I received a sweet compliment the other day that ranks close to the top of my list of best compliments ever received! And I was given by my local garbage man no less!
(put on Jack Johnson's "The 3 R's" before you read on - an appropriate soundtrack for this post)
It just so happens that the owner's of Summerland Sanitation Service go to our church and attend our care group. All of their employees go to to our church and attend our care group. No, we don't have a big care group - they only have one employee and there are only two owners so we are talking three guys and their wives.
Anyway, they started a recycling pickup service about a month ago. This has excited me more in the last few months than anything has! Really. I've always wanted to live in a town that has a recycling pickup service. And since the service has begun, I have bought blue recycling bags, sorted my plastics from the paper and tin, and bundled up my cardboard in a neat pile. When they come around, every other Thursday, I have it neatly piled by the road - just like they asked. Now we are down to one and a half bags of garbage per week. If we start composting in the summer, like I hope to, we could be down to half a bag of garbage. If there was a diaper pickup service, then, we'd have almost no garbage.
Oh, back to the compliment. . . So we were talking about the new pickup service when I asked it I was doing it right. The pickup dude laughed and said "man, you have the neatest most organized recycle pile in town!" And he was serious.
So now I can go to sleep knowing that nobody recycles better than me!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Young Love
So I am supposed to be working on a talk that I am giving my Jr. High youth tonight. In the spirit of procrastination, I thought I'd rather blog about the process rather than carry it out. Tonight's topic and theme is dating . . .
I really just want to tell them they are too young but somehow I need to stretch that into a 15 minute talk. That is the hard part. I guess I could repeat "you are too young to date" over and over for 15 minutes. I could talk about the statistics, maybe. Like 51% of teen marriages end in divorce before the age of 24 (National Center for Health Statistics). But statistics usually only discourage people. So those ideas are probably no good.
Ah well. I'll come up with something. I just wonder if I'll believe the same things and feel the same way about Jr. Highs and relationship issues when my boys are in Jr. High.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
SAC Happiness
SAC stands for Summerland Alliance Church and Happiness stands for happiness.
There are a lot of cool things happening within our church family these days.
I haven't mentioned anything about it here yet but I have an intern working for me. He started in January and is around until the end of April. He's a guy that was in my youth group when we first started serving here. He is in his third year at Briercrest Bible College. And he is a close personal friend.
This internship is a really great thing. He's not sure what kind of ministry heading he's going to take but he sure has options. He is great with kids and young people so it's awesome to have help with our youth ministry. He's developing into a good worship leader and it has been my pleasure to have him play and sing with me and a pleasure for me to play, sing and worship under his leadership. He's passionate about drama and is getting our church family passionate about it too. And he's great with seniors. I believe he was going to learn to knit this afternoon as a matter of fact.
Anyhow, he preached in our service today. His first sermon ever in front of a church congregation. He did really well. I never grew up hearing the phrase "good word" but I heard it many time today: "David, that was a good word!" "David, thanks for that good word." Anyway. I was proud of him. He sure made me think and that kinda ticks me off cause I know I have some changes to make in my life. This is, however, how I know the Spirit used David to speak to me.
And speaking of our service and "first ever's", I conducted my first baby dedication today. I have to admit it was fun. I did put quite a bit of effort into preparation, practically rewriting the pastor's handbook, but that was a pleasure cause the son I dedicated was the son of friends. Very special.
Another cool thing is that we axed our 4-year-old prelude. Yeah, we do anywhere from 7 to 10 songs in a service. I think that is more than average. I mean, doing a 3 or 4 song prelude has been cool but practicing 10 songs in a short amount of time is hard even for pro musicians. Now we do 6 songs which allows us to do more than just make sure we know how to play the songs. We can actually work towards a great tight sound and be creative within it. I'm enjoying music and leading worship a little more now.
I was at a PK (Promise Keepers) breakfast yesterday. I only went because a friend of mine was going to go. I didn't really want to go but I did. It was interesting. The major thrust of the discussion was on "the call of God" or rather "what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?" I weighed in on this one more so than usual. I am usually the youngest one at these things (that was until David, my intern, came along) and so I approach life, God, faith, church etc. rather differently than these men. I usually keep my mouth shut. Not so yesterday. Rather than get into what I said, I'll just say that I was quite alone in my views on the matter of calling and deciding what we should do for careers and stuff. I put myself out there. I was thinking for the rest of the day that I should have just kept my mouth shut but two of the men approached me later to share their appreciation for what I said. I made them think, so they said, and I tell ya, it was good to hear. Anyways, my challenge has always been to work up enough courage to speak my mind/heart and I'm starting to speak up more and more, with favorable results.
I've seen a lot of people struggling with marriages lately but some are taking a positive turn and you could never know how excited I am to see it.
Angela's Caterpillar Club is doing well and she has new moms showing up every Friday. We've seen some of them in church since. I have a feeling this thing is going to grow.
There was some drama with one of my sponsors and myself about my philosophy of doing youth ministry and this actually caused me a lot of stress. I hate strained relationships like this but we're working it out and I am quite happy that we can restore our tattered friendship. I think the incident will turn out to be merely a bump in the road of our friendship.
So I felt like writing this post to kinda count my blessings. And even though I haven't said it, the goodness I see in our church family these days (there is more than I just typed) really shows that we have found favor with God. I am thankful that He is using our church to reach our community. I am thankful that we are an "alive" church family and that we are passionate about striving for holiness, reaching our community for the sake of His kingdom and seeing His kingdom come in the whole world. Yeah, to God be the glory, now and forever.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Parking Etiquette
Is there some sort of official parking etiquette established that I don't know about?
