Why is summer so busy!

Whoops, it's been a while since I've blogged!  It's the busyness of summer...summer gets loaded with so much 'stuff', and before you know it, it's over.  It seems like every weekend gets booked with work, family get-togethers, plans with friends, church activities, and if you're lucky, a chance to do some of those tasks around the house that need to get done.  After all that though, there's barely any time for you and your family.

So how do you stop and smell the roses in such a busy season?

1) Stop.  It's as 'simple' as that.  Notice how simple is in brackets?  I realize this is a difficult thing to do.  But sometimes we just need to stop everything we're doing and take a breath (or 10), and smile at the blessings around us.

2) Deliberately schedule time to rest.  This can also be a tough one.  When there are so many things on the to-do list, it's hard to schedule time to not do anything.  This may lead to an inner battle, where you'll be fighting to tell yourself that you are not wasting time in those moments.  But rest assured, you are not.  You are giving your mind and your body some much needed rest.

3)  Enjoy the small things.  Not everything has to be big for us to enjoy it.  We don't have to go on a road trip every weekend.  We don't have to make it to every out of town family gathering.  Some things on the to-do list can wait a few months.  An hour at home or at the park with the family can be better than driving two hours to get somewhere 'fun'.

4)  Don't forget about God.  When life gets busy, what's the first thing that gets dropped to make room for everything else?  Let's not sugar-coat it, for a lot of us, it's our devotions.  But when you're doing 'busy' without God, that's a recipe for disaster, stress, fatigue, and the classic 'grass is greener' syndrome, to name a few.

There are lots of other tips, but we're already busy enough without trying to remember 15 different things.  Pick one or two of these, try them out, and see how you feel.

Now to put it into practice myself...wow, those roses outside my window really are quite pretty...

It's all in how we react

I'm debating what to blog about this week - take the easy way out and blog about excitement over the World Cup, or jump into the deep end and talk about the provincial elections.  Meh, I've never been one to play it safe...

So Kathleen Wynne's liberals won a majority government yesterday.  A surprise victory, as no one predicted a majority government.  Everyone thought it would be a tight - at least, tighter - race.  Not so the case.

What I wanted to write about is our reaction as Christians.  Much of this stems from what happened on the LIFE Facebook page yesterday and today - https://www.facebook.com/officialLife1003?ref_type=bookmark, and scroll to Thursday night's comment about congratulating the Liberals.  (I'm also seeing a lot of people posting their outrage on their personal Facebook pages).  It's not wrong to have an opinion, but we must be careful about how we express it.

If I can make a large generalization here, it's no secret that most Christians are Conservative, or at least not Liberals.  So the Liberals winning a majority is not what many Christians wanted to see yesterday.  Nonetheless, we have a choice in how we react, as we do in every situation, every day of our lives.  We can be upset, grumble, complain, and even trash-talk.  Or we can offer our congratulations, and pray for our new leaders, even if we disagree with their stance(s).  I believe that's taking the high road.

There is already too much negativity associated with Christians and Christianity.  We are seen as judgemental, mean-spirited, rude, ignorant, and narrow-minded.  Reacting with anger to an outcome we do not like simply perpetuates these thoughts.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."  The best thing we can do is show love.  Whether we or not we agree with a party or an election outcome.  Whether we're happy or not.  We are called to show love.

A pastor friend of mine posted the 1 Timothy 2:1-4 passage on his Facebook page, about praying for our leaders.  So many of us have posted and referenced this passage during the election.  But I love what he said about the passage - "Let us remember who was in government when Paul penned these words".  That's a great thought.  Paul was oppressed, at risk for his life, constantly beaten and imprisoned, and yet still he encouraged people to pray for our leaders.  He did not speak negatively of them.

Let's mimic a great example set by a great apostle of Christ.

You can't have it both ways...

The story out of Moncton, New Brunswick this week has been absolutely devastating.  Three RCMP officers killed, two others severely wounded, and an entire town gripped by fear and locked in their homes.  No individual, family, or community should ever have to go through that.  My heart goes out to every person affected.

As I've been watching this story unfold over the past couple of days though, something odd has jumped out at me.  On the news, I've been seeing signs on businesses and store fronts.  I've seen it all over facebook and twitter.  I've heard it said in conversation.  "Pray for Moncton".

I 1,000% agree.  I think we all would.  What strikes me as odd, though, is that people are turning to prayer.  It's a great thing.  But our North American society - generally speaking - has become anti-religious, anti-God, anti-prayer...anti-anything to do with religion.  Laws are passed to keep religion and God out of our schools, workplaces, public places, etc.  Those who do speak up about their faith are often ridiculed and laughed at...or at risk of being suspended or losing their jobs.

Then a major tragedy like this hits, and the first thing we do is turn to prayer.  And I don't mean Christians, I mean our society.  "We offer our thoughts and prayers to the families affected".  How many times have you heard a politician say that?  People post on Facebook reminding others to "Pray for Moncton".  It's the big message everywhere that everyone is echoing.  But give it a few weeks.  Once this tragedy fades from our minds, it'll abruptly be back to "no religion in our society, thank you very much."

If we as a human race instinctively turn to God in our pain and weakness, shouldn't we also turn to Him when things are good?  Wouldn't a God who created us want to know us at ALL times, the good and the bad?  We can't just call out when we need Him, take His help to work through the pain, and then ban Him from our lives when we don't need Him anymore (or think we don't).  Talk about an abusive relationship.

Sorry God.  That's pretty mean of us.

5 years!

Yesterday my special lady and I celebrated 5 years of marriage.  I realize that for many people reading this, 5 years is nothing - we're still in our 'infancy' in our marriage life.  That being said, there are a lot of marriages that don't get to the 5 year mark...but that's not what I'm here to talk about.

