Disillusionment

Some friends and I have been e-talking lately about the number of people who are disillusioned by church. The discussion was prompted by the book title "So you don't want to go to church anymore" written by Wayne Jacobson and Dave Coleman. Our interaction has included views that are sympathetic to the disillusioned and some that are ticked off by the disillusioned.

One of the lines of thought I have had is this.

Illusions are false beliefs. Illusions can lead to disappointment. To be disappointed when something proves to be false is often regarded as unfortunate but with disappointment there may be no mechanism or personal will to change the condition. To be disillusioned is the state of being free of illusion(s). This should be regarded as wholesome, shouldn’t it? Disillusionment goes beyond disappointment because it accomplishes the beneficial result of freedom from illusions, from false beliefs. To disillusion is to cause to lose naive faith and trust in something that is not true anyway. It is the act of freeing from an illusion.

Could you stretch your language appreciation enough to see disillusionment as a gift? Might it be possible that God calls some people to plant seeds of disillusionment among their peers? If your immediate reaction is a horrified NO, then indulge me for a moment or two. Our common understanding of what it means to be disillusioned, is to be cynical, indifferent, negative, and
discouraging. Since these are not qualities or attitudes that harmonize with saintly traits, we conclude disillusionment is mistaken and God would certainly not encourage it. But we misunderstand disillusionment.

What I am asking us to consider is the true meaning of disillusionment. It has received a bad rap among Christians by being lumped with moaners and protesters. If we are faithful to language, then we must concur that becoming disillusioned is essential to awakening to the truth.

GPS Application

Illusions or deceptions, false impressions and misapprehensions are not to be adopted by people who have been born again to be free. The truth shall set you free. Disillusionment is the process of being stripped of falsehoods no matter how comfortable or kosher or right they have seemed to be. And this may entail a tedious, continuous work and very delicate and painful when it involves the life and practices of the church. Disillusionment may irritate and disrupt the ardently defended norms of our Christian or church culture, yet if it can show that some long held ideas and claims are untrue, won’t that be a good result?

Baby it's Hot Inside/Outside

Yesterday, was the Hottest day ever recorded in Vancouver. It's been like that for days, and is expected to continue.

It's all that we can talk about. I woke up on the family room floor this morning where I slept on a couple of lounge mattresses. Upstairs was too hot last night. It was 5 am when I awoke and it was already 'butter melting in the cupboard' hot. It is 'even the shade is hot' weather. I am golfing with Tim this morning, T-ing off at 7:30 am to beat the heat at my local course. It has been one year since I retired, and this morning I wish I was back at work because that office was air conditioned. This could become expensive. Christine took off to the bank, to a couple of other businesses and to the mall the other day so she could spend time in AC facilities and be in the AC car. We are not equipped for this heat here in ocean side, moderate lower mainland BC. Most houses have never heard about heat pumps and air conditioning units. We don't want to complain too loudly because we know the rains and the clouds will come soon enough. A little rain right now would be a relief. Roofers in our neighbourhood work until noon and then knock off. It's over 100 F and 38 C up there. I have a fan blasting warm air at my back at this moment as I tap these words on my laptop. It is too warm for me to paint. My acrylics dry before I apply. I am writing this particularly for my Ontario friends whom I hear have had a wet and cool few weeks of summer, and your winter (brrr) comes so soon. Ahh, winter! snow, ice, cold, frigid, freezing. Sounds so good.

GPS Application

Revelation 3:15-16 quoted from the translation known as "the Message" pictures God speaking to the ancient church of Laodicea about its tepid spirituality. It's classic and bold. ""I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, 'I'm rich, I've got it made, I need nothing from anyone,' oblivious that in fact you're a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless."

Sorry, the summer heat has fried my output for past few days!

