Results – Life's Prequel

Flying through Failure into Joy, Hope, and Life

There is little in life that is more precious than to see the one you love enthralled with delight at something simple; for therein one touches the self of one’s soul, the memories of the child grown, and with joy one heals many things that are not so.

With just enough wind to raise the kite, and not so much that one had no challenge to pay attention, provide tension, and bring success through intention against the wind, to give the kite cause to rise against the sky.

There the sun burst through the clouds of the day above the city skyline, giving witness to human effort to create a city and God’s good effort to create beauty at every turn, even amidst the chaos of human effort to falsify the past in order to ruin another.

In God’s world there are of necessity always things of our past that we must haul along with us, and we can complain that they are there, or realize that God leaves them attached so as to stabilize us in the present, to keep our heads up, our hearts beating, and our spirits oriented towards grace. The tails of life are not anchors of disaster, but lessons that can be the source of our wisdom.

There with light pouring through us we can truly be alive.

Or we can deny the past, pervert its memories, and shut out the light, and live a shell of God’s intention for us; we can live in darkness, fear and anxiety.

There is nothing so destructive for ourselves but to think everyone else is to blame for our failings; for then we never learn, we never grow, we never love, and we never truly live.

It is in knowing our own failings and our past, and receiving forgiveness for it all, that we learn to shine, and fly, and stay connected to those we love and those who love us.

As wise Phoebe said: once you lie, though it may seem so small, it leads you places you could not predict, places dark and destructive from which you cannot escape. Okay she didn’t quite say it that way, but she saw that truth: lies seep in quietly and suddenly grow to consume our lives. And we cannot get free of them.

Except, when the light of Christ enters our real though denied guilt, and then we see by grace the goodness we had forgotten and denied, the goodness all around us, and in people we once denigrated and rejected … and the profound goodness that God imputes to us though undeserving. And then we can live free of fear, for we are forgiven and valued and worthy … and able to stand as equals.

Equal in failures; and equally redeemed and made whole. Sinners made simultaneously Saints.

And the fun of it all, and I mean of it all, not just this evening in the park, or this week of lies and hell and hope, rather the fun of it all is like this evening;

It is the enemy’s ace, the Red Baron, which is portrayed, and which delivers the delight, and which, though in previous generations an instrument of death, is an instrument of joy.

Against the backdrop of light and darkness, or cloud and trees this red triwingeddevil thrills us.

And that childlike thrill reaches deep in the soul to heal and bring hope.

God is Good; and all will be well. We shall see the devil of the past, turn into the deliverer of joy, of life, of love, in the present and into the future.

If only the children (the child in us all) could see … the truth and be free.

Dinner, Dance, Abundant Grace!

There is little in this world that is spectacular beyond breath, but there is much in this world that is spectacular beyond breath!

One needs to listen and hear, look and see, feel and experience everything knowing the Grace of God is always at work, in abundance.

Yesterday I went looking and after a few other stops found the Emeralds, a band with saxophone, voice and keyboards … and more. And their schedule had them playing in north Edmonton. So I called for more details, precious few were available on line.

And we went to dinner and dance.

Great Food! Great Music!!! And SPECTACULAR dancing!!!!!

To be able to dance and move and change the step to fit the music or the density of the dance floor or the mood … it doesn’t get much better. And there were dancer of age, spectacular in what they could do to the music!

Oh, heaven broke through from the infinite to the finite and there was … Grace!

And we worked on this sermon, for this morning. And Linda challenged me with my nose in my phone, thinking I was playing games. And when I explained, she read some and asked that the sermon get posted, shared. So here it is.

Oh, the celebration so precious and costly and over the top?

Ukrainian New Year’s Eve.

We could not stay real late, with this morning looming and plumbing half finished … But it was a part of a wonderful life!

And now the requested sermon:

The banquet of the kingdom of God is not a special snack for a few friends and close associates. It is a huge gathering with the tables weighed down, bursting with good food for everyone. God’s generosity results in spontaneous words of gratitude and praise.

In her book The Spark, Kristine Barnett tells the story of her son Jake.

