I hate philly and boston

Well, this will be fun.

I hate Philly and Boston, the hockey teams, that is.

I've been accused of having a strictly minor hockey mentality when it comes to hockey these days. I tend to think it's slightly more than that.

I believe that good physical contact is part of hockey, I also think that the style perpetrated by the Flyers and Bruins has nothing to do with hockey and more to do with punishment. Of course, punishment for their bad or illegal behaviour was not meted out by the leadership of the hockey league.

Where does this leave us? We get to watch them assault and otherwise beat the living &%$* out of each other so much that the "winner" will be destroyed by Washington in the next round.

I guess that's why they say that payback is such a good thing, eh!

Easter Monday and I have a day off and I have a few questions.

In these times where anything related to being Christian is considered unacceptable some of us still have a day off for Easter Monday.

I am sitting in my office at home, light streaming through the blinds, beautiful music playing while the birds about outside and I wonder why?

Why is it that a faith that teaches to "turn the other cheek", to "go the extra mile", that preaches the equality of men and women and so many more positive attributes is denigrated by so many so called wise people?

Why is it that a relationship that teaches us to love our enemies is unacceptable in this society of acceptability. Everything it seems is acceptable, except the faith in one who died for others, not Himself.

Why is it that it a faith that teaches husbands to love their wives to the point of dying for her is put down as being misogynistic?

Why is it that the foolishness of mankind is touted as wisdom?

I wonder, this Easter, is it because of a lack of willingness to bend the knee to someone greater and more powerful that anything ever considered. This someone who loved all of us so much that He came and willingly parted with human life in such a horrible fashion to "prove" His love?

Has this world become so dependent upon itself that it has become blinded to truth?

Why?

Never mind the why, what am I doing about it? I have been given marching orders to go and preach the gospel. Gospel means "good news". I have the good news that someone, a person, God, loves all of us so much more than we can imagine and He wants a relationship with me and each and every one of us. He is even willing to forgive us. Yes we all need forgiveness because each and every one of us has sinned. Yes I said sin! No one is exempted from this affliction and no one is exempted from the remedy for this affliction.

This same Jesus who loves me, loves you and wants that same relationship with you. In the words from a new favourite song of mine,

"He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane I am a tree bending beneath the weight of His wind of his mercy...............and I realize just how beautiful you are and great your affections are for me"

Happy Easter

Am I standing in a hole?

Nice one, wannabeergo!

And to be honest, I am not in a hole, but I happen to be the shortest one in my family.

Thanks for the kind comments, we do not have a lot of family photos and now that we have children in North Carolina and one going to Virginia this fall it might be a little more difficult to get a family photo.

It's great being part of a family. It's a place to belong. When sometimes all seems to be going wrong, there is always my family to come home to. A place where love and respect are always practiced, or at least attempted and being worked on.

It's sad to think of the people who have no family. Like those who may be all alone due to their own decisions or because of the decisions of others. Having just come through the Easter season we should have been reminded to bring hope to all others based on what Christ has done for us.

I have so much to be thankful for, not the least for my family.

So, while I am not standing in a hole, I am with the ones I love. Thanks for noticing us wannabeergo, I appreciate your friendship. I consider you as a brother, so you're family too and you're taller than me too!

Thirty years and counting

Just this past Monday, my beloved and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.

It's hard to believe that we have been married for that long. We actually met in 1975 and began dating about a year and a half later. She has given me great joy for all these years. She has stood beside me to support me through everything we have experienced. There have been many wonderful experiences and there have been some very difficult experiences. We have lost family members and friends to death, we have struggled as every couple struggles. Yet, she has stood there as the song says: "stand by your man".

Back in 1981 we stood before God, our family and friends and committed to love, honour and respect each other. To date, we have worked hard at learning to be loving and respectful and with God's help we have more than survived these 30 years, we have thrived and grown in our love and respect for each other.

I am a very fortunate man to have known, courted, loved, married and lived with this amazing person for these years. I have been blessed to have her stand by me especially when I have failed. She is a Proverbs 31 woman and is the epitome of grace when it comes to how she treats me. She loves, respects and defends me. There is a saying that states" "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" but I prefer to say that there is no fury like the fury my beloved displays when she feels that I or one of our children have been attacked unjustly. Heaven will need to help the one who attacks us. That may be their only recourse.

And yet, she forgives.

My only wish is for as many more years that the Lord will give us.

Some timely changes, it's time to move on

It has been some time again since I have had, made or taken the time to write.

To say that I have been overwhelmed is a gross understatement. I have made some timely decisions that have probably added years to my life. I cannot think of a time in my life when I have felt so oppressed and from so many sides. I have regularly said that I have had too many balls in the air and I am no juggler. So, it is time to let a few drop and to stop trying to do things that I cannot do, at least at the present.

I need to move forward. I often use the phrase in my job that one of my responsibilities is to help people move forward. I need to heed to that for myself. There are numerous issues that have been holding me stuck and in some senses holding me back.

