Let's Have Fun!

As we think about our summer vacation, we all dream of how it’s going to be. First, like most things in life, we think this vacation should be fun. It seems that most people want to have fun more than any other emotion connected to vacations. We went on a trip one time and it was going to be fun. Or so we thought. It didn’t turn out that way. You probably had one or two like that. It rained too much or it was way too hot. Then there are others that have told us it was nothing like what was advertised. Disappointed? Definitely.

The same is true every time we don’t experience what we thought would come about. Life is like that. Life doesn’t always have a happy ending, or in between time. Life can be hard but can you imagine what the disciples were thinking when Jesus told them He was leaving and they would have to suffer like He would? What’s with that? That wasn’t in their plan. They were His closest followers and they might have been thinking they were set for life. No one that I know of wants to suffer pain or sorrow or loss or, well, you get the idea.

Jesus did not promise a rose garden to them or to us. And He sure enough warned them of what was going to come. Those who follow Jesus, know it’s not always easy but they also know they would not have it any other way. I remember my dad telling to never consider going into ministry because the pay is terrible and people are fickle (whatever that means). As you can tell I didn’t listen to him, and I listened to God. Was dad right? In the eyes of world, sometimes, and in the eyes of God, no. The riches of this life can’t compare to the riches of heaven where one day I will meet all those people God helped me help them find Him. When we get there, then and only then will the joy of this life’s journey be seen by each of us to have been amazing.

Something to think about

Rob

Fun On A Bike

It must be spring with Summer close behind. So often I have heard about all those places that point to having FUN. Wonderland, Niagara Falls on their boats and even Great Wolf Lodge.  It's all about FUN.  This may date me but I used to have fun getting together with my friends and playing any game. No basket ball nets in the neighborhood so we did other games. Even made up our own games. Street hockey was there if you have a stick and a ball. We even had our own way of playing soccer before Canadians knew what it was.

Those games were not the real FUN.  Being together doing stuff was real FUN. Most of us had bikes and with them, we went everywhere. Exploring we used to call it. Summer fun for most of us was going to the local pool or if we were adventurous, we rode our bikes to one of the other pools that we thought might not be a crowded. Barton community pool is still there and it was a twenty minute bike ride from the house, up hill all the way there and nice easy downhill ride home.

After a long day at the pool, we looked forward climbing into bed and sleeping so will, dreaming about what might be our next adventure with the other kids on our block. As a kid, I also looked forward to Sunday School every week. Sunday we again joined in on other FUN times. It was fun, it was exciting to learn about all those people in the bible and ask if it was real that God could make a donkey talk. And if Sunday School was really good, we would go home for lunch and then go to the Children's Ministry at the neighbourhood Salvation Army at 2pm. FUN was the only was to describe it. 

What happened? There are so many places in our lives that describe themselves as being FUN. Know what, I have not heard that Sunday School or Church are one of them. What happened? My bible uses the word joy 242 times. Yet our churches . . .  You fill it in.  I'm not saying church needs to be just FUN, but it needs to make people smile because they have been there sharing an amazing wonderful, joyous time together.  One thing that I look for in a church is people smiling and hugging each other. Maybe that is where we need to start.  CTC has an advertising campaign on right now with bikes and at the end it says, CTC is 'Your Fun Store". Now, can your church have that as a slogan?

Something to think about.  

Rob

Don't Trip

If you know me, you will know that I like to plan things, way ahead of time. We all know summers coming and we are all starting to fill our calendars with things to do, places to go and people to see.  And other than the price of fuel, we are excited about getting to where we want to go.

I also know there are two types of travelers in our world.  The first one, and you are like me tell ourselves, "Get There". You just want to get the traveling over. I would drive to FL in one go. The car would go over 900km to a tank and we would fill it three times and we were there. This means, we leave the building when I wake up.  The other type of traveler is the person like Allan, who believes the holiday starts when you set yourself behind the wheel. And they begin to relax even before they get out of the driveway, six hours after I started to drive.

We are all on a journey and it’s called life. This is one journey where we need to enjoy the trip and not be in a hurry to get there. Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ know that He is who He said he was and that is why He describes Himself as the way, truth & life. Think on those three items for a minute or two.

We are on a journey to heaven. From what the bible tells us, it’s better than anything we have seen here on earth. And once we get there we will never want to come back. That’s because I believe heaven is our real home.

On this journey, when we stop along life’s way, each Sunday needs to give us a glimpse of heaven. Being in church needs to reflect what it will be like and each Sunday we come to church will be a stop along the way to Home. My best guess is I have made 2750 stops on my way. There we have the pleasure of filling up, which means getting to know Jesus Christ more fully so at the moment we see Him for the first time, we will know Him. More stops on the way to come and we hope to see you at our next stop.

Something to think about

Rob

SPRING - Yes It's True

I think we can categorically say that spring has finally arrived.  We had some warm weather that was a precursor of things to come.  It seemed to take longer this year to finally arrive.  Incidentally, my Snow Bells bloomed for more than a month due to the overly cool weather which gave me something to look at until the other bulbs began to come up out of the ground. Now, all our gardens have the daffodils, crochets and the tulips. What glorious colours. I also noticed in the last few days, the trees were starting to bud. But you knew that because the Forsythia is showing its true colours.

All of this means our summer is starting and along with it is an arm’s length list of things to do. Mind you, this is not just one of those ‘to do’ lists we seem to always be adding to. It is a list of what we would like to not only fill our weeks but especially our weekends.  After all there are only 18 weekends between now and putting all the lawn stuff back away for another year. Summer is a wonderful time for us who have four seasons. And sometimes we discard our normal routine to grasp at new things and new places and adventures that normally wouldn’t be part of our ordinary lives.

This reminded all of us there are some normal routines we can’t be set aside.  Case in point, ready, anything to do with cleaning. HA. And you thought I was going to list them. There are too many things we shouldn’t neglect just because summer brings so many different diversions.

Short and sweet because you knew this was coming. Here it is; Psalm 122:1 “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”  See you in the building.

Something to think about

Rob

Age Is Just A Number?

There are good things and bad things about getting old. First off, one good thing is you realize you can say most anything you want because you don’t care anymore. You have always had things to say, but didn’t because of . . . . you fill in the blank.

Another good thing about getting old is you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. The older we get the more fulfilled we are with saying no to doing things that we once had to do. Not anymore. I love those two lines I have now, “I don’t feel like doing that”. And the other one, “No”.  You see, now is the time to do the best you can with what you have. That my friend is the wisdom we have acquired as we matured, and maturity has nothing to do with getting old.

Unfortunately, with age, we also have shortcomings due to age and moving a little slower as the years pile up. Something parts of us that worked well for years, start to break down and that is not much fun, especially with the mind. We discover that fingers or hips or knees can’t do what they used to. I really realized this one day when I tried to do something I had not tried in a while, run. I laughed at myself.

So, what do we do? We sit down in a nice comfortable chair and have people come to us. It’s a captive audience that we can stories to and the most wonderful stories are those that let everyone know that God loves us and He will love them if they just get to know Him like we have. Proverbs 16:31, "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness".

Something to think about

Rob