It's Not Just A Clean Car

Every car looked like it had been through a storm. It had been a wet week and they looked like it because no one wanted to clean their car when more rain was forecast. One after the other, on and on they came, until . . . Everyone noticed it. Coming toward us was this wonderfully clean, beautiful black shining beauty. You could tell this guy spent time on his car. I first thought it must be a new car from a sales lot. As it came closer it was evident it was a few years old. I thought to myself, “This fellow is really focused on his car.” This car just stood out. You couldn’t do anything but notice the gleaming hand polished paint, the blinding chrome wheels, and the tires sprayed with a tire shine. I wasn’t jealous or anything I was just amazed at seeing a car, so clean in the middle of rain-drenched week.
My mind, being that I am very analytical, began to ask some interesting questions. The reason being, I used to spend time doing similar things but definitely not to this degree. I think it’s a man thing to some degree. We like our cars and we like them clean. Not to leave out the ladies who may have the same thing about their kitchens. Quickly I put away any thought of pride. Even though it is possible. The assumption is, this fellow just likes his car and he wants to take the best care of it for a long time. There is a difference.
So the question’s role. How much of his time does it take to keep his car this clean? Is the interior just as clean? The question arose, where does he keep it, as it can’t be parked outside in a parking lot? Knowing the make and model brought the simple question, why, it’s not worth a lot of money. This triggered another question about young men and their cars. Why do they purchase a cheap car and put in a $5000 stereo? I really ask this question when I am watching the car make over programs. Who really needs a ga zillion watt stereo? Does he do his own maintenance? Is it mechanically as sound as it is shiny?
As I watched the car disappear in my rearview mirror, I thought about cleaning my car a little. The yes response slowly disappeared as I remember the forecast for that night and I park my car in the driveway.
Other questions were replaced by others. Part of a bible verse came to me as I pulled in our drive, “you cannot serve both God and money.” Where am I spending my time? What is really important to me? What am I worshiping? Are there more pressing issues that life demands of my time. After all, do we really worship something that cannot respond to our love and affection?
And what about us? We are God’s creation. Does God look at us the same way this young man looks at his car? God indeed created us. I read in my bible He knit me together in my mother’s womb, and, He created us in their image. Does God want us to be squeaky clean, well maintained and in great running order? And we ask ourselves the same questions about ourselves that we asked about the clean car. How much of our time do we take to keep ourselves clean? Is the interior of my heart just as clean as the outside? What maintenance do we do and are we spiritually sound?
Unlike that car or someone’s kitchen, we can respond to God our creator. We can thank Him for our existence and our lives. How often do we do that? It is true that God wants our souls perfect. But unlike a car when someone does the work on it, we are the ones given the responsibility to maintain everything about ourselves. Maybe there is something we read in the verse, “worship God in your bodies.” Sitting behind the wheel of my not so clean car, I talked to God about what I can do next to improve His image in me. Colossians 3:10 “Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
Ask your own questions. Then ask yourself, who am I worshiping?
Rob

Are You Listening To Your Father?