So, in making changes to the blog, I am also making changes in my life. I have decided to return to a job that I loved and left in the anticipation of something new and more exciting. The new job was definitely new and exciting, but given the demands in my life, this is no time to be walking a very steep learning curve, that is more mountain than curve.

I also realized that as much as I miss my friend Ruth, I cannot bring her back. The things that have been added to our lives subsequent to her death have been monumental. No matter what I feel and no matter the depth of my grief, I cannot continue to live in the past. I must lead my family from a position of faith and strength that demonstrates love and respect to them first. In doing so, I will serve my God as He commands.

I have been lax in performing my daily personal devotional activities since Nov.8/10. One change will be to continue to return to those things that will help me grow and presumable become a better person based on the influx of spiritual wisdom that comes from a relationship with the One who loves me more than anyone else.

So, look to this forum for some more regular comments, it's time to move on, I'm getting better.

Broken and restored

I have not posted in some time because I just haven't been able to. It felt like my insides were all bunched up and nothing was able to come out. Then, this past weekend happened. It was supposed to be a time for me to visit my son at his internship in North Carolina, a time to hear a new song he had written and recorded and played first at the church.

But God had different plans for me. My sons song was/is amazing, but my purpose for being there was for God to break through some of the defences I have built for years. Why I wouldn't let this happen in my church is too easy to answer, pride.

So, there I was with my son, at two services. When I heard him play his song I was a proud papa. I enjoyed everything that morning until the team played a song I had never heard. As I heard it in the first service I felt something breaking, but in my pride I hung on. "This would definitely not be the place to break down would it", I said to myself? The second service(very much like the first started, his song was second, again. The pastor preached the same message, with some changes. Then God broke me. That may not be correct grammar, but that is what happened.

I was introduced to a song by John Mark Mcmillan called "How He loves" and for the second time I felt this breaking inside. I started to cry and couldn't stop. I knew that I needed to repair a relationship and the people I needed to talk to were sitting right beside me, what a coincidence, not! Now, I play this song and I cry every time. There is a powerful story to this song, the writer tells of the accidental death of a close friend and the anger he experienced. But, he also speaks of the knowledge that God still loves us, no matter the circumstances of our lives. And even when we are mad at Him, He still loves us.



So, that surprise visit to my son (he did know I was coming) has turned into a huge weekend of passion for God and restoration. Who knew?

Two sleeps to go

I imagine that most families that celebrate Christmas have some sort of countdown similar to ours. We have counted down the sleeps to Christmas for many years now and we also use a similar countdown to other major events, but Christmas is the big one. So as you can see there are two sleeps to Christmas.

I recall counting down the sleeps when I was a child in Ireland. I remember waiting for Christmas morning to arrive to see what treasures Santa would bring. I vividly recall a Christmas when I sat by my bedroom window straining to hear the bells from the sleigh. I would sneak downstairs  in the hopes of catching Santa in the act. Unfortunately I was never successful at catching him, he was too quick for me, and of course all others.

Moving forward to my years of being a father to young ones, I recall their excitement as they waited for the big day. When they were little we had a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas eve, dressing Josh up as Joseph and Alex as Mary with baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths in her lap. Somehow they do not want to dress up any more. In those days we would have the countdown as I did when I was much younger

Now that they are older and even though there are no teens in this house, the excitement is still there. Now they enjoy shopping and purchasing for others. They have caught the joy of doing something to bless others. They realize how much of a benefit there is in watching the eyes of the receiver as they open a gift planned and bought in love.

What an amazing transition, from wide eyed child to wide eyed father watching my beloved children as they have traversed the pages of time and seeing them with new eyes as their adult lives have begun to unfold. My gift this year will be watching them  give to others without reservation and to their Mom and I.

Two sleeps to go and I am eagerly anticipating being awoken early on Christmas morning by a 23 and 20 year old as they prolong their tradition of serenading us awake to their version of "We wish you a Merry Christmas". How else would I want it?

Two sleeps to go and I am so excited.

The shopping is done

Wow, unlike previous years I am finished with my Christmas shopping. For gifts that is. There's lots to do for the big meal yet, but I have completed the task of shopping for gifts for my beloved.

Now what?

I have time to stop.  That's an interesting sentence, "I have time to stop". The hustle and bustle have been completed and I have no other reason to go and negotiate for parking spots or anything else in the mall or on "main" street.

Now, my focus is on my final preparations for Christmas, which of course is so much more than a day. Christmas is a season, a time, a state of mind. In preparation I have been trying to read the applicable scriptures and A Christmas Carol. Now, I can stop and enjoy the warmth of the fire, the sweetness of the tea, the soothing of gentle music, the smell of ink on page and the sounds of my family as they laugh with and at together.

