Just Thinking

'Till Death Do We Part

I’ve been married for 13 years to an absolutely amazing woman.  I definitely got the better end of the deal there, but I have a bad habit: I take her for granted.  Now, while it’s certainly not okay that I do it, I’m pretty sure I’m in good company.  In fact, most guys I know take their wives for granted everyday.  It’s something we’re all prone to do, and it doesn’t just stop with our relationships. Read more…

Is it really all good?

“It’s all good!”  That’s what the guy at the convenience store said to me.  I couldn’t help thinking how incredibly wrong he was.  Life is not all good!  I mean, how are you supposed to tell a child in Iraq that’s lost his family to the war that it’s all good?  Or what about the parent that’s lost their child to a drunk driver?  There are so many things in life that are simply not all good, that the sentiment just seems utterly foolish.

And then what about all the little, day to day things in our lives that are simply not all good?  What about the days that you wake up with a sore throat and stuffed up nose?  These are not all good days.  Or what about those days when it feels like everything and everyone is against you?  These are not all good days either.

I guess I should probably stop before I get us all depressed about the state of life.  It’s just that I think that what people need is not more “fortune cookie” type sentiment, but truth.  People don’t need to hear that life is all good.  What they need to be reminded of is that much of life is really very good.

What's hiding in your soul?

So I thought I’d slap up a few random, unfinished poems I’ve been working on.  I figured that some of you might enjoy them, and who knows, maybe some of you might have a few suggestions for which direction to go with them.

This ones a little bit hopeless so far.

When life feels grey.

Today is a dreary day.  The sky is that oppressively gray color that only the sky can really attain, and it is very damp.  Usually I’m happy for the warmer days in the winter time, but today I would trade the warmth for a little sun.  Why is it that the dreary days outside always seem to coincide with the dreary days in my heart?  It’s not that today is a bad day, or a horrible day, it’s just … dreary.

I suppose it didn’t help that when I opened my bible to read today, I ended up reading Psalm 69 which opens with these wondrously cheery words: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.  I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold.  I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.  I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.”

I think that God put the Psalms like this in the bible just for days like this.  As a Christian, I’ve always felt that to be “down” at all was not the Jesus way to be: that feeling a little blue, or dreary, is to somehow betray all that God has done for us, but when I read these Psalms of David, I hear the pain, the loneliness, the frustration in his soul, and I am strangely comforted.  I mean, the guy was called “a man after God’s own heart” for crying out loud!  If David gets dreary sometimes, why shouldn’t we be allowed a few dreary days.

I guess the real issue is what we do with the dreariness.  Do we fight it?  Do we give in to it?  Do we spread it around a little?  Today I decided to visit Starbucks and spend a little time here listening to some good music, watching people interact (which is one of my favorite pass-times), and journalling through the dreariness.  I’m also getting my haircut this afternoon, which always cheers me up.  I’m also going to partake in a little revolutionary couch sitting this afternoon.  You see I think a big part of my dreariness is that I’ve been working a little too hard the past few weeks.  I had a trip up to Thunder Bay to speak at Redwood Park Church, and I was asked to speak at a youth retreat the weekend after that.  Now, while I absolutely love teaching, it still takes a lot out of me, so I think I need a little Sabbath time to recuperate.