Alphabet Soup for the Soul

We all respond to setbacks, reversals, conflicts and adversity differently. Some of us may lose our appetites and others may go on a feeding frenzy. Still others of us may find comfort in eating certain food items. Call it comfort food. It could be pepperoni pizza, or double butter pop corn, or a Dairy Queen pecan cluster blizzard, or maybe Kraft dinner. What do you like to eat when you are feeling low? Is there a particular food that picks you up or calms your spirit, or is enough of a diversion that it feels like comfort? It might be chicken soup, or spicy pasta, or hot porridge, or homemade apple pie with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream. Psalm 25 is comfort food for the soul. It's an alphabet soup for the soul. The reason I call the psalm an alphabet for trouble is because David wrote in Hebrew and while we cannot see the evidence in our English translations, he began each of these twenty-two verses with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the psalm David calls on God and speak our his concerns and recites God's character virtues and values and gains assurance that God will look after his needs. He receives comfort.

Recipe for Summer alphabet soup Serves 4

4 plum tomatoes
4 ears fresh corn, husked
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 clove garlic, peeled
8 cups water
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into
1/4-inch pieces
1 cup alphabet pasta or other small pasta such as flakes, orzo, or baby shells

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. After removing tomato cores drop tomatoes into boiling water, & remove in 15 seconds transferring them to a colander. Rinse with cold water.
2. When the tomatoes are cool, peel away tomato skins. Halve the tomatoes & then snip into coarse chunks; set aside.
3. Cut all corn kernels from ears of corn. Save the corn cobs.
4. In a soup pot, heat the oil and when it is hot, add the onion, carrots, salt, and pepper. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring often, or until the vegetables soften.
5. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring for 3 minutes more.
6. Pour in the 8 cups of water and add the corn cobs. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the soup for 15 minutes. Use tongs to remove the cobs from the soup.
7. Add the corn kernels, green beans, zucchini, and alphabets. Return the soup to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the alphabets and vegetables are tender. Add more water during cooking if the mixture seems too thick.
8. Taste the soup for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if you like.

GPS Application

“Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.” Psalm 25:8-10

Ruth Johnston

Ruth Johnston

On Monday we received the news that a dear friend has passed away. I am still intrigued that the news came as such a blow even though we had expected to hear it for some time.

In most circles Ruth was known as Gordon’s wife. They were married for fifty-three years. Gordon is a leader, a gifted, magnetic, convincing and confident person. He was a successful business executive, followed by a succession of consultant and leadership roles in Christian organizations and churches. He walks with God. Ruth was a homemaker, wife and mother, the traditional role of a person of her generation. Moreover, she was compelled to be close to her home because of her physical challenges. She was a diminutive woman, made smaller through the years by the arthritis that ravaged her and the succession of complications she endured. As long as we have known her, thirty years, she lived with pain. Yet she lived so well. She was thoughtful, articulate, spiritual and interesting.

For Christine, Ruth was the complete confidant with an understanding and patient spirit and a spiritual depth of conversation that stimulated and empowered Christine. Christine loved Ruth very much. One of the hard things for Christine about our move west from Toronto was leaving Ruth. For me, Ruth was an eager listener and a delightful writer. She and I took pleasure in the way we each put words together to describe scenes and situations and to convey ideas and values. She bumped up my self esteem.

In her 77th year she passed into the arms of her Lord, Jesus Christ. She leaves a crowd of friends and three children and their spouses, Susan and Bruce, Heather and Jeremy, Graeme and Carina and grandchildren Melissa, Michael, Matthew, Kriss, Joshua, Katie, Bethany, Esther and Henry. A celebration of her life takes place) on Thursday, July 30th at 4:00 p.m., at Morningstar Christian Fellowship, 7601 Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough (just west of Morningside Avenue), Toronto.

GPS Application

"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21

The Toronto Star Notice

Are We Without Prophets Today?

Are we without prophets in our time? Are preachers out of touch with the ways and purposes of God or too timid to tell us that these misfortunes may truly be acts of God? As the proverbial locusts have chewed their way through billions of dollars and as companies are failing and hundreds of thousands of people are becoming jobless, I haven’t heard anyone asserting the connection between God and what is happening nationally and globally. Why is that? Have we amputated God from our understanding of the times and conditions? Are there any nationally recognized preachers calling for the nations to repent?