Now I can stop and think about the choice that was made long before the universe began. I can think about when the fullness of time God sent His son, born of a woman to redeem all of us who are "under the law". I can wonder, question, and scratch my head until my fingers ache and still not understand how this came about and yet it doesn't matter how because I know why. Why did all this happen? It did not happen so we could enjoy the season, it didn't happen so we could sorrow over those who will be missing from the table, it didn't happen to allow us to lavish our love on one another, not it happened because God wanted to lavish His love on us.

Simple really. He loves us so He sent us our "get out of jail free card" if I can be so crass.  This creation He loved needs a redeemer kinsman and this little babe in swaddling clothes grew to be the redeemer kinsman. We could only be bought and redeemed by one who understood our station, who know what it means to hurt, who knows what it means to be overjoyed by love, who knows what it means to cry.

Yes, the shopping is done, the final price is paid, the most amazing gift has been given.

What will you do with this gift this Christmas? Will you accept it or give it back. It cannot be regifted because everyone has been offered this gift. What will you do with this Christmas gift? It is time. The  question "now what" has been answered.

Yes or No?

Your eternal life hangs in the balance.

How are you preparing for Christmas?

So, with all this talk of buying and giving and wanting and all that what are you doing to prepare for the big day, or the season of Christmas? It's here already, the season that is, but what else are you doing to make it special for you and others.

 Some watch all the Christmas specials, the old ones, I cannot get through Christmas without seeing "A Charlie Brown Christmas", or Boris Karloff in "How the Grinch stole Christmas". Others put the music on, for me it has to be "The Messiah" and a collection of my favourite oldies, "White Christmas", the "Chestnuts" song by Nat and even "The Littler Drummer Boy" duet with Bing and Bowie. Others read the Luke 2 version and still others read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".

We can't just let Christmas come without preparing. I'm not talking about the purchases, the food, the tinsel. I am talking about the emotional stuff that causes us to remember. I remember the first time I watched Charlie Brown and heard Linus speak those famous words about shepherds in the field. I cry every year when I watch the cartoon. Why? Because Charles Schultz got it right when he used the peanuts gang as an inclusive troupe to tell the real story about Christmas.

For me this year, I am reading A Christmas Carol. I don't like the Alistar Sim original version of the movie, I much prefer books. I will also spend time reading the gospels as they tell the story and charge us to "tell it on the mountain". Of course music will be playing regularly as I and we prepare for our son to be "Home for Christmas".

I am preparing for that 11 day period when the family foursome is finally together again, possibly the last Christmas we spend together in Canada for some time. His work may require him to be away next year and we will endeavour to join him wherever he is, so that we will be together for the Christmas season.

I am also preparing by thinking of those who are no longer with us on this earth. Both my parents passed at Christmas time over the years and you know of the loss of our friend this August. I will miss my Mom and Dad and my friend Ruth and will continue to do some of the things that my parents taught me about Christmas as part of a tribute and as a passing on of tradition and memories.

No matter how you are preparing for the celebration of Christmas, make time to remember why we celebrate Christmas. In the midst of the food, fun, gifts, movies, music and pandemonium take a moment and thank God for Jesus.

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat and so are we

Snow is falling, carols are playing, presents are being purchased and wrapped, the malls are busy, the roads are clogged and for the most part, people have started to become pleasant again. Why is it that during the Christmas season a certain pleasantness comes over people? Well, except in the parking lot of the mall where finding a spot is a little like the proverbial needle ion the haystack, or more appropriately, the white iphone in the snow bank.

I love Christmas, I have the perfect picture in my mind as to how Christmas should be, it's a little between the "ideals" magazine and a Rockwell picture. But, it often ends up a lot more like an Escher picture. Why? We(myself included) set amazing expectations for ourselves and others about how Christmas should be. But it's never like that is it? Christmas brings disappointments just as every other day does.

There is a way to change and eliminate the disappointments and that is to change the focus. I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to stop spending outrageous amounts on each other and even on people we may not like and give all that money to a shelter for abused women or a mission who feed people who live on the street? Oh to assuage our guilt we may throw a few bucks into the kettle as we walk from store to store racking up hundreds nay thousands of dollars on credit to make others "happy".

I am starting to sound angry and I am ...........at myself. I love my family and friends, do I need to buy them things to show my love? I already have too much compared to 80% of the people in this world. When do we make changes that make differences to other people?

Emmanuel had everything, but he found that obedience was more important than holding onto a crown. So on that first Christmas in an amazing feat, He took off His crown and became a man child. He came that we would be forgiven and not have to buy our way into heaven, that would have been impossible. "O Holy Night" is playing as I type and the third verse says

"truly He  taught us to love one another, 

His law is love and His gospel is Peace

chains shall He break for the slave is our brother 

and in His name all oppression shall cease"

Instead of becoming fatter (like the goose) this year, why not give to someone else and show a little piece of that love to another person who really needs that tie, scarf or whatever. Do something to cease the oppression of poverty, homelessness and abuse. Maybe, just maybe that joy you give will continue as others bring joy and that peace that we all so desperately need will come.

Merry Christmas...................................your move..................and mine!