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When Nothing Is Everything

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I am often left speechless by nature!  Whether it is the breath-taking beauty of the Northern Nights on a clear Fall evening, the stunning constellations of stars in our immense universe, or the cascade of colors that fill our Summer gardens, our God is an amazing God and His diverse and immense creation speaks to His creativity and power.  There is no question of God’s creative genius.  All the evidence displayed freely in nature perpetually affirms this reality.

This diversity and beauty also speaks of God’s greatness and ability to create everything we know out of nothing.  Scripture teaches this in the first words of scripture (the Bible): “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis1:1).  There are diverse theories of how God created but scripture is definitively clear that God created and His creation was created out of nothing.  The academic word for this phenomenon is “exnihilo” (Latin for: “out of nothing”).
“Ex nihilo” is not just a theological or academic phrase about creation that has academic implications; it also has radical and profound implications for our day-to-day lives in our complicated world.  Let me explain…
Have you every felt like you have nothing to offer?  Have you ever wondered how God could use you with all your weaknesses?  You are not alone.  These are common experiences.  Think of the many metaphors we have in the English language that speak about this:  Our tanks are empty, our wells are dry, we are tapped out, we are completely spent, etc.  Sometimes, as these phrases indicate, we can feel like we have no energy, no ability to forgive, no ability to love, and no energy to serve.  It is, paradoxically, in these times that we are the most fertile soil.  Fertile soil where God can produce fruit that only He can take credit for.
Whatever you are going through and whatever you may be feeling, I want to remind you of God’s ability to create out of nothing.  You may feel like you have no capacity to forgive those who have hurt you.  You may feel like you can’t love your enemy.  You may feel like you can’t love your spouse any more.   Again, I want to remind you of God’s ability to create out of nothing.
If God could create everything we know and experience, in all its diversity and beauty, out of nothing (ex nihilo), perhaps your nothing is the everything He desires.  
When we trust in God, we can love when we feel we have no capacity to love, we can forgive when it seems that forgiveness is impossible, we can serve others when we are hurting, and we can give when we feel like we have nothing to offer.  The Bible affirms, in fact all nature affirms, that God can do a lot with nothing!
If God created the world out of nothing, perhaps your nothing is the everything He desires.

***This article was recently published in the Vermilion Standard.
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Don’t Settle For A Good Marriage

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*The following was originally published in the Vermilion Standard.



Jim Collins, in his book “Good to Great” about corporate success, makes the statement that the greatest enemy to great is settling for good.  I want to take Collins’ comment into the context of marriage because I think it is very relevant for anyone who has been married for any length of time.

As a pastor, I am often involved in marriage counseling with people who are on the brink.  Their marriages have been struggling for a while and once they get bad enough, they come, out of desperation, seeking counsel and help.  I am not negating this practice. In fact, if you are in marriage turmoil, stop reading now and seek help.  Counseling is confidential and it is not worth waiting one more minute hoping the pain, anger and the lack of communication will go away and mysteriously fix itself.

This article is intended for couples that have been doing “okay;” their marriages are good.  If this is you, I would ask:  Why settle for good when great is possible?  Why spend multiple years with poor communication, awkward tension, and so on?  Why, when great is possible?

I do premarital counseling for couples preparing for marriage and a huge part of what I do is demonstrate what counseling is and I tell all of them that if, in the future, their marriages become a six or seven out of ten (ten being “great”), to get some help making it an eight or a nine.  People are often surprised that marriage counseling, especially when things are not at the brink, can be filled with laughter and understanding, teaching communication skills and simply making time for conversations that maybe are difficult in the midst of a busy life.

For the men:  I want to give a special challenge to men who seem to avoid marriage counseling, books or videos like the plague.  I want to encourage you with a male friendly illustration.  If your truck had a deflated tire, what would you do?  Would you drive it for weeks, months and years?  What would happen if you did?  It would get worse, eventually wearing down to the place where it would pop at the most unexpected time, all the while lowering your fuel economy and causing difficult driving.  Your marriage is similar.  Every once and a while you need to check your tires, and if they are deflated, get some help.  Recognize that the price it will cost and the time it will take is more than worth it in the long run.  There are lots of books, video and resources that are enjoyable and helpful.  If you desire to go the counseling route, it is important to remember that counseling can be fun, relaxed and open, especially when you are just in for a tune up.

