Where The Leader Won't Go

The second chair is a following chair.  I've read the book - "Leading From the Second Chair" - and it has helped.  But the truth remains that there can only be One Leader.

I'm totally cool with that.  Scripture teaches me that. I am giving myself every day to being more available and obedient than the day before to The One Who Leads Me.

That's the plan anyway.

And I'm being taught in so may ways.  All of them drenched in grace and wisdom from the Lord. He always teaches.  Sometimes his hand is heavy.  Sometimes it is light.

This one lesson has been repeated several times lately to me.  The followers will not go where the Leader won't go.  The followers will go to wrong places, but that's not the same.  When there is a destination that needs to be visited, the Leader must go....first.

It is sometimes frustrating to wait for the Leader to move.  It is sometimes painful when others see the destination and ask why the group is not going there.

I am convicted by my own unwillingness to enter those spaces that I must.  I wonder who is waiting for me to go past the barrier to the place we all want to be?

I watch and learn and wait.  I pray and read and work.

The lessons come.  They go deep.  I will be unable to forget them.

And should I one day be the Leader again, I will use them.

Shalom

Monday Morning Letters

Today the letter came.  Pastors get "Monday Morning Letters".  Invariably they are eruptions of frustration and festering discontent that range like downwind birdshot - indiscriminately peppering the relational landscape of the community.  They happen on Mondays because we have such outrageous and unhealthy expectations of Sundays - and the least little nudge can tip the balance and cause the emotional detritus to cascade forth.

People who write Monday Morning Letters always send them late Sunday night.  They let them loose after a day of stewing and festering, and because they can't sleep with the monster they have wrestled with - they exorcise it onto the page and release it.  I imagine they sleep well.  Their recipients won't for many days afterwards.

Monday Morning Letters are always beside the point.  Like pointing out Hitler was a vegetarian, or that Jesus was a carpenter's son.  What they aim at is hardly ever the real story.  But they do illuminate that something needs to be addressed.  What follows is often a singularly twisted hunt for relevance and truth.  And the conclusions that Monday Morning Letters precipitate are never as useful in the long run as they seem in the moment.

Monday Morning Letters are seen as a natural right of expression for the people who author them.  Never mind that, for Christians particularly, talking is always preferable.  Instructions, recipes, shopping lists, driving directions, general information almost always makes sense enough written down.  Emotional eruptions regarding unmet expectations and perceived inequities never make sense in prose.

For pastors these Monday Morning Letters are the "black marks" of ministry.  They get dealt with in the short term, but leave a lasting stain that hinders slightly.  Like that scratch on the fender of your car - too small to bother to buff it out, but eventually part of the reason why the car is no longer suitable to the owner's needs.

Monday Morning Letters carry phrases like "for a long time", "no idea", "what we are paying for", "doesn't understand", "can't know", "always been", "never been", "others agree", "should", "shouldn't", "huge", "big", "awful" - and it goes on.  The implications are always that something has been amiss for some time and the leadership has been collectively (often wilfully) unaware.  Something must be done.

Monday Morning Letters never offer solutions - yet they indicate that drastic measures are invariably needed.  Pressure is applied.  Something has to give.  Satisfaction is the ultimate goal! Never understanding. And reconciliation is as unlikely as it is unmentionable.

I have had a couple of small Monday Morning Letters in the 26 months I have been at this place.  Let me remember - one regarding preaching about stillness, solitude and contemplation of God and His word (I was too "New Age").  One about calling God "The Big Guy" - a term of endearment for me, not for some though.  A complaint about not protecting the "study hour" because we allowed an ad hoc choir to practice for Easter. And now today's Big Monday Morning Letter - two and a half pages, of which I was the subject of only the first two paragraphs. Twenty-five and a half months into my service here.

Monday Morning Letters start chains of events that their authors have no conception about.  They always start countdown clocks in ministry.  Countdown clocks to the end of the service of the person they are about. April 14, 2013 - and the clock is running on my service here.  How long it ticks until the alarm goes off will be determined by how many more Monday Morning Letters mark me.

No Shalam
No Shalom
Today

And They Said "Shhhhhh!"

So I'm "closed" because some folks were talking about using content on my blog(s) against me. I was warned from a credible source and now only "invited" readers may see my musings.

The two harshest words in the English language?

"Shut up!"

No Shalam
No Shalom

John Hiatt & Los Lobos

On Sept 3 I was privileged to enjoy an evening with John Hiatt & "The Combo" - his touring band and the guys who recorded "The Open Road" with him earlier this year - and the indefatigable Los Lobos at the Regina Casino Show Lounge.

It was a wonderful concert as far as I was concerned.

My main reason for attending was to see John live for the first time since I became a near-rabid fan of his music in the '90's (and yes, I was a bit late to the dance). John and The Combo were all I had hoped for and more. The ten song set list they played included the requisite hits like "Thing Called Love", "Drive South" and "Slow Turning".

John was in fine voice, often treating us to extended gospel-infused vocal runs at song's end with wild swoops from his gravelly alto up to the heights of his falsetto and back again. The Combo was tight, spare and focused, but also able to leg it out with authority too. Perhaps no more so than on their masterful accompaniment of John's newest blues tour de force, "Like a Freight Train". I can honestly say I've never experienced such a stunningly well-played blues song before, and that includes a night in the presence of no less than B.B. King. King, had he been with us, would have smiled his trademark grin and clapped for joy. The boys did it RIGHT!

