the puppy who lost her way

Lauren and I enjoyed a fun date night last night. The Guelph Storm [OHL] were offering a great deal on tickets, and we managed to score 4th row seats for only $5! Despite the 5-2 loss, watching live hockey is always a good time and it was fun to sit so close to the action. Post-game, as good Canadians so, we hit the local watering hole for an adult beverage; Lauren enjoyed a nice glass of red wine, as I did my new favorite pint, the Rickard’s White. ‘Twas a very nice evening out on the town.

On the way home, we experienced something quite simple yet profound at the same time. We turned onto our street, and noticed a furry creature walking down the road. As we came closer, we noticed that it was a nice little dog, without an owner in sight. We parked the car and came close to her, but she would not allow us to get close enough to check for tags. Every time we approached her or tried to pet her, she would jump back and move further down the road. After a few minutes of this, Lauren went inside to see if her Mom recognized this apparently lost pooch, and, finally, I managed to examine her collar only to find that she was sans tag.

I went inside to discuss what we should do, while the dog wandered further down the street. When I walked back down the street towards her, slowly but surely, I could tell that she was becoming more comfortable with me. It was a chilly evening, and she would stop to sit on the road as I petted her and tried to reassure her that I was here to help and keep her safe. I looked around to see if anyone was out looking for her, but decided that our best bet was to call the humane society to come pick her up and give her some shelter. As I turned home, the dog began to walk right beside me, no more than one foot from my leg. She walked right into the front foyer and sat down in the warmth, happy to let us pet her and warm her up.

Eventually the HS did come by to get her, and as the lady was checking out the dog, we all came to the realization that this dog was blind; in fact, it was apparent that she had had her eyes surgically removed. She had literally been walking around in the night without the ability to see where she was going. Needless to say, we were convinced that we had done the right thing in calling for help, refusing to allow this old pooch wander around in the cold night. She was taken away, and we can only hope that her owners will call the HS and she will make her way home.

As I thought about this experience this morning, about how upon seeing this lost dog, our only thought was to keep her safe, help her find her way home, and reassure her that everything was going to be OK. When we realized that she was blind, certainly these feelings were only heightened. And I thought about that part in the Bible where Jesus talks about birds and flowers, how they are all taken care of, and how, by looking at them, we should consider how much more God loves us and will take care of us, his children.

The loving concern that we felt for that lost dog is but a glimpse into the kind of love that God has for us. This simple experience caused me to pause and realize that God is indeed watching our for us, leading and guiding us when we can’t see what is ahead, longing to bring us out of the dark cold night if we will only trust and follow him. And it also caused me to consider the reality that there are countless numbers of people out there who need to be shown tangible evidence of God’s loving concern for them through us, those that consider themselves to be his followers.

I’m glad we found that nice dog; I only wish we could have kept her!

anticipating advent

I began reading a book entitled The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister this week. It is a spiritual practice that I have been interested in for a long time, desiring to get in tune with a different way of looking at and experiencing the passage of time.

In Chittister’s words, “the liturgical year is the process of coming back year after year to look at what we already know, on one level, but are newly surprised by again and again.” While some Christians are turned off by the “L” word because it seems too ritualistic or repetitive, Chittister argues that the liturgical year presents us with new challenges as we progress through life; we gain fresh insight and perspective into each new season based on where we are and what we are going through in that particular time. In her words, “every different kind of year demands different strengths of us, provides different kinds of gifts for us, enables different kinds of sensibilities in us.” Therefore, as each year passes, we are able to experience the grace of each season from the point of view of where we have been and where Christ is continually calling us to go.

I was sitting in Tim Horton’s this afternoon, enjoying a double double, writing in my journal and thinking about where Lauren and I are at these days, and I was reminded of these words from Chittister in relation to the upcoming season of Advent:

Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow, on that whatever it is, it is the essence of sanctification for us. Every piece of it, some hard, some uplifting, is sign of the work of God alive in us. We are becoming as we go. We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well lived can possibly lead to the fullness of life.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Lauren and I are fully immersed in a period of waiting; we wait to hear back about employment opportunities, and we even wait for the rest of our stuff to arrive in the post. But, as the season of Advent reminds us year after year, there is great value in waiting. We wait for the coming Christ, ‘God With Us’, here to set us free and give us new life, constantly calling us to follow him.

