Category: Uncategorized
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It’s Not About Perfection
So what is it like living in your world? Does everyone have to agree, be perfect, do the right thing, never show flaws, believe in lockstep, look good? Do you have to perform, never make a mistake, be seen to be above reproach, hide your true feelings, swallow your tongue, avert your eyes, pretend? In…
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For Bev – a Fond Farewell
“Nice to meet you, I’m Bev, welcome to Port Alberni.” October 1985. Bev’s husband Elmer, and Dr. Chris Muller had met me at the ferry terminal in Nanaimo. I was the new Pastor arriving from Cape Town to take up the position at St. Alban’s Church in Port Alberni. My first stop in town was…
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Sorrow and Grief
Talking about mental health and struggles has at long last become less hidden, stigmatizing, or taboo. Where the denial of negative, or awkwardness with depression, and many tough human conditions was better worked out behind drawn curtains. We are finally embracing the reality that life is a very mixed bag of stuff. Even in the…
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Compartments or …?
Controversy is everywhere in this tumultuous time. Like buried tires burst to the surface refusing to remain hidden, issues, long contentious, are doing the same. Of course Ukraine’s defense of it’s independence is front and center – and rightly so. Freedom, democracy, bullying tactics, the role of the church (the Pope warned Patriarch Krill, the…
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Why, How, When?
Do you have questions? As many as I do? Probably so. There is so much happening around us to evoke good questions worthy of meaningful answers. And frequently in grasping for explanations we accept easy replies and quick fixes. Accusations and blame provide a smug self-satisfied comfort… “If they had, then we wouldn’t be here.”…
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Favor Please
Over the past year I have published two books that I would appreciate some help to market. Anyone who knows me will know that I detest self-promotion (yes, I thinks it’s as strong as that). However I do not have a platform of speaking or church to provide a marketing opportunity. Publishers say that the…
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Good Friday Love
Nothing long and wordy today. In this ravaged time today is a reminder of sacrificial love, going the extra mile without reward, unfair suffering and unjust actions. Loving those who don’t deserve it – like me, possibly you, for instance. Nightbirde (Jane Kristen Marczewski) sang a beautiful song ‘Brave’ that she wrote before she sadly…
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Hard to Believe
It has been tough to know what to say anymore with the dark clouds of Ukraine’s heroic suffering filling the sky. The barbaric cruelty and senseless futility of Russian atrocities steal words and paralyze the mind – incredulous, how, why? So many questions. Are we helping? Are we watching too passively? Are we wise? Are…
Googling God 