September 27, 2008 · 4:49 am

Weekend visitors

Tonight on my way home, I stopped at the daycare and picked up Zaka.  He is staying with us overnight so that his mom can go down to see her brother and sister for a birthday supper and some partying.  She turns 21 next week.  i think she is a pretty awesome mom and Zaka is a pretty good little guy.  He is getting ready for bed now and watching Dora on his DVD player. 

After supper we were watching the CFL game.  We were all rooting for Winnipeg – cause of course if they won it moved the Riders up in the standings.  Zaka loves to watch sports and he kept chanting, "Go Blue, go!"

It has been a fun evening and now Dave and Annette and their kids have arrived so we are getting to have a houseful.  It will be a busy weekend but it will be good.  A nice change from a big empty house.  Sometimes even a baby’s cry is welcome noise.

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September 25, 2008 · 9:06 pm

The invisible ingredient

The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.       Matt 13:33

So, as members of the Kingdom are we not then to infiltrate and permeate our country and culture like the yeast of the dough in the parable that Jesus told? It seems to me that this is likely the most effective form of spreading the way of the Kingdom.

People living out new ways of relating to co-workers. People wanting their clients to be treated with care and consideration. People acting as if they understand that the people around them are also loved by their Father and carry part of that divine spark that inhabits all of God’s creatures. People taking care of the world around them because God gave it to us to care for.

Maybe it really is the least, the most humble, the followers of Christ who quietly live like this that are the yeast – the invisible but potent ingredient that is essential to making a most excellent loaf of bread. And who can resist a slice of fresh warm bread?

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Filed under Devotional Reading, Quotes, Writings

September 24, 2008 · 2:03 pm

Early Morning

A couple of us still get together for early morning prayer at the church – Gatecrashers.  It is early and some days hard to get there but I am always so glad when I do.

This morning was no different.
Good to be in the presence of God with a friend talking about the needs of our church, our friends, our families and bringing it all to God at the start of the day.

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September 22, 2008 · 1:09 pm

Psalm 119:33-40

Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees,
       that I may follow it to the end.

Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law
       and obey it with all my heart.

Direct me in the path of your commands,
       for there I find delight.

Turn my heart toward your statutes
       and not toward selfish gain.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
       preserve my life according to your word.

Fulfill your promise to your servant,
       so that you may be feared.

Take away the disgrace I dread,
       for your laws are good.

How I long for your precepts!
       In your righteousness preserve my life.

 

Psalm 119:33-40 TNIV

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September 22, 2008 · 4:27 am

Women’s book study

We began reading the book The Real Mary by Scott McKnight. I think it will be a good book to read and discuss as a group of women. Sometimes our discussion wanders a ways from the original topic so we touched on everything from the humanity of Jesus to the Trinity. It was good to look back at the passages in Luke and Matthew and think about what the real Mary has to tell us about faith and trust. We have lots to learn from her and our challenges are not so big as hers must have been.

My challenge is to act as something of a leader. Sometimes I feel as if we go on wild goose chases. However, that must be a sign that we are free enough to ask questions – another topic we touched on – that God gave us minds that ask questions so that we should not be afraid to explore. Questions keep us from being sucked into taking another’s word as truth without understanding.

Now I am tired and tomorrow begins another busy week.

Good night all.

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Filed under church, Day to Day, Reading

September 19, 2008 · 2:36 am

Limbering up the claw

Well, orchestra started again for me tonight.  This year the conductor mercifully chose music that was more at the beginner level.  Many of the top players have moved on.  Jenelle, our lead bass is teaching in Belgium for a couple of years.  Another has gone away to school – flight school no less.  That leaves me and one other bass player.  So far she has not come to practice. 

That leaves me.

Not terribly promising if you want a strong bass section.

I am not strong.  Sometimes the terms he uses are like Greek to me.  Who knows, maybe they are Greek.  And since I have not done a lot of practicing over the summer, I pretty much sucked tonight. 

Even my bass claw seems to have stiffened up and the old ring finger wants to get in on the action and should be quietly lining up with the middle finger. 

It just seems such a busy year so far.  I though I would maybe dispense with the Monday night lesson and see if I could keep up on my own.  I guess I may need to reconsider that!