At a year and a half, Jake started to crawl into his shell, by 2 he was rarely speaking or making eye contact. When he was diagnosed with autism, everyone predicted what was not possible, including that Jake would not speak or be able to communicate at all long before 16.

Instead, at age 16, we see little Jake, a boy small for his age standing and talking animatedly and easy with a math professor. Giving the others a head start Jake waits to join one of the groups of college students working on the problem the professor has given them and then he stands to the whiteboard to write a few equations. He turns and, giving the students leading questions, entices and invites the others to understand what he sees clearly in a multitude of ways.

Soon one, two and four students from the other groups come across to Jake’s board. Soon most of the students are there listening, eagerly absorbing what Jake offers them, until first one, then another, and then most of them nod understanding and return to their own whiteboards to work through the problem before them.

God gives us abundance, over abundance, just over the top, overwhelming abundance. It’s amazingly perfect wine flowing freely for us.

In today’s Gospel from John we get a taste of this wonderful stuff: In the Bible being out of wine is not just a social faux pas. It is a sign that God’s blessings have run dry. Wine was a sign of the harvest, of God’s abundance, of joy and gladness and hospitality. So when they run short on wine they run short on blessing. And that is a tragedy. A sign that God did not bless the marriage.

And there is even more to be said. If you don’t know it yourselves yet, here is nugget of wisdom we receive from our Jewish brothers and sisters: for those who are married the blessings of being in love with your spouse is the most important thing. It is the blessing of blessings, the one blessing that makes your whole world right. It is the one gift that’s worth everything you have and are, – the most significant gift that you can pass on to your kids. Nothing else can replace it. And nothing else is out of reach if you have it. So when the wine runs flat out: it’s a sign of sure disaster!

Mary tells Jesus about it. He sidesteps the problem. She places it back on his lap. What follows is Jesus’ first miraculous sign that teaches us what grace looks like: God intends for us to be blessed beyond blessing, beyond imagining. Jesus doesn’t just turn some water into some wine. Jesus turns a huge volume of water into the best wine of all time, and there’s enough of it to last … and last …. and … last.

We human beings are hardwired to pay attention to scarcity. It’s a survival thing. If you have too many potatoes or meat it’s not really dangerous. But if you’ve got nothing to eat, that requires attention and energy focused on it so that you can survive!

So we pay attention to scarcity. Like low oil prices, dropping provincial revenues, dropping house values. We pay attention to failing health, dropping membership in churches, disastrous events in our communities.

We may even feel privileged that in this area the economy may not be so bad. Our attendance is better than most small rural congregations, and we have people who are willing to serve on committees and Council. Yet said that way, it brings to mind a fundamental fear, a fear that elsewhere it is worse than here and it’ll catch us sooner or later! Fear…, fear,… fear!!

But God wants us to live without fear! God wants us to know that there’s enough blessing to transform the world for every million years it’s going to exist! God inundated us with so many blessings that it’s overwhelming!

A man once calculated the amount of water [Jesus turned] into [that spectacular] wine. He presented his estimate to St. Jerome and asked if the guests at Cana had really drunk all that wine. [It was close to an additional 1000 bottles!] Jerome responded, “No, no, definitely not. We are still drinking of it today.”

Love, being in love, not just for a day or a few months, the kind that God gives us when we fall freshly in love; but the long-term kind -being in love for a lifetime – requires choosing to be there each day, choosing to do what it takes to be in love. It means continuing to do the loving thing through everything that could destroy love, and doing those things every day whether you feel like it or not…. That kind of doing love, of making your love … that is like Jesus’ wine, the blessing that God gives us … every minute of every day … of every week … of every month … of every year of our lives.

Knowing this what are we to do?

First pay attention: listen and hear; look and see; notice and feel; fully experience God’s abundance. God’s generosity is something other than what we normally see going on in this wonderful world.

Second – know there is not a thing you can do to change God’s generosity. You cannot earn it, deserve it, do anything right with it, or turn it into something more useful. Not only can we not; we don’t have to. God has already done all that for us.

Third, we can respond, we should respond, and we can respond well … but we don’t have to. God will still place the blessings in front of us, give them to us, shower us with them, and call us to move forward with them, and acknowledge that God is there with us.

