Insane Giving

They called him the “Phantom Philanthropist”.  Two weeks ago there were at least a dozen reports around the HRM about a stranger handing out fifty and hundred dollar bills along with five dollar coins.  In some reports he asked people to pay it forward, in other cases people were simply asked to thank God for what they had received. 
And people were confused; why would someone give money to complete strangers?  Others raised concerns over the man’s mental health, after all what sane person would do such a thing?
One mental health worker said she didn’t think he was experiencing mental illness. Instead she suggested  “He’s a generous individual and is wrapped up in the acts of kindness and is wanting to help people.” 
Apparently being wrapped up in acts of kindness will get you admitted for a mental health assessment because that’s where Richard Wright ended up when he returned home to PEI.
Wright’s acts seem rare and even unstable in our world today, but millions of people make the lives of complete strangers different every day by sponsoring children through organizations like Compassion Canada.  And they don’t do it because they are unstable, they do it because they are following Jesus who told us to love the least of these.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Lost. . .

It’s baffling and just a little bit scary.  We are constantly reminded in today’s world of the fact that Big Brother is watching, with its satellites and  endless array of electronic goodies, and that whatever liberties we give up it’s for a greater good.  The world is a safer place.  So how could they lose an airplane? 

We are told that satellites are able to read the licence plates on cars and that our email and cell phone communications are constantly being monitored and perused.  So wouldn’t you have thought that someone might have noticed that flight MH370 had diverted from its course, long before it was declared missing?

With the tracking devices on board the plane, not to mention the GPS capabilities of hundreds of cell phones the question  is being asked at Tim Horton’s and around the world: Where is the missing airplane and it’s passengers?

Not to diminish the loss of the plane and its passengers, but there is a world full of lost people who don’t even know they are lost.  Jesus said those folks were His very reason for coming, and if we are followers of Jesus then shouldn’t we share His concern for the lost who are all around us?  And they aren’t even that hard to find. Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Missing

How long would you have to be gone before someone noticed that you were missing? A couple of days, a week, a month? How about six years? The body of Pia Farrenkopf—a forty-nine-year-old woman from Pontiac, Michigan—was discovered sitting in her Jeep Liberty, parked in her garage last week. Authorities assume that Ms. Farrenkopf’s body had been in the garage since 2008, the year the plates on her Jeep had expired. And nobody really cared.
She was apparently estranged from her family and her neighbours said she travelled a lot. They hadn’t noticed that she wasn’t around, and her bills were paid automatically. It was only after her bank accounts were emptied and her home was repossessed that her body was found in the garage.
How sad it is that you could be dead for 6 years and have nobody in your life that cared enough to check.
Does your life make a difference to those around you? The time to make sure you will be missed is now. After all, it will be your choices today that will determine how you will be missed tomorrow.
In the beginning, God said “it is not good for man to be alone” and that is still true today.  Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Tick, Tock

I wonder what the recent crisis in Ukraine will do to the Doomsday Clock?  The iconic clock was sitting at five minute until midnight the first of January but you have to wonder if the Bear flexing his muscles again will make any difference at all?

The Doomsday Clock isn’t an actual clock, instead it is a metaphor for the danger of a “civilization-threatening technological catastrophe.”   It is used by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to analyze potential international threats, particularly nuclear arsenals and climate change & the closer it is to midnight the closer the world is to doom.  This would be a good place for a maniacal laugh.

In 1953 the big hand was only 2 minutes from midnight as the Cold War began, the closest it’s ever been.  In 1991 it was the furthest it’s been from midnight when it was set to 11:43 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.  And over the past 20 years it has slowly crept ahead.
For the Christian though, the clock should hold no fear.  Midnight will be determined by the Maker of the clock, not the keepers of the clock.  The question then is this: How is your relationship with the Maker?    Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.