God: The Gardener - New Year Ahead

Today at work while waiting in a truck for one of my co-workers I was looking at a bunch of trees that had been pruned by some of the people I work with at the warehouse. Then it came from out of nowhere (as God often speaks to me - but rarely do I listen so intently) the verse in John where it talks about God being the gardener of all of his vineyard (paraphrasing here). It seemed in just a split second I was given a sermon on that verse. Many people love to garden and do things in their yards to make it look just right and to have the fruits and veggies of their labour be the best that they can be. They water, weed, prune, etc... whatever else garden people do. You can tell I am not a gardener. It is not my forte, but that is....okay digressing again. While the gardener tries to do all he can to get his garden in tip top shape, God does the same with us. In the verse (John 15:1-5) God is the gardener and we are the tree. Picture yourself as a tree.... a human tree with many many branches....on each of these branches are characteristics of who we are and what we do ... not only the really good stuff we do and are, but also the really bad and terrible stuff inside of us ... some of the really bad things are represented by those branches that are withering and dying. The really beautiful branches full of leaves and fruit are the ones that showcase our love, our obedience,
and all of the things that we do to the glory of God. The dead branches that our dragging us down are made known to us by the Holy Spirit. He reveals to us the things that we do that are keeping these beautiful branches from growing even more, and from more sprouts and offshoots of the good things that we already showcase to also become branches and then later become fruit, which is what God is looking for.
Many of us know some of the things that we do that are referred to here as the dead wood, but it is not until the Spirit reveals to us that we need to decide to let Him prune these branches off. He is not going to cut them off without our first asking Him to cut them off and help us so that they do not grow again. The longer we wait to acknowledge our need to cut off these areas in our life that need attention, the longer we will be dragging around dead wood, day after day. Better to be pruned often then eventually cut off at the root.

One of my resolutions for 2010 is to let God get the pruning shears and cut off some of the dead wood hanging off me. Stay tuned for an update in 365 days.

People are Crazy?

Sometimes we question the things people do, even the things we do .....and we wonder ..."What were they/I thinking". In the song "People are Crazy", Billy Currington sings about two guys who meet in a bar and discuss life, women, God etc.
The more I listen to the song I try to put it in a Christian perspective and think of the influence we can have on people who we barely know, but can have such a positive or sometimes negative influence on them. The next time you meet someone you hardly know, think for a split second and ask yourself if you want to make that positive outcome on someones life...better yet ask God to do it through you.

Wasting away???

It has been over six months since I blogged last, and certainly much has happened in that time. Quitting jobs, moving to Manitoba, being closer to family etc ....but even more than that is all the thinking I have done in that time and even more recently, especially this past week. I started thinking about this life, what matters, what does not, where time is wasted, what we value and the list goes on.

I was watching TV one day this past summer, and rather than just listen and watch for entertainment purposes I found myself watching and critiquing what was really being said as well as reaction from audience members. The TV show was Ellen, and for some reason I left it on there, because it was easier then looking for the remote. She was talking to some actress and it was amazing how the audience responded to her every word. One of the things they were talking about was the birth of child, who was now about three. Ellen asked her whether or not she wanted to have another baby right away, and the audience responded with a huge ovation. The actress then asked the audience, "Do you think I should have another baby"? The audience responded again yelling out loud and clapping at the thought of it. It seems to me that we are so interested in the lives of others to the point where we don't really care about the direction of our own. We want to hear what actors or actresses or Dr. Phil or Oprah are saying because our lives are so dis interesting in comparison. We have given way too much credence to these people, simply because they are on TV. Look at John and Kate and all the people who follow that crap. Their lives, make everyone elses seem quite mundane. The more TV shows I watched I continued to see the same pattern with the audience. I get the impression that people are thinking that everyone elses life is much more exciting than my own, so I can live my life through Ellen or Dr. Phil or John and Kate.

The second rant deals with kids nowadays and even some adults, who are so anti-social because of the computer games. World of war craft, Face book, My space and the list goes on. We are raising a generation of kids who will not know how to function in the outside world. Many kids hate to go outside and play let alone go outside at all because their lives have become that which lives in their computer. Their summer vacation is merely being on the computer every hour of the day. Cheap babysitting for parents, but what about the effect it will have on them when life happens.

It seems that most of the things being invented is to make life simpler for us.

How does this apply to me? Stay tuned, I am a work in progress, and a very slow one at that.