This is the fabulous wine that overwhelms, the awesome love that carries us perpetually through every challenge.

And knowing this, we can remain humble and live life full of gratitude. As our second reading teaches, everything is a gift! First and foremost: God gives us faith, faith to see what God is up to, around us, in us, and between us!

In the 2nd reading today we are reminded that the people of the congregation in Corinth are richly blessed. God gives them many gifts for building up the community, but those very gifts become a source of contention. Several of the people accept the conclusion that the gifts varied in value and therefore the gifts reflect the worth of the person. Paul writes to the Corinthians, hoping to bring a healthy kind of harmony to the group. “Your gifts,” he tells them, “are just that, gifts, and they all are from the same Spirit. They have been given to you, not as reward, nor to increase your own personal worth or power within the community. They come as pure grace to be used in the service of the Lord. They are for the common good of the whole community. Their gifts each and every one support our confession that “Jesus is Lord.”

Jake, that autistic boy who everyone, except his own mother, everyone thought would never talk, well that boy got his first summer job when he was 12.

As a research assistant at the university where he studied, the youngest research assistant so far in our modern world, each day he’d get assignments to finish. And finish them he would … on the 20 minute drive home! ! Jake told his mom the LAST assignment was more bothersome, because he wasn’t sure if he could get it done.

His mom just gave him her best advice and encouragement and a bit of fire in the pants by telling him that he needed to apply himself, and to work at it until it was done. Every other night Jake would play outside with his friends. He had lots of free time.

That night Jake went to his room to complete the assignment. Within two hours Jake’s mom looked up and saw him outside playing with his brothers. She called to him. He confirmed that he wasn’t sure, but he thought he had something for the assignment. So she let him play.

The next day the professor called to thank her for supporting Jake through the summer of research. Then he told her what Jake had done the night before. He’d been assigned an open problem in math. No one had ever solved it. In less than two hours, the boy who everyone had given up on and said would not even talk, this boy Jake with autism had taken a problem that no one ever had come up with a solution for, and – in part because his mother didn’t’ know, and partly because she just always trusted that he was given some extraordinary gifts and he was to use them, – Jake solved an open problem!!, a problem deemed unsolvable!!!

Years before (at age 10) Jake had been able to propose a new unique theory of light and relativity that fixes some of the problems left over from Einstein’s theory of relativity. His theory is not complete but it’s possible that this boy may do something more significant than what Einstein did for us all.

God’s gifts are given to each of us, not just Jake, in an astounding over-abundance.

We don’t have to respond. We are not going to get rid of death and illness and decline and decay and poverty and pain and war and abuse and any of the other really horrific things we humans are too good at.

But we can respond well to God’s over abundance for us … if we want to.

And then we can, no, … then we will change the world!

Be not afraid!

Have a wonderful week.

Know that you are blessed to be a blessing. Your cup and your neighbor’s cup, is overflowing with God’s amazing, abundant wine given at that wedding in Cana.

Amen

So far the sermon.

This past year there have been many things, so abundantly filled with Grace:

This for Simon and Cyrus, Simon’s whose passion is soccer, who does math relating to the way he can see the field while he plays, And Cyrus who is always there practicing hour after hour with Simon, giving him a goalie, an opponent, a companion.

And this M’s grandma. A reworking of her old postage stamp photo into gifts for Grandma’s three daughters.

And this: as it turns out, the last opportunity for Phoebe to venture to drive the tractor, and she does with gusto!

New Year, Last Year, One Back, Now, One Ahead

New Year’s Eve

A year ago

One date, not so innocent,

Three kids, one hotel, one persistent intrusion,

Followed a few days later with one accusation,

That was impossible,

And now,

What is, is all the result of one be-devilled

Let’s see one year further into the future

And hope the same is bettered with hope

And persistent work to let Grace prevail!

There are cracks in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

There are some things that should not be: Darkness

There are some things that should not be done.

There are some things that should be done.

Catching light whenever possible should be done.

One shot.

Two shot.