The Old Testament book of Joel is highlighted by two major events. One is the invasion of locusts and the other the outpouring of the Spirit of God. Joel’s countrymen were experiencing the effects of a recent infestation of locusts. There were successive swarms of locusts, first chewing, then swarming, then crawling, and finally consuming everything. The land was devastated by them so now there followed drought, famine and fires. The economy was shattered. This was a national disaster. The economy of the land was ruined. Even religious life was being threatened because of the shortage of offerings.

Joel, the prophet of God, saw a connection between this national disaster and God’s judgment, and more significantly, an approaching time of greater judgment by the Lord God. He called this judgment ‘the Day of the Lord.’ That is why the book of Joel is insightful because it demonstrates a grasp of the relationship between historical events and the involvement of God. God is sovereignly operative in all that comes to pass. In Joel’s day, the people of Judah were people who had known the blessing of God but now the blessing had ended. And there is an explanation. Judah had neglected, even rejected God. Joel’s purpose in writing was to tell the people that the national crisis was to be considered a warning for them to repent.

It is in the warning that hope emerges. The recovery package doesn’t come out of Ottawa or Washington or London. If the people repent, Joel says, then God will pardon and God promises restoration.

GPS Application

“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer and the cutter, my great army, which I sent to you.” Joel 2:25
Now that is an Act of God.

The Cost of Dying

Death is a growth industry. I was invited last year to a golf tournament for pastors sponsored by one of North America’s largest funeral service provider. I was invited to give a prayer before the sumptuous dinner at Coyote Creek banquet facilities. Every duffer regardless of handicap received a great prize. Let’s face it, pastors as I have been officiate hundreds of funerals over a career and we often are asked for recommendations to a funeral home. Funeral services are provided at a price which many people consider excessively high.

My thanks to a Nov 8, 2007 Vancouver Sun article for some of the data used here. I loved a line in that piece which expressed that with the self absorbed baby boomers due to turn 70 in 2016, expect to hear that death is the new 90. I arrive at 70 a fraction earlier in 2012 but I will be among the peloton skidding to the grave with our brakes fully engaged. Through the years much has been written about our costly way of dying. This has inspired the founding of membership driven memorial societies which for a nominal fee permits pre-arrangement of low cost funerals with select contracted companies. My mom and dad had memberships in such a society in Ontario. The Memorial Society of B.C., around since the 1950’s has 207,000 members at a cost of $20 lifetime membership, plus a $35 records fee when life ends. Many independent funeral homes have contracted to work with the Society that has incorporated an ethics code to which the contracting funeral service providers agree so grieving families are not pressured but helped. Costs of services and products like caskets and urns are priced respectfully rather than competitively. All Memorial Society of British Columbia designated funeral providers are owned and operated by Canadian families. None are franchises or owned by publicly traded companies. MSBC covers 95% of BC's population!

Personal Alternative Funeral Services is another option to a number of communities. Founded in 1992 and owned by Lawrence G. Little, a man with a distinguished 35-year career in the British Columbia funeral industry. I have worked with the Aldergrove Home and have always found families were satisfied with the services. The website allows you to connect with a provider in the following communities: Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, BC ; Kamloops and the Thompson Nicola District, BC ; Okanagan, BC; Trail and the West Kootenays, BC ; Calgary, Airdrie and Southern Alberta ; Red Deer, and Central Alberta ; Seattle and Western Washington, USA.

The Society’s website or toll free number may be helpful
and toll-free number is 1-888-816-5902

Requiring Driver Tests at Age 70

At Christine's birthday party a subject surfaced that pressed my button. Someone mentioned that the provincial government of B.C. was going to legislate that driver retesting would begin at age 70 and be repeated every two years. Public safety must be maintained.

The closer one is to three score and ten the more one tends to react with irritation. My defence system kicks in. I will be 67 in September. I am ageing but I can still do math. In three years I will turn 70 and I would be required to take a driver test. I might have to do a written as well as an actual motor vehicle street exam. The natural defence for people like me is retroactive. For example, “I used to drive truck for a living, both during college days and later full time before I obtained my first job as a church pastor. In Toronto I could drive a large Sears truck downtown, whip across a road when the flagman stopped traffic and back up fast into a truck elevator with 3 inch clearance on each side mirror. I have always taken driving seriously and been diligent about observing good driving habits. I have driven in blinding snow storms on the worst road conditions without negative incident.” But that was then. What about now? Has anything changed? Perhaps.

