Heaven?

To me, heaven is getting the kids to bed early without the kind of drama that would put Grey’s Anatomy to shame, making a big plate of nachos and sitting down to watch one of my favourite 80’s movies on TV like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Say Anything, Lost Boys or The Breakfast Club (if you want to know more about my quirky movie taste feel free to see my favourite movies list on my facebook). Whether it’s Cancun Mexico in the winter, a bite of our favourite chocholate bar, or scoring that game winning goal, I’m sure if we thought about it we’d all have different ideas of what heaven means to us, right? But what of the bible? What does it mean when it uses that term, and subsequently how are we as Christians to apply this understanding to our real lives here, now and today?

Often the way we talk about heaven in church can be like the way we talk about RSP’s (which by the way are due at the end of this month). Most of us have them, believe in them, and even put our hard earned money into them but ask someone to explain how this will save us money on our tax returns and you will likely get back a blank stare and the word, “uhhhh” being uttered.

I wanted to share with all of you a recent interesting article in Time magazine entitled “Christians Wrong About Heaven, says Bishop.” It is an interview with a well-respected Anglican bishop, pastor and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright who actually seems to dare talk about the specifics of what the bible means when it speaks of heaven. I found it very helpful and I hope you do as well.

By the way, in the near future I am considering on using some of his new DVD resources in our church. He’s got a great DVD on the Resurrection as well as another on Evil, both of which I believe are very timely and essential topics to learn about today as Christians.

For the article just click here

Life in Calgary…

Hi everyone,

As we close out 2007, I thought I would share some reflections on my past year here in Calgary:

1. Calgarians work long and hard for various reasons, only one of which is solely for money. Inherent in people is their desire to do good and to be good in what they do. Yes, some work for money and for prestige but this brush is too broad. Those whom I work with are passionate about what they do especially since in health care, the bar on “professional competence” is constantly being raised to greater and higher heights. However, this comes at a cost…
2. With long hours at work come little personal time. Many patients I see are patients simply because they have little time for exercise. And they are paying for it with their health. The path they are on is causing them problems. However, we tend to live life with very little margins and so any addition to life, however therapeutic, causes a domino effect on the rest of our lives. This explains why we seek “quick fixes” in life so as to create as little inconvenience as possible. But we all know, no such thing exists and for many, the frustration continues…
3. Nick is right…human beings have a tendency towards entropy and nowhere is this more apparent than when we are driving. A very busy four way stop near our home has witnessed numerous accidents and road rage. Rather than it being a place for courtesy, it’s a place for self-centered individualism at its worst. It has now been replaced with traffic lights. So now, rather than stopping for seconds, we wait minutes simply because we can’t stop long enough to love our neighbors.
4. I recently blogged about how homes for Canadians are places of refuge. I used to lament this fact but after working as hard as most Calgarians have this past year, I have come to appreciate my refuge. Urban living comes with all its (over-) stimulation. My home is a place of quiet, of rest and escape. For introverts like myself, it’s where I seek refreshment before facing the world again the next day.
5. A pastor once told me while at the Seminary that with people, it’s pretty safe to assume broken-ness. Within each of us, we harbor disappointment, discouragement and perhaps hopelessness to some degree, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. As an orthopaedic physical therapist, I treat orthopaedic problems. However, what I’ve known for a long time is that a good majority of my patients have psychosocial issues that travel alongside their orthopedic issues. Their tears are not solely from their neck or back pain; it’s from something far deeper that I can’t deal with as a physical therapist.
6. Friendships have been replaced with networking. Canadians are known by the world to be “friendly” people (four-way stops not withstanding). After all, Canadian culture is a service-oriented culture. We have greeters at Wal-Mart, hostesses at restaurants. We are good at “surface relationships.” Scratch deeper and you’ll find a void. This doesn’t mean that all our relationships need to be deep friendships; however, does the latter even exists anymore? It is safe to assume both broken-ness and loneliness.
7. Lastly, being out of church ministry this past year has been a wonderful blessing. My world is bigger than it has ever been. Injustice is everywhere and struggling alongside my colleagues to fight it (whether they name it as such or not) has been an honor. We’ve worked long hours to do good and to be good in a health care world that values money more than people. There are many like me who struggle daily to incarnate Christ in the workplace. It is within these struggles that once again, I have re-discovered my passion for justice, for wholeness and for healing. May your passions lead you through the stop signs of life…