Blaming others for the darkness that
one has chosen for oneself should not be done.
No shot.
Doesn’t depend on anything,

If you live in a darkness that you chose,
then blaming others just buries it under more darkness …
until the light is obliterated and
there is no more hope for light or love or life …
nor joy.

Until God chooses to change you!

And then there is life in abundance!

That’s Grace!

There are times beauty overwhelms the day’s darkness

There are times in ones life when the beauty of it all is overwhelming.

When, through the cracks in everything, the light gets in …
and the light that brings life shines all around in the darkness, giving life.

Choose life, please, choose life.

And this from the supper table, piped into a fantastic sound system:

Over the Rainbow

and this article as an explanation: Isreal records in one take

Tonight:

Last Saturday, Christmas, I put this together from pieces from my wife and my thoughts and my wife then edited a few times. And it contains the essence of faith; Faith in a gracious God; Faith proclaimed by our church, the Lutheran Church, the E.L.C.I.C.:

Second Reading: Titus 3:4-7
4When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Darkness
We wrote to a friend whose wife, Joan, was diagnosed with a really bad kind of dementia:
“Today, as the snow falls on the still dark fields in the view to the west and as single cars traverse the road on this side of the darker trees,
“I’m thinking of you and all the inspiration you have been to us;
“And thinking how [deleted expletive/]unfair and typical it is that you must face this, as you’ve faced so many challenges.”
Christmas Works
Every Christmas we see people, people, people expecting, expecting, expecting, buying, buying, buying, preparing, preparing, preparing, travelling, travelling, travelling, doing, doing, doing, cooking, cooking, cooking, wrapping, wrapping, wrapping, eating, eating, eating, and then we also see people grouchy and pressed, ornery and mean, exhausted and worn, hurting and torn, hungry in body and soul, upset and disappointed, disappointed, disappointed.
Christmas Grace according to God’s Mercy
God comes into our stress and hectic, joins right in with us, walks with us, runs with us to the store, the bedroom to wrap, the kitchen to cook, the living room to deliver, the drive to shovel, the store for the last minute food or gift, … God is with us, and the greatest gift is not any of our hectic, or our doing, or our meeting expectations, or even our great goodness.
Christmas is God’s Gift to us, to remind us: God is WITH us in everything: there is nothing we can do to make God be with us. God has done this already, and demonstrated it with Jesus’ birth more than 2 millennia ago. Demonstrated it because we humans need it made real obvious.
The rest of the world, even other religions and the Christian churches, and even us Lutherans get so lost in trying to be in control that we preach, teach and live that we need to do the righteous things, that we need to say the righteous things, that we need to believe the righteous things,
All in order that God will be with us.
That’s a formula for disaster in our lives. It is the formula of sin: we take over the place of God … and then all hell breaks loose in and around us, and we wonder why.
But the one True Gift that the Lutheran Church offers our members, the rest of the Christian churches, other religions, and all the world is simple:
First we confess: We cannot make ourselves right with God. We are too far gone, lost to sin, even the seemingly ‘smallest’ sin separates us from God. And we JUST CANNOT DO IT RIGHTEOUS enough, none of us, never, ever, no how!
AND
Second we proclaim: we don’t have to make ourselves righteous enough, because God has already made us saints, even as we are and remain sinners. God COMES TO US, each of us. Though we are lost, God finds us every day, every hour, every second. God finds us, comes to us, and God is with us,
Always. God is with us, God makes us good enough to be in God’s presence! It’s a gift! Free!
And the only thing we can do is respond: we don’t have to respond well, but we can. Knowing God is with us can change our lives, what we think, what we say, what we DO, and what we believe. And God IS with us no matter how we respond! Its grace, its free, its life-giving.
Giving as Giving Life; Because God Gives, Therefore We Give
Knowing God is with us can change our lives: we can give freely just as God gives to us, we can give forgiveness and mercy, grace and hope: love! WE can give others unconditional love!!
Story: Giving Freely
Nancy Gavin tells the story of her husband, Mike, whom she refers to as “The Man Who Hated Christmas.” Now it wasn’t Jesus that Mike hated. It wasn’t the Christian faith that he hated. But Mike hated what our culture had done with Christmas. He hated trees, and he hated presents, he hated “Jingle Bells,” and he hated all that stuff.
And he was a grouch every year at Christmas–not because of Jesus and the manger but because of the way we observe it.
