Over-BLOWN!

Wow, it's blowing like crazy...or is it?

The two guys in the back seem OK with it...

Have you see this recent video?

It's pretty amusing how this weather reporter seems to be struggling to stand upright, while two other people casually stroll through the background of the scene.  One of them is even doing something on his smart phone!   It seems that the severity of the situation at the moment was a bit over stated by the well meaning weather man who was trying to convey a sense of urgency in his report from the field.

No doubt that the hurricane is a serious situation, as the viewer, I hope we are smart enough to figure out that a storm like Florence is not a laughing matter.  Lives have been lost and homes flooded.  We get it, no need to go to this kind of theatrics to achieve the drama needed for common human compassion!  It's windy.  What else would it be?  It's a hurricane!

The whole thing got me thinking about how think we need to sensationalize some issues in order to generate a reaction.  It's probably because we are SO saturated with fearful news, that in order to rise above the collective dismal state of mind, a news story has to be EXTRA imperative in order to keep your eyes focused on the screen long enough to make the commercial sponsor happy.

If you watched that video, how did it make you feel?  Did you not get the sense that you were being manipulated?  Did you feel cheated in some way?  Did it make you lose faith in the reporting?  I hope it made you think about how you view media.  I know the whole "fake news" thing is an easy way to brush this off, but there is something to be said for how take in the reported stories of the day.

Further than that, how does this apply to the way we share our faith?  Do we engage in questionable tactics like what we saw in the video, or just present the gospel and trust that it will do it's work?

I know this is a touchy subject because the Good News is desperately needed and time is of the essence, but let's not be guilty of this type of hype!  The Gospel is what it is, it needs none of our theatrics.  It needs to be presented clearly with respect to the listener, then trusted to achieve it's intended result!

(P.S. You could also include fundraising in this discussion.  I'll let you take it from there.)

Green, Green Grass...and Prayer.

Photo by Adam Frazier on Unsplash

This summer we had a stump removed from our front yard. 

Our tree had suffered through high wind and ice storms and had to be chopped down. 

Our yard sat with an empty spot for about a year. 

The stump left behind was not huge and was usually covered by a patch of yellow day lilies. 

I would mow around the whole thing and try and pretend it wasn't there, but it was.

We made our plans and 2018 was the summer it was going to go! 

We called around for a few estimates on what it would cost to remove and finally settled on a company to come do it.  We happened to be out of town when they came so it was a bit of a shock to arrive in our driveway to see this barren patch of earth in the middle of our front yard!  I almost want the lilies back!

I had not though of what would have to come next! 

We would need to blend the area back into the lawn so it looked like there was never a stump there!

I realized this meant I would have to plant seeds and be committed to water them!  Horrors!

I bought a bag of seed and went to town preparing the ground and scattering the seeds.  It all seemed oddly familiar!  It hit me like a wheelbarrow coming down a garden path!  I'm doing what I read in the bible!  I did not even research much on the interweb!  (It's own weed filled playground of information!)

I was following the parable of the "sower"!  I had done everything it said to do!  Cast the seed on good ground after weeds and rocks were removed!  Wow!  How practical is the bible?

The only thing I did not, or could not do was make the stuff grow!

I did what I could and the rest followed.  I now have lush green grass growing where there used to be a patch of empty ground! 

My brain gets overloaded with the hundreds of ways this story applies to everything in life! 

It's almost a hidden key to all our issues!

Want good things?  Plant goods seeds in good ground!  Speak kind words, consider others first...the list is endless!

And the best part...it works! 

Here's where the story is in the bible...Matthew chapter 13.  It's the first book of the New Testament, easy to find.

Here is a passage that helps us be hopeful, even when we don't seem to see the results...Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9.  That's a little further into the New Testament, after the four gospels.

I have had such success, I have planted more grass and business is booming!

It's not any greener on the other side of the fence now!

ToddTrek - September 3, 2018

ToddTrek in Barrie!

Here's something new I am going to try on this blog!

A video!

We had a bike ride on Labour Day in Barrie, Ontario!

Come along...