My Weather, My Wife, My World

Welcome to winter. A narrow band of snow has been sitting over our area for days now. While most of Nova Scotia has some, we have more than 2 feet of the white stuff, and even as I type this I’m watching it come down still!

It has really caused me to think lately about how much the weather is a part of our lives here in Nova Scotia. Being a maritime region that juts out into the Atlantic makes for lots of weather. And then, on top of that, our more northern location bring the winter upon us each year. It is no wonder we obsess about it really. It seems that everything we do is effected by it.

I have to tell you a story. Yesterday, late in the day, Florence and I were cuddled up to the fire in our home watching it snow. After a period of silence, she says, “I love winter.” And then she adds, “Don’t you?”. I say, “Well, I don’t much like shoveling snow and chipping ice and driving in slush and …”, to which she responds, “Yeah, you’re right. I hate winter.”

Sometimes I don’t know how she puts up with me really. I do know I am so thankful for her and I shutter to think what I would be like if God hadn’t brought this positive source of joy into my life. I guess this post isn’t so much about the weather as it is about her. Or is it about me? Yeah, I think it’s about me and how difficult this attitude thing is.

I think back to Saturday when I wrote … “I began by pushing the broom across the roof. When I did, it made a tunnel through the snow and the thought that immediately ran through my mind was – this is perfect snow for digging snow tunnels and building snow forts and…” Maybe there is hope for me yet!

I took this picture on my way home this morning after driving Florence to work. I didn’t want her driving on those roads today because I still have summer tires on the car.

Steve

The Down Side of Growing Up

Today we woke up to another several inches of fresh fallen snow. When I went out to first try and ‘sweep’ the snow off the car, I began by pushing the broom across the roof. When I did, it made a tunnel through the snow and the thought that immediately ran through my mind was – “This is perfect snow for digging snow tunnels and building snow forts.”

Isn’t it amazing how our perspective changes as we age, I mean in some cases, totally! Our situation determines to a great degree how we see things. Something can go from being a blessing to being a curse, without really changing intrinsically at all, but only because our situation has changed which then changes our perspective on it. As they say, “Some see the glass half empty and some see the glass half full. And then there are those who know if they stick around long enough they are going to end up having to wash that glass.”

This is not a new thought and hardly original but every time I come back to this realization I can’t keep from thinking there must be some profoundly practical lesson that we should be learning in these instances because they present themselves to us a hundred times a day. So what is it, I wonder?

Maybe, and I hesitate to even continue because usually when I learn a lesson, it is one that I have learned a thousand times before and have somehow managed to forget again! Anyway, maybe God is trying to tell us that we are what needs to change, not our situation or the circumstances around us.

I read a story one time about a farmer who had two boys. One day a neighbour was giving him a hard time because he was making his boys work hard all day out in the corn field. The neighbour made some comment about how reprehensible it was for the man to be treating those boys like that just so he could raise a bunch of corn. His response is a classic. He said, “I’m not raising corn. I’m raising boys.”

Maybe that is how we need to look at all of this. After all, God does control the weather. (See Job 38:22-30) He can make it snow or stop whenever He wants. But maybe God isn’t so much concerned about the weather, or our plans for the day either for that matter, as He is about us. And maybe He isn’t as concerned about our comfort, or our agendas, as He is about our character. Maybe the reason we are always struggling with our environment is because without struggle, without adversity, there is no growth. Maybe God isn’t changing the weather. Maybe He’s just changing us.

Steve

The Season's First Snowfall

Well, it is inevitable, isn’t it, the changing of the seasons. This was the scene out our front door this morning. Beautiful!

Isn’t it interesting though, that something can be so beautiful, on the one hand, and so uncomfortable, even deadly, on the other. I’m not just thinking of the treacherous driving conditions, although that could be a case in point. I mean just the elements themselves directly upon us. Whether it is the scorching summer sun or the freezing winter cold, they display the glory of God but they also remind us that God is not like the things we control at will.

In this sense, God is not ‘safe’. He is not like a warm soft puppy or a cup of ice tea on a warm summer’s day. The Bible rarely uses these types of metaphors for God. The writer of Hebrews says our God is a ‘consuming fire’.

I seem to recall a passage that says that God is ‘terrible’; meaning that He is able to strike terror in the heart should He choose to reveal Himself in that way. We could use the word ‘aweful’ as it is meant to be used to recognize someone or something that causes us to stand in awe. We have to be careful that we see God, not just as a loving friend, as wonderfully true as that can be for those who know Him, but also as He is as well, the ‘Almighty God’ who is worthy of constant reverence and praise.