Some people would think it cute as they point to the corner where a mom is saying something to her son. In defiance this little man sits both hands over his ears. Cute and comical, but not to the lad and less to the mom.
Fast forward a few years. Remember those times when the older a children gets, the less they want to listen? They want to do their own thing. Rules do not sit well with them. Oh, there are times they listen and even acknowledge we exist and we might know something they don’t, but don’t be deceived, it’s only a cover. The best one of all is asking the teen to turn down their stereo. They reply, “Can’t hear you”. Go figure.
As we raise our children in a society that told us there is always a scientific reason for everything, we ask what the science is behind a child ignoring their parents. Just to let you know, I ignored my parents a few time. Okay, a good number of times. “Don’t play with fire!” Okay, but we did put it out in time. “Don’t play on the construction companies bulldozer”. The nice police man turned it back off. “Do not, I repeat do not smoke or drink, it’s not good for you”. They were right, so I found out. There are probably more but you will have to catch me off guard to find out the rest. Like, the shotgun shell and the screwdriver.
The more mature in this crowd will admit, there were times, intermingled with the defiance when they did listen a lot of times. The irony of this whole thing is, you even tried things your parents never even dreamed about. I’ll let you in on something, they tried things you children never know even existed, “way back when”.
So why do we point a finger at Adam and Eve who didn’t listen? Is it not strange that one of the first stories our bible contains is a child of God figuratively covering their ears? We can all trace our ancestry back to Adam and Eve. Don’t try, but we can. Some would say we are chip off the old block.
Move ahead in time a few years. There we meet the preacher, Jonah. Nice guy, knew all the stories, even the Adam and Eve one. He probably had daily devotions where he read his bible and could even recite memory verses and passages of scripture. The congregation liked him. Many listened to him and some even put to practice some of the things he suggested. If he was around today, he would not only have a big church holding 20,000 people but he would have books, tapes, CD’s, radio shows and of course, a prime time tv show. But the greatest things about this evangelist was, God talked to him. And what did he do, he put his hands over his ears.
God said, “Go preach in Nineveh”. He said he want to go to Tarshish. God told him to walk over and he said he wanted a boat ride. Took him a while to get the picture. And when he did what God asked, he complained because the people repented.
It doesn’t take us long to list others, the spies, Saul, David, Peter, Me . . .
But then we turn the page. We read of the high points where people do listen. We read of Noah, of David turning the corner. We visualize the events of Job’s life and know that Peter came around. The disciples fled and hid themselves in a locked room. Until the women came to tell them Christ arose. This is what is says, “Peter got up and RAN to the tomb.”
By reading all these stories we are not discouraged. We will listen as well. We will, when we are tired of making mistakes and doing our own thing. Hear the words of Jesus, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest.” It is something akin to our change of heart. Baptism is one of those events. Baptism is when we declare to the world what has already happened in our hearts.
When Jesus presented Himself to be baptized by John, John did not want to listen. But in that sacred moment, standing face to face, John heard these words, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this . . . ” John wanted to be baptized by Jesus. Picture it. Imagine in your mind this amazing scene. John is standing waist deep in the Jordan River, His heart must have been racing a mile a minute. He takes Jesus in his arms, says a prayer and lowers him into the water. The voice from heaven concludes, “with Him I am well pleased.” Are you listening?

I Think We Have Forgotton

Remembrance Day has come and gone. For us who stood out in the rain, it was the least we could do for those who spent; days, weeks, months, years and even their lives fighting for the freedom that we enjoy. This year seemed different. I had trouble speaking. I choked on my words and found it difficult to say what I wanted to say.

The first service consisted of many children at the school. I talked about those who didn't made it home and those that did and how they are now old and leaving us quickly. And I talked about O Canada. Over the last few years I have noticed that the children who do not sing the national anthem are younger and younger. Just recently I stood in class with the grade 2-3 kids only to notice, all the girls sang but only one of the boys joined in. So, on this Remembrance Day, I asked them why not. It may not be cool to sing but all those dead military personal would relish the chance to sing it one more time. I pray they heard me and the teachers as well.

The third service brought it's own pull on my heart. No one remembered to respond to the poem with the word, "We will remember them". We must be forgetting, or we are loosing the importance of traditions like this one. As I stood, shoulder to shoulder with the air cadets, I only heard my own voice. When the Salvation Army Chaplin called us to prayer, another element of our lives seemed to evaporate into thin air. He began to recite the Lord's Prayer. Only a couple of cadets knew the words. These are not kids from other countries but our kids. In a country founded on Christian principals we have allowed discenters of Christianity take away the basis on which our country fought, grew and flourished. Three generations ago, most of these families attended church but not now. Something happened and we let it. Something happened and we are living the consequences.

Can it be to far off when the people of this country can not remember the National Anthem or the Lord's Prayer? I pray it will not happen. But then again, we never saw the mass exodus from church coming thirty years ago. Or did we not notice the five hundred people drive by the two hundred standing silently in the rain at 11 am on the eleventh?

