Friends

 

This weekend we are in Vancouver for a one day writers’ conference. Taking the opportunity to visit old-time friends as well. Not that they are old-timers like ourselves, but some among many that we have made over the years, and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for love and support during our time with them.

Life would have been barren without them and others that have meant so much to us. While I am not the most sociable person on earth, my personal life has been enriched by their presence. And we are constantly amazed that life continues to provide others that give our lives greater meaning because of their input.

With little time and internet access, this short note pays tribute to so many of you. Thank you for being part of our journey on planet earth. It is our prayer we will meet you again, if not here, over there where the earth has ceased its travail.

Coming Out

A lady remarked to Ann last week that there are a lot of closet Christians. So Christians have been filling the closets recently vacated by the gay community—probably for the same reasons they hid there in the first place.

We are now feeling the same oppression they did in earlier times. The Christian community has a lot to answer for in the way it has singled out gays as particular pariahs of the sinful community. When it comes to our initial relationship to God, we are all in the same boat

Even gays’ rebellious response to Christian things describes us all at some point in our lives. They like us, have a choice to make, and the decision to accept or reject Christ is their God given freedom as it is ours. Unfortunately, our treatment of them may be the deciding factor in their decision.

Whatever the future holds in our culture’s slide into paganism—and current trends suggest the results will likely be severe—we can identify with all those, gay or straight, caught up in the so-called freedom of the sexual revolution. We occasionally feel the pull that tempts us away from Christ back into bondage.

But hiding in some closet is not going to heal the rift. It simply reinforces the stereotype of Christians versus gays; the us and them caricature that ensures our self-righteousness and their accusation of us. Are we willing to admit our condemnation of them, even if it was acceptable back then?

Perhaps the first coming out exercise for Christians is an apology for our treatment of gays. Christ is no more disappointed with them than He is of us; nor does He love them less.

Old Age: Satisfying?

 There are disadvantages in growing old—it’s not for sissies.

It’s a bit like a second childhood, except our children are starting to parent us instead of our parents. We need to downsize giving us less space to manage; we’re selling, not buying, getting rid of the stuff we decided years ago we might need some day, but never have.

We need to reduce our favourite pastime: eating. We are finding some of our parts need assistance or replacing. Our address books have replaced tennis and squash courts with doctor and specialist telephone numbers. We have to think of level floors, no more split level living.

But there are some benefits.

Now we know who we are, we know what we are, although we may not always know where we are. We have settled most of life’s questions, and are secure in our faith—we know where we are going; thanks to the grace and forgiveness of God, and the sacrifice of His Son on the cross.

 We’ve raised our children—as much as that’s possible—and now they are raising their children, and their children are starting to raise theirs. But we need to recognize as one wise man said: we take too much credit when they turn out well, and too much blame when they don’t.

We are now as footloose and fancy free as when we were first married and had no kids. It’s a bit like a second youth: little responsibility, but maybe more influence; little money, but less need of it; reduced mobility, but less need to go anywhere.

It’s supposed to be a time to slow down and reflect on the goodness of God for a lifetime. We will try to do that, but because time goes faster the older we get, and we have less of it for every day that passes, there is an urgency to complete what we feel urged to finish before that final deadline.

So even in our mid seventies, there is still no comfortable rut to settle into. That would be just like waiting to die. No fun in that. So we will continue to build our trail of memories—or litter, depending on your point of view—until we are called home. And each day that passes brings us closer to that goal.

Satisfaction in old age is growing old with Him.

Canada Finally a Just Society?

I have read with interest two articles in the public media by Den Tandt in the last few days. The first was a “celebratory back patting” for Canada’s arrival as a just society. “Across this country, from coast to coast to coast, there is now a nearly unanimous view that the old divisive, angry debates about matters of individual faith and morals are over.”

He considers that discrimination based on race, gender or sexual orientation are finished also. Likewise, the debate over abortion. For all these issues he quotes Geoff Norquay, a conservative strategist, “I recognize you may hold personal views at odds with the majority, but we’re not going back there.”

With regard to abortion, Tandt says that “We now have a consensus, a national one, that Canada is a socially progressive nation and will remain so.” So the slaughter of human life in the womb is progressive? The fact that this subject, like other politically unacceptable discussions, has been repressed amounts to a consensus?

This strikes me as odd when Trudeau’s Charter was specifically designed to uphold the rights of minorities, that they could not be discriminated against. In fact, the gay society has been freed from discrimination largely on the basis of the Charter. But the way in which the Charter is applied is itself discriminatory.

