Day two...

Welcome to our latest set.

Getting ready to start 'day two' of shooting.

Yesterday went well, for a 'day one'. Lots of tweaking and technical bugs but that's typical for the first time you try anything.

Get that?

The first time you try anything you're going to have problems.

Might as well accept it, prepare for it, and determine to be calm in the face of it.

When you, as the lead person on an initiative (even if said initiative is *only* your day-to-day life) remain calm and unflappable, even in the face of 'day one jitters' it helps everyone around you do what they're supposed to do at the highest level.

Think I'ma take my own advice today.

T

Just in case...

...you have a MARRIAGE that needs saving.

I thought (hoped) this, might...

HELP.

T

Good moments...

Lord knows we all have enough terrible moments.

Figured I'd post a good one.

That there is a picture 3 of my 4 kids being dragged behind my sailboat, this past Saturday afternoon, about 3km out into Lake Ontario.

Beautiful stuff.

I'm slowly getting them to 'love' the entire 'event' of sailing. The packing up for it, the getting there, the loading in, the getting ready to shove off, the departure, getting out onto the water and getting your sails deployed, finding your groove, enjoying the journey, heading back in, tucking your sails away, getting ready to dock, docking, and shutting her down for the next time.

They're start to come 'round.

It's great.

My wife kept looking back at me as we dragged those kids behind that boat on that lake. "Are you singing in your heart?" she kept asking.

"Yes I am..." I kept saying.

Yes I am.

T

The MARRYING game...

The #1 issue I deal with as a Pastor is people's marriages.

Most of the time they're breaking down.

Funny, most mainstream songs are about love, or love breaking down. Most great film stories have, at their heart, the quest for the kind of 'fairytale love' we all grew up believing in.

Or maybe not.

(maybe you stopped believing in it a while ago...)

People aren't marrying as much anymore. The stats on this are clear. And those who do are divorcing more than they stay together.

'Marriage is obsolete...'

(Some would say)

I dunno'. Seems to me there's no decision more important in your ENTIRE life than choosing the person you'll marry.

Even the divorced people I know, it's not like they're not 'connected' to their original spouse anymore, they're just painfully connected to them.

As my kids age, my wife and I are getting more and more focused on helping them navigate this next hurdle.

The marrying game.

Thinking back on it, besides teaching us theology and his particular interpretive lens, my Dad spent most of his time with us talking to us about who to marry and how to marry.

I'll be preaching on it this week at THE WELL.

The Marrying Game...

T

Hello again...

So I've realized it's not this blog that's threatening to kill my soul.

It's facebook and twitter and my hit tracking site, which means...

I'm the problem.

See, left to my own devices, I'm concerned about what people think of me and hungry for other people's lives.

I'm the problem, and the problem is idolatry.

This has become clear to me as I've been doing my 'web-fast' this past little while. It was also made clear to me on vacation this past week (and it was a wonderful break with wonderful weather) as the beauty of Muskoka threatened to steal my joy.

Weird, right?

See, the beauty of God's creation should be drawing my gaze to Him and making me love and thank Him for what He's done and for involving me in it.

And that happens to some degree.

But at one and the same time I feel myself lusting after the fabulous cottages and the fabulous lives of the cottagers.

And that's no good, and that requires repentance.

So, I'm at it, doing my best to repent and enjoy.

Gratitude seems to be the heart of Godliness and of Worship so I'm determined to keep turning the corner from my tendency to worship false 'gods' so that I worship the one who made it all.

T