Results tagged “personal”
The Right Way to Merge (11/21/09 - 8 Comments)
A few days ago I wrote about late merging and, not unexpectedly, got a lot of feedback. This is, after all, a universal experience. What amused me was the anger many of the early mergers feel toward the late mergers. Many people make this into a moral issue or a spiritual issue, as if God has offered us a "thus saith the Lord" when it comes to the ethics of merging. As Tom Vanderbilt says...
The Late Merger (11/18/09 - 77 Comments)
Though I don't feel quite right about it, I just had to give it a try. It is an experiment of sorts, I guess. I just had to know what it was like to be one of the few, one of the proud, one of the obnoxious--one of the late mergers. You know these people. Most of you, when you are crawling along the highway in heavy traffic and see a sign telling you that...
6 Years (11/01/09 - 24 Comments)
It was November 1, 2003 when I decided I'd commit to blogging every day for a full year. I was getting lazy with blogging and had given it little effort in the weeks leading up to that day. I figured I should either commit to doing it on a very regular basis or give it up altogether. A year later I had managed to blog every day and thought it would be good to renew...
Outgrowing the Need for Grace (10/21/09 - 13 Comments)
Last night was one of those nights where the kids kept me up for pretty much the whole thing. This morning I tried to do some writing but my brain was still clearly lying in bed. Therefore I am going to post something I wrote a couple of years ago; it is a topic that has been in my mind a good bit lately and I hope you can benefit from it. It's no secret...
Mr. Tweedle (10/11/09 - 5 Comments)
I found myself reminiscing this afternoon about old Mr. Tweedle--a man I hadn't thought about in ages. Years ago, when we were members at a Reformed church in Hamilton, Mr. Tweedle had shown up at the church. He was an elderly man already, probably well into his seventies. He was a refugee from Canada's United Church, a denomination that had slid from liberal to liberaler to liberalerst. When he found out from a neighbor that...
Thanksgiving Weekend (10/10/09 - 22 Comments)
It is Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada--about as early a Thanksgiving as we ever have, I think. It comes a long time before the American equivalent, at any rate. The Canadian Thanksgiving is a fair bit like its American counterpart, though without the storied history. Where Americans have great stories about Pilgrims and the Indians who saved their lives, Canadians just know that we get the day off and that it's a good day to...
Chasing Delight (10/02/09 - 6 Comments)
I went for a walk this morning, and pretty much had the town to myself, it seemed. Few people were out and about at 5:30 in the cold, dark, pre-dawn. This was the first time this year I've had to wear a coat while walking and the first time I've been able to see my breath misting the air around me. Winter is fast approaching. I was thinking, as I walked, about Proverbs 11:1. It...
Got To's and Get To's (09/24/09 - 22 Comments)
A couple of days ago I sat down with Aileen and a blank piece of paper. On the top of the paper I wrote, "If we were better parents to our children we would..." and then, between the two of us, we began to jot down ideas. We thought of some of the things we would do if we were to be the kind of parents we really want to be--parents who love our children,...
The Truth About Canadian Health Care (09/21/09 - 64 Comments)
Americans are debating the future of their nation's health care and as they do so, they keep looking beyond their borders to the systems in place in other countries. And, very often, their attention rests on Canada. More often than not, at least today, it is conservatives focusing on Canada, telling stories of woe, describing the utter breakdown of health care. You hear of people who have been forced to mortgage their homes and travel...
On Visiting Saddleback Church (09/16/09 - 46 Comments)
Last week I met Rick Warren. I was in Los Angeles to speak at the Christian Web Conference (where my topic was "Tweeting Truth With Love: Grace in an Age of Instant Communication") and at the conference I bumped into David Chrzan, Warren's Chief of Staff. He and I spoke for quite some time--an hour at least--and chatted about some of the critiques I've made in the past regarding Warren and his books. With ministries...
I've Never Been Mistaken for Brad Pitt (09/14/09 - 68 Comments)
I've never been mistaken for Brad Pitt. Not once. Neither has anybody ever stopped me on the street only to look disappointed, apologize and say, "I'm sorry, I thought you were Johnny Depp." It just never happens. There's a reason for this. Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp are remarkably handsome guys (says I in a totally heterosexual way). While we all know that, at least to some extent, beauty is in the eye of the...
The Incident of the Fish (08/19/09 - 13 Comments)
A couple of years ago I decided that I'd try to read through the works of historian David McCullough (a project that continues). I eventually came to Brave Companions, a book that offers “Portraits in History”—brief glimpses of people and incidents that helped make America what she is today. One of the chapters deals with “The American Adventure of Louis Agassiz.” Agassiz was a French zoologist and geologist who settled in the United States in...
Counseling Myself (08/17/09 - 17 Comments)
Just about a week ago Aileen and I celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary. The Lord has been kind to us and, though in many ways we feel like we're just getting started, at the same time we can look back on an ever-lengthening legacy of God's faithfulness to us. Last week I paused a few times to think about the last eleven years and began to wonder what I would say if I could go...
Highway 5 (07/22/09 - 20 Comments)
A couple of summers ago my parents paid us a rare summer visit. Usually they come to visit in fall or winter, but this year they came in summer. Because my dad is only truly resting when he is hard at work, I asked him to help me with several projects around the house. These were either projects that I had not had time to attend to, or projects for which I would have to...
There's Treasure Everywhere (07/15/09 - 14 Comments)
I've always loved Calvin & Hobbes. My friend Brian first introduced me to the comic strip back when I was a young teen and I immediately fell in love with it. (Here is a must-have for any true fan: The Complete Calvin & Hobbes). The strip works on at least two levels. There is the philosophical level where Calvin and his tiger discuss topics of science, philosophy and religion that are clearly far beyond...
Happy Canada Day (07/01/09 - 22 Comments)
It is Canada Day today and I'm taking the day off. My kids have been begging go to a ball game so a bit later on I'll be taking them to see the Jays play the Rays. It seemed that on Canada Day it would make sense to write a little bit about Canada's national anthem. Canada may be unique as a nation that has two official national anthems. I was too lazy to do...
A Prayer Request (05/10/09 - 18 Comments)
It is amazing to me, but it was almost eighteen months ago that Crossway published my book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. I finished writing the book nearly a year before that. It all seems so much more recent. The reality is, though, that it has been a long, long time since I've actually been involved in writing a book. I did not intend to wait so long between books but, to be honest, I...
2000 (04/22/09 - 23 Comments)
A long time ago I added to this web site a little counter. It is way down at the bottom right of each page and it increments by one number each day. It simply tracks the number of days since I made a commitment to blog every day. That was back on October 1, 2003. I first put it there as a challenge and as a reminder to write something every day. I had found...
The Ears of the Deaf (03/23/09 - 37 Comments)
Last weekend I enjoyed participating in the Ligonier Ministries National Conference, both as a blogger and an observer. It was a joy to gather with almost 5,000 other Christians so we could spend three days focusing on the holiness of God. This marked my third time going to this conference and each one has proven valuable to my knowledge of God and my love for him. This one may well have been my favorite, at...
Longing for Home (03/22/09 - 2 Comments)
We're on our way home. We have not been away for too long, but already we are more than ready to be back in our home, back in our natural context. We're ready to be where we most want to be. Our vacation was great, of course. We got to see some of the United States, we got to see family and friends and Aileen and I got to get away for a couple of...