Den Tandt’s second article shows surprise that 19 year old William Swinimer was suspended from school for wearing his T-shirt saying “Life is wasted without Jesus.” Apparently, some students were offended by it. Fortunately, the foolish bias of the school board’s action has been reversed, William can return to school wearing his Jesus T-shirt.

Yet the discriminatory way in which Christian belief—and particularly expression of that belief—is penalised by authorities like human rights tribunals, school boards, city councils and other pseudo-government bodies, led to this debacle.

Attempts to silence opposition by some vocal groups now makes any comment that offends hate speech. The line between offence and incitement to hatred has been lost, reinforced by rulings of the notorious human rights tribunals, and has become so engrained in the collective conscience it has led to the whining versus acquiescent society Tandt grandly trumpets as just and progressive.

Truth can only be arrived at by open and free discussion, not by censorship. That’s why freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy. Tandt’s Canada is going in the opposite direction.

Whither the Church?

 

The continuance of the Roman Catholic church is a mystery. Corruption within the church led to the reformation under Luther and Calvin, and today’s numerous stories of child abuse by the priests has led to a sharp demise of adherents.

Ireland, which has always been a Catholic stronghold, has finally broken ties with the Catholic Church, closing its embassy at the Vatican. Disgust at the corruption, cover up, and guarded apologies, has reduced the church going attendance in Ireland from about 65% in the 70s to about 17% now.

Not that the protestant church has a record to be proud of. Recurring scandals such as Jimmy Swaggart, Koran burning by a foolish pastor, and recent intemperate remarks by a Alberta election candidate, continue to confirm public distaste for the church.

The recent education bills promoted in Ontario and Alberta are perhaps the first frontal assault on biblical beliefs. They place in jeopardy those who hold and teach Christian beliefs in regard to sexual conduct. Is this the first wave of open persecution against the western church? We’ll see.

Christianity’s final demise is lauded by various commentators and an aggressive atheism rides the wave. Yet the rise of problems facing the west—debt, sexual disorientation, increased self-centredness and violence to press demands, and greater governmental control, all parallel the retreat of Christian belief.

If the church fails, perhaps it will be the actions of those calling themselves Christians who are largely to blame. The Gospel is the most compelling message ever proclaimed, but it can’t be heard over the noise of its proponents’ actions.

Of course, each Christian is a microcosm of the believing church. We all carry within us, during this period of grace, the propensity to both good and evil. We have to ask ourselves if our lifestyle and beliefs will attract others or deter them from the faith.

We should be a testimony to the truth of God’s love, but need the ongoing grace of God to cover our failures. Which brings us back to the church. Considering its poor record, it’s a wonder it does still exist. That can only be attributed to the grace of God to his people individually as well as the church community at large.

And if the western church is in for a period of persecution, perhaps this will sort the sheep from the goats and open a new wave of true witness. Even the apparent defeat of the church God can use to increase His Kingdom.

The Descent of Paganism

We live in a pagan society. Oh! There are vestiges of the Christian culture that flourished in the earlier half of the last century. But for most people, God, if He ever existed, is irrelevant to 21st century life. While on the surface, life seems the same, a very different attitude to it festers below.

Christianity calls us to recognize our waywardness, our need for forgiveness, and a life of self denial. Hardly a recipe for success in any culture; especially when pagan belief in natural human goodness inflates our ego, and aspires to self-satisfaction.

In fact, self-actualization, self-determination, self-seeking of one sort or another constitutes the fodder of most self-help books, characterized by Oprah philosophy. Very attractive to the lower instincts of arrogant human nature.

It makes us wonder why Christianity exists at all, and holds sway over so many people of the earth. The answer is really quite simple. Attempts at self-fulfillment are self-defeating, eventually leaving a trail of broken lives, which only the transcendent love of Christ can repair.

Pursuing happiness by fulfilling personal desires is like trying to hold the morning mist in our hands. It is an illusion that evaporates under the weight of our demand for it; attainment of those desires is insufficient to answer the deepest longings of our hearts.

Further attempts of the same draw us into the danger of addiction, or excess and exploitation, using people and things to further our desires. It is the recognition of this brokenness that draws us to Christ’s sacrificial love for us, that can transform our lives.

Only His direction for life created by Him, can bring the lasting fulfillment our souls crave. This transformation of our lives from barrenness to significance, keeps us seeking Christ.

How far will our current culture need to sink before realizing its need?