One December when their son, Kevin, was twelve years old, Kevin was wrestling on his Junior High Wrestling Team. During that month of December they had an exhibition match against a church team. [A] church team … from … the inner city, a team made up of the poorest of the poor …. When the day came for the wrestling match, Kevin and his team came out in their sparkling wrestling uniforms…. [E]verything was as high tech and glorious as it could be. The [other] team … came with sneakers that weren’t really wrestling sneakers. …they didn’t even have the helmets that wrestlers wear to protect their ears from being pinched and pulled and scraped [while] wrestling.
As the match progressed … the church team [lost] every match. Mike… leaned over to [Nancy] and said, “I wish they could win just one match. They have talent, but they don’t have any coaching.”… [It took some doing but somehow] a light bulb went off in Nancy’s head.
The very next day she went down to the local sporting goods store and bought wrestling headgear and wrestling shoes and sent them anonymously to the church whose team her son had wrestled the day before. Then on Christmas Eve she wrote a little note to Mike: “Dear Mike, I know how you feel about Christmas. … Remember that wrestling team from the inner city church? This Christmas, they have headgear and proper shoes … as your Christmas present.”
She put the note in an envelope and stuck the envelope up in the branches of their Christmas tree. When morning came, the children unwrapped all their presents, and there was the usual festivity. Then one of the children spotted this envelope up in the tree and said, “Look! What is that?” Mike took the envelope down and opened it and read the note. With tears in his eyes, he looked at Nancy and said, “This is the best Christmas that I have ever had.”
It became a tradition in their family. Every year there would be an envelope, with no name on it, just an envelope in the tree. One year Nancy sent a group of mentally challenged kids to camp. Another year she sent some funds to a family whose house had burned down during the month of December. Year after year after year some sort of gift like this was Mike’s Christmas present.
Then, Nancy wrote, there came the fall, about the time their children were grown, when Mike died of cancer. When Christmas rolled around, Nancy could hardly put up the tree. But she did, and somehow in his memory she felt that she ought to once again put an envelope in the tree to make some sort of gift in Mike’s honor, just as she had during his lifetime. The three grown children came home, and Christmas morning came. And there in the branches of the tree were four envelopes. For, unbeknownst to each other, each of their three children had also made a gift in honor of their father.
And that too has become a tradition in their home. Nancy Gavin writes, “For generations … as my children become adults and have their own families, there will be an envelope for Mike in their tree.” And when her grandchildren have families of their own, there will probably still be envelopes for Mike in their tree. For the Gavin family is a family that “got it.” …. (SERMONSHOP December 1999, JOE PARRISH)
They began to understand Christmas, God’s gift of life for us.
Giving as Works
But our giving gifts at Christmas, not even an envelope in Mike’s memory, is not supposed to be our way to earn love from others, or from God. It is supposed to be BECAUSE we love them, and we love them because God loves us first, even though we do not deserve it, never, ever, no how.
Giving as Response to Mercy, to Grace
This Christmas, not in order to gain anything from God, nor from others, but because we recognize all that God has given us, let us Give to others. Give something just because God loves you, accepts you as you are, forgives you, and because God walks with you.
Christmas Grace
But whether you give because God loves you unconditionally, OR NOT; whether you are caught up in the hectic of making it perfect so that the traditions are not lost and are there as a loving structure that gives life to you and yours, OR NOT; whether you have quit giving gifts and you hate Christmas, OR NOT; whether you love the snow and the possibilities of the Christmas season, OR NOT; whether you have or will give all the right gifts to all the right people, OR NOT;
NO Matter What: God walks with you each day, each hour, each minute, and loves you unconditionally.
Christmas Light
We ended that note to our friend with these words:
“As the light of Christmas dawns, and the details become clearer, of the landscape before us, it is with deep gratitude for your gifts, part of God’s gifts for us, that we say,
“Know we pray for you and Joan,
“Know that if you need whatever, we will find it, in ourselves or organize it with others, to provide for you, as you have provided for so many people, us included.
“May the light shine even now brightly for you and Joan.”
Christmas Blessing
Breathe easy; you’re in God’s hands also this day. So let God’s light of love shine through your heart, mind and soul to all those around you.
Have a blessed Christmas!
Amen