Waiting – that cold, dry period of life when nothing seems to be enough and soemthing else beckons within us – is the grace that Advent come to bring. It stands before us, within us, pointing to the star for which the wise ones from the East are only icons of ourselves.

As I sat there this afternoon, looking out at the fallen leaves and enjoying the warmth of a coffee on a grey and chilly day, I couldn’t help but think that this season of Advent will take a unique shape for us – free to anticipate only him with the hope that a light will indeed soon shine around us, and believing that that which we have been waiting and hoping for will indeed come to pass.

these days

Lauren and I have been back in Canada for just over five weeks now. The first bit of time at home was quite busy for us. To rewind it a bit further, we are about 95% sure that during our four days in London, we fell prey to the H1N1 virus. Not only did this suck the fun right out of the end of our trip, but it also placed us in recovery mode for our first week home. My parents came up for a few days upon our arrival, and we would go on to attend a wedding in PA and get together with Lauren’s family for Thanksgiving, take a road trip to Ottawa the next weekend, and head to St. Catharine’s / celebrate Opa’s 80th / attend the Donald Miller ‘Million Miles’ tour stop in Waterloo the weekend after that. Throw in the gradual process of re-acclimating ourselves to Eastern Standard Time, and needless to say it was quite a welcome home.

Since then, things have started to calm down a bit, and we are deep into the process of figuring out what’s next. In terms of employment, we are both actively pursuing work in our respective fields, believing that we were both meant to study over the past few years and that we are now called to devote our lives to that which we are passionate about. That is sometimes easier said than done, and we are extremely thankful that we have the support and encouragement of family. We have a roof over our head and food in our tummies, and that certainly helps maintain a level of patience in this process. I am looking into further educational opportunities, so perhaps it’s not as urgent or even possible to jump right into what I want to do long term right away. But, to borrow the main idea from Donald Miller’s latest book, we want to live a story worthy of what we believe to be the call that God has placed on us as individuals and as a married couple, and do not want to settle for anything less than that.

So, in the midst of some ongoing uncertainty of the when’s and where’s of it all, we still feel as though we are in the midst of a drawn out transition period. This is compounded by the fact that we are still waiting on two boxes to arrive from Scotland. It almost seems as though bits of us are still not completely home, a reality that in some ways hinders the ability to move forward, mentally anyways.

Throughout all of this, we have been enjoying the recently awesome fall weather, going on a fair number of walks and even many a morning run. Lauren’s parents also have a great sun room at the back of their house that I enjoy reading in, even if it is a bit chillier. It reminds me of reading in our flat in Aberdeen. Throw in a few side projects and we have actually kept ourselves quite busy.

While there are some things I definitely miss about Scotland, it is nice to be back in Canada and we continue to trust that everything will work out in due time, as it always seems to do.

dissonance and psalm 22

dis⋅so⋅nance

- noun

1. inharmonius or harsh sound; discord; cacophony. 2. a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion.

Over the past couple of days, I had the opportunity to head into Toronto and spend some time with my good friends Chris Lewis and Jason Locke in and around Tyndale, our alma mater. The basis for the invitation to go into the city was a series of faith talks being given by Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making. I was not familiar with Andy at all, but as it turned out, his lectures were an amazing encouragement to me and a huge bonus on top of what was already an awesome time hanging out with the guys.

Andy is a gifted piano player and singer, and the theme of his talks was a slogan seen at Starbucks, “Live More Musically.” Andy would speak from the piano, incorporating music and song into his lecture. The third lecture was entitled ‘Dissonance’, and he spoke about the reality that, in life and certainly within the Christian experience, things can seem quite off, not quite what they are supposed to be. Essentially, we live in a dissonant world, where all falls short, where failure exists and is inevitable. There is discord, unrest, a crying out for resolution. And it is in the promise of resolution that we can put our hope. We are not to be held back by a fear of failure, of not meeting expectations. Rather, we are to acknowledge it and remember that God is glorified in weakness.

