The Journey

Summer can be an exciting time. Can you remember back when it was an unpaid holiday? It was a simpler time. Almost something akin to a drive in the country. Today, my wife and I live in a very special place. We can literally get in the car and in less than five minutes, be in the country. And if we were energetic enough, we could walk there in less than a half hour. The reason it takes a half hour is it’s up hill.

Things are different now.  In many cases, holidays are almost always paid for. You check out this place and that place, check the price and the cost of gas to get there, book the week and get ready to go. Sometimes the getting ready was more exciting than the actual vacation but we will save that mess for another time.

As a child, we had none of that. Dad worked all summer in construction which meant we didn’t go much of anywhere. He had to work. And when we did go somewhere, it was usually to visit family. Most of those visits were to our cousins. Every time we were told we were going somewhere we knew, it was to family and probably somewhere nearby. We were still excited!!!  On occasion we had what we considered the best one day vacation. I remember getting in the car and driving down Hwy #2 for a long time, just to go and visit dad’s sister near Woodstock. No, Ontario. We loved going there and being with the cousins and exploring their farm. Did I mention we were excited? There were animals, hide and seek in the barn. Now there was a place to hide. We had so many things to do and experience we never had in the city. And we also knew, it was just for the day. One very long day.

Like you, someone would always be asking, “Are we there yet?” I still say it. Just ask our best friend Anne. After she gives me a clip, just like when I was small, we laugh. Well, except for Anne. . . That’s really what excitement is. The excitement of what is waiting for us at the end of the journey. Admit it, you still have those feeling.

I have them every week. Every Sunday morning I wake up early, excited, with expectancy, already thinking about worshipping God and meeting together with Jesus Christ. And even though I know He is with me wherever I am, there is just something special about coming into church and joining with everyone else to have a one hour vacation from life with Jesus in a special way. That is what church needs to be about. Get excited! Let the excitement move you. Sing with excitement. It’s going and getting a glimpse of what is at the end of life’s journey. Sing with me;

What a day that will be,

When my Jesus I shall see,

When I look upon His face,

The one who saved me by His Grace.

Something to think about!

Rob

You Asked For It

It’s so easy to wish you were somewhere else.  Remember sitting in your home or office, looking out the window and wishing you were outside? I know we have at times seen people working outside, or pushing a stroller and wishing we were one of them. We thought it was not fair to be cooped up in a building when we could be outside enjoying the fresh air. Maybe there is something to using the words cooped up that chickens know more about than we do.
It may have been we were jealous of them because we really preferred to be somewhere we were not.  Last week, after a week at home with a broken arm, my dear wife decided she had enough of these four walls and she wanted out!!!  I tried to remind her there were more than four walls in the house.  She would have none of it so we went to another building with four walls. I guess it had something to do with just getting out.
But, my thoughts changed this week when I notice those same people who work outside laying new pavement at the new mall, the ones we envied, were saying to themselves, “I would give anything to be in some air conditioning right now.” That’s when we realize every single one of us, at curtain times in our lives, wants to be someone else or somewhere else. Somewhere we are not. 
And that’s fine. The reason its fine is, for the most part we love where we are in life. We love where God has placed us in the amazing world. And the major reason we want to be somewhere else is just for a break from our everyday lives. And that’s what vacations are for.
Many years ago, when I worked at Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant, I knew a number of people who worked their vacation. Okay, I was one of them. But it happened just for one year. After that I realized vacations are so important.  It’s a time to break out of who every day life, out of where we are and why we are. It’s a time of discovering more about life and love and laughter we seldom see in our everyday lives.
I guess that is why a good church can be so important to us one day of the week. It’s a time to get out of ourselves and discover who we are in relations to a God who is watching us and caring for us as we journey through life.  It’s an hour or so outside our normal life. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't He say, six days will you labour, but the seventh day is a day of rest. A day for the Lord. A mini vacation of sorts where we go and think outside ourselves and get to know and worship a God who wants nothing more than to have us come and sit and talk with Him.
“And He walks with me,
And He talks with me, . . .”
I can see Him smiling right now and saying to Himself, “I thought they said they wanted warm weather?”
Something to think about
Rob

Standing In The Que

I volunteered last week. A close friend was on his way down south and he needed a ride to the Buffalo Airport. Picked him up at just after 8 am and off we drove.  When we get together it seems there is never a lack of things to talk about. For one and half hours we talked and talked, and. . . well you get the idea. Before we knew it, he was getting out of the car and walking off into the terminal as we pulled away and started our way home.

As is our practise, we almost always do some shopping before coming home. Into the store and grabbed what we came for only to be confronted by others doing the same thing. This means that we had opportunity to stand in line, or as they call it in England, ‘the que’. We even walked along to see if there was a shorter line. No such luck.  We are not a patient lot any more are we? We eventually got through, put the stuff in the back and drove to the boarder.

Not good. When we arrived there, it was waiting in the que all over again.  But this time it was sitting down burning gas and waiting for our turn at the booth. We waited and waited. I watched the clock and you know what that means, time did not go by quickly on the way home. At the border you learn to be patient as you count the cars still in front of yours. Half hour later, we were on our way and all was well with the world once more.

But is it? As we waited, I wondered to myself, what is it going to be like arriving at the gates of heaven? Not that I am in a hurry yet. My thing in life is, I want to take as many people to heaven with me. I want to share with everyone Jesus Christ and how He can change their lives. He paid the price for our sins and through Him we can arrive at heaven. But, there is the word again. But what will we experience there? Will there be a couple of people and we just walk through the turnstiles, or will it be so crowded we have to wait in the que? Will we just wander through or, join the throng and say, “No, after you.”? I’m praying for the later, how about you?

Something to think about

Rob

Just Today

Here is a question that we have heard many times before.  It comes out of a conversation I had with a six year old.  You may never realized how much you can learn about people if we ask this question. Or the same question in similar ways.
Part way through this past school year I ask this child, “What are you looking forward to?” It was just after Christmas so they did not have opportunity to answer Christmas. Interestingly they said, “I’m looking forward to the weekend because we are going to . . . “ Sounded reasonable. Two weeks ago I asked them again and they responded with something related to the end of school. How practical.
Then I thought about their answers. The younger they are, it seems the immediate is more important then the far away. Seeing them again last evening, I asked if they are looking to go back to school soon. Negative on that one.
So, go ahead and ask yourself what you are looking forward to. Oh, I can hear some of you say you have short term goals and long term goals. And that is part of being an adult and being encouraged through life to have those types of goals. Want to get a job, start a relationship in the next few years, even plans for the distance once you have made the money to pay for it. Older adults have the things they are looking forward to, they revolve around retirement and then the proverbial bucket list. Good movie by the way.
With each stage in life, the things we look forward to change. I remember Nancy asked her father at one of his late in life birthday parties as he blew out the candles, “What did you wish for dad?” To this Frank Sinatra answered, “Another one!”
Each morning when I get up my short term goals are few. I look forward to seeing God in something each and every day.  And I look forward to experiencing something of God in me. You see, I think kids have it right. Think of the immediate of greater importance. And with the accumulation of all the small, daily things we look forward to, we will realize that each and every day we will always arrive at what we are looking forward to.  Ultimately it will be to “walk humbly with our God.”
One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do everything that I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time.
Something to think about
Rob