For the women:  I want to help you understand your husband a little and his reluctance, at times, to seek help.  A man’s pride is really important to him and to ask for help in a relationship is difficult.  It means he has to admit he might need help (just as you need to admit it) but it is a little hard on the male ego.  Also, in the context of counseling, guys have a tendency to think, wrongly, that counseling is just hours filled with sharing feelings and ending up with the counselor ganging up on him.

Is your marriage at the brink?  If so, seek help immediately.

Is your marriage good but could be better, work on it!  Read a book, watch a video or get some help via a counselor to make it great.

Is your marriage great?  Consider sharing your wisdom with others and maybe even mentoring a younger couple with the important lessons you have learned along the way.

Whatever you do, don’t settle for a good marriage when a great marriage is possible.

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The Gift of Limited Time

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Originally published in the Vermilion Standard, here is my recent article: “The Gift of Limited Time.”
A common question I hear during this time of year is: “Where did the summer go?”  It isn’t so much a question as it is a lament of the limited time we have in this part of the world for summer.  It is as if we are surprised each Fall when the days begin to shorten and the trees begin to change colour.  The same challenge is true when it comes to our often-lamented limited hours in a day.  In our rushed culture where we foolishly try to jam more and more into our limited schedules, we forget the gift of rest and finding a healthy rhythm in our lives.
The creation narrative in the Bible (Genesis 1-2) speaks about God creating our universe in such a way that time has a rhythm and cyclical reality (night and day, seven days in a week, rotating seasons).  This was not a mistake or a consequence but it is a gift; however, we as productive and efficient North Americans bock at such inefficiency.
Think of it this way, by having limited day light hours we are forced to stop and rest – to reset for another day.  Or by having limited time we are forced to have others help us (something experienced by many farmers each Fall and Spring) and, as a result, we experience the beautiful gift of community.  Limitation is a gift to be celebrated not a limitation to be mourned.  If you had unlimited time, you would probably rarely ask for help from others and, as a result, live an isolated life of individual busyness.  But by God’s grand design, you have limited time, need to rely on others and, as a result, experience the gift of community, relationship, co-operation and support.
Think of time as a beautiful musical chorus.  God created our world to function in the rhythm of time (day and night – winter and summer) and this rhythm is something we are to embrace rather than rebel against.  It is similar to a beating drum.  The brilliance and genius of a good drumbeat is not the beat itself but the rest between those beats.  Some of us, in our lives of busyness, are just making noise and not learning the dynamic of rhythm and gift of rest.
I am not writing as a master in this topic but a fellow struggler that seems to pretend that he can fit more into a day than is possible.  This is not something I neither boast about nor embrace.  Instead, like you, I have been created to live in a rhythm of rest, embracing my limitations and seeking help from others in community. If I deny that rhythm, there are inevitable consequences.
I find it ironic that a hundred years ago the rich and powerful would boast about their leisure and recreation time as a badge of honour rather than their busyness.  Think about it.  If you were to ask a successful person how they are, the first thing out of their mouth today would be “I’m busy” and we would embrace that as the expected and celebrated answer.  Historically, this was not always the case.   Why has busyness become the mantra of success?  I think, partially, because it, strangely and sadly, gives meaning to our lives.   We are all in search of finding meaning and purpose to life and in lack of a good alternative, busyness becomes an easy and artificial substitute.
But, what if we embraced the limited time we have, asked for others to help, started to celebrate a quiet evening as a sign of God’s rhythm of rest rather than feeling guilty we are not producing something?  What if our identities were not equal to our productivity and, instead, we found meaning in something more powerful than that – God, through a personal relationship in Christ, and his unique purpose for each of us?  What if, we discovered that our purpose was not in our productivity but in our love for God and others?
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Beware The Journey Down

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Originally published in the Vermilion Standard, here is my recent article: “Beware The Journey Down.”