Exit John after a guitar soaked but still moving rendition of "Have a Little Faith in Me" - a new reading that won me over even as I missed the gospel choir of what is still the best version, as far as I'm concerned, of that classic Hiatt tune.

Enter Los Lobos.

Why I haven't been a constant fan of these guys is a mystery to me. I blame commercial radio for pummeling us all with Los Lobos' version of "La Bamba" in 1987. I left the band behind after that. It's a shame because I didn't know what I was missing. Well I'm making up for lost time now.

Their new CD - "Tin Can Trust" - is a fantastic album. I like every song on it and I'm starting to love a couple of them. Nearing the top of my list is their deft cover of The Grateful Dead's "East L.A. Fade Away". While it might be too easy to call Los Lobos East L.A.'s answer to The Grateful Dead, it is (and was at the concert) obvious that these two bands are linked by more than mere genre and influence. Call them the two best sides of the Southern California experience.

It is also no small feat that the four original high school buddies are still together, along with their add-on friend, Steve Berlin, who joined them for their highly acclaimed 1984 LP "How Will The Wolf Survive" - which has earned a spot on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums list. I own a copy that I picked up at a garage sale a couple of years ago for a toonie. That might explain some of the context for what I'll be ranting about in a minute. In any case Los Lobos has stood the test of time, weathered the ups and downs of the music biz and come out better, stronger and more creative for it. Such longevity is beyond rare in their world. When it happens magic does too.

I said before that the concert was wonderful "as far as I was concerned". My only problem was the crowd. They were almost to a person

lame

Lame

LAME!

Now I've been to dozens of shows in my life and I've seen shows where the audience wasn't into it - for good reason! The artists weren't into it either. But this is one of the few times, if not the only one, where the musicians were working their butts off and the crowd was either too old, too distracted (by WHAT I wonder) or too uneducated to know what they were missing. Maybe I should have been worried when the lady DJ from 105.9 FM took nearly 5 minutes to introduce John Hiatt. This is the man who recently won the "Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwiting" from the American Music Association. He shouldn't need an intro to anyone who can call themselves a music aficionado with any level of self respect.

I know Regina has recently sprung up on the music tour map after the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Bon Jovi all had successful shows here, but if all we are going to be able to appreciate is the juggernauts of the corporate music biz because that's all we know - outside of a fairly well-rounded appreciation for country artists thanks to events like the Craven Country Jamboree - then our future entertainment landscape is going to get pretty bleak pretty fast.

Here's a tip - if you don't like, love or even know who the artist is that you're going to go see - DON'T GO! If you wanna be seen "stylin'" go to The Drink. Those of us who want to be entertained, want to be so in the presence of like-minded folks. We want the love in the room to be palpable. We want the artists to know their fans are with them. We want to be a part of something special.

John Hiatt & Los Lobos were very special in Regina on the 3rd of September, 2010. The audience was nothing special.

'Nuff Said!

The Fat Shall Never Lead Us

This article caused my own personal, deeply painful and utterly mind-numbing angst to rise up in yet another attempt to strangle my spirit.

Here's the 'skinny' on how this affects me. I am 'morbidly obese'. I'm somewhere around 120 lbs overweight. I have a reason. I'm hypothyroid. I have lost around 25 lbs in 2009 and I'm working on losing more, but it is exceptionally difficult for me (check out symptom # 3). And in the mean time I keep running into this attitude in the 'christian culture' - "Obesity is a spiritual/moral issue and evidence of (choose one or more):

1. Lack of Faith
2. Lack of Moral Consistency
3. Evidence of Sin (particularly 'Gluttony')
4. Evidence of a Lack of Qualification for Spiritual Leadership

On the opposite side of this are the common 'christian' axioms - "God Loves You Just as You Are"; "God Uses People Who Don't Measure Up by Worldly Standards"; "It's Not About Who You Are But Where Your Faith Lies"; "Don't Judge" and so on.

This drives me crazy!

Oh, it hurts, too.

I was at a Willow Creek Leadership Summit around 2000 and Bill Hybels was interviewing Chuck Colson. At the time Chuck was getting on in years and the conversation turned to personal health. Chuck mentioned a new piece of exercise hardware he had just purchased and the two of them were sharing a moment when their guards came down and one of them said something to the effect that you couldn't really be an effective Christian leader if you were overweight. Suddenly Hybel's brain cut in and he realized that they had crossed a line. They backtracked but the damage was done for me. From that moment on, I noticed that everyone on the platform at Willow Creek (and at the church in Calgary where we were watching the satellite feed) were all skinny, good-looking folks. I have nothing against skinny, good-looking folks - but where was I represented in that conference as a Christian leader?

As if to add insult to injury, at that time the only really well-known North American Christian leader of ample proportions was Jerry Falwell. You can insert your own cynical comment here. And if you look around at the lineup on any Christian summit/conference/shindig poster all you will see is skinny, good looking guys and gals. If you go to the websites of any major evangelical, protestant church much more often than not the senior pastor will be a well-proportioned white guy.