They That Wait

Do you enjoy waiting? Lucky for most of us, we don’t mind the odd inconvenience that comes with waiting. Some people would say there are times when it is not one of my strong points. I have been known to pull out of a gas bar because I do not want to wait. Other times I have put down an item in a store and walk out without it. They tell us the average waiting time at the grocery store is nine minutes.
Two months ago I had a doctor’s appointment at the hospital. Now this is not my family doctor but a specialist. I try to be the first one in because I know some patients talk longer then the nine minutes allotted. This is the usual reason doctors get behind. Anyway, I arrived a few minutes early, brought a book to read and sat down in a corner away from the television news Chanel. Besides the book, I was entertained by watching people come and go (one of my hobbies). Before I knew it, I had read four chapters in the book. That is when I looked at my watch and discovered I had been there almost an hour. Do you think your time is valuable? I do, and I also knew that day, I had things to do and people to see.
By this time I could not return to my book even though I tried. I read a paragraph a couple of time before I gave up on continuing. This guy has just swallowed an hour of my time. Doesn’t he realize our time is important? That is when I said in my mind, I will give him an hour. At one hour, one minute I walked up to the receptionist and said, “I have been here over an hour and I will be back when the doctor can take me on time.” As I swung around to leave, I notice by the charts, there were still two patients ahead of me and two sitting in his rooms. Walking away I could hear the two ladies at the desk indignantly ask each other how someone could walk away from an appointment with their boss. Getting in the elevator I remarked to a patient getting off, “Good luck with your wait.”
No, waiting is not one of my strong points, with one exception. Over the years, there have been times that I wondered what God wanted me to do. I would ask about this idea, that situation, or what I needed to do today. Christ has called each of us to follow Him and God said, go into all the world and tell others of him. It is a general statement which can mean next door, down the street or in the checkout counter. He just wants us to go anywhere, but just go. Other times the question we ask is more involved and complicated. Should I change jobs, is this the right thing for me and my family. In life we really want to do God’s will. We wonder about this job or that position. We pray and ask and sometimes we get no as an answer. Many times we will also receive, WAIT.
Saul of the Old Testament was asked by God to worship when Samuel gets there. He waited and waited and finally he took it in his own hands and God was not happy. We have to remember, God’s timing is perfect just like Him. Lucky for us God has also said, “Those that wait upon the Lord, will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings like eagles, they will run and not faint.” Whatever you asked God about and you are waiting, wait for God, He has perfect timing and He never has I wait longer then we need to. Rob

Lest We Forget

Not unlike other Saturdays, most people will plan this coming weekend just like the last one. They will get in the car with their, “to do list” and head off here there and everywhere. I have to write all kinds of lists just so I don’t forget to do what I needed to do last week. There are lists for ‘immediate action’, a list of places to go and people to see. There is a list for things that need to be done around the house, a list for church and a list for things that can be done sometime in the future. Recently I found a list from two years ago and only one thing on the list is done. Makes you think, what is really important?
Weekends are great times. They are there for us to get done all those things that can’t be done while we work during the week. Let me know if this is your five day schedule. We get up, clean up, go to work, come home, eat dinner and listen to the stories of the rest of the family at the dinner table. Help with the dishes so you can have some time to talk to the spouse. Watch a little tv to relax and then say, goodnight. For a bit of variety you might even throw in driving the kids to hockey or music lessons.
Pretty typical schedule, don’t you agree? This must be why God gave us weekends. After all, we have to eat and groceries do not arrive unannounced. Kid’s need new shoes and Great Aunt Gertrude could use a visit at the nursing home. But this weekend needs to be different. Each one of us will change our schedule when situations come or arise. We make exception for all kinds of reasons. Things like birthday parties, trips to Storybook Garden, or a “First of the Season” sale at Sears.
Being who I am, I have to ask this, “Is Church part of the schedule or an exception? Is it routine or is it special? Why?
Many years ago, many, many, years ago, just last week, people all over Canada changed their routines. Changed their schedules. FOR WHAT? A university student half way to their dream vocation heard the appeal. An appeal similar to Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent voice that hits the airwaves Aug 7 1950, soliciting volunteers for a Canadian "Special Force" destined for action in Korea.
People needed! Needed Now! Over the decades people by the thousands put down their books, set down their hammers, resigned from their factory jobs because, King and Country needed them. And still today, as a father places flowers on his daughter’s grave at the Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa we read, "Today, we have at long last a place of rest that recognizes the unique contribution of these men and women to the defense of Canada, to the honour and pride of Canadians, and to the very building of Canada."
People fought, people died, people came home with physical and mental injuries that last a lifetime. The dream job gone, a life changed, but a free Canada. Canadian statistics only give us a glimpse, WWI 60,000 died, WWII 43,000 gone, Korean War 500, Afghanistan 36 and counting. All I can do is say, “Thank You” and sing, “O Canada, Our home and native land...”
Just wondering, what are you doing this Saturday around 11 am?