The second level of defence is accusation. That there are tens of thousands of drivers much younger than I who have poor driving habits and drive foolishly and even recklessly is undeniable. There is an equity issue here. Why, by virtue of age should teens, twenty-somethings, thirty, forty, fifty and sixty year olds be exempt for decades from testing beyond the initial exam that granted them their license? Fair play demands that statistics and medicine and wisdom combine to produce a piece of legislation that truly addresses public safety on our roads.

GPS Application

Test 70 plus drivers every two years. Fine! Rexamine every other driver every three years. Test drivers of trucks and buses for their specific licenses every three years as well. Psalm 90:10 "The length of our days is seventy years — or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away."

That's my ride, a 2007 MX5, and my birthday girl passenger, looking out to the Gulf Islands. As the verse above infers, I am taking my flying lessons now.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart Christine

My sweetheart is having another birthday today, the 23rd of July. She was hoping that birthdays would stop last year.

Throughout our years of marriage, Christine has been a homemaker and mother, and my encourager and support. We served within the church together but undoubtedly my role, my positions and my educational opportunities cast public light upon my accomplishments more than upon hers. I honour her as a gifted, loving woman who makes a habit of thinking first of someone else before herself.

I echo Bette Midler in her well known ‘The Wind Beneath My Wings.’

It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I've got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.
I would be nothing without you.

Did you ever know that you're my hero,
and everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.

Today I pay tribute to Christine.

GPS Application

Proverbs 12:4 "A wife of noble character is her husband's crown..."
Proverbs 18:22 "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD."

Listen to Bette Midler sing 'The Wind Beneath my Wings'

David Omar White

David enjoyed the fulfillment of every artist’s dream, of having his art covering the walls of a public facility and occupying the attention of hundreds of people every day.

David Omar White, known as Omar lived in Cambridge Massachusetts where he was well known as a painter and an activist for the Affordable Housing Organizing Committee. He was 82 years of age when he passed away on June 26 from pulmonary fibrosis resulting from exposure to asbestos during World War II. Over the years he drew a political cartoon strip called "White Rabbit" which ran for years in various alternative newspapers. He used various mediums, including small washes and enormous, color-filled paintings that celebrate both the real and surreal worlds and he won many awards and artistic grants. He taught and he lectured. He had a Chris Kringle persona with his white beard and twinkling eyes. His friends remember him as a witty, warm and quirky man who never stopped what he loved to do.

He was a true artist, a muralist, a sculptor, a political cartoonist, a children’s book writer and illustrator. From his childhood there was nothing else that he wanted to do with his life. His paintings were flamboyant and surrealistic. He was recently quoted as saying that “Art has never been a hobby. I am a fanatic artist. I work as much as my energy allows; it’s my reason for living.” His last years were difficult as he was confined to a wheelchair but he lived in a senior housing facility in which he converted his bedroom into a studio and he slept in the living room. He was often up at 4 am to paint. I don’t find that strange at all. “My favorite work is the next one I’m going to do,’’ he wrote in a recent letter to a young friend for a school project. Omar said, “My art is based on what feels right. I don’t compete with God or nature ... I feel that if I copy the creator, I’m bound to come out second best.’’

The Casablanca Restaurant in Harvard Square in Cambridge MA commissioned him to paint large murals in 1970. When the restaurant relocated in 1990, the murals were dismantled and reinstalled in the new restaurant in 1991. His now famous epic Casablanca mural depicts the classic film romance of Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.

GPS Application

I admire the passionate commitment of an artist like Omar and I would like to emulate that but I cannot bring myself to treat my art as my reason for living. My reasons for living are my relationship with God which began when I was ten years of age, my relationship with the woman to whom I pledged faithfulness 42 years ago, and my relationships with family and friends. The payback on these exceeds all my art no matter how proficient I become. Proverbs 21:21 "Anyone who wants to be godly and loving finds life, success and honor."