Now I freely admit there is a good point about doing what we can to live healthy and be fit. It's a good thing. Our bodies are gifts. We should care for them. And I freely admit that I abused my body in my life. But the actual shape I'm in shouldn't be used as a measure of my love and commitment to Christ or as a measure of my fitness to serve Him.

I love Christ.

I've answered His call on my life (after I developed hypothyroidism). I've spent nearly 15 years really working this out in my life. And I believe in a Kingdom that welcomes in the marginalized and sinful. But we still keep on following human biases in how we perceive each other. And lately, it's felt like the next thing that going to move from immoral to illegal is obesity.

And I'm a fat deer caught in the headlights of opinion and judgment.

So for the time being I console myself with the thought that all of the disciples couldn't have been perfect physical specimens. I imagine that at least one of them - who up until he met Jesus was spending most of his time collecting money in a booth others came to, was making a way above average income and probably enjoyed a richer diet than the rest - looked like me.

What would it do to your ideas about Christianity if the first Gospel was written by a fat guy?

Hey Saint Matthew! Word Brother!

(Not so much)
Shalom
(this morning. Sorry.)

Back to School?

I was one of those students for whom High school was a breeze. It made me unpopular with my peers so I tried flunking for a while. That made me unpopular with the teachers and my parents, and they had the power to detain and discipline me. That didn't compare with the power my peers had to torture me emotionally.

My solution - I dropped out. Intelligence has nothing to do with wisdom.

Twenty-one years later I went back to school as a "mature" student. The criteria for determining "mature" status was my age - 38 - and my financial ability to pay the tuition. My academic prowess was assessed and it was discovered I still had "it" - whatever "it" was that made me a good student before was still there and largely functional, plus I had a new asset - motivation. Peer pressure - no longer a factor. The only threat of discipline was the possibility of watching $20,000 go "bye-bye" with nothing to show for it - oh, and the resulting response that my wife would no doubt share with me. "The fear of the Lord (or your spouse) is the beginning of all wisdom."

With my shiny new Master's degree under my arm I entered the ministry. Later I discovered the darn thing did not inflate like a "Mae West" life jacket, nor did it contain a parachute, soft pillow to fall on or even a tiny pink umbrella I could hold over my head to deflect the boulders falling on me. Instead, I discovered the "better questions" I had acquired as I pursued the degree were the new tools I was using to seek better answers. And all that stuff every single prof, instructor, sessional lecturer and staff member at the seminary had told me about trusting Jesus - all of that was Gospel Truth.

I'm seven years down the road in ministry and I'll be 49 this July. I should be taking a sabbatical (I'll wait for the apoplectic laughter to die down out there), but instead I'm considering what feels like another call from God to go back to school. It feels like what I followed eleven years ago - but different, too.

The school I attended has been/is in turmoil lately. Big changes. Unsure future. Huge decisions to be made. Financial stuff, too. But the seminary portion is (should be) largely unaffected by all of this. And they have or are in the process of creating a Doctor of Ministry programme. The president of the school and the person in charge of church and alumni relations have assured me this is so - and I trust them.

My why reason to go back is because I am feeling prompted in this direction by God. I have no illusions about the amount of work and effort this will take (OK maybe I do, but the thought of school does scare me pretty much so I figure I'm being at least a little rational here). My goal is to become more useful to God and His church in any way I can. My hope is to teach a little bit one day in a seminary or other more formal setting than the local church (Yeah I'm weird that way - I like school).

But there is a lot of uncertainty - not the least of which is how in the heck I would pay for something like this (which was one of the big questions eleven years ago, too). So I'm praying - you could pray with me, too (It couldn't hurt.) I have given myself until my birthday next year to either enroll or set it aside. Of course quite a few other things will have to be in place before then if I am to go this way.

It's probably too soon to start sharpening pencils and buying loose-leaf paper, but I do have a nearly brand-new lap-top so maybe I'm more functionally ready than I think I am.

I guess I'm waiting to hear the school bell.

Shalom

Last Days

During the current world-wide economic strife I have been relatively pleased that the Christian community has, for the most part, showed remarkable restraint in not proclaiming the end of days loudly and stridently from the rooftops of churches. The temptation must have been - and still is, I reckon - quite considerable.

But, the doomsayers have had their moments before and whether it was Hal Lindsay in his book "The Late Great Planet Earth" or Oral Roberts pleading for money to shore up his ministry or The World Wide Church of God determining a set of what ended up to be moving dates when the end would come (and these are only a few occurrences in my lifetime) we all know that the score stands thus: God - ∞ ; Predictors - 0.

Unfortunately the cracks are starting to show in Christendom and dire warnings of doom are beginning to leak out. I was very surprised to read such a post by David Wilkerson, the author of the autobiographical "The Cross and the Switichblade". His message is predictable, cryptic and supported (poorly) by Scripture as John Piper observes.

My personal reaction was dismay. I read "The Cross and the Switchblade" when I was a youngster. It frightened and fascinated me. I became aware of the reality that there are people in the world who will actually do what Christ would - put their lives on the line for others - and this was long before we started wearing WWJD bracelets. I admit I'm no David Wilkerson, but to now see him treading into fool's territory is disappointing.

