Church

Tonight my wife and I headed downtown to the post office.  Now, remember, this is small town Saskatchewan.  We can walk downtown to the Post Office!  A whole six blocks!!  At 815 pm.

The mail was merely flyers.  So we stood in the post office.  Read about Canadian Tire sales.  Blow up beds for company.  115 piece drill sets.  And other essentials.

Across the street — now 8:15 — the pharmacy is the only shop open on main street.  We venture in to buy a pen.  I guess it was a bit of a venture — we’re the only ones there!  The cashier looks bored.

On the walk home we run into a senior.  I’ve gotten to know him a bit this past year.  A few moments of talk and we wish each other well.

Down two more blocks and we see a friend.  She has just renovated her back yard.  We stop in for a few moments and discuss trees and rocks and decks and patio lights.

Now 9:15 we head up the last few blocks to home.  The sun is receding and solar lights are populating the lawns. 

Not a record — but 1 hour to walk 12 blocks.  I’ll check my pedometer and see if I could go any slower!

For all you American readers – an approximate George Carlin quote (or so I’m led to believe!):  Save gas.  Kilometers are shorter than miles, so use kilometers next time you go for a drive.

Word today of another foiled terrorist act.  A pipeline has been shut down which supplied a large part of American oil. 

Gas prices are soaring and air travel is being grounded.

I’m preaching on faith this weekend.

Faith to believe what God said he will do.  Contentment and not worrying fit right in there! 

If I took a short poll of people around the world, I wonder how we would do on the “faith scale”?

Well, today was a hot one – even for Saskatchewan! 

I was back in the office after vacation.  I received a return phone call.  Was I available to play some golf?

Now, normally, I’m not so preoccupied that I can’t take an hour or two away. 

But I’d been away for three weeks of holidays.  I had slipped in yesterday to get a head start.  Today, I could see work piling up as I spoke. 

I declined. 

Later, I stepped out the door.  Suffocating heat surrounded me.  Not a day to be outside! 

Somedays a round of golf, left for another day, is wisdom in action!

I’ve been reading through Jim Cymbala’s book “Fresh Faith.”  The premise is that we do not presume upon God, but do take him at his word.  Words that speak of the good God has planned for those who trust in him (John 7:38).  Words that speak of being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb. 1:1-2).   And even words that say “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”  (Gal. 5:6)

So where am I at on the faith spectrum? 

I’d like to think I’m an eternal optimist but there are days I wonder about God’s power to heal, or to provide for those who are poor, or to overcome simple “old nature” impulses.  Then there are the other days . . . when I’m overwhelmed by just the simple story of a coincidence piled upon a coincidence that can no longer be called anything but a miracle. 

I guess I just keep coming back to ground zero – to know God.  That is the beginning of faith, and the continuation of faith, and the end of faith.