4 - how many weeks ago I landed back in Canada
2- how many weeks I've been away since then
3 - the number of provinces I've been in
8 - the number of beds I've slept in these 4 weeks
2000 - approx. # of kms. I've driven (personally)
2400 - approx. # of kms. I've flown (not personally)
10 - family members I've been able to see
17- friends I've been able to catch up with face to face (plus their families)
7 - of these friends introduced me to their new babies (one introduced me to 2:))
so many more - friends left to catch up with
7 - days left until returning to work
1 - faithful God who has seen me through all the changes of the last few months and weeks and will continue so into the future
I will continue to post on this site as inspiration hits, and hope to have pictures soon for all of you visual people - I know it's been a long time, sorry 'bout that!
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Thursday 10 April 2008
Can you smell it?
It only happens for a few hours, maybe a few minutes when you enter a new country. You can smell it. I don't mean the smells of street stands, perfumes or hygiene, urban or rural; I mean the smell of a nation. Other senses will continue to remind you that you are in a new place or have been to one - vision compares images, sound compares languages, taste compares foods and water, touch compares climates, cultures, and topographies. With just one breath, scent can have us travel across time and space and circumstance faster than any plane. Our will is not involved in this journey; suddenly we are there, in the midst of a memory.
Since smell works by detecting changes, you can stop smelling the ordinary. Whether we spend our days in a rose garden or a pig barn, after a few minutes our noses can't pick it up. But someday, when we've left those places, those scents will bring us back. Not just where we were, but who we were and what was happening in the midst of it. This is how the mystery occurs of how one person can smell crap and think happiness, another roses and think misery. This observation is both literal and figurative.
There is another scent that lingers in the air. For some they are so inundated with it they fail to recognize it anymore. Others fear it or hate it and try not to breath it in. But those who love it can detect its aroma in every place. It is the smell of God. His book tells us that the fragrance of His knowledge is diffused in every place through those that trust in Him. For some it is the fragrance of life, others the fragrance of death - who is sufficient for these things? It is the breeze that blows through both the rose garden and the pig pen, and it is free. May each of us breath deeply today, and may it be life to us.
To all of you I will see again and for the first time - smell ya later!
Since smell works by detecting changes, you can stop smelling the ordinary. Whether we spend our days in a rose garden or a pig barn, after a few minutes our noses can't pick it up. But someday, when we've left those places, those scents will bring us back. Not just where we were, but who we were and what was happening in the midst of it. This is how the mystery occurs of how one person can smell crap and think happiness, another roses and think misery. This observation is both literal and figurative.
There is another scent that lingers in the air. For some they are so inundated with it they fail to recognize it anymore. Others fear it or hate it and try not to breath it in. But those who love it can detect its aroma in every place. It is the smell of God. His book tells us that the fragrance of His knowledge is diffused in every place through those that trust in Him. For some it is the fragrance of life, others the fragrance of death - who is sufficient for these things? It is the breeze that blows through both the rose garden and the pig pen, and it is free. May each of us breath deeply today, and may it be life to us.
To all of you I will see again and for the first time - smell ya later!
Sunday 6 April 2008
Hello Canada
The answer to the riddle is:
"Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full."
There are 4 books in the Bible titled John. One is long and is one of the 4 Gospels - the other 3 are short letters side by side right at the end of the New Testament. Of them all, the shortest is second John (2 John), and the words above in parenthesis are the second to last verse of this letter. This is what I am looking forward to with many of you!
Congratulations to Sarah I. for getting it right - here's looking forward to a coffee date:) And some of you have written to me to say you can't post on the comments page of this blog- I'll try and lift the restrictions I didn't know I had. You weren't willfully excluded:)
"Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full."
There are 4 books in the Bible titled John. One is long and is one of the 4 Gospels - the other 3 are short letters side by side right at the end of the New Testament. Of them all, the shortest is second John (2 John), and the words above in parenthesis are the second to last verse of this letter. This is what I am looking forward to with many of you!
Congratulations to Sarah I. for getting it right - here's looking forward to a coffee date:) And some of you have written to me to say you can't post on the comments page of this blog- I'll try and lift the restrictions I didn't know I had. You weren't willfully excluded:)
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