Personal Reflections Archive

Becoming a Better Apologizer (03/21/08 - 28 Comments)
I was in a bad mood yesterday. For weeks now I’ve been trying to figure out something simple with a nearby bank—or something that should be simple. It has been a comedy of errors, really. Every time I try to do something (anything!), it seems that their incompetence or ignorance is working against me. I’ll receive a phone call telling me to come in and sign papers, but when I get there I’m told that...

The Public Nuisance (03/05/08 - 42 Comments)
Elizabeth is a public nuisance. Her status is not official yet, but it will be soon. The local police have encouraged the families in this neighborhood to fill out the paperwork that will fulfill the legal requirements. It’s probably the best thing to do. When that paperwork is complete the police will no longer be forced to respond to her every call. And she calls a lot. When a car parks a little too far...

Reflections from a First Time Author (01/25/08 - 17 Comments)
Since my book was released I’ve had a few requests to share what I’ve learned about the book-writing process. Friday seemed like a good day to do that. On the whole I found writing the book to be an overwhelmingly positive experience and one I hope to enjoy again. There are currently no plans for a second book but I do hope to begin again before too long. What I’d like to do today is...

Distrust, Suspicion, or Love? (01/18/08 - 25 Comments)
I grew up in a Christian culture in which very little evangelism took place. How little? Well, the first adult I ever witnessed getting baptized was my wife (she was my girlfriend at the time) and that was when we were eighteen or nineteen. It was the first time our church had ever baptized an adult. And what’s more, it was the first time most of the people who attended that church had ever seen...

The Fellowship of His Suffering (12/19/07 - 5 Comments)
Rebel soldiers were starting at one end of a large room, taking women away one by one and bringing them back after they were finished with them. Helen’s first impulse was to hide and not have to bear this humiliation again. Then she thought of Jesus. He put himself forward as a substitute for us. The fellowship of his sufferings—she moved to the front, to try to protect some of the other women from...

Offering Grace (12/16/07 - 10 Comments)
A couple of days ago I posted a short reflection on grace and how foreign a concept this is to sinful humans. I wrote about my son and how, at a time he had received a gift he valued a great deal, he attempted to repay this gift with all the money he had (which was, it turns out, only one dollar). His offer was a kind one and even a generous one, but one...

Longing for the Im-mediate (12/10/07 - 3 Comments)
Have you ever considered what it must have been like for Adam and Eve to walk and talk with God in the Garden of Eden? Have you thought of the things you would say to God if you were to hear His footsteps today? What Christian hasn’t experienced a pang of jealousy when he reads “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” And what...

The Christmas Tablecloth (12/09/07 - 9 Comments)
On Friday evening the menfolk and womenfolk of this household went separate ways. I took my son upstairs and he and I continued playing a computer game he enjoys, saving the world from tyranny. We were sure that this was much more important than what the ladies were doing. Aileen and the girls stayed downstairs and began getting the house into the Christmas spirit. A couple of hours later, with the threat of evil worldwide...

Ruined For Anything Else (11/19/07 - 16 Comments)
Aileen and I were once members of a church that, after a few years of existence, began to de-emphasize doctrine. Some of the pastors seemed to reach the conclusion that “doctrine divides” and that the church really just needed to focus on evangelism and on “action.” They seemed to determine that a sound theological foundation held in common was unattainable and unrealistic. Therefore, doctrine should be laid aside and the church should rally around the...

Still Not Over It (11/16/07 - 15 Comments)
One of the unexpected blessings of writing this blog is that it sets in stone (so to speak—it’s actually more like pixels) things that I’ve believed and things that I’ve felt. I use the blog, in some ways, as a record of spiritual development. I return quite often to articles I’ve written in the past to challenge myself anew or to recount God’s grace in my life. A couple of years ago, a friend of...

It Was My Sin that Held Him There (11/12/07 - 21 Comments)
As seems to be the case with most children, my friends and I went through a stage where we found great joy in tying people to things. In second or third grade we would take turns being the guys who would grab the skipping ropes and twist endless knots, fastening one of our friends to a tree or fence or flag pole. And, of course, we would take turns being the unfortunate one who was...

Excessive Reading (11/07/07 - 15 Comments)
Of all the questions that find their way into my inbox, I don't know that any topic receives more attention than reading. I get a lot of questions from people asking if I've read or can recommend certain titles, but also a lot of questions just about reading--how to do it and how to do it more. A couple of days ago, a friend and long-time reader of this site (one of this site's very...

Lifted Up (11/04/07 - 6 Comments)
I wanted to begin today by sharing a few words of wisdom from my daughter who just turned five: “In heaven you can’t die, so you can eat popcorn and hot dogs at the same time and not have to worry about choking.” I just thought you’d all like to have one more thing to look forward to in eternity. Of course one could well ask, “If there are hot dogs in heaven, could it...

