Monthly Archives: January 2010

My father used to wonder how I could write a blog regularly.  There were days where I just had a word, or a phrase or a visual. 

When I would sit down the words would start to come.  Some call it free association.  I guess I just think of it as following my thoughts.

My father loved to find the bookmark to my blog.  Not for some kind of brilliance, I think, but perhaps for his son’s thoughts.

Now that he has died, I cherish that thought.  And perhaps I write as though he were still listening.  About nothing and everything.  For the enjoyment of it.

My sister directed me to her Facebook pictures today.  She lives in the southern part of Saskatchewan where snow has piled up over the weekend.  Fifteen feet high in some places – like their driveway.  You can bodysurf down the drift!  You can’t get to town!

I was reminded of the stories my parents had told.  In 1955 I had been taken to the town hospital.  Their farm yard ended up being covered while I was there.  Their hired man (whom I understand lived elsewhere) came and picked me up.  He took me back and carried me into the farm.  There is a picture of some of those drifts.

In my mind I have always thought these were fictional pictures even though people were in the picture who could be identified.  Why my mind twisted that event, I’m not sure.  Perhaps it had to do with detachment issues?  Or the fact I’ve never seen that much snow on the Saskatchewan plains?

Well, today I’ve had to repent.  I now believe!

I’m a person who loves to be active.  I love to plan a day so that one thing flows into the next.  I derive enjoyment from a productive day.

Then there are the days that are really meant to slow us down and recreate us – our sabbaths.  In a society that has no sense of sabbath, the external pressure to stop is gone.

Some of us, the older ones, remember days when Sundays found few stores open.  In fact, I remember Wednesday afternoons having stores closed.  Now some larger stores are open 24 hours a day, with maybe Christmas day closing.

I think I too easily slip into that pattern.  To break this, I listen to others (maybe not as well as I should).  I am also learning that the root of not taking a Sabbath often comes down to fear.  I fear that I’m the only one who can do a certain task, so I stretch into the day of rest.  Or I fear that what I do is the foundation for others, and that they need my help “right now.”  Maybe not!!

I’m writing this to remind myself.  As one person enjoined, “Start your week now.”  I’ll be looking for my sabbath this week.  Let’s see how it goes!!

Finally, I’ve started to put my sermons on the internet.  They have been recorded for the last few years – digitally for the last year or so. 

The last few weeks I’ve had requests for a sermon or two I’ve preached.   Someone asked if they could access the sermon online.  I said we had CD’s but not web access.

Which got me thinking.  Partly because of an email my brother-in-law sent (a preacher in Oregon), I popped onto the Canby Alliance Church website and saw where they had made access to my brother-in law (Tim Barton) quite easy.  That led to a phone call or two.  The computer savvy assistant pastor, Kyle, pointed me to Sermon Cloud.

So, I have my first sermon on their site.  In the next while I hope to link from our church website, www.kindersleyalliance.com, to the sermons.  But, until then, head over to www.sermoncloud.com and type in Kindersley Alliance.  Up will pop the sermon text and a link to streaming audio, or to a download (using icons that hopefully you will understand).  Give it a try.  Let me know what you think.