Beating a Dead Horse

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Specifically, THAT horse.

Before bed, it must be said…

Oh yeah!

49-8… a good ‘ole whooping! I enjoyed every piece of that game… a thorough pleasure.

I bumped into my friend Justin (husband to Jen, father to Caden, and regularly featured HERE) outside the stadium before the game. He was raised in Calgary and indoctrinated by the Stampeder cult (poor bloke). He wasn’t decked in red (because he knows what’s good for him). I sent him on his way with wishes that he’d have a miserable game experience.

If anyone cares to donate towards his counseling, I think that would be a kind gesture.  A guy can’t just witness a slaughtering like that and ever be the same.  Let’s do our best to look after this poor, pitiful friend…

Because deep down, he IS a good guy.

Huh?

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I was doing a search for an image, and I had to post this one.

Why?

Because it is MESSING with me.

Now go.

And be messed with.

Speaking Page Updated

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I am up-to-date again for now.  That’s right HERE.

The lesson on “Giving a Gift that Counts” was one of my recent favourites to prepare and present.  I’m trying to hold on to much of what I learned that week instead of simply moving on to the next topic.

I also quite enjoyed the task of swimming in the life of Mephibosheth.

What can I say?  Such chances are serious blessings to me.  If others receive blessing in this process of searching and sharing, then all is more than well!

If you find anything worth spreading, please share it with someone else or direct them this way.  There won’t even be a royalties charge to you!

Divided

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Yesterday was a quiet day for me. I don’t mean that it was slow or less hectic than usual.

I mean it was designated–Quiet Day.

Within that time, I read my first ever passage of Augustine. Yes, that’s SAINT Augustine, and I now know what the big deal is about. I only read three pages… and a powerful three they were.

Here’s a snippet…

“My inner self was a house divided against itself. Why does this strange phenomenon occur? The mind gives an order to the body and is at once obeyed, but when it gives an order to itself, it is resisted. What causes it? The mind commands the hand to move and is so readily obeyed that the order can scarcely be distinguished from its execution. Yet the mind is mind and the hand is part of the body. But when the mind commands the mind to make an act of will, these two are one and the same and yet the order is not obeyed.”

Anyone having flashbacks to Paul’s words (“What I want to do, I cannot do; what I don’t want to do, I do”)?

Anyone relating yet?

More Augustine…

“It is therefore no strange (as in unfamiliar) phenomenon partly to will to do something and partly not to will to do it. It is a disease of the mind which does not wholly rise to the heights where it is lifted by the truth, because it is weighed down by habit.”

And one more piece about the inner battle that we’ve all experienced…

“It is the same soul that wills both, but it wills neither of them with the full force of the will. So it is wrenched in two and suffers great trials because while truth teaches it to prefer one course, habit prevents it from relinquishing the other.”

I love those parts about truth and habit.

Truth–what is beautiful, healthy, noble, good, life-giving… it calls us upward to “higher ground”. It’s those moments where clarity defeats confusion, and the light comes on crystal clear. We KNOW what we need to do, and there is no sliver of doubt about what is right. And we would ascend to new heights, for the desire to do so is very real…

But we are weighed down by habit. Truth works to set us free, but old ways of thought and action hold us firmly where we’ve always been.

In the midst of his struggle towards faith, Augustine concluded that habit was too strong for him to overcome, though he desperately DID desire to follow after truth…

“Habit was too strong for me when it asked, ‘Do you think you can live without these things?'”

But Habit’s voice faded as the voice of Continence (Self-Discipline) came nearer.

“She stretched out loving hands to welcome and embrace me, holding up a host of good examples to my sight. She smiled at me to give me courage, as though she were saying, ‘Can you not do what these men and women do? Do you think they find the strength to do it in themselves and not in the Lord their God? It was the Lord their God who gave me to them. Why do you try to stand in your own strength and fail? Cast yourself upon God and have no fear. He will not shrink away and let you fall. Cast yourself upon him without fear, for he will welcome you and cure you of your ills.”

Looking back upon the powerful moment of breaking and conversion that followed, Augustine prayed…

“You converted me to Yourself, so that I no longer place any hope in this world but stood firmly upon the rule of faith.”

You converted me to Yourself… I love that.

I need that.

To be converted not by any man, not by any line of reasoning…

Converted by God himself to God himself.

Mmmm.

Is anyone else loving the simple purity and beauty of how that sounds?

Great stuff, Auggie!

Position

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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.

At animal dental care forest hill md, we are committed to providing quality care at every stage of your pet’s life. From routine preventive care for your pets to early detection and treatment of a wide range of conditions and diseases and surgical care, we have the expertise to provide the care your pet needs at every stage of life.

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.