It's been a great 5 years.  She is awesome, and I am blessed.  We're actually quite 'lucky' because we really don't argue all that often...we're generally on the same page with everything.  I guess that's what marrying the right person can do - you think the same way, laugh at the same jokes, and have the same beliefs, all of which are important and guiding factors in all of our lives.  Having someone on the same track as you makes life a whole lot simpler.

I've also learned that marriage - and fatherhood - is a lot of work.  Great, rewarding work, but work nonetheless.  It takes time.  Effort.  And perhaps hardest of all, self-sacrifice.  But that last point is huge.  I think part of the reason our marriage has been so smooth - among many other things of course - is that we always put each other first.  That means that when we're sitting on the couch downstairs and she mentions that she's thirsty, I go get her a glass of water.  Even if it means getting out of my comfortable, cozy position on a wonderfully warm couch, and walking all the way upstairs when I'm tired and all I want to do is sit and relax.  I do it because she's first.  And that means that when I did the morning shift for so many years (pre-kids), she would wake up with me at 4am everyday to fix me a breakfast and lunch.  It means you put the other person's needs above your own.  (This is biblically based stuff too - check out Philippians 2:3-4, and Mark 10:44-45.)

I know we're only at the 5 years mark, but I look forward to many more years of serving my wife.  And to any unfortunately immature guys out there who think that's me being "whipped", it's not.  It's the key to a happy marriage.  Try it.

T-shirt war

I'm not one to talk about celebrities.  In fact, I generally couldn't care less about their lives, pop-culture, and the media fascination.  But this...this is different.  This is fantastic.

Macauley Culkin has become my hero for the day.  This t-shirt battle between him and Ryan Gosling is epic.

It started with...(still don't know why he is wearing this...)

To which Macauley Culkin replied:

BEST RESPONSE EVER!

Now if the photoshoppers are actually able to predict the future and this happens, I'll be thrilled:

Now while this is truly fantastic, it's not the best t-shirt war to grace the world, and it's not the original. THIS is perhaps the best t-shirt battle ever created.  Enjoy!

Boko Haram

The world has been gripped by the news of what's happening in Nigeria - 276 teenage school girls kidnapped by an extreme terrorist group called Boko Haram (which means 'western education is sinful'), who are looking to implement a strict Muslim state.

If you've listened to LIFE for a while, the name Boko Haram is not new to you.  You've heard it several times on 'Beyond the Comfort Zone', where I look at the struggles and persecutions of Christians around the world.  Nigeria is one of the worst places because of Boko Haram, and every couple of weeks a new story emerges of Christians being slaughtered, churches being burned, etc...  Hundreds of Christians are chased down, and brutally tortured and murdered by this group every year.  (In fact, the group kills thousands of people each year - a quick internet search will turn up dozens of stories, many of them recent.)

Now there's this story of the captured teenage girls.  It's maddening that this still happens in our day and age.  It's infuriating that people still haven't learned to treat each other with respect, that some see themselves as better than others.  And it's frustrating that it takes the capture of almost 300 teenage girls for the world to finally take notice of one of the worst terrorist groups in the world.

Now on the positive side of that last frustration, it's good that the world has finally noticed, and is doing something about it (better late than never). Canada, the US, and Britain have all offered help in finding the girls.  There is mounting pressure on the Nigerian government, international news coverage, and several social media campaigns.  We pray for the safe return of these girls.  And we pray that this will be the catalyst for the world to start to take note of Boko Haram, their religious extremism, and their persecution of Christians.

Think Big

I've been challenging myself to think bigger lately.  It's really easy to fall into routine.  You do the same thing day in, day out.  You know exactly what's expected of you, and exactly how to do it.  You know when your alarm clock will ring, when you have to be at work, when you'll finish, what your job entails, etc...   and if you don't watch out, it all becomes standard and, dare I say, boring.

I'm not at the point of boredom, certainly not, but I do find myself falling into routine.  It's easy.  I find myself knowing exactly what's expected of me at work, at home, at church, with my friends...  I know how to do it well (or at least fool people into thinking I know what I'm doing, haha).  Worst of all though, I find that I sometimes fall into the routine of praying the same things...over and over, so much so that they've lost their meaning.

Hence, the title of this post.  I think an important cure for this trap of 'the routine' is to think big.  It's when we get tunnel-visioned, caught up in only our own little worlds (remind you of a Matthew West song?) that we start to fall into the ordinary and unimaginative.  We see only our own needs, our own desires, and only what we want to achieve.  We forget to see the bigger picture - that there are people in need; that we can do so much good with small gestures of love and kindness; that spending time at work and with family are blessings, not obligations.  Most importantly though, we forget that God is calling us to more.

Here's one of my absolute favourite quotes:

To sinful patterns of behaviour that never get confronted and changed,

Abilities and gifts that never get cultivated and deployed -

Until weeks become months,

And months turn into years,

And one day you're looking back on a life of deep intimate gut-wrenchingly honest conversations you never had,

Great bold prayers you never prayed,

Exhilarating risks you never took,

Sacrificial gifts you never offered,

Lives you never touched,

And you're sitting in a recliner with a shriveled soul,

And forgotten dreams,

And you realize there was a world of desperate need,

And a great God calling you to be part of something bigger than yourself -

You see the person you could have become but did not;

You never followed your calling.

You never got out of the boat.

- Gregg Levoy

I don't want to be the guy that misses out on 'a great God calling me to be part of something bigger than myself.'  Hence the challenge - think big.  Think God's kind of big.