Anniversary Clock

It took a long time to occur but it happened a few days ago. I have one of those 400 Day Anniversary Clocks. It takes a year for it to run down, therefore, the name. It sits on the piano in the front window. It looks wonderful in the dark with the lone street light casting its glaze on the rotating spheres. While I love walking by it at the end of the day, I wonder how long it will keep going. I bought it at a garage sale for $10 and it’s been going ever since. Just needed to be set up perfectly. There was another clock that I would love to own. It’s the Atmos Clock. Many years ago, a clockmaker put together a clock that was almost perpetual. It keeps going longer then I had ever heard of before. The change in barometric pressure is what winds that clock.
Another clock that fascinates me is located at the entrance of the Smithsonian in Washington. There you will see an enormous pendulum clock that tells the time by the turning of the earth. It is a mathematical formula that someone took the time to work out and it just keeps going and going with the rotation of the earth. Amazing to watch. Don’t know how it keeps going but it does.
For each and everyone one of my clocks and watches, something keeps them going. Either springs or wires, weights and counterbalances. I believe it’s true for us. Something keeps us going. But something stops us as well. When dirt or dryness slows the clocks, it will be eventually stopped. When that happens, we send them out to be fixed. God intended us to go on for a long time. But our lives are filled with dirt and dryness, and we call it sin and self. A while ago I read something profound that I will never forget. It was after reading Solomon where he said, that he has tried everything and all is meaningless. What the other person said was, “The number one reason people no longer go to church is, they love their sin.”
When our sin and self have taken their toll on our lives, we will need to go back to our maker to be fixed and we will repeat Solomon’s words, “here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments . . . ”
Maybe, just maybe a little adjustment will fix us now.
Something to think about.\
Rob

More Dust Then I Can Handle

Don’t you just love cleaning house? Our street is under construction. Now you know why I started with this question. Doesn’t matter how often you dust, it is still very dusty in the house. That was until last night. Now it’s mud everywhere. No dusting to do right now but we have to be careful not to bring the mud inside. That would mean washing the floor often. If you have to choose, I would take the mud. You see the dust gets everywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, in the drapes and all over everything. That is unless you close all the doors and windows.
But like I said, one way or another, something has to be cleaned up. All this dusting has made me think about what my mother used to say. “Wait until the dust settles”. Now, many people would take this to mean that we don’t have to dust as long as the dust is in the air. For us here on our street, that would mean, no dusting until the end of Nov. Or wait! There is always dust in the air, so. . . it goes to figure, you can stop dusting. Men on the other hand think that dust is only there to show them where to put things back.
The same may be true in life. When ‘things’ happen in life, we need to just let things settle down. I believe mom was right. There are times in our lives when we need to wait until the dust settles. Maybe that is what I like about Job. He just sat there scrapping the scabs away and waited until the dust settled. When he did, not did he see things clearly, but he also saw the presence of God. And it only took 38 chapters. Just let the dust settle and there you will see God.
Something to think about
Rob

I Love You Lord, And I Lift My Voice...

It takes a lot of courage to admit defeat. At least that is what I was told a long time ago. Back then it had something to do with my parents trying to teach me something. Or maybe it was just something they thought I would need to put in the back of my mind to help me get through tough times. Or just maybe they thought it would help build character in a young lad who was not having a good time trying to do something beyond himself.
Have you been there? Tried to do something and no matter what you do, it just doesn’t happen the way it should. Maybe that is why we excel in one thing and just get by in others. I remember being at the school one year helping the grade six teacher with one student who was having difficulty in math. We went off to a quiet corner and started to work on what he just couldn’t get. After a few minutes I knew it wasn’t going well. So I talked to him about his favourite things. At first he didn’t get the connection between the math and the conversation. Then his eyes lit up and he started talking about airplanes. I told him he needed math if he was ever going to get a pilot licence. The excitement in his eyes began to diminish but before it was all gone we applied the math to aircraft. In minutes he saw some connections and he took on a few problems with more enthusiasm and determination.
I don’t know how he did after that but I knew he would make it in math.
We are not made to do anything and everything perfectly. Using A. Lincoln’s line with a little bit of licence, “You can do some of the things some of the time. And you can do something perfect all the time but you can’t do everything perfect all the time.” But we are made to do a few things really well. And that is a good thing for two reasons. One, others can call on us to help them and secondly, we can call on others to help us when we need the help.
Over my 60 odd years I have learned one other important lesson. That being, every one of us are good at one thing and that one thing is, Loving God with all our heart and soul, mind and strength. The most important dimension of our existence revolves around a God of love and He has put love within every single humanbeing. Even the ones that deny God. There is no defeat in how we love Him. We love Him perfectly in our own little way and that my friend is great. In life we may not win all the battles and we have to admit to some defeats but be assured, final victory will be won by Christ, the one in whom we give our love.
Something to think about
Rob

The Heart of the Matter.

Many of you are just like me. The reason I say that is due to statistics that tell us young people do not read newspapers. But like me you are getting older and definitely getting wiser. It can be an interesting pass time, thinking we are somehow getting there. Wherever there is?
But we are. And part of it is recognizing who we are and where we are in life. We don’t mince words. We accept the reality of what comes with age and for those with little or no vanity, we accept it as part of the medals we have earned while getting to where we are today.
Case in point. I was at the dermatologist’s office this week having him do weird and wonderful things with my face. Some of you know of what I speak. I had liquid nitrogen thrust at spots on my face that in turn turned uglier then what I went in with. And we let him do this “procedure” without asking how it will affect my looks. Ah. Another part of who we have been goes by the wayside.
And yet, our North American society is consumed by looks. It is big business. So big in fact, all you have to do is turn on the tv and you will be bombarded with miracle potions that will give you a teenage complexion. I have doubts on that one.
People adorn themselves with make up, colour their hair, do piercing, plucking, tattooing and tucking. People are obsessed with what they look like. I have seen bleaching and permanent make up, tanning what things should never be tanned. Then there is botax. Don’t get me started. On top off all this make-up, there are teen clothes on sixty year old and shoes no one was ever intended to wear that go along with matching handbags with the right name emblazoned on then. And not to be out done, people need to smell just right as well.
And what all this is trying to do is give people hope in the fountain of youth. I just read about a moisturizer in a jar that is called, “Hope in a Jar.” This is what it says on the jar. “Where there is hope there can be faith. Where there is faith, miracles can occur.” Right . . . and elephants fly. But people buy the line and buy the cream. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against making ourselves look good. There is nothing wrong with looking the best we can. The thing I am concerned about is being so absorbed in our outward appearance, our inward beauty is of no importance.
You might call me cynical but I think I’m a realist. But more then a realist I believe there is more to a person then what we see. I guess the reason I think the way I do is due to the verse I read again this past week. Read it with me, “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
Maybe it’s time to work on our hearts. Not maybe, it is time.
Something to think about.
RB