Church

This past week we began to announce our daughter’s wedding.  With vigor.

Our local paper has an announcement section.  So we included a wedding picture, much like I have on the blog here.  Then we added some words just to let people know the parents names.

Now, Jill has made up some nice announcements to send out to friends around the country and globe.  She is carefully addressing them right now.  And soon the mails will carry them across time zones and locations.

So, I’m thinking once again — some of you may want to stop reading now!!

Superficial approaches to life seem to be all the rage.

News reporting a few decades ago was “just the facts, ma’m”.  These small bits of observation were sufficient information.  Our worldviews were surrounded by a Judeo-Christian foundation.  We knew right from wrong – inside the bedroom and outside.  We could categorize the information we heard as good and bad.  Truth could be measured by a universal standard — or this was the hope.

Then, our world moved to “postmodernism”.  Truth as universal was dumped.  Your truth was what you made up, or what was affirmed in a smaller grouping of people.  Each person or group had their own truths, some complementary and some contradictory.  Although we wanted to be tolerant, all truths must now compete with each other — unless you want to be a hermit (a near impossibility in our global world).

So newscasts were extended.  Often this was done to explain the rationale for actions.  Actions which in the past would have been quickly categorized as right or wrong — now were seeking to be recategorized.  The most passionate actions tended to make the six o’clock news.  With no universal standard, experiences of passion and fervor became the standard of right and wrong.  Whatever your experience, as long as you entered fully into it, it was right for you. 

LIfe took on the need to enjoy the experience, to be “fun.”  If you were suffering or happiness was not yours, then you must remedy the situation.  Sue for compensation so that you have enough money to be happy.  Or perhaps change friends constantly if you do not have the gumption for conflict.

I suggest we are superficial.  Once you scatch past the surface of “experience” (existentialism in philosophical terms) you must confront death — four funerals in a weeks’ time makes you wonder.  You can remain consistent and say “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” — or you can search out what has been labelled as religion — that part of life that sees an existence past our own person and time.

Just another thought here — some people have tried to turn religion into a death creating institution.  Religion wrongly followed — religion that has returned to making ourselves God — is deadly.  Religion that takes us outside ourselves steps in the right direction.  The question is — which religion brings life?

Well, two days and we’re back. 

The days away were quiet and restful.  We didn’t rush around, took time (I’m not sure how one “takes” time, other than to not take time!) and got home refreshed and tired.

There have been other vacations.  With the same result.  I’ve totally enjoyed myself.  And yawned and required my wife to drive home — falling asleep while driving is never a good thing!

I hit the office in the afternoon.  Nothing that was overly urgent.  Tomorrow I will take up some administrative details, write a sermon and get back into the groove.

Until then, good night all — and may you be refreshed.

We are in Saskatoon.

After having received a gracious “push” to take some days off, we arrived in Saskatoon around noon.  First order of business was to get pictures printed of our daughter’s wedding.  While waiting for the “one hour” photos we sat at MacDonalds.  Both of us had a tea.  I also had another cup, this time of warm milk.

Then off to Princess Auto (after checking in to a motel).  Jill was quite surprised.  This is not just an auto store.  There were computer parts . . . and electric tools . . . and the type of stocking stuffers our son-in-law Scott will just love!  I escaped without spending a cent, but this will be a stopping point in the future!

The next stop was to Michael’s — the craft shop.  We exited off Circle Drive onto Preston Avenue — the street where the store was said to be according to the phonebook.  As we exited we saw a store with a sign proclaiming “Michaels”.  “Must be the clothing store by the same name.”  “Right.”  “Let’s keep going.”

Twenty kilometers, and 3/4 hour later, we arrived back at the sign!

The store is a regular treasure trove of decorations and adornments.  I even enjoyed the tour of the store — which was an hour in length.

Then off to Montana’s.  A great steak house where we ate chicken!  Thanks, B&B, for the Christmas gift certificate.  We were finished before the waitress had time to breathe — a busy night!

The return to the motel saw us take in a movie or two.  We are now listening to some worship music — a fitting way to clear our heads.  Even after fairly innocent movie fare we felt there were better ways to end the day.

On the way to Saskatoon today, we listened to “The Time That Remains” by Mary Funderburk and Twila McBride and sung by Corey Emerson on his CD called “Sanctuary.”  Corey writes of this song:

This song reminds me of a missionary I wish I had known. It was in May of 2001 that I heard the name Roni Bowers. She was the missionary who was killed, along with her baby, Charity, when a Peruvian military jet shot down their airplane. Her husband had called and asked if I would sing at her funeral. He shared how she would listen to my first CD all the time while in the Amazon and that one of the songs, “Make Me In Your Image,” was her favorite. It absolutely humbled me.
We have no idea as to the impact we make in people’s lives. Whether it’s being used as a source of encouragement or a harvester of souls, as we live for Christ we touch people’s lives – oftentimes without our knowing. “What is our life? It is but a vapor that appears for a short time and then vanishes away.” May we, like Roni, make the most of every moment in living for our Savior and investing in people’s lives.

For Jill and I, this song has special meaning.  In 2001 Jill was close to death.  So close we were writing her will with renewed understanding of the shortness of life.  We listened to this song.  The song begins:

I know my days were numbered

Before I drew my first breath

But I have no way of knowing

When I’ll close my eyes in death;

I only have this moment, and before it slips away

I want to make a difference while it’s still called today

 

In the time that remains I will lift high the cross

And in Jesus’ name be a light to the lost

I pray I won’t live one moment in vain,

For all that I have is the time that remains.

Now, five years later — how easily we lose sight of eternity in keeping the moment alive!