Questions from answers

This is a story I’d like to tell you if you don’t know the story, but it’s a long story. So here goes…
Back on July 1 ,1998 we (myself and a friend Cara) went out to see the fireworks for Canada Day with a girl, Brigitte in her early 20’s visiting from Switzerland who had just arrived a few days earlier. Being bummed that we missed the fireworks,I thought we would go visit a friend at a nearby restaurant, but he wasn’t working that night, so we decided to go to the beach. The time was about 10:30 at night. Heading to the beach in White Rock ,the border crossing to the US is nearby. So I asked Brigitte if she had ever been to the States before she said ‘no’. So I thought we should take her to the States. Problem was she left her passport at my parents house. Keeping in mind this was pre-911 etc. I said, no problemwe cross all the time and it’s no big deal. So I get to the border guard and I said we were heading to get some gas(which is not that unusual and I would have got some gas.) 2 problems arose: First, I was driving my parents car and my mother had been across the border earlier that day(I found that out later) so they were suspicious why the car was crossing twice in one day, and second problem was I said we were all Canadian. Needless to say I had to explain that Brigitte was indeed Swiss not Canadian, and no we were not smuggling her into the US. But not surprisingly they didn’t believe me after I lied the first time. So I was fingerprinted, the car was impounded and I had to call my parents in the middle of the night to pick us up. I think it took about a month and $500 bucks to get the car back and I had to show up in a future court date. I think that was my most embarrassing moment in my life and a good lesson learned.
In the court appearance in Seattle, I took it too lightly, I thought I could explain the situation and it would clear things up, wasn’t that easy. In hindsight I should have hired a lawyer. Bottomline verdict, I was not allowed back in the States again. So I pursued some legal counsel, in the end cost a fair bit of money and didn’t get me anywhere. So I had one other option to apply for a waiver. This waiver would allow for tempary entry to the States usually one year at a time. So I applied for a waiver and about 6 months of waiting time, but about 2 years since the initial incident, I received my first one year waiver. I was so happy, because I thought I would never go to the States again. So from July 2000 to July 2001 I was able to travel freely to the States, and I did take a trip to Texas with my wife, it was also the last time I saw Caedmon’s Call on tour.
Knowing that my visa was to expire in July 2001, I think I reapplied for a waiver in the Spring sometime. I think I had forgot to send the right amount of money or something, so my application process took a lot longer than the usual wait. In the meantime 9-11 hits and the priority of my application went way down the list. I thought I’ll never hear from them again. In April of 2002 I did finally get another year permit. During that time my wife and I enjoyed our last major trip without kids as we camped on the Oregon coast and and northern California. I then went through the process again, keeping in mind the application costs about $300 plus usually 2 rounds of fingerprinting(one for Canada and one for the US). In Dec 2003 I received my third one year application. Ironically even though I could go to the States I never made it during the year I was able. So now I went through my forth application process and after waiting for what seems like a year I received my forth waiver, but they extended the waiver for 5 years!. So I am really happy about this and I can visit the US again. I think I should take a trip to Bellingham just becasue I can. So by the time the Olympics come in 2010, I’ll have to think about renewing my waiver again as it expires in Feb 2011. I hope to be able to take a few trips in the meantime to once again explore our neighbour.
Freedom is a good thing.