The Need for Constant Practice (10/29/07 - 3 Comments)
Next year is an Olympic year and in the summer of 2008, athletes will converge on Beijing to complete in 302 events across 28 different sports. Already we are beginning to hear about qualifying events and national Olympic committees choosing the teams they will send to China to represent their countries. There isn't an athlete who isn't already dreaming of earning a spot on the Olympic team and earning a gold medal for his country....

The Accuser's Demand (10/23/07 - 8 Comments)
Though Satan makes his claim on my life... Studying European history can be both fascinating and frustrating. Understanding the intricacies of nations, borders and rulers could easily be a life-long pursuit. The history of the continent is filled with claims, and counterclaims as one person sought to prove himself the legitimate heir to one of its many kingdoms. There were many who sought to claim thrones and kingdoms and these claims had to be settled...

Living it and Writing it (10/17/07 - 33 Comments)
I graduated from college in 1995 (Or so. To be honest, I don't even remember exactly what year it was), having earned a degree in history. That degree did not open up the world of possibilities I had obviously thought it might when I first chose history as my major three years before. With few options available to me, and suffering from a lack of motivation, I decided I had better find some kind of...

I Left My Heart in Lanark (10/03/07 - 14 Comments)
Last week I had the joy and privilege of watching my cousin get married to the love of her life. The wedding was held in Ottawa, about 5 hours from where we live. Because it was an early morning wedding, we knew we would need to leave at least a day in advance in order to get there on time. So we booked ourselves in at the home of my aunt and uncle (unrelated to...

Desiring It Just a Little Bit Less (08/27/07 - 16 Comments)
It strikes me often how life is cyclical; how things I wrestle with and ponder and pray about will come to the forefront of my life and faith a month or a year or two years later. One of the biggest blessings of having a journal (which is often how this site functions for me) is that I can go back and see how I dealt with these things in the past. It is good...

When the Critics Rave, I Weep (08/21/07 - 13 Comments)
Reflecting on the sin of envy. It is healthy, I think, to reflect at times upon the evil of my heart. This seems like a terribly negative thing to do, but I believe it is an important discipline of my spiritual life that I seek to discover where evil lurks within my heart. There are some areas in my heart where, through God’s grace, sin has been routed, pushed back. There are certain temptations that...

Wedding Day (08/11/07 - 11 Comments)
Chaos reigns. I'm down here just a little ways out of Chattanooga where, in just a few hours, my little sister Grace is going to get married. It is hot. Deathly hot. Even the Atlantans seem to be reeling from it. People have gathered from far and wide. Members of our family have travelled in from Ottawa, Toronto and even as far afield as Vancouver. Many of us have rented a series of cabins in...

Seeking Correction (08/09/07 - 17 Comments)
The value of inviting and pursuing correction. A couple of days ago I wrote a short article called Her Good or Mine. The purpose of the article was simple: to ask whether I really try to help my wife seek after godliness or whether instead I try to help her seek after my own selfish goals. Do I try to help her become ever more conformed to the image of Christ or do I selfishly...

My Best Friend's Wedding (08/08/07 - 24 Comments)
Nine years ago, on this very day, my best friend got married. It was one of the first weddings I had ever been to and I remember it well. It was a beautiful wedding, I thought, exactly the kind I might have planned. It was simple but dignified, homespun but not cheap. The mother of the bride had not only arranged all of the arrangements and bouquets, but had even grown the flowers, having planned...

Her Good or Mine? (08/06/07 - 44 Comments)
Asking myself why I want her to change... I have been thinking about this subject for a while now. I've even tried to write about it once or twice with decidedly poor results, causing me to give up and put it aside for another day. I'm going to give it another shot today and hope it works out better. It was probably a month ago, or sometime around then, that I found myself faced with...

Father's Day (06/17/07 - 5 Comments)
Today is Father's Day and I thought I'd share something I posted here before--an article I wrote for my dad three years ago on this day. Like most boys I idolized my father. When I was a child you would have had a difficult time convincing me that there was anyone smarter, faster or stronger than my dad. I really did believe it when I told my friends that "my dad can beat up your...

Creativity Cramp (2007 Edition) (06/07/07 - 13 Comments)
I am a Web designer and as such I have to be creative on an on-going basis. Every time a client calls and asks me to design a site I have to be creative and come up with a new design--something that will look attractive, that will be original and will fit the "feel" of the company or ministry or person. This is often quite difficult to do. I find it especially so when I've...

A Notch in the Belt (06/06/07 - 12 Comments)
When I was a teenager, there was a boy in my class who was not quite normal. I don't know if he suffered from a type of mental disorder or if he was just a bit "different"--never completely accustomizing to the culture he lived in. I suspect the latter. Somehow he did not quite fit in. He had funny mannerisms, would sometimes say strange things and often seemed oblivious to social propriety. One of my...

Blogging - My Story (05/15/07 - 19 Comments)
Last week at The Basics Conference I was privileged to lead a seminar on the topic of blogging. The topic that was assigned to me, "Blogging Your Ministry," is probably not the best title for what I delivered. I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out what I could possibly say about blogging that would not be both tedious and boring. I soon found that there was a lot that was worth saying...