The Fire Within, the Joy Throughout, Freedom in Forgiveness

See the light

The concept is that if one fully trusts God’s grace one does not sin frivolously,

nor purposefully nor purposelessly;

rather if one sees no way forward other than to sin, then trust that forgiveness is already promised, move forward, without regret but full of humility, and trust also in this moment that God will forgive.

For no matter how well one lives, because one sins constantly even if one is not so aware, no matter how well one tries (all humans are in bondage to sin) –
No matter what, even one’s daily breath is a gift of forgiveness, one always needs God’s forgiveness.

Recognize the Fire that is one’s own

No matter what, one needs forgiveness every moment ….

Therefore this one sin does not change how dependent one is on forgiveness. And if God’s forgiveness is real, then trust also that God forgives even when one sees no other good choice and must consciously choose to sin.

So in all things, choose life, and trust God’s love and Grace.

And be that for each other.

The Luther quote:

“If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.”

Letter 99, Paragraph 13. Erika Bullmann Flores, Tr. from: Dr. Martin Luther’s Saemmtliche SchriftenDr. Johann Georg Walch Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), Vol. 15, cols. 2585-2590. [12]

It’s Supposed to be Different … Good

This was the sermon from last Sunday. And …

Text: Luke 3:1-6 “Everything is S’posed to be Different from What it is Here”
Rev. Darryl M. Roste

In an old movie, Grand Canyon, a young urban professional man, breaks out of a traffic jam on a freeway and attempts to bypass it. His route takes him along side streets that are dark and foreboding. Then the predictable nightmare happens. His expensive luxury car stalls. He calls a tow truck. Before it arrives, five street toughs show up and surround him; they want to take his car. Just in time, the tow truck shows up and a young African American (played by Dennis Glover) begins to hook up to the car. The toughs protest, the driver is interrupting their meal.

The driver takes the leader of the group aside: “Man,” he says, ‘the world ain’t supposed to work like this. Maybe you don’t know that, but this ain’t the way that it’s supposed to be. I’m supposed to be able to do my job, without asking you if I can. And that dude is supposed to be able to wait in his car, without you ripping him off! Everything is supposed to be different from what it is here.”

“Everything is supposed to be different from what it is here”….

Ian Fraser related an experience from a visit to Costa Rica. He was the guest of a woman who lived in poor quarter of Costa Rica. This woman had little formal education, and her home, like all the houses around, was substandard in every way. Her husband left at 5 in the morning and came home at 7 at night selling vegetables to support the family. They both belonged to a neighborhood group which tried to see how changes which were needed in the area could be brought about.

One morning the Costa Rican woman was chatting with a friend. She said that the whole community needed to be roused to press for a fairer deal. Her friend protested that this was the responsibility of the government. The tone of the discussion sharpened.
The woman said; “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”
“Yes”
“Do you think Jesus Christ came to change life so that it was more the kind of life God wanted to see, or to leave it as it is?”
“I suppose, to change it, yes to change it.”
“Do you think Jesus Christ meant to change life by himself, or did he mean us to share the work with him?”
The other lady- hesitantly, “I know he meant us to play a part.”
“Then how can you believe in Jesus Christ and let things stay as they are?” 1

1 Story by Ian M. Fraser, from This is the Day Readings and Meditations from the Iona Community.

If everything is supposed to be different from what it is ….
Then
how can we believe in Jesus Christ and let things stay as they are?

The boys should be able to play soccer, enjoying donuts from Tim’s brought by their father.

The children should be able to enjoy outings with their father. Though it’s winter, so we’d not head to the beach.

Look

Look!

