Consider this

            Telling people off feels good, doesn’t it?               Most people are too polite to admit that, but I know the feeling that comes after setting someone straight.   I feel smart because I was able to point out someone’s stupidity.   I am proud that I spoke my mind.       It feels good to let people have it! That is until I realize that my angry rant did a lot more harm than good.   Anger is a bottom-level emotion because it takes no thought or effort.   Anger is simply reactive.   Other emotions, such as compassion, require us to see the situation in new ways and imagine what it must be like to be the other person.   Anger does not require that because it is rooted in selfishness.   Most of my anger has nothing to do what is actually right or wrong.   Rather, it is based on the fact that my thoughts a...

            My wife, Sara, loves birds, so in the spring I get daily reports that go something like this: “The chickadees are back…. I saw a Robin today…. Ooh, I hear a woodpecker over there!”   She gets excited when she sees hawks floating on the breeze.   Our backyard is filled with bird feeders and we get more than our share of feathered visitors. Over the course of our marriage, I have come to enjoy watching the birds as well.   I even know the names of some of them now.   I am especially good at spotting “Red-winged Blackbirds” (Why can’t all birds be this obviously named?).     Of course, there is nothing new going on here.   The birds have been around for my entire life.   I just never paid any attention to them.   What is new is that Sara has taught me to notice these little creatures and now I cannot stop seeing and hearing them.   They are everywhere! You will see what...

           “Mother’s Day” has just come and gone and, as usual, it has left me thinking about the power of relationships. Pick up any Mother’s Day card and you will find words like; love, sacrifice, care, nurture and compassion.   We honour mothers because they demonstrate these sorts qualities.   We appreciate how selfless they are and how give themselves to their families without expecting much in return. Mothers have a powerful influence because they invest in others. The same attitudes that create strong and healthy families are the exact same attitudes that needed for a strong and healthy church.   In fact, if you read the first fifteen verses of virtually every New Testament letter, you will find words of care and affection because these letters were written not only to instruct, but also to strengthen, encourage and nurture. Churches as a whole, and we as individual church members, make a huge mistake when we...

             Sometimes Bible stories sound weird simply because we are missing some necessary information.   Take Matthew 21:18-21 for example. It says, “Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.   Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May you never bear fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered”.                 What is going on here?   Why is Jesus being so harsh?    To understand the point, it helps to know a little about fig trees. Unlike fruit trees around here, fig trees produce both their leaves and their fruit at the same time.   The fact that this tree had leaves meant that it ought to have fruit as well, which is why Jesus went over to it in the first place.   That is also why Matthew went out ...

               Author Allison Fallon tells a story about her brother who was riding his bike to church one Sunday morning.   As he approached an intersection, a student driver in the car ahead of him turned her left turn signal light on and then made a right turn right in front of him.   Allison’s brother crashed into the side of the car and was sent flying across the hood and onto the ground on the other side.                 A crowd quickly gathered.   Some of the people asked “Are you okay?” or “Does anything hurt?”   Others, though, were angry and started yelling at the driver for making such a stupid and dangerous mistake.                   Allison’s brother looked up and asked, “What is the driver’s name?” The driving instructor told hi...

               Ontario was established in 1849 as a home for former African American slaves who had found freedom thanks to the Underground Railroad.                 If you visit Buxton, you will see a large bell that was housed in the community’s church building. Whenever a new family arrived in town, the bell was rung in joyous celebration.   Everyone would come in from the fields, welcome the new family and commit to helping them becoming established in their new homeland.   The bell was also rung every morning and every night to remind the community to stop and remember those who were still in slavery.                 Everyone in Buxton understood what it was to be a slave.   They also knew the courage that it took to make the journey north.  ...

               “The guy in that picture is an idiot!”                 That is what I thought as I gazed at a photo of Sara and me on our wedding day.                 Now, let me clarify:   I was not an idiot for getting married.   In fact, marrying Sara is one of the smartest things I have ever done.   The problem is that the guy in that photo has no idea how to love the beautiful girl that he just married.   He has no idea how to be a good father.   He worries way too much and is more angry than he ought to be.   In short, he needs a lot of work.                 The good news, though, is that the guy in that photo is not me.   At least, he is not me anymor...