All of this, and some recent personal encounters, have caused me to think about this and I am currently of the opinion that the church can gain no ground by taking the role of doomsayer for the following reasons:

1. We have a message to deliver already. Christ Lives! He died for all and was raised to life by the power of God. All can receive His free gifts of forgiveness, salvation, restoration and everlasting life. There is no other message we are called to deliver.

*NOTE* Generally the church as a whole does not engage much in doomsaying, despite the stereotypes the world holds of us - it is most often individuals. I suggest to those of you with such a message a very healthy contemplation of Ephesians 5:21 then don't deliver your message of destruction until there is unity within the body you are a part of concerning this.

2. The judgment of God upon the world is implicit in the Gospel. We do not do conviction - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. If in the hearing of God's Word people feel appropriate guilt (yes gentle reader there is such a thing) that is something they must address if they wish to be honest with themselves. We do not need to add unnecessary emphasis to this portion of the message.

3. We have cried "wolf" too often to be taken seriously. As an example, I suggest that the politically motivated eco-movement is currently falling under the effects of this. Recent revelations concerning "global warming" - now re-named "climate change" - questions and concerns about the adoption of policies purported to aid ecological agendas and the lack of civil debate in these matters has tainted the message of the ecologists and they are risking losing what credibility they still have. When it comes to the issue of "the end of days" I submit that the church has even less credibility, if any at all. And that sad truth alone could be the subject of an entire blog post.

4. Worrying about this inevitable event is useless. Trying to accelerate its inception, manage through its possible series of events, use it as a goad to prod people into acceptance of Christ or basing your life decisions on how you believe you understand it all will happen is, at the very least delusional and at worst violently arrogant. Especially in light of the truth that it is God's decision and we claim to accept His sovreignity. Even Christ Himself admitted that he doesn't know when all of this is going to happen. So when we say we do, who the heck do we think we are?

I heard a story recently that captures, I think, how we pilgrims should react in troubled times. This is my modified retelling of it:

At an evangelical seminary a group of earnest, fresh-faced students were engaged in a late night friendly game of Risk with one of the professors. One of them asked the group what they would do if they suddenly received the message that Christ's appearance was immanent and the end of all things was upon them. Answers ranged from "call my family and friends who don't believe and plead with them one last time" to "wake up everyone on campus so they can be ready" to "go to the chapel to confess and pray" to "call the radio and TV stations" to "put it on my blog/text it/twitter it". Finally the students turned to the professor and asked what he would do.

"Finish the game," he replied with a smile.

One other person commenting on these things said "I think brothers and sisters in countries all over the world are living through what looks like Armageddon to them right now." So why is this such a big deal to us all of a sudden? Oh yeah, right, I forgot - we all just lost a bunch of our gold. It must be the end of days, right? (sarcasm very much intended - forgive me if you can)

It is the end of days - right now.

It always has been since Jesus ascended to Heaven.

Live them for Him.

Peace

Signs! Signs! Everywhere a Sign!

My deep respect and props to Canada's own 5 Man Electrical Band and I hope they will forgive me for borrowing the lyrics from their excellent song "Signs". But it just jumped into my mind when I read a Facebook post today about how a friend of mine saw a sign at their local medical clinic warning against abusive behavior and language when dealing with the staff. Their question was along the lines of asking if this sort of thing was a regular enough occurrence to actually warrant a sign. And they opined that if it was then maybe barbarians were no longer at the gates but might have actually moved in down the block and begun frequenting the local Wal-Mart.

To be sure that question might be worth exploring, but my brain took another tack and I ended up thinking about my own medical clinic. When I visit my doctor (which I do frequently as we are monitoring a number of things that require regular blood tests - all is well dear readers, do not fear) I can read no less than EIGHT signs in the waiting room. There's the one about turning off cellphones; the one about having your government health care card; the one about how you can only see the doctor for ONE problem per visit (so don't even TRY to sneak in another one); the one about how missing appointments can get you dropped from their client list (includes instructions on rules for notifying the office if you wish to cancel an appointment); the sign about doctors' hours; the one about picking up the toys and putting them away when your children are done with them; the one about declaring if your injury is work-related; AND the one about zero tolerance of abusive behavior.

It seems to me that you can discover that you are in a new era when an obvious social convention starts to be used in a fashion that seems unusual. My understanding of the use of signs is that they are most useful when they communicate information that EVERYONE who reads them might possibly need to know and understand. Signs are most often warnings or information providers. We really shouldn't need them to declare the common rules of acceptable social behavior. I realize that signs often declare what common sense should already have provided, but as we can see not only is common sense in short supply - now common decency and good manners seems to be evaporating.

I always tend to think that a sign gets posted when those in charge have finally given up on relying on the good sense and judgment of people and have decided to "nip the problem in the bud". But how many times has someone yelled at or abused the staff in my medical clinic? I mean, really - about the only place I find people more subdued and non-communicative is inside elevators! Honestly, in 49 years I have NEVER seen someone lose it in a doctors' office. I know most of us WANT to - usually about the time we realize that we have been waiting long enough that if we could be paid for our time we could take our significant other out to lunch. And missing appointments without canceling - is this really happening so often that the clinic needs to THREATEN its clients with censure? If so maybe this summer's outdoor project should be digging a moat to keep the barbarians off my lawn. And what about NOT having your health card available when visiting the clinic - I mean who DOESN'T understand that we live in a SOCIALIST country and the state is in charge of the medical system? "Documents please! Please show your documents! Please have your documents ready!"

