Salvogesis

  One thing that is a natural analogy is the nature of cruises in general. There are so many people on the trip from all over the world. I met people from Germany, Japan, Columbia, Philippines, South Africa, the UK, the US and elsewhere. People were from different walks of life and different ages. This reminded me of the Kingdom of Heaven and how, Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”   I was also reminded that as is pointed out in Ecclesiastes 9:2-3:     “All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.”   It does...

The children went to and from camp this week. In the end I think we had 22 or 23, 7- to 12-year-old campers accompanied for their journey anyway by a number of chaperones. It was interesting. There were the usual challenges, of course, of some people not being able to make it at the last minute and people’s phones no longer being in service – but this time there was more, much more.   First, the bus caught fire. Truly. It was a real blessing that none of the kids were on it yet. We had to scramble to find enough cars and drivers to get the children to the ferry and we even had to press Remi (our Food Bank driver) into action, driving the cube van with everyone’s luggage in it. And remember that the camp is in Gibson’s so the children have to catch 2 ferries to get there; so we are under a bit of a time crunch. We race to Nanaimo (as fest as the speed limits will permit, of course). Almost everyone had made it to the ferry but one car was just not coming. We were waiting. We were wo...

Ecclesiastes 1:3: What do people gain from all their labours at which they toil under the sun? We've heard the expression and maybe the Hoyt Axton song: work your fingers to the bone and what do you get? Boney fingers. Or maybe we've heard Tennessee Ernie Ford's version from an older song? You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. The city of Detroit went bankrupt a couple of years ago. The Detroit Free press last year ran articles on the effect of the city's bankruptcy on pensioners. Some people had to all of a sudden find private health insurance of almost $1000 a month where it was covered before. In Canada pensions that people are working for are not necessarily much more secure. Our country has talked about raising the retirement age to 67 instead of 65 and many people my age and younger have lamented that they may never be able to retire. Hoyt Axton: You work your fingers to the bone what do you get? Boney fingers. Tennessee ...

My wife and I were driving the highway up the west coast of Vancouver Island the other day. There are many places where it is a single lane highway. This highway connects Long Beach to the rest of the world. It can be a busy place at times. As a result, along this winding, view obstructed, single lane highway there can be many vehicles bunching up together. vehicle drivers can frustrated. Whenever a passing lane does appear then as many vehicles as possible pass as many other vehicles as possible. You have drivers who are driving as fast as they can. You have other drivers who are slower. After one of these passing lanes, a number of cars were going too fast as they experienced the freedom of passing the cars that have kept them back. Once, just after passing each other at high speed the cars came around the corner and slammed on the breaks. We then sat in a line for 10 minutes or more while all of the cars that had been passed on that road caught up to all the cars that had passed t...

My teenagers have become big 80s Rock fans. They know more about 80s Rock and 80s Rockers than I ever did - and I lived through the 80s! Sammy Hagar, before he joined Van Halen, of course, had his big solo hit, I Can't Drive 55 . My mind often plays this song and Golden Earring's Radar Love as I drive the highways here. We have recently moved to the Island from Toronto. Driving the highway is quite different. The speed limit might be the same in some places but there are many times in Toronto where it wouldn't matter if the speed limit was 100 km/h or 200 km/h, because of the traffic you aren't travelling quicker than 5 km/h or 10 km/h. It can be really frustrating when you are stuck in traffic and going nowhere fast and it is great when you can travel unimpeded on nice stretches of road. The other day as I was cruising down the Island Highway I was thinking of how this relates to our walk with Jesus. Our life is like a trip down the highway. Everyone travels a high...

My family and I are blessed to be visiting New York this week as my children are on a break from school. It was a bit of a drive from Toronto but we don't mind, we are used to long drives. It is great we got to see the Brooklyn Bridge, the Barclay Centre (where the Islanders play), the Museum of Natural History, 5th Avenue, Broadway, Time Square, and Central Park, among other places. We walked around outside quite a bit an enjoyed ourselves - and then it got cold. Have you noticed how things can change in an instant? A day can be perfectly enjoyable and then it becomes too cold (or too hot) and all of a sudden everyone's mood changes. Scenery hasn't changed. The neat things to see and do haven't changed. The monuments and parks haven't changed. You're enjoyment however has changed. This is life. Life happens to every one of us. We all have many exciting and enjoyable things to experience just as we have many trials and toils to endure. The difference is ...

I remember when my daughters were about 5 and 6. I was driving the icy highway between Nipawin and Tisdale Saskatchewan. It was Spring time. The weather was changing but this afternoon there was black ice on the road. I hit the black ice not speeding, but going too fast. I lost control of the car. It crossed the road, hit the ditch and rolled over a time or two. I was completely disoriented and in shock as I looked back to see if my kids were safe. The car was upside down. I remember undoing my youngest's seat belt while she was dangling above me, only to have her plummet down to the ceiling. We were fine. I was in shock. I wandered out into the highway; no one hit me. The police and other help were there right away. The car was written off but none of us had a scratch (Maybe Sarah-Grace a small scratch from when I undid her seat belt.) The next day or so I drove that same stretch of road (in a different car, as that one no longer ran). I pulled the car over to the side of the ro...

What day is February 2? What happens on February 2? I have some friends from Wiarton, Ontario; I usually send them a note on February 2. February 2 is Groundhog Day. What happens if a groundhog sees his shadow? What happens if he doesn’t? What happens if one sees his shadow and another doesn’t? What happens if they disagree? What happens if the groundhog is blind? Is that cheating? If we live in Manitoba where groundhogs are everywhere; how do we decide which one did or did not see his or her shadow and which one’s view matters more than the next? Last year 2/3 of the famous groundhogs did not see their shadow; so do we just say 2 out of 3 ain’t bad and assume that Spring will be early this year? What does it really mean if a groundhog sees its shadow? Nothing. I once heard Canadian elections cynically described in terms of wooden spoons. You have the wooden spoons in front of you: a Liberal Red one, a Conservative Blue one, an Orange NDP one, and a Green one. On Election Day ...

Jethro Tull won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, beating the favourite Metallica. The award was controversial because most people rightfully do not consider Jethro Tull hard rock, much less heavy metal. On the advice of their manager, who told them they had no chance of winning, no one from the band even attended the award ceremony. Their front man pays the flute and their band’s logo is a silhouette of Ian Anderson playing the flute. When asked about the controversy Ian Anderson quipped, "Well, we do sometimes play our mandolins very loudly." And their label, Chrysalis, responsed to the criticism by taking out an advertisement in a British music periodical with a picture of a flute lying in a pile of iron re-bar and the line, "the flute is a heavy metal instrument." In 1992, when Metallica finally won the Grammy in the category, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich joked, "First thing we're going to do is ...