The Struggle for Contentment

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Jason Bandura

I was riding the bus today. I nearly never do, but I was today. So I used the time to listen to a podcast.

The fellow was speaking about wealth and generosity and more. He shared a few statistics about wealth: If your household income is over $40 000, you’re in the top 4% of the world. If it’s over $50 ooo, you jump right into the top 1% of the world, the richest people on the planet.

Yet we never FEEL rich.

How does that work?

He proposed a very simple theory–we never feel rich because most of us spend a lot more time thinking about what we don’t have than about what we do have.

And that leads us away from contentment.

And that isn’t the direction I want to be walking.

The Weight I Carry

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Jason Bandura

Last Sunday, this video was part of our morning. I’ve had more-than-usual people comment about it since then.

Where I initially found this video online, a pile of comments were below. Many of them were people expressing dislike for the video because of the lack of closure that it ends with. But on Sunday, it served as the ideal illustration for the fact that life is tough and DOESN’T always wrap up with neat little bows.

From there, we moved on to discuss how we cope in such times. But I’m being reminded recently that many people bear much weight and that burdens come in all shapes and sizes. It’s little wonder a video like this connects with us.

But as we said on Sunday, the task before us in the life of faith is to allow the truth of “Life is tough” to be re-framed and outweighed by the greater truth that “We are the Beloved”.

That doesn’t reduce the weight. But it steadies our feet and it strengthens our shoulders. And when you’re under a load, that can make all the difference.

Making Beautiful Music

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Jason Bandura

Credit where it’s due. Blair first showed me this.

For some reason it came storming back into my mind over supper tonight. A quick re-viewing confirmed its blog-worthiness, though after you watch it, you may be questioning the worthiness of such blogs. I leave you to your own questions. For now, I give you a real piece of work and this small piece of advice: Watch his eyebrows.

A Conscious Commitment to the Important

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Jason Bandura

Steve posted this Covey quote today. Chew on it all day, and it won’t be nearly long enough.

“Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.”

Emmanuelle: Year 1

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Jason Bandura

Our little girl is one!

A year’s worth of photos have claimed their lot of space on our computer. A quick scan through brought more than a few favourites. Can a Dad who’s taken with his daughter post a dozen or so on his blog?

I suspect so.

Happy birthday, my little girl!

We’ll never forget the first time we met you.