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What a fun conversation!

Our church has a flat roof leak.  Not unlike a million other steel buildings with flat roofs.  Was it an original design flaw (our building and a myriad others in the area all started with leaks)?  Was it a lack of proper maintenance (something most of us have never heard of – the idea of a steel roof was that it would remain permanent over time)?  Was it the wind and weathering of the prairies (that one explains old wrinkled prairie-ites gazing at the roof thinking weather could never affect steel, as though ageing never affects us)?

Well, at the table we let the imagination go.

Why worry about fixing the current roof.  Just build over top.  Maybe put a garden up there to absorb water.  How about a roof that has great design patterns that invite conversation.  Maybe use a dome to cover the whole building.

By the time a few minutes passed I was into all sorts of options.  How do you think we could fix a flat roof leak?

In the last few days I’ve been impressed by the depressing action of those who are low on forgiveness and high on condemnation.  People’s lives and loves can be broken by not being able to forgive, which results in separation and all that entails.  There is no grace!

So, divorce can cause bankruptcy, family relationships can be ruptured, a simple disagreement rises to block the sun. 

Many years ago I sat in a lecture series by a leading academic.  We spent the better part of hours looking at, dissecting and reassembling the word “grace”.  At the time I thought a dictionary definition, those one or two sentences, would have been sufficient.

I’m coming to wonder!  Wonder that people can be less than graceful.  Wonder that those definitions just scratch the itch.  Wonder that the complexity of human life can miss such a simple explosive truth.

As I watch the lives around me, grace is taking on the picture of a rope tossed to drowning people.  Those thrashing in the waters of bitterness are so busy trying to strengthen their swimming skills so they don’t drown, they fail to see that they could just grab the rope and be lifted out of the water.  But, of course, grabbing the rope means leaving behind all the great survival exercises they have learned, and instead learning one exercise, that of merely grabbing, trusting and hanging on for dear life!

What pictures of grace do you see?

Once in a while I see a quote that just strikes me as a great picture.  I picture this quote related to the current North America trend towards less than moral life, more than expected selfishness, and people who proclaim that bad is good.

Try this out!

From Rick Warren –  “You know that the sun is setting on a culture when small men cast long shadows”.

I enjoyed math in my teens.  Still do.

When I sit with friends and we are figuring out the cost of a meal, or the number of chairs in a stack, or . . . It’s kind of a contest on my part to see how quickly I can figure that out.

I loved being able to count to 100 when I was in grade school.  I took extra math classes in my final years of high school.  I figured . . . and that was the fun part.

I still find that I dumb down math figures just to satisfy the general thought that rounded off numbers are easier to convey to someone. 

This afternoon I was doing some banking.  After I completed the banking I was ready to tell my wife that we had about $250 available in the account.  Of course, I had in the back of my mind that it was $253.71 (if I remember correctly – of course, old age is playing havoc on my memory!).

And so, in the midst of living with approximations in life, I still like to know the actual figure.  I guess math still lives as king!!