Musings with PWC

  On Joe and the Stanley Cup Joe Thornton is coming to Toronto!  Everyone is pumped!  A few days ago I  was listening to a radio interview with Joe as the special guest. Talk of the Stanley cup came up.  This question was asked:  “Why the Stanley cup?  What’s so important about it?”   Joe’s response was as follows.  ‘You know even as kids, playing road hockey, you all imagine you are playing for the Stanley Cup.’ Then Joe said, “…the Stanley Cup, that’s why you play the game…it’s the big magical thing.”  Wow—that’s why you play the game!  I thought about that statement—that’s why you play the game!  That rang in my spirit because I realize that illustrates my spirituality and my spiritual life.  Here it is:  The reason I am able to live for Christ in a pretty much God-less culture that is more and more permeated with evil, selfishness, hatred, etc. is because of the prize—eternal intimacy with Jesus. Hundreds of professional hockey players will hit the ice again (sometim

  I was looking for a place to do some work while waiting for my wife who was having her eyes checked at a hospital in downtown London.   I’m not a fan of finding a parking space in down-town anywhere.   I did however find a place at King’s University.   I read carefully the no parking signs and parked my van.   After Ruth was finished, she texted me and I left my outdoor picnic table study zone, packed my briefcase and got into the van and started driving over to St Josephs to pick her up.   Waiting at a stop sign, trying to get onto Richmond —which had all the signs of being the 401—I noticed something under my wiper blade.   Hmm.   Well as I had lots of time to wait, I jumped out and picked off a parking zone violation!   What!   They are wrong! After picking up Ruth I went back to the place I parked and took a picture of where I thought I had parked—-as evidence!  This was injustice at its finest.  Well, I read the ticket carefully and after thorough investigation called the a

In some religious orders, graduates of the ‘program’ take what is called a vow of obedience.  Part of that vow of obedience is submission to and obedience to a superior who will give appropriate direction in people’s lives.   After ‘handing yourself over to someone else’s directions,’ you will potentially have issues or concerns with what you are being told to do or, where you are being told to go.  It has been suggested that if you look at life as a series of hoops to jump through, you are always looking at the end as your ultimate goal. What about this approach?  Each event in life.  Every pain in life.  Every mistake.  Every victory.  Every decision.  Every trial.  Every hurt.  Every love.  Every enemy.  EVERYTHING is something used by God to form you! What if God is more interested in forming you into the person he needs you to be rather than achieving your end goal?  I have recently had the conversation with God about my life.  Now that I am past 60, I sense that I am a ‘l

  Three gifts you have been given: Desire Openness Receptivity Thesis:  You will never receive anything from God except by revelation.  You are not looking for God—God is looking for you.  If God had chosen NOT to reveal himself, NO ONE would seek him nor find him.  God is a self-revealer. Definition:  Revelation—this means disclosure, making fully known. God cannot be found, located, known—unless he chooses first to reveal himself. What then is your responsibility?  If you cannot know God unless he reveals himself, what are you supposed to do? Three gifts God in grace has given you: Gift # 1:  Desire:  God has placed desire in your heart for himself.  There is deep inside EVERY human being a heart that is beating for God! Ecclesiastes 3:11 “ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”  You have to choose to say no to God.  Refuse that deep se