Today was Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. I haven't celebrated the Jewish feasts through the years, thinking that it's not necessary under the New Covenant. However, I've been thinking about it and the fact that they were to be a "lasting ordinance" and the possibility that observance of the feasts could bring a new depth to my understanding of God's plan.Anyway, despite my desire to get some work done, I took the day off and did some reading about atonement and getting things right with God and man. So - remembering a relationship that was shattered many years [...]

Today my friends and I prayed for a miracle - and it didn't come.The daughter of one of our friends, a gorgeous, 23 year old college student who was recently named athlete of the year, was getting in some end-of-summer water-skiing and landed wrong. Despite our prayers, she died of a head injury.From our perspective, there was no miracle - only horror.But does there always have to be a miracle? Maybe we should try to see things from God's perspective.What is he doing in the lives of the rest of the family? In the lives of her friends? What is [...]

I've been making a lot of phone calls to school boards, retirement homes, seniors' centers, etc. to let them know about "My Legacy Links," www.mylegacylinks.com, a project I've developed to connect teens and seniors. The idea is that teens who need to complete 40 hours of community service volunteer requirements, pair up with seniors to help them record their wisdom, values, insights and experiences in a "My Life Legacy" workbook. If the senior doesn't have any computer skills, but is interested in learning how to do e-mail etc, the teen can assist him or her.The project has been approved by [...]

Today a client came to take me out for lunch to celebrate the launching of her new children's activity book - Brontosaurus Brunch - which I redesigned and republished for her.It was obvious that she was in pain and proceeded to tell me that she had been to the doctor who had confirmed a torn rotator cuff in her shoulder, something else torn in the top of her back and something wrong with her elbow which was excruciatingly painful.When she brought me home, she came in for a few minutes and I asked if she'd like prayer. I anointed her [...]

Tonight I was sitting behind a man in a red shirt at a meeting in Oshawa. He was a total stranger. All I knew about him was that he was bald and had rather large ears. What caught my attention was that he appeared to be in great pain with his back. When he would stand, his back appeared to be crooked and he stood on one leg, seemingly to relieve pressure. When he would sit down, he would put his arm behind his back in the pew as though to support his back.I felt very sorry for him, leaned [...]

I've learned that there are three kinds of ideas - bad ideas, good ideas and God ideas. The trouble is that it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between the latter two!I've had a lot of good ideas in my life. For instance, when the threat of Y2K began to surface, I did a huge amount of research and determined that our world was most probably going to change radically and most people would be caught unaware. My deep concern led me to prepare not only for my family but for the whole community and beyond. I wrote a book "Y2K & [...]