I suppose an elephant and a mouse could become friends, but the mouse would be wise to always remember a few key facts.

Steve

10 Things About Me You Might Not Know

1. I’m colour blind (red/green)

2. I like old stuff

3. I get grumpy every once in a while (I am getting better)

4. I can be slightly obsessive/compulsive (you can read ‘anal’)

5. I hate change (and I hate it a lot)

6. I’m technically challenged - can’t even set the radio or the clock in my car

7. I get afraid sometimes

8. I am impatient

9. I miss my parents

10. I love Jesus AND His church

Life Without Limbs

A couple of weeks back, when I was speaking on Sunday morning about growing a culture of celebration, I introduced the church family to Nick Vujicic (pronounced ‘vooey-cheech’). Nick is 25 years old and was born without arms or legs and given no medical reason for this condition.

His story is truly one of the most amazing you’ll ever have opportunity to ponder. What an amazing testimony he is to all of us that we do not need to allow the obstacles of life to steal our joy.

On his website, Nick writes:
“Faced with countless challenges and obstacles, God has given me the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Along with that, the Lord has placed within me an unquenchable passion to share this same hope and genuine love that I’ve personally experienced with more than two million people all over the globe.

Traveling extensively to over 19 nations, I've been extremely humbled by the continuous opportunities that the Lord has given me to share my testimony along with the hope that I have in Jesus with people in so many nations and situations. My greatest joy in this life is to introduce Jesus to those I meet and tell them of His great desire to get to know them personally by allowing Him to become their Lord and Savior.”

I had mentioned that I would post the link and then forgot to do that. So, here it is. Check it out. You will be challenged and encouraged for sure.

www.lifewithoutlimbs.org

God, please forgive me for making excuses.
Steve

More On Mountains

This past spring, Florence and I got to spend an entire week in a cottage in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina (thanks John and Lee).
By the way, their cottage is called ‘The Roost’… cats and people aren’t the only creatures who like the heights. Even chickens like to be up there! I took this shot while we were there.

In light of all of the thinking I’ve been doing about ‘high places’, I have to post a picture here of the ‘Holy City’… “… beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion… the city of the great King.”

One day about eight months ago now, I got to stand on the Mount of Olives and look over Jerusalem (Mount Zion – ‘the holy city’) just like Jesus did on more than one occasion. There is something very moving about standing in places where Jesus stood, seeing what he would have seen, and thinking about the things that he said.

I probably don’t need to tell you that Nova Scotia is a long way from Mount Zion. When I was a kid growing up I didn’t have a mountain to climb, so I climbed trees instead. Sometimes I would just climb up a tree and sit there and study everything below from a new perspective. I can remember spending long periods of time some days just sitting in a tree! Did I mention that I have strong melancholy traits in my personality?

I guess there are lots of reasons why ‘high places’ hold a fascination for me; for us. I guess they can somehow make us feel closer to God. They can cause us to feel safe. But, for me, I think that more than anything, I just like being able to see things from the top. It is a vantage point like no other. Things look different when you’re looking down on them. Things make sense that don’t make sense when you’re ‘too close’; when you can’t see the forest for the trees.

I think about the Patriarch Job and how he struggled to make any sense out of what was happening to him in his life and I think about how, when God finally speaks to Job out of the storm (probably about how Job felt about his life at that time), He says things like…

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations … stretched a measuring line across it… the earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment… have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth… do you know when the mountain goats give birth…?” (Job 38:4,5,14,18 ; 39:1)

In fact, the whole book of Job gives us a kind of ‘top down’ view of life and I can’t help but think that this is intended, to humble us on the one hand, and yet, lift us up at the same time.

My mother was a quilt maker, and I remember, as a kid, crawling under the quilt frames stretched out in our dining room. You had to crawl under it because it took up the whole room (we didn’t own a big home) and to get from the entrance and the kitchen to the living room, or the bathroom!, you had to crawl under. When you had to go, there was no other way to go! And I remember looking up and seeing all of the seemingly random and unattractive pieces of thread, and what-not, on the underside of those quilts. How different they looked from the topside. Nothing seemed to make any sense or have any rhyme or reason from the underside but when you looked at the same quilt from above, from the top down, the beautiful patterns were all strikingly visible – same thing, different perspective.

All of this is meant to humble us. All of this is meant to cause us to trust in the One who ‘sits enthroned in the heavens’; the Creator God who is all powerful, all loving and all knowing.

Those who believe in Him have hope, because He is a great (big) God.

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Isa 40:29-31