We were leaving Costco today. Packing up our car with our two kids and the groceries took us a little time. I finally got in and in my excitement to open the packaging to a cordless phone set we just bought, I noticed another car signaling for my spot. I don't know how long they had been there but it was obvious from the persistent blinking of that evil orange light that they wanted my spot and wanted it now. And this is where I need some rules. Am I obligated to vacate the space as fast as possible or are they obligated to wait till I am good and ready to leave? This is not the first time this scenario has played out and admittedly, I have lingered longer than I have needed just to assert my control over that 5'x9' space.
But really, what should a guy do? I don't like the pressure of having to leave a parking place sooner than I am ready - and as odd as it sounds, I like to get ready to drive (loose items stowed, appropriate song on the ipod, climate controls set etc.).
Once, at the mall during the pre-Christmas shopping rush, I waited in the car with a sleeping child while Angela took the other one inside to shop. In the span of 45 minutes, 9 cars signaled for my spot. One stayed for over 4 minutes before they got the hint that I was not moving! Is a parking spot that valuable that people wait so long?
In our case today, we parked some distance from the store. We don't mind walking. In fact, we prefer to park some distance which is why I was surprised at the interruption. The parking lot seemed to fill out while we were in the store making our parking stall the closest, soon to be available stall. It never ceases to amaze me how persistent people are in their attempts to get a parking space as close to the store as they can.
Anyhow, I was curious to know if I was alone in this. For me it's a case of what is the right thing to do vs. what do I want to do.
Will I linger longer next time? Will I exit promptly? I don't know.
My boyz
Mackenzie and Lukas are growin up soo fast. Just thought I'd post two recent pictures of them for no other reason than to show em off.
Valentines Bitterness
My wife doesn't need Valentines Day to know I love her. Really. Ask her. We talked about it. She knows my dislike for obligatory holidays. OK, I know valentines day isn't a holiday but if it were, I would feel obliged to take the day off and therein lies an exception to my rule: if you are obligated to buy something for someone, don't do it because everyone is doing it. If you are obligated to take the day off - do it because everyone is doing it (or rather because it is a good thing to do). But if valentines day were like all my other holidays in which I am obliged to take the day off, I would inevitably find myself doing work on that day anyways. So either way, I loose. But that is not the point of my ramblings.
I am teetering on the fence of indecision with guilt on one side and defiance on the other. I am teetering because I haven't purchased flowers, cards nor chocolates for my wife.
The other day I drove by one of our favorite bakeries (I was out of town) and I was struck with a brilliant idea - why not buy Angela a pecan sticky bun? She loves them and we usually get them on special outings. So I did. She almost cried. The point: Valentines day is not the one day to love someone. It's really a poor excuse to love someone. If you show affection on that day more than on other days, you need to pull up your socks in the romance department.
I think I've fallen off the fence and landed in the field of defiance.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Confessions in a Barber's chair
So I had a good chat with my barber today. I have two barbers that share the same shop - Peter and Bill - and today I had Peter cut my hair. I tend to go to Bill. And for good reason. About a year ago, I took Mackenzie to get a hair cut cause he was essentially wearing a mop. I was hoping to get Bill cause he cuts kids hair. Peter doesn't. Bill was not in that day but I was determined to have Mackenzie's hair cut. I kinda forcefully convinced Peter to give it a try. I am not a forceful person so this was somewhat out of character for me. It was a disaster. Peter was tense, Mackenzie was in tears, and even though hairs were cut, the "before" was definitely looking better than the "after". Peter finally gave up and sent us home without charging us. He didn't want me to pay for "work he was not proud of." Needless to say, I felt very bad for the whole mess-for Mackenzie for the trauma he experienced but mostly for Peter who was very tense and frustrated. I felt worse for Peter cause as far as I was concerned, Mackenzie needed to suck it up and accept the fact that he needs to be groomed.
Since that day, every time I walk into the shop, I feel pangs of guilt for what I put Peter through. And for that reason too, I have Bill cut my hair. I somehow came to believe that every time I walked into the shop, and Peter saw me, in his mind he was saying: "oh, not him, not the guy that pressured me into cutting his son's hair and putting me through hell".
All these thoughts were going through my head when I walked into the shop this morning. I thought that this time, I would go to Peter. I wanted to send the message that I was not upset at him for his failure to cut my sons hair and I didn't want him to think I was avoiding him cause sometimes, when I go to get a haircut, he says that Bill's not here, assuming that I want Bill to do it. And I wanted him to know that I was sorry for putting him through hell. Well, it turns out that Bill was not at the shop today and wouldn't be for some time since he was on holidays. I wasn't going to let that phase me. My hair was soo long, when I wore my toque, my silhouette resembled a 100watt light bulb. I told him I was going to stay and wait for him to be done with his current client.
As I sat down in his chair, we bantered about. The usual topics: weather, how busy we are, cars. Then the inevitable silence. We were out of things to say. I am usually fine with this silence only today, something inside me told me to talk to him about that "incident". And for some stupid reason, I listened to that voice and started out with "I don't know if you remember but about a year ago I brought my son in for a haircut . . ." I told him the whole story, ending with: "and I still feel terrible for making you go through that." And I'll be darned, Peter could not remember the fiasco. He had no recollection! You don't know the joy I felt this morning sitting in his chair, his shaver buzzing dreamily about my head!
Turns out he thought the story was funny! I told Peter that my son still hates getting his hair cut and it is not because of him but because of another "incident" with an evil lady. It also turns out that there is a place in Westbank that specializes in cutting the hairs of kids like mine! Double blessing!
So the moral of the story is, if you need a barber, and you have kids and you want to take them to the same barber, and you struggle with a guilty conscience, make sure that he has a bad memory.
