RETIREMENT MEMOIRS

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

MY WHISTLE IS BACK

My whistle came back unexpectedly.

Today it returned as I stepped from my car.

Such a surprise, put a smile on my face

It had not occurred to me in this race of life

That in all these past months it was gone.

But there it was with two lips together

Whistling a fine, happy day song.

Just as it’s always been with me and my dad,

A melodic whistle to begin my long day,

And sustain me through each working hour.

I can only explain whistle’s long leave of absence

As the outcome of dealing with grief,

Sometimes when absorbed by life’s heartaches

The desired relief that one looks for is missing

And the whistle is blocked and forgotten.

But it’s back to stay now I think and my neighbours will know

When they hear me passing their places

Like a bridge over troubled waters or some other song

I can imagine their faces, smiling as they pick up the tune,

Returning to what they were doing and saying that must have been Ron.

Monday, February 10, 2020

On Sunday February 9, 2020 I preached at Northwest Langley Baptist Church. It’s a small congregation now. This church had glory years of vibrant helpful ministries to many people. Over many decades the bush that once surrounded this church building turned into a commercial, industrial area with numerous dining establishments nearby. It’s on the 200^th Street high traffic corridor at a strategically located intersection where the Colossus Theatre sits. Residential areas are not immediate to the church property. Some might view its future as tenuous. Some in the church might be discouraged. The apostle Paul wrote letters to the church in Corinth, and 2 Corinthians chapter 4 Paul expressed ideas that I believe were appropriate for NWLBC, and predictably for almost every other Christian who experiences a whack of trouble and heartache at different times.

The link below brings you to an archive of audio recordings of recent sermons. Look for Feb 9, 2020 – 2 Corinthians 4. You can listen to all of it, or perhaps touch the thin grey progress line at the 35-minute mark, and listen to the last few minutes.

How Can Northwest Langley Baptist Church Fit Into God's Strategy

Monday, December 30, 2019

CHRISTMAS, HEAVY AND LIGHT

Christmas has always been joy for me as seasons go

Seventy-seven have come and gone but I should know

That life interferes with people’s joy from time to time

Friends are grieving lost loved ones even as church bells chime.

This year for my clan, the lustre left, we lost the glow.

Yet the Christmas back-story declares that there is light

Found in someone unseen in the darkness of this night

For into this troubled world the infant Saviour came

Sited by love as sinless man to absorb our blame

That through private faith in Him our darkness may turn bright.

First Advent, then Nativity, now a brand New Year

Thinkers and experience forecast there’s much to fear

And while that’s true, and life is hard, I have been made wise

Knowing He is God with us has opened up my eyes

If sadness is in store, He’ll wipe away every tear.

Friday, November 15, 2019

WHAT A GOOD MORNING (a poem)

It’s a morning of uncommon brilliance,

With clear skies at the eastern horizon,

Permitting the searing Sun to ascend,

Blasting vermilion in all directions,

Igniting undersides of stratus clouds

Reflecting red on placid seas below,

Where tug and barge plow near the distant shore

While three otters frolic closer to me.

This tranquillity spins out silently.

Such a scene so far from my urban home,

Itself pleasant but rooms without a view,

And with thick traffic and construction noise.

Solitude should last longer than this week.

We won’t be missed, maybe we won’t go home.

Backstory: Enjoying a cottage week on Vancouver Island with seawater at the shoreline with only four days left.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

HOW WE CAN LOVE & SUPPORT PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS

Persecution and a Christians in BC Response
This is a 36 minute video of a sermon I preached on November 3, 2019 by invitation at Cloverdale Baptist Church. It was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and annually on this day in 120 countries God’s people talk to God about their brothers and sisters who live in high risk areas of the world where being a Christian can bring harm of many kinds. This is one of largest human rights issues of our era.

Persecution

Thursday, October 31, 2019

IN DANGER FOR BELIEVNG

IN DANGER FOR BELIEVING (a poem)

Dinner is served since we’re all there

Stopper pulled from a wine decanter

Pause for routine pre-meal prayer

Return to mundane table banter.

No one speaks of persecution

Grave human rights issue of our time

It seems there’s no sound solution

To this grave international crime.

We in the west know so little

Of global Christians’ desperation

Their lives fragile and so brittle

Feeling we’ve left them in isolation.

Charged with blasphemy and libel

Daringly claiming Christ’s gift frees us.

All they did was read the Bible

Prisoners now for trusting Jesus.

Backstory: On November 2 2019, on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, Christian believers in 130 countries of the world will praying for people who because of their faith are living in high-risk conditions.

RECOVERING A DREAM

If this would end we’d all be thrilled

All who are here are too unskilled

To unravel tangles

So complex as promise expelled

As burning as a love withheld

The failing of a dream.

I see it now an answered prayer

So clearly I might think I’m there

The other side of life.

Where hope’s alive where joy’s restored

Where gladness is sweethearts’ reward

Revival of a dream.

What’s done is done, can’t be undone

An apt truism sounding homespun

By captain obvious

Cannot refute conversions made

Will make the spouses glad they stayed

To build again a dream.

LIGHT COMFORT

I wish at times it was a dream

a bad dream from which I could wake up,

a nightmare that can stop my heart

which I can’t remember now.

It’s not, and that’s the saddest thing,

to know there is no morning light

informing me it’s over.

Instead it continues, nightmarish,

day and night, another twenty-four hours

and tomorrow and the next day,

dreadful, unrelenting.

Yet psalmists long before me

living through their private hells

found solace in His presence

and invited me to join them

in the company of light.

OPAQUE

The world is an unusual shade

Unlike any I’ve seen in years

My favoured hues all tending to fade

As my eyes open screened by tears.

Life has a way of thinning splendour

It’s pain disturbs even artists’ eyes

And every sense is far too tender

As what’s most cherished slowly dies.

Won’t need to be an unsteady hand

Nor is it something meds can settle

This loss of love that once was grand

Cracked like ice on a flower petal.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

SOUNDSCAPE (a poem)

SOUNDSCAPE

We live in a noisy world.

Audio ecologists tell us that

there are no quiet places left.

The din of humans and our machines

our constant audio backdrop.

Even away from cities we feel obliged

to fill our ears with noise

artificial sound.

Silence is not the absence of noise

Sensory deprivation,

soundlessness.

True silence requires removal of all

Audible mechanical vibrations,

Leaving natural sound, undisturbed.

Silence is the sound of dancing wind and trickling brook

and peeping bird, and beating heart,

often unheard sounds around.

Maybe we have reasons why we’d rather hide in our noise,

Not wishing to listen in silence.

Finding silence and keeping silence exposes us,

to our deepest thoughts and feelings,

our pretense and complacency,

True listening raises discernment and evaluation

providing opportunity for renewal,

rousing an inner desire for cultivating quiet.

Backstory: A compilation of ideas accruing from the writing of Margaret Manning Shull (Silent Places), Kathleen Dean Moore (In Search of Silence); Julia Baird (An Unquiet Nation); Alan Jones (Soul Making).