Monthly Archives: January 2004

Tonight was a fun night – a night out of the house for sure.  I went back to my office and finished up a root canal on a student in second year of her course at the National School of Dental Therapy across the road from my office.

She called me about a week ago in agony.  So we got her some meds and I saw her in my office to open and drain the tooth.

Young – single mom – student – no money.  Sounded like a gift of God to me.  So I took it and had a great time tonight.  Her friend assisted.  I got to know both of them better and they got to hear a bit about me.  You might say I had an unfair advantage having a captive audience to share a bit about how God got me into this field of dentistry in the first place. 

I wish I could take both these girls with me to the Congo this summer.  They would love the experience and I would love to have them along.  Wish there were funds somewhere for this to be arranged.  Well, if God wants that to happen He will have to work it all out because I sure don’t have the extra cash.

I got  home and sat down to read for a few minutes – was listening to Dave Matthews Remember Two Things when Christian came in.  Last night he and Patrick were recording a demo for the demo for CBC’s Radio Canada so I got to listen to that.  Patrick drove up last night after classes, recorded and left this am early for Saskatoon so he could get to his 8:30 am class. 

The songs are good – in French.  The first was new – Un Monde Sans Pitié (I think)and the second was one I have heard him sing before – Dans le Désert.  It sounded like the Njembe Christian got for Christmas was being put to good use too. 

My daughter and I also spoke on the phone tonight.  She walks to class and Patrick passed her this morning riding his bicyle on his way to class.  I’m not sure how cold it was in Saskatoon but it was -27 C here with a wind chill.  Not bad for a Congolese!!!

It seems that it doesn’t pay to have a name that sounds like a corporation.  Toni has a link to an interesting article about a domain name.  Read it here.

I guess it’s not so bad having a name that is so unique that it is likely the only one of it’s kind in the world – so far anyway.  Lanoie is pretty rare.  Then to top it off mix that with a mis-spelled Swedish name.  I do get lots of links from Google searches for Linea though – means line in Spanish and maybe a few other languages too.

Thanks Andrew for linking me up with your book review over at the Ooze.  I agree that the book rambles, but Blue Like Jazz is a fun book to read.  I found that instead of the message of self-less love being an essential mark of a Christian coming across as something heavy, as a discipline, it came across as a joy to strive for.  Being a middle aged woman, it was hilarious to hear his stories as he relates to women.  And the guys he lives with are characters I’d love to meet.  It does make one a bit “Green With Envy”.  I wish I could live in the kind of community he is a part of. 

But there is no hope of living in Portland again – I did as a child.  But I think I can try to incorporate some of his insights into my life.  The  chapter on “love” made a lot of sense and I have seen that kind of love work in my own life.  God’s love for me is so great and unconditional.  He has been teaching me too, over the past couple of years, that I need to love the people He has put in my life – love without expecting anything back.  Just loving – no strings attached.  Because God gave me these people to love.  And maybe I am the only reflection of God they will see.

I have found a book that I am having trouble putting down.  So I am up too late reading.  I have seen it mentioned a few times and picked it up on the weekend when I was in Saskatoon.  Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller is an easy book to just keep on reading.  But it is not light reading – not really.  He says so much that is honest and real about living our lives in the light of having experienced the love of Jesus.

I liked what he said about noticing people around us that need to be loved. Loving them not in order to make them into Christians but just because they exist. 

I find it hard to love a person who has neglected themselves so badly that they smell,  have horribly rotten teeth and come with a lot of worn out luggage like addictions and poor self esteem.  Yet, I guess these who are valued at almost nothing by themselves or our society are the very ones Jesus would spend time with.  And I think I would like to hang around where Jesus is. 

To be honest, sometimes it has happened to me – being able to help someone in real need.  And it has been of more benefit to me than to them I think.  But I really hate it when I know I have passed up an opportunity, succumbing to the pressures of people around me who want to see these people speeded on their way or  the economic pressures  that make me say to myself “No, I shouldn’t do that.  We can’t afford it.” when God has never once failed to meet my needs.

Randall in his comments on my blog yesterday is worried I might have slept through so much of the lecture yesterday that I might have missed a crucial point in the knowledge I should have learned.  Don’t you know, Randall, that years of dosing in church have trained me to absorb knowledge even while in a state of somnolence!  I didn’t actually sleep, just struggled hard to keep the head from nodding and the eyes from closing. 

The lecturer, Dr. Miles, gave us lots of sites to pick up knowledge from like www.LearnDigital.net  And he really was a good lecturer. 

They also kept the room temperature just above freezing so that helped to keep us awake.

After the lecture, I joined my daughter at the Pacific Gallery for soup and a sandwich – and a stroll through the little gallery there.  Saw a few pieces af art that I would love to own.  Alas, post-Christmas, pre-tax and the finances I know I have to deal with helped me to resist.

I am off to learn more today – Oral diseases.  So off I go to Saskatoon.  This course given by the RU Hospital Dental Department and the S’toon Dental Society has turned out to be one of the best of the year.  It usually brings new and useful information to us and I am hoping that this is the case since I have got to leave now to get there for the 7:30 start.

We stayed up too late watching  The Pianist last night.  It is a powerful and moving film and for me this was the second time I watched it.  I probably would do it again.

Who is Jesus Christ?