So, I return from orchestra feeling lousy – like a failure, like I will never get it right.  And this is supposed to be fun.  Maybe instead of a pity party I just need to use my time wisely and practice every chance I get.

Yeah, I think that is it.  By the end of the year I will be better.  I know.

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September 18, 2008 · 5:53 pm

Lancaster dies

For a non-sports fanatic, football still holds my attention, especially during the Grey Cup play offs.  CBc has a story on him here.

Ronnie Lancaster was playing back when I was in school.  He left his mark on Canadian football, on Saskatchewan and likely on all of us who are his peers.

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September 17, 2008 · 5:53 am

Council

Well, Randall says this last meeting with him was subdued.  Not sure how to say good byes with a lot of joyful feelings.  We still laughed but it is a bit hard to do that while swallowing the lump that creeps up to the back of the throat from that place just behind the sternum where it sits too often these days.

It is hard to come to the end of a really good relationship even though we have to trust that God knows what he is doing in this place.  Still, it has been ten years and how do we wrap us ten years and come to some sense of closure in a couple of months.  It is just hard work, this working through of saying goodbyes and starting to move into a place of new beginnings again. 

I guess there can be no new beginnings unless we are willing to risk leaving a previous place of relative security.  And maybe that is partly what God does to us.  He has good things in store for our future.  We just don’t know yet what they are going to look like – although we see some interesting ways that God is moving in our midst. 

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September 15, 2008 · 3:32 am

It seems as if fall is approaching – along with all of the regular activities.

Today has been a full day.  I just got back a bit ago from coffee with the group of us women who get together once a week or so to read and discuss a book – and talk.  Maybe the talking is the most significant part of why we meet.  This year we are going to begin with reading The Real Mary by Scott McKnight.  That should bring us up to about Christmas.  Sort of fitting. 

We have a good time together.  This year we’ll again invite other women to join us.  We’ve purposefully kept the group fairly close and small so that we can learn to know and trust each other.  If the group gets too big we may have to rethink the format of meeting.  We need this sort of a group.  This morning I was talking to the husband of one of the women and he commented that we women have a good thing going on – that he finds it hard to read scripture himself but that now his wife does and enjoys it.  He was sort of lamenting the lack of this type of group for men – also being realistic and saying that the kind of sharing and support we women have is hard to do for men.  And that is true.  No less necessary though.

Another man in the congregation shared that he had just lost his father.  Women could easily hug him and express their sympathy but the men hang back.  I think they need some of this kind of support – need to learn that it is OK and good.  But there are some unseen sort of barriers that keep men from being able to do this.  Another fellow mentioned this, and said he thinks the men need to support each other more openly.

At least the need is becoming more evident.  Maybe something will move in that sector.

For myself – it has been a full day.  Preaching a sermon is good work and rewarding but it leaves me feeling as if I have done some physical work.  Sort of tired and reflective and in many ways satisfied.  Hard to describe.  It takes some emotional energy or something and at the same time leaves me feeling good. 

It also evokes some inner questions and it is a bit hard to articulate but it makes me wonder where I am going with all of this.  I feel torn between pushing ahead on a course of action that I think might be right for me and holding back, being patient so that I discern the right action to take.  This is a hard place to sit in – this waiting place.

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September 14, 2008 · 2:41 am

Post Convention

Since Friday, I have been in Saskatoon for the annual Scientific Session of the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan.  It was quite the gathering this year – being attended by a record number of people.  I think almost 800 were registered.

Usually I don’t bother to go.  I’m not big on the golfing aspect that usually takes up the half day before the scientific sessions start.  And I am not big on the partying that makes up the evening activities.  For the past few years the topics covered at the convention have not been of particular interest to me either and since I didn’t need the continuing ed points, I did not see much reason in going.

I am glad I went this year.  Dr David Sweet spoke on Thursday.  Topic was Forensic Odontology.  Sort of a more realistic version of CSI, but for real.  I found it fascinating.   Today, I listened to a talk on the Swissair disaster and the role of dentistry in the identification of victims.  Fascinating again – to me. 

I think I am coming to the conclusion that there is not going to be enough length to my span of years to learn everything that I find fascinating. 

Now I am back home, going over tomorrow’s talk for church.  The sermon.  And also reflecting on how good it was to spend overnight with my kids and grandkids in their home where I feel so comfortable.

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Filed under Day to Day, Dental, Travels