The Examined Life

For the past couple of years I've used some of my spare time in the summer for brainstorming, praying, and dreaming over the various ministries that I'm involved in and for myself personally. This summer has been no different.

It was Plato who said "The unexamined life is the wasted life." And since I don't want to waste a moment, I figure that I have better keep examining. Some questions that I've been asking myself include:

-what is the purpose behind this?
-where do I see this going?
-is this area of my life or ministry producing fruit?
-do I still feel called to serve here?
-how can I get others on board?
-is there anything I can or should be doing differently?

Through this time of examining, I've seen the hand of God. Both through looking back, feeling His leading and seeing Him answer prayers. Some of these answers have come in unexpected ways, but that's what makes life interesting, isn't it?

The road hasn't been easy to get to this point, but I can honestly say that I am very excited about where God is directing both my life and the ministries that I have a privilege of being involved in. Changes are coming yes, but I'm convinced that change truly is a good thing!

Wisdom from Dickens

"Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." (Charles Dickens)

Pumped Up

I'm so pumped up right now. This week I found out that the MAD Christian Radio Show is going to be aired weekly on a secular radio station in Indiana!

This is exciting to me for four reasons:

1. This is the first secular station to start airing the show.
2. I just was in Indiana and while driving through the state thought "Wouldn't it be nice if MAD was aired somewhere here too?" Then two weeks later I get an email in my inbox- sweet.
3. The show is being aired right before Ryan Seacrests show, which professionally means a lot.
4. And most importantly, this is a huge opportunity for people who might otherwise not hear the Gospel get a chance to do so!

So please pray that God continues to give me the words and that He uses the words and the music to touch the lives of whoever tunes in!

Football

When I was in Green Bay I picked up a small Green Bay Packers football. I've kept the ball in my office and it's replaced my mini-basketball as something I toss around while I'm brainstorming or just bored.

Last night I had the opportunity to toss a real football around as some friends and I played a game in the park. When I was younger we used to play football all the time, but it had been a while.

We made some really good plays and some really bad ones. But better than that, it was great to be in the outdoors getting some fresh air and exercise and good to be in the company of friends.

I think I'll be planning another game soon :)

Lovin' It

For the the past couple of weeks I've consistently fallen asleep before 1:30 am! For someone with a normal sleep pattern that's no big deal, but I've been struggling with insomnia and sleep problems for years and falling asleep between 4 and 5 am had become the norm.

In order to correct my sleep pattern I have tried numerous natural and pharmaceutical remedies and much experimental treatments, but nothing had worked, until now. At the beginning of July I started a new medication and it's doing the trick!

Needless to say I'm loving being able to fall asleep at a more normal hour. With the more normal hours I've also had more time and energy to do some reading, which has been great. Over the past couple of weeks I've finished the following books:

-The Shack by William Young
-Flashbang by Mark Steele
-Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black by Jacquie McNish and Stewart Sinclair

All great books. All highly recommended!

Rain

The other week I sat listening to the rain fall and it sounded like drops of tears were hitting my roof. Crying for me over the loss of time, health, opportunities and relationships.

But somewhere in hearing those rain drops hit the roof, I also heard hope. Because rain doesn’t just darken the sky and make the outlook bleak. Rain soaks a thirsty ground. It brings life to what is dying. And it washes away impurities.

Rain can be depressing. But even the darkest storm brings life to that which would have otherwise died. Maybe that’s the same for you and I.

In John chapter 12, Jesus teaches us that a kernel of wheat that is planted and grows remains alone. But a kernel of wheat that is planted and dies produces a harvest of many new lives.

That’s contradictory. After all, what person would go through the effort of planting something, only to hope that it would die? But that’s the teaching of Christ. That sometimes it’s only in death that true life is found.

For some, death is a physical separation. For others it’s emotional. For others it’s the loss of something so profound that it paralyzes them. But in that death, we can hope, because we know that in the Kingdom of God death makes way for new life.

So now when I hear the rain, I no longer feel like crying. Because I can see that each one of my losses have fallen to the fertile ground of God’s kingdom. And it’s only there that they can spawn to produce new life, better life.

Back Home

10 days and nearly 3000 kilometres of driving later, we arrived back home from our summer vacation on Sunday night.

It was an amazing time away. We had the opportunity to see so many things that it would be hard to re-cap them all, but here are some highlights:


Dutch Village
In Holland Michigan we stopped in at the Dutch Village. At first I thought it would be kind of corny, but it ended up making a really awesome day. I learned a lot about the country of my ancestors and enjoyed some really good Dutch food.


Chicago
I can't say enough good things about Chicago. It's been a dream of mine to visit the city for years and to actually be there was incredible. It's such a beautiful city and one of those big cities that still has a small town feel. We got to see a lot during our few days there including the Shedd Aquarium, Alder Planetarium, John Hancock Center, Magnificent Mile, Water Tower Place, and Navy Pier. We even went on a double decker bus tour and a boat tour of the Chicago river. I would go back in a heartbeat.