Leighton over at The Heresy  asked the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” a few days ago.  I know that, theologically speaking, he has a lot more training than I do and there is no way that what I say here begins to scratch the surface of this question.  But I think that what he was asking relates to our trying to put Jesus into a mould we have created that is not really who Jesus is.  We try to shape Jesus to fit our world and wishes rather than acknowledge that he is God and let his power and teachings shape us to be people fit for his kingdom.

His question made me think more about a question that I sometimes wonder about.  How can we comprehend who God is? 

Just thinking about the vastness of the universe as I looked up into a clear sky – the God I know made all this and set it in motion.  How can I possibly “know” him?  My mind can hardly comprehend the little part of the world I can see and the world of the very large (space and all that is out there) and in contrast the very small (the structure of the atom) is so complex that it is beyond my scope of knowledge.  Just as my eyes can’t see far into the universe by looking up into the sky, my mind is limited and has a hard time understanding much about God.

When I start to think about how complex God’s relationships are with us, I realize even more how little I understand.  What I know about God from my trying to figure him out is almost nothing.   Oh, I know there are nice theological answers because I am not the only one who has asked questions about God, but the answers still are mostly beyond my ability to fathom.  It’s as if my mind can follow the logic of the theological answers just so far and then my finite mind switches off and the questions are all there again.  Really logical thinkers may not have this problem but my mind just doesn’t operate very well this way.  I understand mystical thinking a lot easier.  It lets me accept the unknowable.

One thing that makes God knowable to me is the person of Jesus Christ.  Who is he?   He is God.  What I know about God I know through him.  Through him I see the love of God which really did come down to my level.  I begin to understand the reality of a God who interacts with me, not just a far off uninvolved god.  He is my God, involved with me, who chose to live in human skin like mine in this world which he created, just so that he could show me a glimpse into his kingdom and provide me with the means to live in that kingdom too.  I think this is what is meant by Jesus being my intercessor – my go between – between my humanity and God’s holiness.

Although today was lacking in sunshine there was nothing drab about todays special beauty in soft grey and white.  Everything was coated in hoarfrost.  The cold plucks the moisture out of the air and quick freezes it onto everything.  Nature is transformed as if diamond encrusted.  Maybe this is one of God’s treats for those of us brave enough to live in the cold north.  I will post some more pictures on my fotolog over the next few days.

It was a long day at work today and then I had some running to do before a church board meeting.  I’m pooped!  Hope I can actually get myself to bed a bit earlier tonight.

One of my staff came in yesterday with a back spasm of some sort and couldn’t sit to work.  Today she called and she can’t get out of a semi- reclining position.  She will not likely be at work tomorrow.  Makes it hard for my other assistant since it is hard to cancel patients at the last minute especially when they come from a long distance.  We have a lot of patients who fly down from the north and they are usually already in town for the appointment – so no changing them.  Today we kept up OK but we were both tired by the end of the day. 

Right after work I had been requested to bring a sub to my daughter who would be reffing a soccer game.  since she was at the soccer centre form mid afternoon, I thought she had better eat sometime before her game later on.  So then I had to get something for the other daughter too. 

Leo had the job of picking our kitten up from the vets.  Poor little thing lost some essential tomcat parts today.  This act on our part will probably extend his life considerably.  With only three legs he doesn’t stand a fighting chance against a four legged Tom.  And if he starts to spray around my house, he won’t stand a chance against me!

Our last meeting of this years deacon board was held tonight.  We are having a weekend of discussions and brainstorming with our conference superintendant around the concept of change and changing structures.  I sort of feel very unprepared for the weekend.  It just seems to have come up so fast when it always seemed so far off in the future before Christmas.  We have got to make our structures less cumbersome.  We are wearing ourselves out trying to keep old stuff happening. We need new ways that are easier to manage in our busy lives.  And we need younger people to take over some stuff and do it their way.  We need a lot of prayer happening over the next couple of weeks as we come up to this and to our annual meeting with all the election of church officers, etc.  We really need God to be there.  I hope he’ll come.

Leighton over at The Heresy is asking the question “Who is Jesus Christ?”.  Today I was thinking about a related question.  How can we comprehend who God is? 

Just thinking about the vastness of the universe as I looked up into the sky when it cleared this afternoon.  The God I know made all this and set it in motion.  How can I possibly “know” him?  My mind can hardly comprehend the little part of the world I can see and the world of the very large (space and all that is out there) and in contrast the very small (the structure of the atom) is so complex that it is beyond my scope of knowledge.

Then when I start to think about how complex God’s relationships are with us, I realize how little I understand.  What I know about God from my trying to figure him out is almost nothing.  My why questions don’t have answers that make much sense.  Like why would God want to love us in the first place.  Why create such a flawed creature as man?  And then why try to save us from our own rebelliousness.  Oh I know there are nice theological answers because I am not the only one who has asked these questions.  but the answers still are mostly beyond my ability to fathom.

The one thing that makes God knowable to us, I believe, is the person of Jesus Christ.  Who is he?  He is our link to God.  He is God.  What we know about God we know through him.  Through him we see the love of God which really did come down to our level.  We see how real God is.  He is our God, involved with us, living in our skin and walking in our shoes so that he could show us how God wants us to live. 

There are lots of gods that are complex and their followers do not understand them either.  But most are either just very “spiritual ” humans revered by their followers and elevated to god status or at the other extreme are spirits that their followers have to placate or win over by worship so that they can be manipulated into granting a desire.