be people who might not make you look the best but still love you so–you have no right to sit there and be embarassed by them–you need to honour those two people who gave you all they could!
What do you do though when mom and dad are embarassed by their children? There are those funny moments–where junior belched right before performing in the school play, or your daughter says something that reveals something innocently etc., etc., then there are those harder ones where the children actually made choices that put them in positions of disgrace.
How do you feel about your children at that point? What if your friends, family members and other people you know find out about what ‘YOUR’ son or ‘YOUR’ daughter is up to? How do you show your face again? What does your child do knowing how you feel?

In the famous story of the prodigal son that Jesus told–that’s where we find the boy and his father. The boy resigns himself to having to beg to be allowed as one of his father’s slaves. Most would agree with that–most would feel that the boy after humiliating his father like should be considered blessed if his father would welcome him back as a slave if anything. Little does anyone expect to happen what Jesus said–the father ran to the son and embraced him and celebrated over him.
With this in mind–the father didn’t care about anything else but his son. He didn’t care about embarassment, he didn’t care about what his friends and family members might think of him or his son, he didn’t care about what kind of a reflection the son cast on him–all he cared about was the welfare of his son.
As parents who are so caught up in their own selves that they need their children to perform for them to feel proud–let me ask you this–is a son/daughter worth your dignity? If not, what is your child really worth?
The point of Jesus’ story was not simply about father-son relations but the fact that all of us who may have done things to make God ashamed need to realize that God doesn’t care about His dignity, but simply wants to hold all of us and call each of us His sons/daughters

God Bless and Have a Good Day

P.S. Manute Bol, Dinka, Dunka Do passed away at the age of 47–for those of you who don’t know him, he was a 7′ 7″ Basketball player from Sudan who was so involved in humanitarian efforts in his native country that there will be many people who will miss him. If only more and more of our athletes and famous people could have the impact on the less fortunate what a difference we might see in our world–if only more of us perhaps as well

For one of my lessons I needed to download Neil Young’s classic–’Long May You Run’ from I-tunes. While there I decided to do some shopping and started a new playlist–so down came Buckley’s version of the Cohen classic–Hallelujah, then a couple of Green Day songs that I love–21 Guns and Do you know the Enemy, and then things went nostalgic–I decided to get into my big hair broken love days–Aerosmith’s ‘Angel’, Skid Row’s ‘I Remember You’, Tesla’s ‘Love Song’, Faster Pussycat’s ‘House of Pain’ and then this one–

That’s right–the classic Cinderella’s–Don’t know what you got till it’s gone!

Now, my girls love riding in the van with me as all those songs that I knew maybe one or two lines to and repeated constantly they get to hear as loud as can be with me singing even louder. Nothing says proud–like riding with your dad in a minivan listening to big hair ballads. These are the songs that bring back those memories of singing with a hair brush in your hand in front of the bathroom mirror while your mom is standing there with hands full of groceries, these are the songs where the girl you couldn’t live without was now dating someone else and you didn’t know how to express your sorrow except with these songs, these are the songs where you bought the tape for ‘the real rocking songs’ in front of your friends but privately you needed to hear these wonderful love tunes.

There is something to songs that speak to pain isn’t there? Ever wonder why that is? What makes messages of needing to be healed from some kind of heartbreak so popular?

Doesn’t it have to do with the fact that so many people can relate in some way?
Our question however is: does it always have to be a sad, sad song?

God Bless and Have a Good Day

P.S. World Cup is on and as always my two teams are France and Spain (coming from Basque descent–these two are the closest to my heritage) and I had high hopes for Spain this year but really blew it against the Swiss–hopefully things will rebound but scared now that Argentina smoked Korea this morning

I took the dog to the vet for her annual checkup this morning and in the course of her examination the vet was asking me about her diet–I said she basically ate normal when all of a sudden she had a little bowel movement (I should say Mylie was shaking nervously the entire time) and all you could see was an earplug! The vet looks at me and I give a little sheepish shrug of the shoulders–what does this guy think is a normal diet for dogs?
Then my mind worked overtime–how do I make sure the vet doesn’t think I was lying to him or trying to cover something up (as if there was a difference)? Does the vet think I was careless in what Mylie ate? How do I convince him I am a straight up kind of a guy?
Here is what happened–the vet grabbed a wipe, picked it up and threw it into the garbage and moved on! All that worry, all that analyzing, all that thinking of every response I need to give for every possible question he is going to throw at me and it all turned out to be for nothing.
Was I lying in answering that Mylie ate normally? No, I know every now and then she grabs something she isn’t supposed to (for whatever reason–Sara’s ear plugs she finds extra yummy), but that is rare and not often–I was telling the truth.
So, the thoughts that I needed to defend myself were unnecessary–the truth is all that is needed to defend truth tellers.
But, there was a lesson that dawned on me during the five seconds of hectic thinking–even when you are good–you are not perfect! Now, how prepared are you when the imperfection rises?
Okay, this wasn’t serious–but I try to protect those in my care, try to keep them well–whether it be dog, child whatever–so I do what I do hoping that it is good! But, out will pop one day evidence that I have not done it perfectly! What happens at that moment?
1) come up with as many excuses as I can to make myself out to be better then I am!
2) make sure I defend myself so that nothing looks ‘bad’ on me!
3) accept the fact that while I have not been perfect, I have been faithful. Accept the facts that it isn’t that I made mistakes along the way, but that I was faithful despite the mistakes. Ask the jilted lover if there is a difference between a spouse who was imperfect but faithful and one who was imperfect and unfaithful!

What about you? Which of the three do you lean towards when signs of your imperfection come?

God Bless and Have a good Day