Lambeau Field
During our time in Wisconsin we stayed an hour away from Green Bay and since we were so close my brother and I insisted on making the drive to see Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. The tour didn't disappoint. We were taken to a lot of "behind the scenes" places including the Packers private box and the tunnel that the players run through to get to the field. It an experience of a lifetime to see the place where so many legacies were made.

Blue Harbour Resort
We spent the last five days of our vacation at the Blue Harbour Resort on the shores of Lake Michigan in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It was a beautiful hotel that we were fortunate to be able to stay at because normally their rates are pretty expensive, but we were able to get a reduced rate, plus two nights free! While there we made a lot of use of the hotels waterpark and I made a lot of use of the Starbucks in the lobby.

The Bull
Our hotel had a deal with The Bull (a Jack Nicklaus course) so we hit the links. The course was outstanding and was the nicest one I've had the privilege of playing. It was so fancy that our golf cart even had a computer with a GPS in it so that we knew exactly how far we were from the pin at any given time. Classy.

So yeah, it was an incredible time away. I haven't been on a vacation that long in many years and it was overdue. Just to be able to take a break from the routine and explore new places and meet new people was great. Wonder where next year will take us? Any suggestions?

Back in Ten

Gas: $1.45 a litre. Golf clubs: $245. A ten day vacation: priceless.

I'm off on our ten day summer holiday! I won't likely have internet access while we're gone, but I will post a full run-down along with some photos when we get back.

In the meantime, here are some sites worth checking out:

Reuter's Oddly Enough

The Fischtank

97 Seconds With God

Reading & Writing

I've gotten into the routine of writing every night before I turn the tv on and it's been paying off. Over the past two months I've written over 30,000 words, mostly for my next book. It's been amazing to watch it all come together and I'm very much looking forward to working on it more in the coming weeks. My hope is to have the manuscript finished by the end of August.

Speaking of books, I've really been enjoying the wisdom found in "It's A Good Life" by Robert Benson lately. He talks a lot about balance and uses Benedict as a model of how to balance our lives. It's given me a lot to think about.

Last week I also started "The Shack" by William Young, but after a few pages I decided to save the rest for our vacation. We leave Friday and I wanted to have a couple good books with me and I can't stop hearing good things about "The Shack", so I figure it's a good one to start with!

Happy Birthday Canada!

Today we celebrate Canada Day and I know I'm majorly biased on this, but it really is a great place to live.

To commemorate, here are some random facts about my home and native land:

-Canada has the world's longest coastline: 202 080 kilometres.

-The Trans-Canada Highway length (using the Perth-Peterborough-Parry Sound route) is 7604 kilometres. It is the longest national highway in the world.

-The world's largest island in a freshwater lake is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, 2765 square kilometres.

-Canada is the second largest country in the world, with 9,971,000 square kilometres of land.

-The world's highest tide is in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. The mean large tide range is 16.1 metres.

-And finally, Canada is the home of the following inventions: basketball, the electric light bulb, the electric range, the electron microscope, standard time, the television, the telephone, and the zipper.

Happy Birthday Canada!

Follow the Leader

I've been so tired these past couple of weeks, even more than normal for me, so I was very grateful for the opportunity to get away for a few days. We left Friday night and came back late on Monday.

It was a good time in the middle of God's creation, getting refreshed and having the chance to just take it easy for a change.

While out in the bush I saw the scene to the right play out. A mother duck leading her little ducklings down to the lake. It was so cute and yet a profound lesson at the same time. These little ducklings had only one thing in mind: following their "leader". They weren't looking around at the scenery or watching for obstacles or wondering what I was doing with a camera. Instead, they were just focused on following in their mothers footsteps.

It reminded me of the journey that we are all on in our lives. We're called to "follow the Leader". And as much as we'd like to say that we chase after Him with no hesitation, the truth is often we get distracted by the scenery or start questioning the direction He's leading us in.

I wonder what life would be like if we were as trusting as these ducklings were? They didn't question the orders of the mother. They had no way of knowing that she was leading them to a lake that would provide them with food. They didn't know if the path was safe. They just trusted that she wouldn't be leading them to a place that wasn't good.

Oh that we could have that same level of trust in Someone much greater! A God who moved heaven and earth to show us just how much He loves us and a God who leads us down the path to everlasting life. May we all follow that God with reckless abandon.

Story Of Your Life

Story Of Your Life - Ali Slaight
Do you ever stop and wonder
Where this road will take you
Whats around the corner
Will it make or break you
Is this your destination
Or is it the start of something new?