What is really worth pondering is why the clinic needs to post these signs. Does it really make for a better work environment? Does it really help the patients? Or are those signs there so the clinic's lawyers can argue that their client has done their due dilligence in communicating with their patients? And why does TALKING to one another no longer suffice?

Speaking the truth is a rare enough event these days. Speaking the truth out of love and concern is rarer still. Soon speaking itself may become rare. Perhaps it has already - being replaced by texting, twittering and (yes) even blogging. We are becoming a society and culture that increasingly responds only to images and text. Our ability to speak is being diminished as is our ability to listen. If you think I'm off base here then try this next week - make a note of every time you have to repeat yourself for ONE day. I bet you will be shocked.

The real problem with signs (which is where I came in) is that they really don't communicate - they declare. We need to speak and to listen to be able to connect. So before you put up another sign ask this - is there a better way?

Shalom

Waiting For ....

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

Winter doesn't want to loosen its grasp on Flatland. It seems to have dug in deeper even as the Sun has tried to climb higher in the sky. I feel I am watching an epic struggle between an unmovable object and an irresistible force. And even though I know how the story will end, it truly seems as though the outcome is presently in doubt. Like watching "Apollo 13" I am fascinated, stuck on the edge of my seat, unable to look away.

I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who sometimes sees his life circumstances reflected in the world around him. This seems so self-indulgent and self-delusional, but these past several weeks have left me with a distinct sense that there are also immense powers and principalities battling for supremacy in my life and their straining potentialities are beginning to shape my circumstances.

As a 'Christian' you might properly mock me for not being more sanguine about my seeming lack of control - and you would be right, too. I did voluntarily submit my life to my Lord and Savior and thus I have no cause to object to the circumstances I find myself in. "Not my will, but Yours, Lord." Much easier said than done.

The natural desire to defend, deflect and to even launch a preemptive attack is strong, and I am no better at resisting temptations than anyone else I know, and in most cases far less able. And yet I wake each day and put one foot in front of the other. The tsunami may overtake me soon, but I have obligations, responsibilities and even simple mundane tasks to fill my moments while I watch for darkening clouds on the horizon.

My faith seems to be sustaining me, and my ministry - such as it is - is comforting as it is frustrating. People are such....PEOPLE! Lost, angry, frightened, unreliable, dangerous, confused and reckless - they bump into my life with heart-wrenching abandon - often doing what I'm doing. Putting one foot in front of the other while quiet desperation hangs on us all like a shroud.

I'd like to be specific, but I can't. Let me just say this - I was warned that there would be days like this. But no amount of preparation can fully steel one against the onslaught that is the pain of people's lives and the destruction they leak out on others because of it. And then in the middle of this there is a moment of truth, a breath of compassion, a twinkle of joy, a mote of hope caught in the light. And it is enough for the next few steps.

Spring. Promise. Hope. Change. The chance of a well-hit tee shot flying clean and true. The powers that be may rage on unabated, but I will stoop to brush the snow away from another new flower bravely pushing through the cold earth towards the sunshine. It will be enough. Even if the Summer never comes.

Shalom

Budget Rant

I haven't put up a good old rant in a while so hang on kiddies, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Tomorrow's budget promises to offer more spending than Imelda Marcos on a shopping junket on Rodeo Drive. Over 34 BILLION in government money that does not exist yet is to be earmarked to begin being pumped into the public trough. The sound of the hogs coming to root will be deafening. If this plan goes forward our government will burn through 100 BILLION dollars that do not exist yet (that's how much of the national debt we paid off in the last decade) by the year 2013.

And why?

Because Jack (The Sky Is Falling) Layton says that we are in "the worst financial crisis since the 1930's"? Because Michael Ignatieff "sort of" agrees with him? Not so fast Jack & Mike. Unemployment was higher in the 1980's recession than it is right now. Today Canadian unemployment stands at just over 7% and it was 27% in 1932. It is today a far, far cry from every third person out of work as in the Great Depression. Also in the 1930's the numbers didn't include students or most women. We are enjoying far, far higher employment today as a percentage of our total population than at just about any other time in our history.

Now I agree that the manufacturing sector in southern Ontario is having a bad time, relative to recent years, but let's be honest for a minute here. Manufacturing jobs have been bleeding away from the industrialized western world for more than two decades and frankly, if the businesses in southern Ontario didn't recognize this and make some plans to diversify then this would have happened sooner or later. So it's sooner.

I have been reading the top auto magazines for 30 years and the editors and pundits of the auto industry have been literally begging and pleading with the Detroit so-called "Big Three" to "wake up and smell the coffee" for most of that time. I was in the parking lot at Safeway today and I parked my Impala between a Toyota Tundra and a Toyota Camry. That problem didn't happen to the auto industry last year. It's been coming for quite a while, and while I believe government can help workers with the transition, propping up an industry as obtuse and inflexible as the North American auto manufacturers makes about as much sense as holding a beer drinking contest to promote sobriety. As an interesting aside, there are now more people employed in Great Britain in automotive design, manufacturing, supply and distribution than when British Leyland owned everything. Foreign ownership made the industry BETTER there, not worse.

