Hi Folks:
The Great Maple Syrup Adventure continues. We've produced 7 or 8 cups so far. Its been a neat connection with our neighbours and friends, many of whom have never seen the process before.
I started some training for our annual canoe trip in June. I walked the canoe to my friend Dan's house yesterday - about 600 yards either way. Let me tell you, cars sure give you a wide berth when you walk up the road with a canoe on your shoulders.
Mark is involved in a cup-stacking competition this week in his school. If you've never seen it before, check it out on-line. He's been working at it for hours each day. Five from his school will go to the school district level. He has a strong shance as long as he doesn't knock the cups over. His times are fast. We'll pass word along.
Take care for the week.
Troy
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All is a very big word. For three letters, it sure packs a wallop. It is the whole amount. Nothing excluded. Everything - nothing left over. It doesn’t get any bigger than “all.”
There is a sports expression that goes like this. “Leave it all on the field.” In other words, give it your absolute best and hold nothing back. That’s what it means to leave it all on the field, or the ice, or the court. We take the risks, we push our bodies, we get our heads in the game and discard distractions. We don’t hold anything back - Leave it all on the field.
These are important words by a coach at a crucial moment in a game. Jesus had his own words for a crucial moment. “The most important [commandment,]” answered Jesus, "is this: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: `Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31 NIV)
After Jesus entered Jerusalem in the “Triumphal Entry,” he taught in the temple area and attracted great crowds, including religious teachers of all sorts. One teacher asked Jesus which was the most important of the 10 commandments. Jesus answered with a two part answer, since there was no real way to separate the two in importance. Its like asking which is the most important ingredient in a peanut butter and jam sandwich. “Love God,...and love your neighbour.”
Its the descriptions that go along with the words “love God,” and “love your neighbour” that get me. I can say I love God and I can say I love my fellow humans, but can I claim it with the same kind of devotion, intensity, and determination as Jesus reminds us?
“...with ALL my heart, and with ALL my soul, and with ALL my mind, and with ALL my strength.” The challenge is to open myself up, give everything I am and have, and offer myself to God - ALL of me.
“...love my neighbour as myself.” There are times when I don’t want what is best for someone else, I want it for me.
The two commands are actually part of the same issue. We cannot love God with ALL our being, and we cannot love our neighbour if we are not willing to give up selfishness, to be less concerned with ourselves and our own issues and problems.
Coach Jesus stands and circles the team around him. “We’ve got one chance at this. When its over you’re going to look at the scoreboard, and you’re going to ask yourself - did I give it everything I had? Do I do my best? Its time to leave in on the field - no giving up, no holding back.”
Hope this helps. Be on fire,
Troy
March 27, 2007.