What will you accomplish
Which way will the wind blow
For every door that closes find an open window
And everyone is watching as you write the story of your life
Of your life

CHORUS
And you won't look back
Cause it feels so right
And no matter what it'll be alright
In the brightest day or the darkest night
You will find yourself in the story of, in the story of your life

Will you do the choosing
Or be the lucky one that's chosen
Will you recognise the greatness in your smallest moments
And every step your taking,
you'll write another chapter
In the story of your life.

This week the "story of my life" took an unexpected twist. I don't mean to be evasive, but this is a piece of news that I'm not quite comfortable sharing the particulars of, yet. But trust me when I say it's definitely one of those "life shifting" things.

So many plans, so many dreams seem to be indefinitely on hold and I'm looking to walk down a pretty long road that I never fully expected.

So this isn't the path that I planned, but at the same time I've become very much aware that it is a part of the story of my life that God wrote before I was even born. This latest turn in the story is no surprise to Him. He's allowed it to come into my life and He's going to give me the strength to walk through it.

In the meantime, I'm learning what it's like to, as the song says, "recognize the greatness in the smallest moments". Life doesn't have to be full of emotional highs and perfect moments to grasp the deepest meaning. Instead I'm learning to find joy in the simple things: a drink of my favorite cup of coffee, talking about faith with friends, late night snood battles, standing outside and breathing deep the clear and crisp air.

Life is never perfect and it's not always easy, but our life stories are ones that are more than worth living.

Online Trip Planning & Saving

I love the internet. Trip planning has never been so easy (or affordable).

For the past couple of months I've been researching hotels on TripAdvisor. Once I picked out my top two in each city, I've been checking their websites randomly, waiting for a price drop or sale.

Tonight I secured the last hotel that we'll be needing for the summer road trip and I was able to get it at a price that was amazing. Gotta love the online specials!

In all three cities that we're staying in we've got hotels that are super-nice for a fraction of the cost we would have paid to reserve over the phone.

In fact, one hotel worker that I spoke to advised me to book online because they can give out cheaper rates on their website than they can over the phone most of the time.

Here's to a great trip at a much lower cost!

This Moment

It's amazing how fast life can change. All it takes is one split moment and suddenly your world can be turned completely around. Have you ever had such a moment? A phone call telling you to rush to the hospital where a loved one lay gravely ill? A few words out of a doctors mouth in an office? A split second decision where you make the wrong choice?

Everything we know. The fabric of our lives. All could be changed in the time it takes the second hand on the clock to move one notch.

We hear of these moments all the time. And while we've become quite good at not letting them fully sink in as they scroll across the evening news, there are times when the tragedy hits too close to home to ignore. And it's in those times when we realize just how fragile our lives truly are.

The truth of the matter is, we are never guaranteed any moment beyond the one that just passed. It doesn't matter how well we live or how much we serve those around us, there are no guarantees. We are only given life moment by moment and sometimes it takes a tragedy to make us realize that.

But when we do let that sink in, something inside of us changes. And it should. For such mortal beings, we have no business wasting our days and counting on an endless amount of tomorrow. As mortals we should never assume anything beyond today.

So what does that realization look like? It means never letting a day go by without telling those around us that we love them. It means never wasting an opportunity that God gives us. It means living each day as it were our last- fully, completely, and with the love of Christ radiating out of our hearts and souls. It means living our lives in such a way that if the next moment doesn't come or comes in a way other than what we expected, there are no regrets or things left undone.

Because the truth is, we just don't know. We don't know how long we have on this earth and we don't know how long our loved ones have with us. We don't know if the opportunity we have today will be given again tomorrow. We don't know anything beyond this moment. Sure we can make plans, sure we can have ideas, but no where are we promised that we'll have the time we need to live them out.

And while to some this is a scary concept, if you truly know and trust the living God of our lives, you know that what He has planned is good. He knows the number of our days and He has blessed us to live in the here and now. So let's learn to appreciate and fully live each moment that we have. Because life is a gift, this moment is a treasure, and there are no room for regrets in a life lived one moment at a time.

Music & Writing

It's been a different couple of days. I'm finally starting to get back on my feet, literally. Tonight I wore socks and shoes for the first time in nearly two weeks- I'm very proud of myself.

Now that I'm more mobile I've got some catching up to do from things that I left undone over the past two weeks, but I'm taking that one day at a time.

One good thing about being flat on my back is it gave me a lot of time to listen to music and I mean really listen, not just have it on in the background. I was given the remastered version of U2's "The Joshua Tree" as a get well gift, so I've been playing that quite a bit.

I've also been doing a lot of writing. I think this week I wrote around 5,000 words which for me is pretty good considering all the other stuff I have going on at the same time. All of the writing was exclusively for the devotional type book that I'm working on. It's really starting to take shape and I'm excited about the prospect of possibly finishing it much sooner than I anticipated. At first I was hoping to have it done by Christmas, but with the way I've been writing I could see myself finishing it by the end of the summer.

