The Walk

In this life we are all on a journey or a walk. Maybe a journey toward a goal, sometimes it is a journey to get away. The video above by Sawyer Brown talks about a walk in the singers life at different stages.......first day of school, turning 18 and then being drafted to serve in the army, and then a time where his father is in need of being in a care home. There are so many other walks that we take in this life including a spiritual walk. A walk with God. I know I can say that my walk with God has changed so much over the last 25 years. A walk at times that seemed so close (especially the first couple of years) to a time where the walk is probably at a point at this time that I would describe like a friendship where you meet someone, and then meet them again.....only it has been 5 years down the road. You start over (to a point) getting to know them again, but before too long it is at the point where it has been awhile since you have seen or heard from them. What happened? I decided I needed some "other friends" that I could spend time with. You may know the ones....the ones that keep us from the friends who keep us on the straight and narrow. The ones that we have a great time with at the time and then regret or perhaps regret what happened. The line in the song "I took this walk you're walking now boy, I've been in your shoes" certainly applies to my life. It is always hard to take the advice of someone, even when you know what they are saying makes perfect sense. You are too busy enjoying the company of the "fun" friends, and the possibility of meeting even more good time friends.

Do you believe?

Commercials are all over the TV lately with athletes asking "Do you believe". Not asking about your faith in a higher being, but whether we believe that they can perform well in the upcoming 2010 Olympics. I think to myself, I don't really care.... not because I don't love sports, I do. But my problem is it is just a sport, and I think we put way too much emphasis on things in life that don't matter. For instance, Leno vrs Conan, Tiger and Elin, or John and Kate, or who will win the Superbowl. I mean really, who cares....after all none of those previously mentioned things don't mean $#!% to me nor should they affect me. There are way too many things more important that that crap.... yet we seem to get caught up in it because that is all everyone else is talking about.

So back to the question at hand....Do I believe? Hmmmm,,,,, Over the past several months I often ask and think to myself "What do I really believe?" I say (with ease) I believe in God creator of the world and in Jesus Christ his only Son. I can say that, but a lot of the times what I do and what I think do not go hand in hand with what I say. Which makes me wonder if I really do believe what I say I do. If I did believe what I say I do, would I not live according to that. Then I started thinking, if I don't believe what I say I do, then why am I living like I am. Let me explain. If I do not (or if you do not) believe in God and Jesus Christ then why are you living like you do/should. Why try to do good, why bother helping your fellow man if all you believe is that you live, pay your taxes and die. Shouldn't I/you party all the time and do whatever because in the "scheme" of life, it does not matter because there is no heaven or hell that we are trying to get into our stay out of.
What got me thinking about this was observing others (friends, strangers, acquaintances) and how they lived, talked etc. Then I started the comparison test. You know the one ..... comparing them to me. For the most part people were a lot like me. Some were much nicer, thoughtful, caring, loving etc. Some were just plain &&$*^( .... let's say mean (all that matters is what I think - I am sure you know people like that). None of these people had or have a faith in God ...... so what makes them live as they do. Likely how they were brought up, and how society and the media tell you how you should live. But if you have no belief in an afterlife why would you live a life that society shows us as a way to live. All that to say I am just beginning to question things again.

Sounds like life to me

Do you ever get tired of "those" people who seem to wine and complain about everything. We all complain once in awhile, but there are those who will always see the negative side of every situation. On facebook, there are friends who in their status post how their marriage sucks or how their kids never listen or how they have the worst job (yeah I know, sounds like my status). I guess I have come to believe that, "Hey, this is life". It is not a fantasy, if it were we would never have the problems we do, but real life is full of bad times, good times and just plain old 'same old same' times. Besides, if life were like that (fantasy) we wouldn't need Visa :)

The chorus in the video "Sounds like life to me" says....

Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me.

So next time you are experiencing those minor issues in life, suck it up buttercup, and enjoy the journey.

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.