I recently watched a fascinating documentary on an expedition trip to the top of Mount Everest.  Whether it is because of the discipline of the climb, the athletic skill, or the mental strength it takes, I have always been enthralled with mountain climbing.   It is an amazing sport that tests the limits of our human bodies and capacities.  As I watched the documentary, I was surprised by the statistic that 80% of mountain climbing accidents occur on the way down the mountain.  Although the harrowing journey to the summit is the focus for the layperson, it, interestedly, is the safest part of the journey.  As one comes down the mountain, they are more prone to physical exhaustion, oxygen depravation, attitude sickness, and mental lapses.  Consequently, the trip down is the most dangerous part of the journey.


This is analogous to life on so many levels.  We, too, can loose focus when we have achieved success, when we are healthy, or when life is good.  We can forget that life is not simply about being on the mountaintop but it is also sometimes about journeying well in the valley.  The challenge in either of these situations is to put our focus on God.  Psalm 23 communicates the need to put our focus on God (our shepherd/guide) in all parts of the journey.

“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,  he refreshes my soul.He guides me along the right paths   for his name’s sake.Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil, for you are with me;  your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

God leads us to green pastures and sometimes our journeys take us through the dark valley, but in both of these places our focus needs to always be on God, our Good Shepherd.  To use mountain climbing language, we need to have our focus on our guide, at the summit and on the journey down to the valley.  

The Bible is full of stories of people who lost their focus on the summit and the valley of life.  But it is also a message of hope and redemption, teaching us that even when we lose focus, when we make mistakes, when we fall or get lost in the valley, God is waiting with open arms.  

Jesus tells us a story of a lost and wayward son who is welcomed back as a reminder that no matter what we have done, God waits with open arms for us to come home (Luke 15).  To that end, scripture teaches that if we confess our sin (our mistakes, failures, etc) that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us completely of it (1 John 1:9).  We can experience new life through faith and trust in Christ that is, as Jesus describes, a life that’s abundant and eternal.

Where are you on the journey?  Are you on the summit or are you in the valley?  Either way, where is your focus and your hope?  In either situation “…fix your eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before us endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2)

Remember, most accidents occur on the way down the mountain, so beware the journey down and fix your eyes on Jesus.


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Living Beyond Yourself

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Originally published in the Vermilion Standard, here is my recent article: “Living Beyond Yourself.”

I have been fascinated with the recent public Charlie Sheen meltdown. The TV star whose self-inflated perception and worldview has, sadly, caused his own self-destruction. Charlie’s destructive spiral is the acute example of what we all struggle with and what is so prevalent and widespread in our society. In other words, we are all guilty, in some way, of drinking the proverbial Charlie Sheen self-importance Kool-Aid.

We, as a society, have a weird and addictive obsession with self. People, en masse, want to be famous, desire attention, obsess about what everyone else thinks of them, etc. Think for a moment of the many popular movies that are written around the fantastical idea that the world and everything/everyone we know, is all about us (The Matrix, Inception, Truman Show, etc. to name a few). Interestingly, the problem of “self” is not new but a part of our broken nature as human beings to desire to be the center of our own universes.

The fact is, the world doesn’t revolve around you, me or anyone else on this planet and the result of living this way, is horribly destructive. When we view ourselves as the center of our universe, we begin to see others not as human beings and equals but as pawns, tools, and objects to meet our own ends or pleasure.

The truth of our existence is that the universe doesn’t revolve around you, me or anyone else on this planet and this truth is actually something to celebrate, not mourn. The universe wasn’t created for your purposes and pleasure. Humanity doesn’t exist for its own selfish benefit but, along with all of creation, exists purely for the Glory of God. Accordingly, our lives should be seen as revolving around God and who He is. In fact, this is the command Jesus gave to sum up all the commands in the Bible: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself. Our purpose, therefore, is about God and living beyond yourself.

Consequently, we need to realign our orbits. We are not, nor ever will be, the center of the universe – God, and God alone, is. We will never find meaning, purpose, or satisfaction without aligning ourselves around God.

What would it mean to live beyond yourself? To orbit your life around God and His purposes? What would it mean to serve others, not in order to gain God’s approval or merit (that would be selfish again), but simply out of your love for God and desire to love others as God commands?

What would it mean for you to live beyond yourself?