Position

Proverbs 7:6-9 depicts a scene of a wise elder looking out a window:

6 While I was at the window of my house, looking through the curtain, 7 I saw some naive young men, and one in particular who lacked common sense. 8 He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman, strolling down the path by her house. 9 It was at twilight, in the evening, as deep darkness fell.

The bell that rang in my ear recently was that positioning is vital.

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You needn’t be a genius to guess that the verses that follow the section above describe the young man’s fall into the arms of the adulterous. The man is later portrayed as an ox going to its slaughter, an animal whose heart is pierced.

He chose his positioning, “little knowing that it would cost him his life”.

And the first step to his loss was that… poor positioning.

There’s a bunch of stuff each day that we cannot control, but we are always in charge of how we position ourselves: Within our relationships, within our schedules, within our consumption (entertainment, diets, information), within our possessions and wealth, and more.

Football coaches frequently talk about the fact that their jobs are simple: It’s to put their players in a position to “make plays”. A coach that does less than that is coaching irresponsibly.

I was moved recently by the realization that my duty is much the same.

I am to make my choices and choose my steps towards an end that my life might be used in the “making of some plays”.

That much is firmly in my hands.

Yours too.

Waking Up… A Year Later

We’re just coming up on our one-year anniversary of when we left China.

That fact feels impossible!
Here’s a post from 367 days ago. It’s amazing how far away those feelings seem…

And how they seem as fresh as ever… at the same time.

Waking Up

No, I’m not typing in my sleep, though yes, I am recovering from several too-late nights in a row. Actually, the recovery may have to wait until we’re back on Canadian soil. Sleep seems to be in ever-shorter supply as our time in Shiyan ticks down.

We leave Shiyan in two days. I know that sentence is just a statement to any who read it. It’s just a fact. But to us, it’s a loaded sentence. And it hits. And it hurts. And it’s just been starting to affect my tear ducts.

I’m exceptionally gifted at denial. I can block every thought of an impending event up until almost the very last moment. All year, I’ve known that this Saturday was coming, and I left it at arm’s length–a year’s worth of arm. But time moved on, and ‘Saturday’ started butting into daily life: I had to book air tickets, I had to plan and grade exams, June appeared on my calendar, people started emailing about our coming back to Canada. All of a sudden, there was no denying that my ‘year-long arm’ was a lie. The day was coming. So I shortened my limb to a ‘one-month arm’, and I held on to it dearly. And now here I am again, forced to admit that the ‘arm’ in my mind is nowhere near the reality. We leave Shiyan in two days.

Our past ten days or so have been so special! I’d love to tell you about them, but I fear doing so. I’d speak of things that touched our hearts: Of notes received, memories made, stories shared, and heart-revealing moments of sharing and ‘praring’. And I wouldn’t have the words to express the feelings involved and the emotions that flow even as I sit here now. And then you wouldn’t have the ability to ‘hear’ what I really meant to say… even if you really do care and desire to understand.

Leaving is hard. Goodbyes are never fun. Everyone knows these things. I’m just now sitting in that funny spot where my heart is actually starting to get in sync with the reality of the situation around me, and I must admit to feeling some shock and some sadness as it happens.

The blessing of it all? Such feelings suggest that we’re living a life worth the trouble. They confirm that love is indeed worth giving, even though it will hurt sometimes. To use Eldredge’s phrase, maybe I’m reminded that “living from your heart” is the only way to live. Anything less is just posing or playing. I slip into posing and playing sometimes, to be sure, so the beauty of such feelings as these might be simple: They put me back in touch with really feeling alive. Tearful and tough as they are, I wouldn’t trade these moments and these feelings for anything.

Now the long, ‘likely terribly teary’ train ride to Beijing… that I might trade.

But I’ll deal with that when it arrives.

Rest

Monday, June 25…

A full day off.

To do list…

Sleep more than usual.

Check our Rider practice.

Read in a quiet corner of the park with my wife.

Get a bit of exercise.

Eat something good.

Simply… rest… and love it.

Coach VS Gnome

The Phoenix Group are entrusted with the annual marketing campaigns of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Go HERE to view their latest offering. I love the garden gnome part!

Now GET to the game!

VoM

As I read their latest newsletter this morning, it dawned on me that there are likely some who don’t even know about this organization.  I have found their work to be very significant in acting as a link between Christians around the globe… particularly in respect to telling the stories of those who are not in postion to speak for themselves.

Check them out at http://www.persecution.com.  Sign up for their free monthly newsletter… your eyes will open wider.