Back to our "bail-out" budget. The Bank of Canada just announced that they are predicting that the recession we are in will end as soon as September. That's just 9 months from now. And we have no chartered banks in any sort of situation that could be considered even mildly problematic. Our banks could probably loan other banks money right now. And we don't have mortgage companies that are sucking up dollars faster than a fat kid with a Slurpee on a hot August afternoon. American mortgage giant Freddie Mac just announced that "about 30 BILLION more dollars" would keep them afloat for a while longer. There is no such silliness going on north of the 49th parallel.

What IS going on up here is the fact that we are the highest taxed nation in the G7. We are in the top 10 world wide and we work about half the year before we start getting to the money we can spend on ourselves and others can use to create wealth, jobs and a vibrant economy. The truth is that the money we need to spend our way out of this recession doesn't have to come from the Canadian Government's Mastercard - all they have to do is leave it in your pocket and mine. All the government has to do is get it's taxation jackboot off the throat of small and medium businesses - who employ the vast majority of Canadians and who generate most of our true wealth. But nooooo.... The lobbies of the multinationals, the unions and the special interest groups will suck up the cash and determine where the wealth goes before the entrepreneurs even get a chance to make their case.

In Canada the modus operendi of our Federal Government is to take as much money from the people as they can and "redistribute" it through programs. Inefficient, wasteful and bureaucratic. But hey, we vote these guys and gals in and then they believe they can do what they want, or worse they try to figure out what we want and do what we want - sort of.

Now I KNOW you are smart. A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky and stupid (Thanks Agent K). And what we need right now is for an adult to walk into the room and get everybody to settle down. Unfortunately for us, the adults are hiding out in the staff room and they've barricaded the door. And we are panicking because we are being told to - not because our situation is as bad as is being touted.

Now will the new budget and the wrangling over it wreck Canada? Probably not, at least not right away. We have so much and we are so wealthy that it's going to take a lot of mismanagement and waste to truly run our country onto the rocks, but the feds are giving it their best shot. No, I think what will happen will be what so often happens. We will miss the opportunity to be great. We will miss the opportunity to break out and leave the hurting USA and other economies who hitched their wagons to that misbegotten star in our economic dust. We will once again win the silver or the bronze or at least make the top 10. And the most frustrating thing about that will be that for the vast majority of us that will be "good enough".

We could be "The Next BIG Thing", but we'll settle for being "the next best thing".

*sigh*

BTW - I'm not the only one who thinks deficit spending is a bad idea for Canada.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad - But it Still is Disappointing

OK.

It's taken me a long time to come to terms with my disappointment in the sound at the Dylan concert at the Brandt Center in Regina on November 1st.

Here is my opinion on the subject. The band was tight and musically capable. Dylan was obviously in control of the set - the band was LOCKED onto him in a way that I haven't seen since watching Tom Coster, Michael Shrieve, Jose Arreas, and the rest of Carlos Santana's band follow his lead for over two hours of non-stop music in 1974. Magic!

Dylan was calling the shots on November 1st. That was very obvious - and you could NOT understand MOST of what he was singing.

The only logical conclusions to be made are that he, and his sound crew, were unable to make his vocals clearer or that he, and his sound crew, were unwilling to make his vocals clearer. I could clearly hear Dylan's keyboards and harmonica. I could clearly discern each solo played by the band's guitarists. I could hear the bass line and the drum fills. If all of that was possible then hearing vocals should have been no problem. I could not hear Dylan clearly for much of the show.

If the reason for the poor sound was the first explanation suggested above then Dylan can stop touring - now! It's over. We don't need any more demonstrations that the "authentic voice of a generation" has literally lost his voice. If the reason was the second explanation it may be an artistic choice. I may not know art, but I know what I like - and I did not like what I heard at the Brandt Center.

Dylan may be an artist who has risen so far above his medium that he doesn't have to pay attention to what he's doing - but in the end if art is inaccessible, I believe it loses its transformative power. I will not stop being a Dylan fan, but I believe the artist always has a responsibility to his audience to present his art in the best and most accessible way he or she can. If Dylan is only playing for an audience of one then he doesn't need my $80 or my ears - which were actually hurt by the poor sound.

Anyway, I was there. I bought the t-shirt, and the pins. I'll buy more CDs over time to fill in my collection. I'll check out any new releases to hear if they can speak to me. I'll continue to hope that Dylan creates art that I and others can appreciate, but I won't try to experience his art live again. I'll have to remain content with video and audio recordings, and forget "live".

So be it.

As Meat Loaf would observe - "Two out of three ain't bad."

But it is sad.

Quietly It Begins

I'm self-publishing some fiction online here.

Critics, be gentle please.

*gulp*

The Great "Climate Change" Debate

I have been skeptical for some time about the position the most strident proponents of "global warming" have taken, mostly due to the inordinate amount of effort they have expended to limit debate on the subject. When the rhetoric took on the tone of religious debate about three years ago, I was fairly convinced that we were being sold a bill of goods. When my wife began working for a major western Canadian university she told me that professors indicated to her that they had to write their research proposals with an intentional eye on keeping their lines of research within the sphere proscribed by the "green" science cabal - or at least avoid asking questions that might ruffle feathers - or else they ran the risk of not receiving the funding they need. When the lines of scientific research are constrained by what amounts to social and political policy - however well-intentioned it may be - then it has lost it's academic independence and, I would argue, much of its usefulness to humanity.