With writing this book I'm reminded of the advice A.W. Tozer gave: "The only book that should ever be written is one that flows up from that heart, forced out by the inward pressure. You should never write a book unless you have to."

That was the case for Walking Through A Fallen World and the same could be said for this project too. I can't not write it and that's exciting to me.

Broken Bones, Boredom, and Blessings

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm bored. Completely and utterly bored.

Because of my foot injuries and the "blood bubble" (yeah it looks as lovely as it sounds) that formed over the break, I've been having a pretty monotonous week.

Check work email. Ice foot for fifteen minutes. Elevate foot for 45 minutes. Repeat.

The swelling has gone down a little on the break, but the blood thing is still giving me a lot of pain and making it rough to get around. I had to go to the hospital again on Thursday and that was a challenge.

So until the "blood bubble" disappears and the swelling goes down, I'm basically stuck at home on the same routine. Which has given me the most unproductive week I've had in a long time.

But as bored as I have been, there have been a lot of sunny spots. I've been spoiled rotten by my family. I don't even have to ask for stuff, I'm just getting things left, right, and center. Usually I make coffee, but I've gotten door to door deliveries every single day, without asking. Also things I need just seem to magically follow me around the house- my laptop (awesome for watching TV in bed), my ipod, books, water, pillows, everything. I swear my Mom is "very very sneaky" (yes that's a Mr. Deeds reference- I've watched way too many movies this week!)

Other pluses: I've had a lot of time to be quiet, think, reflect, and pray. I've gotten to read two fiction books from cover to cover, which I haven't done in a long time. And I've gotten a new appreciation for what a gift God has given us with life. It doesn't matter what is going down, it doesn't matter how hard the road gets, every single day we have is a gift from above and deserves to be cherished. So yes, there are blessings even in the midst of broken bones and boredom!

Ugly Break

4 hours spent at the hospital. 3 x-rays. And one diagnoses. I've got one pretty ugly broken toe. And I'm very lucky that's all that's broken.

On Saturday night I came upstairs to find a candle my mom had lit on the stove burning out of control. The flame was huge and wax from the candle was pouring everywhere. In a second of panic, I blew out the candle and grabbed the cast iron dutch oven on the stove to move it out of the way of the flowing wax. Big mistake.

As I was moving the dutch oven, the very heavy lid slipped off and landed directly on my foot.

Instantly my foot exploded in pain. My Mom heard the crash of the lid hitting my foot, then bouncing off on the floor, so she came running and made the wise choice to take me to the hospital.

She called my brother who was out with the car and as soon as he got home they helped me hobble into the vehicle so that I didn't put any weight on my throbbing foot.

I got in pretty much right away, took a wheelchair ride to get some x-rays done and after a couple hours was told that I broke my big toe pretty badly. I was also told how lucky I am that the lid didn't land even an inch higher on my foot. If it had, it would have broken more than one bone in my foot and it would have been a messy recovery.

So for the time being I'm pretty immobile. They can't cast a toe, so I have to be very careful that it remains undisturbed so that it can heal. If I do what I'm told, it should be much better within a week. So my mission now is to keep my foot elevated as much as possible and to put ice on it so that the swelling comes down. Right now my big toe is at least three times the size as normal. The two next to it are pretty swollen as well.

But as bad as it feels and as hard is it is to walk, I'm very thankful because it could have been a heck of a lot worse!

Is it wrong to envy a dog?

It wasn't enough to have a dog bed. A carpet under her food dish. And a towel for sitting in the corner by the window. Now she's converted our heat vents into a sauna.

Do I sound bitter? Maybe a little. But she is cute, isn't she?

Burning Question

If there are two sides to every story, why is it that so often we only want to hear one?

Closing and Starting

Today brought about the close of one year of my life and the start of another. To commemorate, I thought I'd fill you in on a little look back on my 24th year and a look a head to what 25 has in store:

Highlights of 24:

Favorite memory:
-Week spent with my family in Traverse City, Michigan.

Worst memory:
-Well that's one advantage of having a sleeping problem - I don't remember things well. So maybe not remembering is my worst memory. Yes, I'm weird.

Favorite CD listened to:
Toss up between Paul Alan - Drive It Home and Jack's Mannequin - Everything In Transit

Top three books read:
-The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg
-Crowded Skies by Tara Leigh Cobble
-Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

Surprising Accomplishment:
-Learning how to cook.

Song that best described my year:
-Walk On by U2

Five things to look forward to for year 25:

-Four state summer vacation
-Cottage season!
-Finding answers for my health problem and getting it under control
-Finish writing my second book
-Learning more about how live and minister in the same way Christ did