The ultimate form of dissonance and failure is death, and it is this fate that Jesus himself met on the cross. Those around him were expecting one thing, and were now facing an almost impossible scenario – the great failure of the Jesus movement, which had, at one time, promised so much. Certainly they would have been crushed when Jesus to cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

What Andy explained (in a way that I had never thought of before) is that in Jesus’ day, the Psalms were not numbered; therefore, if you invoked the first line in a Psalm, it would bring to mind the text in its entirety. In uttering these words, Jesus was reminding his followers of these words in Psalm 22:

²⁴ For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied;
they who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,

²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.

³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.

In the midst of the most dissonant note ever played in the course of human history, Jesus reminds us that him, all will be made right. There is a sense that no matter how bad things seem, there hope in the midst of dissonance and harmony in times of unrest.

I was so encouraged by this word from Andy, and it was important for me to hear this as Lauren and I continue to figure out what the future has in store for us. I trust, as Andy sang, that God believes in us, and that He is present in the midst of all dissonance.

vintage decor

One of my (Lauren) favourite creative outlets is interior decorating. I have a lot of dreams for my future little home. I have a pink moleskin notebook full of my ideas. One afternoon Mom and I were out at a consignment shop downtown Guelph when we happened upon an old hand embroidered table runner. I am blessed with a Mother who happens to be a fantastic/pro-star seamstress. We make a good team – I come up with the design, she makes the design a reality (my prom dress is an example of this). The picture of the above pillow is the converted table runner with a royal blue pom-pom edge. I am thrilled with the result.

I also am looking forward to displaying my 1960’s salt and pepper shakers in my kitchen. What a sweet find! I love finding old things and making them into something new (maybe there’s a deeper meaning to this love:)

Here is a list of helpful books I have been perusing lately:

Vintage Fabric Style

Flea Market Style

Domino: The Book of Decorating

the couch / water tension

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

It’s a rainy day here in Guelph, and I have spent the afternoon sitting in the back sun room with a fire burning in the wood stove reading the new Donald Miller book and listening to a Rob Bell sermon. Throw in a cup of tea, and it’s been pretty great.

Rob Bell spoke about how the verse quoted above is not meant to promote a view of the gospel that encourages moral uprightness, nor is it mean to deliver a message that everything will be OK once once has it all figured out.

He told a story of a couple who was wrestling with a very real tension that Christians face in terms of how to live in this world. He described them as having come to him and talking about buying a new couch, wondering how they could justify doing so when the money required for such a purchase could be used elsewhere to meet tangible needs ie: to provide water for those who cannot access it.

The point of this word from Jesus is not that God will bless those who make the right decisions, who unequivocally always do that which is righteous and good. Rather, Jesus promises that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled; in other words, Jesus promises that God is present in the midst of the tension.

The gospel message of Jesus is for those who don’t have it all figured out, who sense that a different way of living in this world is possible but can’t yet put their finger on what it should look like. God does not meet us at the end point after we have done that which has earned us a blessing from Him; rather, He is with us every step of the way, in the midst of the daily realities of life.

thought on miller’s ‘million miles’

I began reading Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years last week. Lauren and I recently had the opportunity to go hear him speak at the University of Waterloo, so I already had a bit of an idea of what to expect. I am enjoying it, and wanted to share a few key bits that have stood out to me so far.

The basic premise of the book is that Miller was approached by some filmmakers to create a movie out of his popular memoir, Blue Like Jazz. Upon discovering that the story of his life was slightly less than silver screen worthy, the filmmakers decide to begin to take some liberties with his life story in order to make it more compelling. Somewhat put off by the reality that his life may not be an inspiring tale, Miller begins to examine the elements of what makes a good story and attempts to apply them to his life in order to create a better story out of it.

Miller writes about how stories that revolves around attaining something is really quite boring and meaningless. Instead, at the heart of any good story – and therefore life in general – is character transformation. Perhaps, he writes, “we were designed to live through something rather than to attain something, and the thing we were meant to live through was designed to change us.” For so long, Miller strove to be a popular author, yet felt unfulfilled when he was able to achieve that goal. In the same way we are unmoved by the story of someone who wants to buy a car, saves up their money and one day purchases said car, any story that does not involve some sort of positive and meaningful character progression will always be less than what it is intended to be.