One of the writers who has consistently poked holes in the "global warming/climate change" conclusions and proposals is Patrick Bedard, a staff writer for Car and Driver (Yes, yes I can hear the cat-calls and hissing saying "Vested interest!" - SHHH CHILDREN! Listen and LEARN!). Mr Bedard is an engineer, and his mantra isn't "cars at any cost" it's more "does this add up?". If you take the time to survey a few of his articles you'll quickly come to see that he does his homework and he doesn't fudge the figures. Now his perspective is going mainstream thanks to a recent article by Lorne Gunter.

Of course, if one has been paying attention to stories on the fringes of the media and the subtle shifts in the rhetoric of the "green" movement, these revelations should come as no surprise. A recent report suggested that the climate change movement was heading for a "tough decade" because global temperatures were trending down, not up - a fact Gunter's article supports. And the label "global warming" has been shifted over recent months to "climate change" - a suitably non-specific moniker that can be interpreted in any fashion to fit the facts. It seems that political expediency, power and money have co-opted the science community, the media and our political leaders. And we probably shouldn't be surprised.

I am a Christian, and as such I am deeply concerned that we take seriously how we use God's creation. I believe we are charged with stewardship of this planet, and all places we may touch - but if we are to be able to do this we need truth in the information we use to help us make our decisions. We need scientists, academics and researchers who are politically, socially and economically independent so they can pursue the lines of investigation they want to without fear of reprisal or censure. And helping maintain and protect this independence must be the first and the constant goal we should pursue in science.

Sadly, most people want the "academic eggheads" to provide us with solutions that we can understand with eighth-grade education and that can be explained in 30 seconds by some "talking head" on the six-o-clock news. And we want solutions that will not require much from us. We are the common denominator in this power struggle and it is by and to our low expectations and selfish lifestyles that the arguments and policies of our leaders are shaped and directed. We are getting what we demand - just like angry, hungry babies. We should be getting what we need.

So my exhortation to the one or two of you who read this blog is this - do some more reading on this. Don't let me or others make up your mind for you. Question those who are sanctimoniously using their authority to dictate what questions may be asked and what answers may be accepted. And talk amongst yourselves. Then talk to your local politicians, write letters to the editors of newspapers, email the news directors of broadcast news, comment on the electronic news sites and share the info. Because - and here I agree wholeheartedly with the leaders of the "green" movement - we ALL need to get involved.

Up to this point there has been no real debate on this subject - it's high time we had one.

Uncertainty in Uncertain Times

This post at Internetmonk.com caused me to comment - something I don't often do.

A lot of people think I "have it all together" because I'm a pastor. The truth is that my journey has raised more questions than answers. So why do I persevere? Because of the one thing I am not uncertain about - God's love for us all through Jesus Christ. I guess that's faith. It may not seem intellectual, but it is where I am - questions, doubts, insecurities and uncertainties notwithstanding. That is what He has done for me. And it's enough.

"It's the end of the world as we know it,

And I feel fine."

Lyrics from "It's the End of the World" by R.E.M.

Inside the News

I know someone who was in the gymnasium at Luther College High School in Regina today when a former student entered brandishing a weapon. The news services have the details mostly right. But they don't and, I am convinced, won't tell the whole story. I won't either, but I will say this. This event is entirely the wrong one to use to further political debate having to do with firearm legislation in Canada.

There are at least three critical reasons why this is true:

1) - The weapon involved in the incident was not, nor is likely to ever be, scheduled on a list of restricted weapons. In fact, if you really think about this event, it becomes obvious that the current legislation worked well to ensure the disturbed offender didn't obtain a dangerous weapon. If the details if this individual's recent activities were known it would also become obvious that he would not be allowed to obtain a permit. The offender could have obtained a lethal weapon, but it would have meant using illegal means - and no legislation will ever prevent that from happening.

2) - No conceivable legislation could ever prevent an individual from entering any public facility like Luther College High School unless we are willing to turn all of our public places into armed camps surrounded by razor wire and filled with armed personnel. If we are going to live out of the collective fear of what might happen, then we are all going to lose much, much more than we could ever hope to gain by arming and entrenching. The best we can hope for is that those who are responsible for any school, shopping mall, recreation complex or other public place will train and empower their employees to act accordingly when dangerous incidents arise. Obviously the teachers and administration at Luther were ready.

3) - The measures, policies and actions of those in authority were appropriate and effective in the face of the threat - even if the threat had been more deadly than it turned out to be. The teachers and administrators acted in a professional and mature manner, keeping the safety and welfare of the students uppermost in their minds as they made decisions as to how to respond. The local police responded quickly and acted decisively while also seeking a resolution that would minimize potential injury to all involved. In short, this incident could not have been handled any better.