The Light of Certainty (04/24/07 - 16 Comments)
Last week Jacob Hantla wrote about an article that had appeared in the news the day before. A girl who lives in the Minneapolis area unexpectedly gave birth to a baby. She is overweight and it seems that neither she nor her mother had known that she was pregnant. She did not want the baby and reacted to its birth by stabbing it some 135 times and stuffing the lifeless body in a trash can....

Even the Smallest Island (04/23/07 - 6 Comments)
The Pacific Campaign of the Second World War is a fascinating slice of military history. In many ways, it seemed like a nonsensical series of battles between the United States and Japan--battles that ranks as some of the most horrifyingly brutal in the long and terrible history of warfare. As the Americans sought revenge for the devastation of Pearl Harbor, and as they sought to curtail Japanese aggression in the East, they fought their way...

Testimony Tuesday (For Bloggers) (03/29/07 - 29 Comments)
I've been thinking for a while now that it would be interesting and beneficial to have bloggers post their testimonies to their blogs. Some have already done this, but many (myself included) have not. And yet I love testimonies and find them so beautiful and so moving. It is amazing to read about the many ways God saves His people. He uses an infinite variety of means to draw an infinite variety of His people...

The Mirror (03/28/07 - 10 Comments)
I was skimming headlines a few days ago and noticed a story about some activists on a college campus who were planning to cover all of the school's mirrors for a day. I did not read long enough to see why they wanted to do this, but I assume it was somehow meant to draw attention to a problem the school or government was covering up. You know how these college-aged activists are, always thinking...

Spiritual Posture (03/24/07 - 6 Comments)
Roy Halladay is Toronto Blue Jays' ace pitcher and is one of the top players in baseball. Halladay has a well-established routine that begins as soon as a game is complete and continues until the next game has begun five or six days later. He has another routine which takes him from the end of one season to the beginning of the next. And, like many players, has a routine which takes him from pitch-to-pitch....

Tax Time Theology (02/21/07 - 9 Comments)
I am quite a fan of sports, or certain sports at any rate. One thing that has always attracted me to sports, and baseball in particular, is the numbers. I can take a brief look at a list of players and immediately have a sense as to how they are doing. The sports pages always have these great lists of statistics, showing batting averages, on base percentages, numbers of hits, home runs, singles, doubles and...

Answered Prayer and Prayerlessness (02/13/07 - 14 Comments)
Thank you. Just over a week ago I asked that you would pray for me. I asked that God would allow me opportunity both to work (and thus make money to support my family) and to find time to finish up my book in what is going to be a very busy six to eight weeks. Someone must have taken the time to pray for me because God answered in an amazing way. Late last...

Conference Season Begins (02/09/07 - 31 Comments)
This time next week, if all goes well, I will be sitting on a plane, on my way to Los Angeles. I will be heading to the Terrace Theatre: Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center (that's a mouth full!) to bring liveblogging of the Resolved Conference. This kicks off my 2007 liveblogging schedule--a schedule that is ridiculously full. I never anticipated that I'd be traveling across the United States blogging conferences. It is really something...

A Delight and a Frustration (01/31/07 - 17 Comments)
Being a parent is wonderful. Parenting is filled with moments of joy and happiness and excitement and love. But it's also filled with moments of almost overwhelming frustration. We've had plenty of great times and plenty of awfully frustrating times in the past few weeks. A couple of days ago Aileen and I were talking about the children (our two older children in particular) and I said, "You know, what I find most frustrating is...

This Thing Called Blogging (01/23/07 - 39 Comments)
This thing called blogging is not nearly as easy as it looks, and this is especially true in a blog that receives a good deal of traffic. I suppose if you were to plot out the history of this blog in terms of its traffic, you would end up with a graph showing a slow but steady rise from the left of the graph (representing the time I began the site) to the right (representing...

Zealous Immaturity (01/04/07 - 34 Comments)
My work on The Discipline of Discernment has taken me to many places in the Bible and to many of the books on my bookshelves. I have been surprised and delighted to see how God has been preparing me to write this book, for many of the books I have read in the past few years tie directly into what I feel the Bible says about discernment. I've found help in books by many authors...

The Twenties: A Retrospective (II) (12/01/06 - 23 Comments)
(This is part two of an article I began here). I ended the last article with the birth of our first child. It did not take long after the birth of our son to encounter difficulties with our church. I knew nothing of Baptists, but had begun listening to Charles Stanley on my way to work each day and quickly began to respect his passion for the Word and his ability to teach it simply....

The Twenties: A Retrospective (11/30/06 - 19 Comments)
This Saturday will mark my thirtieth birthday. I am not typically one who takes much notice of occasions such as birthdays or who makes a big deal of them, but as I considered passing a decade barrier, it seemed appropriate that I should spend some time thinking about the last ten years. I was convicted that it would be beneficial to ponder all that has happened in my life since 1996, the last time I...