Look
At me, here among the many celebrating
Advent in the splendor of a perfect concert hall.
Songs and lessons and organ pieces that rock the hall decorations
of green wreaths, red ribbons and candles.
And me a guest of the sponsors.
With lights and acoustics that rival the best in the world.

Look

At me after being abused: so thoroughly demeaned, criticized and exiled as if there were something wrong with me! As if I were worthless, as if I could be expelled with the sewer.

Look

At those who worked with lies against me. What they said about and did to me says very little about me.
Though hardly perfect I am God’s child,
a saint by Grace alone,
fully worthy of unconditional love and joy.

Look

At all these others, like me,
also controlled, cut off, accused of our partner’s wrongs,
made out to be a monster of evil proportions,
held in captivity, bound by our own principles never to harm those we love, trusting the same of our beloved until it is too late:
and harm is too obvious to us;
and wholly captive we still sought every way to please,
and more to offer health and life to the one we loved.
And we offered our very breath to transform our life to death,
and our beloved’s death to life …
And even then even more was taken from us …
Until. …

And perhaps,
for some of us,
now freed
we still must navigate the landmines,
no
the heart-mines,
that populate our paths.

So we celebrate Advent, waiting
for our Lord to come
and set us free.

Look

What they said and did reflects who they are …
desperately needing the Light of the world to scour
their hearts and minds and souls clean …
the perfect forgiveness of Grace.

Would it be enough …
enough to cure their
disease
and
dis
integration?!

Look

And see the joy.

Look

At the angels,
the Emmanuel,
the Faithful,
the sweet Silent Night,
the manger,
the baby boy,
the wonders of his love.

God be with you all
until we meet again

at Jesus feet.

Tools

I have built things my whole life, since early on up to and including tomorrow.

The greatest rewards come from building something that allows someone else, or even myself, to be able to do something they are not able to do, or to do it more safely or more efficiently.

I built spreadsheets for my ex-common-law wife’s store. It was terrific to take a process that she or others had spent half an hour to numerous hours, repeatedly (daily, weekly, monthly) and automate the process so that it happened instantaneously or after only a few minutes of copying and pasting. The first thing I did was I took the staff schedule and put in formulas to total the hours worked each day, and a subtotal for each week, and a total for every two week pay period. Gone were the hours spent calculating hours worked every payday.

I took the requirements for sick leave accumulated and taken, built a spreadsheet, and just by entering a staff person’s start up information, their first day of benefits, and then any day they took as sick leave, we would have an accurate record of whether they were entitled to sick leave taken, and how many days they had remaining.

One of the last things I did was I took that schedule/payroll spreadsheet and automated another spreadsheet to read the last nine weeks of schedules to calculate out Holiday Pay for each statutory holiday. That got interrupted so many times, and there were so many odd things to take into account, that it took me the longest to finish, nearly six months. But when I left it worked like a charm.

The second biggest thing I did was take the End of Day reporting process, eliminate the need to print and then re-enter figures for the day into other spreadsheets, and took the process for one staff person who used it the most from a 35 minute process to a 12 minute process each evening. And it exposed all sorts of errors in the software generated numbers, usually an error in communication between two pieces of software, but also all sorts of errors made at the till; and it made it possible within minutes of finding and fixing the problem to verify that the error was fixed correctly. Before these errors simply went undetected … and lost the business hundreds of dollars.

The biggest thing I did was build a very large spreadsheet that updated costs, set prices, discounts, and various other details for items sold in the store. It was more complicated than anything else I’d done and I barely got a chance to use it to set prices.

That’s a story for later.

So what’s this all about now?!

With the right tool, creative imagination, and hard work it is amazing what can be done!

And this tool is amazing. I’m able to make cuts accurate down to a 64^th of an inch! And more than that … well the sander barely has to do anything to even those variations out!

So this helped produce another desk, this one for my second oldest son. Build just right to fit his cramped room and his computer use … and the ability to get the desk up the tight stairwell to his room. So it’s assembled mostly like the others with glue and finishing nails, but some crucial joints, including attaching the desktops, are screwed in place. So it can be finished, oiled, dried and let the smell dissipate, and then disassembled, carried upstairs and reassembled in place.

The right tools, the right imagination, and good work!