There is a lot of background to this incident that I'm not at liberty to divulge, but this is clear to me - the issues that led to this incident have little, if anything, to do with firearm legislation and much to do with personal and social issues that are more complex than a commercial news report or a blog can cover. I've read a lot of the reactive comments to be found after the news item I linked earlier in this post and the sad truth is they miss the point by a wide margin. The commentators are not to be blamed - they don't have all the information. And this is my final cautionary word to us all. We never have all the information in these situations. So we should proceed carefully in making our judgments and pronouncements.

To Debate or Not To Debate

Simply put, I do not believe what we will experience in the so-called "leaders debate" will be of any use to anyone, except the TV networks and their advertising departments. If the debate is 1 hr (with commercials) that means we will see 44 minutes with 5 candidates (8.8 minutes per candidate). Even without commercials it will only allow 12 minutes per person, but we all know that what we will get will be an hour of poorly controlled mayhem. No one uses dictionaries anymore - we're just like Lewis Carroll's caterpillar, "When I use a word it means what I choose it to mean." "Debate" indeed!

At the risk of offending - I'm not quite sure who - neither M. Duceppe nor Ms. Mays has any business being in a national leaders debate. I'll not go into depth here, but I cannot vote for a candidate from either party in my riding (as far as I know at this time) so they are, in the strictest sense of this word, irrelevant.

Our political system has devolved into a media circus that can only communicate in 5 second sound bytes. Watch the debate if you want - I suggest taking two Excedrin beforehand to ward off the inevitable migraine it will produce - but remember this, the media has absolutely no interest in providing you with anything in the way of useful information. They just want you there to watch the ads and prop up their market share numbers.

As Liam Neeson said to Clint Eastwood in "The Dead Pool", "Bums on seats, luv. That's what it's all about."

Kicking Glass

I took a picture today of about a dozen glass containers sitting on the ground beside a Loraas recycling bin. I can't post it because my personal computer is "in the shop", but rest assured dear reader, (if you exist) I will post it soon. It is an image that should be used to indite and shame our provincial politicians.

Glass manufacturers have been recycling their product since the 1600's or even much earlier but we can't do that in Saskatchewan unless the containers we do deal with once contained either sugar-loaded drinks or alcoholic beverages.

Saskatchewan.
Can't.
Recycle.
Glass.

Morons can recycle glass - but not Saskatchewanites. We have 2 BILLION excess dollars in our provincial coffers that have not been budgeted to be spent on anything yet and we still can't recycle pickle jars. And our provincial members of the Fourth and Fifth Estates should also be ashamed because they are saying NOTHING about this.

If I even hear ONE person say anything about how it isn't "economically viable" to recycle general glass products at this time I'll go ballistic!. That is exactly the kind of thinking that has gotten us to the ecological crisis we now face. If we can't do the right thing because we can't AFFORD to do the right thing then we are officially screwed to a wholly breathtakingly new and frightening level.

So John Gormley et.al., before you claim to be "holding the politician's feet to the fire" let me hear you get our provincial Minister of the Environment on you radio show and ask him a couple of hardball questions about glass. And Premier Wall, before you go off spouting about how great we are in Flatland and how we're ready to move into the future let's see if you and your cabinet can figure out how to do something Europeans have been doing since before Samuel de Champlain discovered how bad the black flies were in northern Ontario.

'Nuff said.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Vacation.
Nearly.
Over.

The Process

The though from the Word on my mind. 2 Timothy 2:15.

The frying pan/fire thing is just a joke really. I procrastinated. I waffled. I was distracted. But finally I finished my ordination paper, showed it to our association Credentials Committee and our church leaders, got feedback, made changes, met with the Committee, made it through the meeting (with more input and tweaks suggested) and I have been recommended to face an actual ordination council.

This part of the examination process was easier, even more helpful and encouraging than I had hoped for. I made the process harder on myself than I had to it seems. But I was, and still am, taking it very seriously. And I discovered that I am the frying pan. I'm being seasoned to remain in the fire and not burn everything that I touch. That's the process happening here.

God is graciously making me a little bit more useful in His Kingdom.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsors...

So I have recieved two emails asking me if I want to allow 'advertising' on my blogsite. I track my numbers using Statcounter so I KNOW that I am staying very close to maintaining the truth of my tagline - "writing for an audience of one - reaching even fewer". It has to be a scam of some type.

Never the less, and I have received no consideration at all for this, I am going to exhort the 3 of you reading this to check out a dental hygiene product I have begun using.

I have always had trouble flossing. My teeth are tight, crowded and crooked (especially on my lower jaw). I have a small mouth (OK guys - yuk it up to your heart's content on that one), and I have short, stubby fingers attached to meaty palms. I shred regular floss and it gets stuck between my teeth so I have to use extra slippery stuff that is even harder to hold and control. Sheesh.

Well enter the new Reach Access Flosser. If you've tried other flossing tools and given up, take heart, this sucker works! It takes me less than a minute to floss completely down to my gum line and between each tooth with no shredding, gagging, slobber or muttered cursing.

If flossing is difficult for you, or simply inconvenient, then get thee hence to thine apothecary's shop and purchase this modern marvel of applied technology. And what's more, we really need the help as our dental coverage has been "adjusted" and cleanings are covered only every 9 months for us now. So hopefully this will help us keep our teeth and gums healthy until we can visit our hygienist.

There! I've done my good deed for the day/week/month/year/decade/century/millennium.

'Nuff said!