We are in the midst of a Canada-wide cold wave, with temperatures 15 to 20 degrees below seasonal averages. (Those are Celsius degrees, too. Each one is worth 1.8 Fahrenheit degrees.) The National Post reports that it was colder in Winnipeg this morning than it was at the North Pole, the South Pole and the … Continue reading Brain benumbed by beastly biting cold
Boxing Day musings
Feasting on Christmas Day has a long and noble tradition and one is at risk of being branded a heretic if he suggests it might not be necessary. Noble in that first sentence is meant to be taken literally – for many centuries it was only the nobility and the rich who could afford to … Continue reading Boxing Day musings
The Logos
Greek philosophers believed the world had always existed and realized that there must be some active principle that made the world function in an orderly fashion. Heraclitus, Zeno and Plato described this principle that ordered and maintained the universe and permeated all reality as the Logos. Logos means word, reason, plan and all that might … Continue reading The Logos
Read the Bible for all it’s worth
I recently came across a statistic that stated that only two per cent of those who call themselves Christians have read the Bible through. If we would read any other book the way most Christians read the Bible we would soon lose interest in it. We say that we believe we are children of the … Continue reading Read the Bible for all it’s worth
How Do I “Bring People to God” Without “Shoving My Religion Down Their Throat”?
I wasn’t grown up yet
In the fall of 1959 I left home to go to university. The question of what I wanted to be when I grew up seemed to be settled - I would be an architect. During the last years of high school I began to pore over magazines with house floor plans and to draw my … Continue reading I wasn’t grown up yet
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Sixty years ago that question was often asked of me and my friends during our high school years. The suggestion was being planted in us that we needed to become something important – to be Somebody. Our parents had lived through the Great Depression of the 1930's and wanted a better life for their children. … Continue reading What do you want to be when you grow up?
The Bluenose
The picture in yesterday's post showed Canada's most famous ship, the Bluenose, a fishing schooner launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1921. The Bluenose won the International Fisherman's Race numerous times in the 1920's and 1930's, being defeated only once. It also set the record for the largest load of fish brought into Lunenburg harbour. … Continue reading The Bluenose
But that’s not what ships are made for
I once had a poster with a picture of a sailing ship at rest in a calm harbour. The caption read: A ship in a harbour is safe — but that's not what ships are made for. There have always been Christians who thought that the safest way to live a pure Christian life was to … Continue reading But that’s not what ships are made for
Bean counters – part 2
André was a big man, six feet tall and weighing over 300 pounds. He had had a painful childhood, much of it spent in an orphanage, but in the orphanage he learned how to cook. This was the one marketable skill that he carried into adult life and he discovered that there were mining camps … Continue reading Bean counters – part 2
Flatlander Faith 