People keep asking me what I want for Christmas, and it bugs me. Why? They think I am some ‘Bah Humbug’ guy about Christmas, I’m not. I just don’t find anything satisfying in saying I would like ‘this’ for Christmas and there you go, it pops up under the tree. Is that what Christmas is about? I mean sure who doesn’t like presents, but is there any eternal value in that? Everybody talks about how Christmas is over-commercialized etc., but are we going against the flow of the commercialization or joining in it?
Easter is just as important if not more important holiday on the Christian calendar, does society or us as Christians get hyped up about Easter, a month, 2 months early? We start reflecting on Easter perhaps a few weeks ahead, which seems about right. Why can’t this relate to Christmas as well?
There is a man in our church, Dave, who has been an elder in our church for many years, who has recently just stepped down, probably more to do with health reasons than anything else. He is only 66 years old and has been a strong godly leader in our church for years. He has also been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The timeline someone lasts with this type of cancer is usually months not years.. This has been a huge shock to his family and our church. Yet through all what is going on Dave is still praising the Lord.
So I was thinking what are his family going to get him for Christmas? What will Christmas celebration be like for this family this year, knowing it will probably be their last with him, unless there is a miracle.
Somehow I think the true meaning of Christmas will come out more than ever this year. Will presents be the most important thing of Christmas, doubt it. I think spending time with family and a relflecting on what the Lord has done and how He is faithful will shine through this year more than ever, this is what I want for Christmas.

Seems like I don’t get a lot of spirtual nourishment these days. I am easily distracted with doing other things. My prayer life has been OK only because I can lie awake at night and praying seems to be a good optin at that point, plus also usually I don’t make it to ‘Amen’ till I wake up:) Getting consistent devotions has been a struggle lately for me. Tonight I spent some time reading the Word and it felt like eating after being starving for a while. It came as a result of not being able to sleep, so I need to carve some time out of my day, to make it become a regular habit again. I know there is time during my day to do this, but will I get my priorities straight?

I think I need some change in my life, not drastic, but I think for meI need to get out of my comfort zone. Life is a little too comfortable for me rightnow. If I don’t change anything, life will just keep going by. I don’t really want to change, but I know I would be a lot more useful to God if I stepped out on faith more. It sounds easy to say it but, to actually do anything is another matter.

Currently I have an accounabilty partner which I am thankful for but, I wonder if I need a mentor as well. I think I need to find someone who understands me and is able to speak some wisdom in my life.

I watched sermon recently by Irwin McManus of Mosaic Church in LA. He spoke of returning to an unsanitzed Christianity. Something where you live more by faith instead of pursuing comfort. More like how John the Baptist lived, the disciples, Paul and of course Jesus lived. They didn’t have a comfortable life and because of that God was able to use them in extraordinary ways.

And here I am, what risks by faith do I take for God. Not many. Why not? If I am truly being honest, I think I’m scared. I like the comfortable lifestyle. Being scared doesn’t really suit my personality, because I do like to take chances. Some people think I am crazy in some of the things that I do, but I know what my limits are and I’ll jump as far as my limits will take me. When it comes to faith God wants me to jump farther than my limits take me, and thats why I’m scared. I know I shouldn’t be scared but my head and heart do not correspond to each other in this. It’s that fear of the unknown.
I pray that I can trust God enough that I will go where He leads.
If anyone wants to pray for me as well that would be appreciated.

I wanted to make sure I updated my blog before we take another week holiday. This will be my last holidays till Christmas time. We are going to Nelson, BC. Not quite the Rockies but very close. We will be at a cabin on Kootenay Lake very similar to this:

Thanks for “listening” to my thoughts.

So recently I took this Personality Test over here.. http://www.oneishy.com/personality
I thought the way the test went, was a little unusual and I have no idea how accurate this test is, but when I read the results I was very strong in the Phlegmatic category. The other categories were a lot lower but pretty evenly scored. I read the qualities both good and bad for a phlegnmatic and it describeed me almost exactly.
So I started thinking, can I be a more of a leader rather than a follower of which a phlegmatic person is prone to be? I am in a few leadership positions at the moment, but they haven’t been all that easy for me. I am constantly looking for those words of affirmation that I am doing fine as a leader. It’s the natural confidence and leadership that I want but find it so hard to attain. Is this a learned process? Could I learn to be a choleric type person, which sounds quite opposite my character.
I am not trying to be something I am not, but rather trying to improve some of my weaknesses. I would like to run my own company successfully one day, be a good leader for the bible study I lead., be a strong leader in my family.
I know God created different types of personalities for a reason and we can’t all be one type of person, life wouldn’t be balanced that way. So should I embrace the way God made me naturally or try to become more of a leader-type person even though it doesn’t come to me naturally?