Sissy's Song

How do you handle stress. We all have it at one time or another, some deal with it way more often than others, and we all handle it differently. What stresses you out may not stress me out and vice versa. Some of the stresses that come to mind that I know I have at one time or another stressed about are my job, my family, my marriage, myself, my friends, the news, the way someone else drives, etc. I know others who have stressed about the same things and a whole lot more. Some days it seems we are bombarded with it to the point of screaming or yelling or pulling our hair out, or venting to someone/anyone who will listen. There has been no shortage of stress lately either with the sale of the house, subsequent move, and the searching for new jobs. The level for me has not been too high of late, because I am just not too worried about it....yet. It is still in the very early stages of everything. We all have ways that we cope with stress. One thing that has helped (just yesterday in fact)..... we were driving home from Manitoba and on the highway there were three police cars pulled over on the shoulder with lights flashing. As we got up closer we could see a van in the ditch with part of the passenger windshield smashed in. When we got home that night the story was already on the news that a 15 year old girl had died after being thrown from the vehicle. Times like these make me stop and ask myself "What really matters?" and "Do I really need to stress over things that when you stop and look at the problem ... it really is not that bad". I cannot imagine life without my son, or wife or very close friend killed in a car accident. Nor can I imagine how the driver of the van must be feeling. My stress is so infinitesimal by comparison. It is so unfortunate to use someone elses grief as a means to cope with our own stress, but this helps me to realize that my stress ain't shit by comparison. The two videos above are connected to the title of this blog "Sissy's Song". In the first video, Alan Jackson explains why he wrote the song. The second video is someone using sign language to describe the song. The third video is the actual Alan Jackson video of the titled "Sissy's Song". When I see how badly others are stressed by their life situations, I realise I have it pretty damn good. So next time you think you are really stressed (over a work issue or a relationship problem).......... think about it......and ask yourself how it really compares to the loss of a friend or family member. Amazing how the stress we thought we had goes away.

Thoughts - In sickness and in health...

Last week I experienced probably the worst sickness I have ever had or at least can remember. Except for a time when I was about 9 years old and had an appendicitis attack I have not experienced such pain as I did on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week. When we were were coming home from a visit in Manitoba on Sunday I was experiencing some leg cramps and back pain (back pain is definitely nothing new). I just thought it was due to all the sitting in the car over the last couple of days or sleeping in different beds. I went for a massage on Monday which seemed to help for the rest of the day and most of Tuesday but then I started to feel more "fluish". Chills and fever and a little bit of headaches started happening Tuesday. What followed were probably the two worst days for me as far as being sick. The only position I could manage without being in such immense pain was on my stomach, which was where I was, going from couch to bed even to the floor at times. I remember thinking on Wednesday morning if this were anything like the pain that my brother and sister experienced as they were battling cancer. I am sure I was in no where near the pain they were, but not having experienced anything like this before, I had nothing to compare it to. For those few days I had nothing to eat but a couple of bowls of soup and more juice than has probably ever entered my mouth in all my life. Funny how times like these make you think about life, pain and suffering etc...not just my own but others. Honestly, it made me think about assisted suicide. I have always been against the taking of a life, your own or someone elses. However, as I lay there in my state of pain, I did sympathise with those who have had thoughts of assisted suicide. There are millions of other people in this world who are experiencing high degree of pain everyday, and I am sure a number of them have had the thought of bringing the pain to a permanent end. For me, for even one brief moment, I thought death would be such a comfort right now if only to not have to experience this pain anymore. For me to have those thoughts, shows how much pain I was in. I still do not believe in taking ones own life for any reason....but I do understand why, at times, people are willing to take their lives when they are experiencing such pain and there is no relief in sight.

So this is Christmas

Christmas has always been a time I have looked forward to. From November 1st until after the New Year, I have Christmas music playing as a reminder of how much I enjoy the time of year. (too bad it has to happen in winter)

People, for the most part, are happier, albeit temporarily. However, it can be a very sad time of year for many for a number of reasons which include loss of job, loss of home (seems like there have been so many fires this month), no one to share family with, and even loss of family member at this time. The list can go on.

With Christmas, there is often a build up with anticipation, until the gifts are open or you get together with family. For me as I get older, the latter is the anticipation. As far as receiving gifts, that anticipation ended a long time ago as a child. As an adult, when you think about the gifts you might receive, often the anticipation of what you will get is much more exciting than the actual gift opening. For the most part you already have all you need, and what you don't get you could go out and just buy. There are times when we have all probably opened all of our presents and thought, "Is this it, is that all I get?" Devastated that you did not get the Nintendo Wii or a new piece of jewelry that you had asked for.
We are a fairly selfish people at times.

All this to say that this Christmas when you don't get what you want (and most likely don't need anyway) think about what other people are getting for Christmas, or what they are even doing at Christmas. When you watch the above video (not an easy thing to do to watch it all) by John Lennon, think about those who are off fighting in a war and risking their lives for you as you sit and unwrap that gift or of people who are wondering where their next meal is coming from. Or think about someone you know who this past year lost a family member or close friend and how for them Christmas will never be the same again. We often taken our gifts for granted. We don't stop to look at the daily gifts that we have in our family, and friends, and co-workers that we see all the time. Unfortunately, we usually only notice the gifts that they were to us after they are gone.

This Christmas, enjoy the times with the people you are with, because you may not have the same opportunity again next year.

Merry Christmas

50TH BIRTHDAY

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 50th birthday in Las Vegas and had a great time. Chris joined us for a few days and my brother and his girlfriend surprised us also with a visit and stayed for a few days also. The best tour we took was a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon (probably the best way to see it)...next time I think if we were to take the tour again, we would take the ride where the helicopter lands in the Grand Canyon and you stop for lunch and a walk around the Canyon. A trip I won't soon forget, that we caught on video.