Wednesday, November 30, 2011

As Dependable as the Weather


Penn of Denn
Awesome weather last week.  On Wednesday we were digging out from 35 cms of snow and on Saturday I was in the city doing hospital calls and I had the roof down on my car.  Gotta love Nova Scotia weather.  If nothing else, it certainly gives us something to talk about.  In one conversation someone said “The only thing you can depend on with Nova Scotia weather is that you can’t depend on it.”  Which although a fairly innocent comment about metrological affairs would be a fairly scathing comment about someone’s character.
A very good question I would think would have to be “How dependable am I?”  Jesus told us to let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no”.  Is that a reality in our lives?  Can people depend on us to do what we said we would do, when we said we would do it?  And if they can’t then we have a problem bigger than strange weather patterns, it becomes a matter of integrity.  And you can be assured people will talk about that just like they talk about the weather.  I hope nobody will have reason to say “The only thing you can depend on with Denn is that you can’t depend on Denn.” 
  
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Yesterday ended last night at midnight


I am reading a novel about a man’s attempt to change the past. In this case he is trying to prevent the assassination of JFK.  I know that time travel isn’t possible but it is just a novel.  Although sometimes I wonder if we are on the bank, while the river of time flows by or if we are in the river that takes us past the banks of time?  Thoughts like that are what make me Denn.

But the novel got me thinking.... which isn’t a bad thing.  What would I change in the past if I had the chance?  Have you ever spent time wondering about how you would change the past if you had the opportunity? 

The protagonist in the novel is working under the assumption that the US would be a better place if Kennedy had  lived and maybe it would have been. Or maybe it would have been worse, but we will never know.  And we can never know for sure what would have happened if our past had  been different. 
I know I harp on it all the time but here it is again: we have no control over yesterday but we have control over tomorrow by the choices we make today.
  
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Poor Me


What a bummer of a day it was.  First, when I was at Tim Hortons to finish things up for my Sunday message, I discovered I had lost my USB key that my nearly completed message was stored on.  Then, as I made my way in the torrential rain, I pushed the wrong button on my key fob and instead of unlocking the doors, it opened the roof, so I had to go home to get changed and dry my car out.
The Community Remembrance Day service that I had helped plan had to relocate to the community centre and the size of the crowd was just too large for the facility we had.  Bummer.
So let me recap. While I was enjoying a coffee that cost a day’s wage for many people of the world, I realized that I wasn’t able to put my message that I had prepared on my netbook, onto my laptop.  Then, I inadvertently put down the roof on my convertible in the rain and had to return home to put on dry clothes from my closet- full of clothes.   Then to top it off, we had way too many people show up for our Remembrance Day service.  No wonder I was bummed out.
  
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

2012 is almost here!


I got my first look at a 2012 calendar the other day and, to my surprise, it went right up to December 31st!  I checked every day in December and nowhere did I see a notation that indicated the “End of the World”.  Then I realized that I was looking at “my” calendar and not a “Mayan calendar.”  My bad.

In case you missed the subtle attempt at humour, according to some, December 21st, 2012, marks the end of the 5,125-year cycle of the Mayan calendar.  So, what does that mean to us a year away?  Well, depends on where you stand. For some it is indicative of a variety of doomsday scenarios, while others feel the cycle will just begin all over.  I think they just didn’t get to the drugstore to pick up their new calendar.  

And while we can make light of it, there will be many who take it very serious and want to make plans for the finale.  While the Bible does tell us that this old world does have a “best before date” it also tells us that “today is the day of salvation.”  And if you take care of that today you won’t have to worry about what’s in store for December 21st 2012.
  
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

That's a Bad Idea


That’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard.  In response to a number of deaths in the Valley, related to people mixing alcohol while abusing prescription drugs, the provincial government has responded with . . . an ad campaign. 
The province wide campaign will include print and television spots warning people about mixing alcohol with their prescriptions.  A typical knee jerk reaction. We have a problem so let’s throw money at it. 
If people don’t know that it’s a bad idea to mix alcohol with prescription drugs  or for that matter mixing alcohol with driving, marriages or child rearing, do we seriously think advertising  will make a difference?  “Wait, I saw a television ad and this could be a bad idea.”
Of course it’s a bad idea and they already know that.  But I’m not sure that advertising the fact will make a difference.  It goes back to people making bad choices and that’s not always a rational process.    Before people will change what they do, they will have to change who they are.  I am not convinced that will be the result of an advertisment they see,  it has a lot more to do with a God they need to meet.  And that is more the church’s responsibility than the governments. 
  
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.