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The church that flourishes tends to have a strong positive cultural toolbox.

This toolbox contains their stories, their dreams and their past, present and future pathways.

All things work together for good – but seemingly not for those who are negative or unconcerned – who may have decided that looking ahead shows only the bad of the past and the despair that there will be no change.

Instead, good working is seeing the past as instructive, as able to be adventured through, and able to come to the next day with resilience.  God is willing, we need to be obedient.

A while back my father was reading my blog.  In 2005 I began a regular daily blog posting at www.ronbaker.ca.  I had tried for ronbaker.com as a website but a car salesman in California had already bought the domain.  And I wasn’t quite ready to be a used car salesperson.

My father, until his passing, would venture to my blog regularly.  He commented that he was amazed how I could come up with so many things to write about – every day. 

I keep that comment in the back of my mind.  Sometimes I find myself wandering down a single rabbit trail for way too long.  When my thoughts begin to collapse onto each other, and they all look the same – then I am ready to find some new creative avenue to explore.  I am designed for the new.  And yet . . . I love the old.

I am a trained archivist, even having served as the president of the Saskatchewan Archivist’s Society.  I treasure the days I can sit in an archive, find an old magazine or book, or even listen to oral histories of the aged.  And maybe that helps to design the new that I seek.

While the saying “there’s nothing new under the sun” needs to nuanced (of course, if all is flux then every moment is new), there is something to understanding that the birthplace of ideas tends to be an extension of previous creative efforts, all of which stem back to the creative God. 

And so I continue to write (I’m trying to get back to regular from the intermittent of the last few years).  One sentence can start a whole blog and I love finding out where that will end – so I can start anew from the end of yesterday!

I continue to work through the question of “privacy”.

In Canada we have privacy commissioners.  These are public representatives – working in both the public and private sphere.  Anyone who is front facing to the public is exposed to scrutiny.  This encompasses both public events, speeches, hospital visit reports, Facebook postings, etc.  Has private information been leaked to the public without permission – intentionally or unintentionally?  Are privacy protocols in place?  Is there a rebuttal path for those who are offended?

Which addresses the bigger question of reputation and image.  We live in an age of control. 

OR not having control.  In the workplace there may be little overall control of what happens.  Memberships in various organizations means conformity to the standards which control the group.

We want a place where we can do what we want, when we want, with whomever we want.  This is what is often labelled as our private life.  Stigmas of society are not to enter this private place.  We can choose what right-ness we want to follow in this private place.  As a society that jealously guards individual autonomy this is our last bastion of “safety and security”.

That’s the one side.

Until we run up against a society that is based in communal care and concern.  Parameters need to go around how that society works – yes, evil intentions can destroy others as easily in a communal society as in an individualistic society.

But somewhere along the line I’m thinking a little less privacy, and a little more directed care would be helpful.  A lot more compassion for the other and their state of life, and a lot less condemnation would brighten others days.  A lot less of our identity being harboured in our private caves and hideaways, and a lot more finding out final identity in God and what God says of who I am.

Maybe these concerns need to be a part of how we view privacy?

Just some thoughts.

In the world of Christians, renewal has taken on varying meanings.

We might immediately think of renewal as replacing or repairing what is worn out or broken down in our lives.  From these past few years many are tired, some discouraged.  We need renewal.

But I wonder if a second consideration is in order?

Have you thought of renewal in your life as the resuming an activity after a period of dormancy, interruption or inactivity?  Look back over the last while.  Have you dropped some very good habits?  Do you need to renew some activities that were dropped because the circumstances warranted it?  Is it time to resume?