OnFire Encouragement Letter
Hi Folks:
This is the beginning of my occasional crazy week. I’m away for a few days but life doesn’t stop at home, so I’ve been rushing around trying to get everything done. I wouldn’t have finished the letter except that I woke up long before my alarm and got most of it done before anyone else got up.
Lately it seems I’ve only been getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep. I seem to be managing, but it would be nice to wake up feeling rested. I don’t even nap in the day. Its been weird.
Our worship band has its first gig outside of a church service. We’ve been asked to play at a youth group fundraiser for a friend this Friday night. The guys are excited about this. For people in the Shelburne area, come out to support the Clyde River-Carelton youth group fundraiser at the Gunning Cove Fire Department Friday night, Feb 29 at 6:30.
There isn’t much other news to report. Blessings for your week.
Troy
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I’ve been using the woodworking theme this past number of weeks because I can see parallels between my projects and my walk with Jesus as I see it in 2 Peter 1:5-6. This week we continue the theme and apply it to love.
I can look at every woodworking project I’ve done and see something I would do a little differently, something that isn’t quite finished, something I forgot to do, even a few mistakes.
For instance, on the front of a drawer on my writing desk I didn’t let stain set long enough so it is just a little lighter than the rest of the desk.
On the back of the desk, you’ll see saw marks on one of the boards. We could have fixed it, but we were getting close to our minimum size and we knew no one would normally see it.
The fronts of the little knick knack drawers don’t lie quite flush with the sides. I never did figure that one out, but somewhere along the way I wasn’t as careful as I should have been.
On my TV stand I should have rounded off the corners because there are times when we turn it and we’ve almost nicked the walls with the sharp edges.
I look back over these projects and I realize that they are a reflection of my own imperfections. As much as I try to do things right, I don’t always. Despite my best intentions, I forget to do some things I should, I don’t do some others as well as I should, and some other things I would do differently if given the opportunity.
Love is like that. Sometimes, despite my best intentions, I am not always as loving as I should be. I get in a rush, thinking about all I need to do, and I miss opportunities to demonstrate love in my hurrying. I get impatient at other times and may appear unloving, usually with the people I love the most, ironically enough. Like my projects, I look back and see the things I could have, should have done, and would do differently again.
I find that each project has gotten better than the previous one. I’m learning along the way and I am becoming more skilled. Experience helps me to avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past.
I hope I can say the same about life outside the workshop.
This past week I wondered what I would write about love. So much seems to have been written about it - how could I add more to it? But I know that I don’t do it perfectly, and if you’re like me, then you don’t either. So this is, perhaps, an area we need to continue working on.
1 John 5:2 “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”
I hope this helps. Be OnFire.
Troy
ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. To be added to or removed from the ON FIRE list contact him at onfire@eastlink.ca . Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com This letter published Feb 25, 2008. *New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978 by the International Bible Society.