What was really challenging to me was the idea that a character is what he does. While it is possible to think and feel certain things, the essence of our true character is revealed by what we do. For example, there are many elements of following Jesus that I know to be good and right, and I may feel as though I am the kind of person that can and should do these things. But, if I do not actually live in a way that reflects the teachings and mission of Jesus, then I am not really his disciple.

If I believe that the essence of a good story is drawn out from the wider narrative of God’s redemptive love in, to and for the world, and if God is calling us to reflect the essence of that story by how we live in the world around us, then it is through tangible actions that it can be determined whether or not I am a contributing character within that story.

I look forward to digging into the rest of this book, and will post some more thoughts alone the way.

mars hill sermon on the mount series

A few weeks ago, Rob Bell started a new sermon series @ Mars Hill that will move verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.

Here’s an excerpt from the description of the series.

[Click on the post title to go directly to the SotM page.]

Nowhere does Jesus talk more clearly about what it looks like to follow him than in the Sermon on the Mount … It’s about what happens when God shows up: The poor, the meek, and those who mourn—even these groups are called blessed. And enemies are loved, the poor are cared for, people mean what they say. This is the seemingly impossible, made to happen on earth.

I have listened to the first couple of sermons via the iTunes podcast and, much as I did during the recent Philippians series, have found myself greatly encouraged and challenged to continue to think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus in today’s world.

Great stuff so far. Check it out.

where the wild things are

Last night, we finally made our way to the cinema to see Where The Wild Things Are. I have been wanting to see this movie for months, ever since I first caught a glimpse of the trailer and began reading about the bold stance by director Spike Jonze had taken in terms of the edginess of the content and his strong desire to use larger than life puppet costumes for the wild things as opposed to computer graphics. And I was intrigued as to how a book consisting of ten sentences could be turned into a feature film.

Let me say right off the top that I loved this movie, and the more I think about it, making connections between the characters and exploring the themes, the more I am convinced that this is a truly great movie. It’s the story of young Max, adventurous and full of creativity, yet also sad, lonely and misunderstood. He is coping with the loss of a father, a sister growing older and more removed by the day, and a mother trying to keep it all together while trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life. After an episode with his mother, Max runs away and sails off to an island inhabited by the wild things, each of whom represents a little piece of Max’s emotional state and his life back home. Through his interactions with them, Max gains some perspective in regards to what his sister and mother are going through and how his actions affect others. And as he travels home to them, he understands more of what it means to be a part of a family that loves each other in the midst of the realities of life.

While the themes presented in the movie and the interactions between the characters are actually quite complex, at a fundamental level it reveals the simple truth that we all long to be loved, to know that at the end of the day, everything is going to be OK. It’s a simple message revealed in a children’s story that resonates at the core of all of us, no matter what age.

It should be a reminder to all who take the call to follow Jesus seriously that we are to demonstrate to the world the reality of his kind of love, to invite all to come to the table and enjoy a piece of chocolate cake and a glass of milk.

Fantastic movie, and I can’t wait to read the accompanying novel The Wild Things by Dave Eggers.

the search for God and guiness

The subject of the adult beverage has often been quite contentious in Christian circles. In his ‘biography of the beer that changed the world‘, Stephen Mansfield addresses the topic within the context of a world wherein beer has played a prominent role and has often been embraced – in moderation – as a gift from God by prominent Christian leaders throughout the centuries.

Mansfield presents the story of Arthur Guinness and the world-famous beer that bears his name as one that offers a challenge not only to modern corporations built on the endless pursuit of profit at any cost, but also to those who question whether or not their day to day work falls under the umbrella of divine vocation. In short, Guinness provides us with an example of a company that gives back to its workers and the citizens of its home city (Dublin) through various social programs, medical services and even architectural improvements. At the same time, this story provides the reader with an inspiring example of the reality that we are called to enjoy God’s creation and make use of the gifts that he has given us, for his glory, no matter what we do for a living.

While it’s possible to accuse Mansfield of romanticizing Guinness while ignoring the potential harm that over-consumption can cause, this book provides a refreshing alternative to common misconceptions and opens the door for a responsible raising of the glass to a great tasting beer that, through its impressive history, has been a vehicle for social and cultural good in an often troubled world.

This book is informative, entertaining and educational, and a solid read for anyone interested in the history of this fine beer and the fascinating Guinness family that was committed to serving God and making a difference in the world around them.