Skip to content ↓

Saturday Ramblings

For the first time in recent memory, I am at home alone. A couple of the neighborhood children have a birthday party today and my two older children were invited. It is apparently a Taekwondo birthday party. I didn’t know such things existed, to tell the truth. I’m not so crazy about the martial arts, but I guess there can’t be too much harm in letting the kids hang around, kick each other, and eat some pizza for a couple of hours. My wife decided to wait at the party since she is friends with just about all of the parents who will be there. And that left me home alone. And, literally, this is the first time in months.

So what did I do with my newfound freedom? I did my taxes. As a self-employed Canadian I have the privilege of being able to procrastinate until June 15. And, for the first time ever, I’m quite sure, I have turned them in sooner than the day before or the day of. It is great to have that thankless, tedious task off my back. Of course the drawback to being self-employed is that there is generally no such thing as a tax rebate. Instead I have to write a painfully large cheque to the government. I guess someone has to pay for all the “free” health care we enjoy up here. Yet I’m glad to be Canadian and am grateful to live here, even on the day I see my marginal tax rate nicely graphed out for me.

In other news, I still haven’t completed (or started, for that) the Study Guide for my book. I have a better idea of the book’s schedule now and it seems I’ve got until later this summer to finish it off. So that is going to be my summer project. Should be a fun one! And, on the subject of the book, I received the first endorsement for it just last week. It is from what is probably the highest-profile person who agreed to read the manuscript and the endorsement was very encouraging. There are at least six other people who agreed to read it and I’m hoping they’ll pull through as well.

And that’s all you’re going to get out of me today. It’s a beautiful, sunny day; I’m home alone; I’ve got a good book and a can of Coke awaiting my attention. I’m out of here.


  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 23)

    A La Carte: Climate anxiety paralyzes, gospel hope propels / Living what God has written / How should I engage my rebellious child? / Satan hates your pastor / How to navigate our spiritual highs / The art of extemporaneous preaching / and more.

  • The Path to Contentment

    The Path to Contentment

    I wonder if you have ever considered that the solution to discontentment almost always seems to be more. If I only had more money I would be content. If I only had more followers, more possessions, more beauty, then at last I would consider myself successful. If only my house was bigger, my influence wider,…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 22)

    A La Carte: Why my shepherd carries a rod / When Mandisa forgave Simon Cowell / An open mind is like an open mouth / Marriage: the half-time report / The church should mind its spiritual business / Kindle deals / and more.

  • It Begins and Ends with Speaking

    It Begins and Ends with Speaking

    Part of the joy of reading biography is having the opportunity to learn about a person who lived before us. An exceptional biography makes us feel as if we have actually come to know its subject, so that we rejoice in that person’s triumphs, grieve over his failures, and weep at his death.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (April 20)

    A La Carte: Living counterculturally during election season / Borrowing a death / The many ministries of godly women / When we lose loved ones and have regrets / Ethnicity and race and the colorblindness question / The case for children’s worship services / and more.

  • The Anxious Generation

    The Great Rewiring of Childhood

    I know I’m getting old and all that, and I’m aware this means that I’ll be tempted to look unfavorably at people who are younger than myself. I know I’ll be tempted to consider what people were like when I was young and to stand in judgment of what people are like today. Yet even…