This are my ponderings this week, sorry I haven’t written in a while I have been on holidays, things were a little busy.

Seems like you get to a point in your life that you think you’ve got things figured out. You know what you believe and you’ll stick to that. Of course I am generalizing, but it seems most people come to this point in their life.
Let’s look at some example. At a certain message board with a section called At your own Risk, people discuss various topics of a controversial nature, while I do enjoy the discussions after a while it come accross as people trying to prove their already decided position on one another. Many people have reached their beliefs in life and try to convice the others. Do people change their positions, I wondered, so I asked, I am curious as to what the response will be.
The second example, which is a classic one, which is, ‘when I get married I’ll slowly change my spouse of what I consider their faults’. Well as is usually found out, that is usually not done successfully. Why? because of how we’ve reached our beliefs in life. Now I should say that there is hopefully gradual change, when I first got married I hardly ever cleaned up after myself until it became really bad, now after living with my wife for 5 years I have learned to clean my mess up immediately after I made it. Of couse I don’t always do this and slip back to my old ways, which tends to annoy my wife. Also people have commented on my driving that I am not as aggresive as I used to be, I think that is probably due to my wife disagreeing on that way I drive, don’t get me wrong, I am still aggressive, just toned down a bit.
There are other examples I could look at, but you get the idea.
So what does this have to do with me? Well two things, first off when I see people discussing various controversial topics, quickly we will see the extremes of the argument, lets call them left and right. Now when I look at the argument I usually end up agreeing with some points on each side but not usually all. So where does that leave me, fairly close to the middle. I am not sure how I feel about this position, because it feels like I don’t have a position. I feel like I want to jump on one side strongly and say I have this position, but I can’t seem to find a side to jump on.
That’s my first problem.
Secondly, my spiritaul life for the most part is ok, I am not struggling with any major sin, I am so-so when it comes to prayer and devotional life, so things should be good, but it feels like I am not growing. I go to church every week, and I wonder will this sermon affect me. Now I know I should not just rely on a sermon once a week to be my cure. I also wonder how authentic my worship is to God.
I think these 2 points are related, but it all make me wonder will I ever change? I don’t want to be writing again a year from now and say I am in the same position.

I think God does want me spending more time with Him, there are so many distractions these days, and I seem to be persuing these more than God. I know that I need to be seeking Him daily. Also I think I am feeling very comfy these days, I am not challenging myself spiritually. I need to be praying to God to ‘make my calm, your storm’:-)

I know God can change me…will I let Him?

I often wonder how words become offensive. Who decides this? I am not one to use the traditionally unaccepted 4-letter words, but why don’t I use them? I think a part of me says they are a sin to say them and part of me thinks there are other words to convey the same meaning and I wouldn’t want to offend anyone. But what about words that are generally accepted substitutes like gosh or darn, should we be avoiding these terms as well?

I heard a story last week that when our assistant pastor was preaching one time, that he referred to something being a “crappy job”. (Actually I remember when he said that, at the time I think I thought you don’t usually hear that from the pulpit, but didn’t think too much else other than that.) He went on to say that a few people of British descent said “crap” was quite offensive in England. So why is saying crap not offensive to me, and other terms are?
In reference to the word crap, I was at a Christian wedding the other day, taking pictures when my film accidently rewound too early and said “crap!”. It wasn’t overly loud but, then I heard a voice in an English accent say ” I have that on tape.” This man, who I know, was the official videographer for the wedding. At first I thought, big deal I said crap, but later on it clicked, oh I said a bad word in his mind.

Anyway I find all this rather interesting, these thoughts I just wrote aren’t very original, but I still wonder about this from time to time.

Maybe I need to get over the stigmas related words and yet keep in mind the words from Proverbs 21:23 “He who guards is mouth and his tongue keeps him from calamity.”