So...

I spent this week getting paid to canoe... it seems surreal but true none the less. I work with four people: Peter (my boss; just chalk full of impressive stories), Nataschaa (hope I spelled your name right; super cool girl who's seriously pursuing a spot as one of two Canadians on the Pole to Pole expedition team; http://www.poletopoleleadership.com check it out!), Matt (an aspiring Ice Climber who worked for Canada West Mountain School; www.themountainschool.com), and Luke (also works for EcoMarine Kayak tours and will be volunteering to coach softball in the special olympics this summer!). We paddle together instructing various high school and elementary school groups on Deer Lake, a beautiful little gem nestled into the bustling suburbia of Burnaby.
I have also started playing soccer in the BC Church league. It is definitely good times. We play on Friday and Monday evenings and appreciate lots of supporters :) So far we've won one and tied another but we promise to put on a good show... last game our College and Career pastor got yellow carded for knocking some chippy player on his behind... I was a little embarrassed... my anabaptist worldview took a little hit :)
Anyhow. Lots going on in stewart's world... but I haven't hung out with friends in a long time and I wish I was all the time. Such is life I suppose.

Stewie Boy Anime

Josh, I'm sorry but I blew you away.

Against the Grain

This was a hearty reminder to me this week... I hope you find it so as well.

The Servant King

From heaven you came helpless babe
Entered our world your glory veiled
Not to be served but to serve
And give Your life that we might live

This is our God the Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to the Servant King

There in the garden of tears
My heavy load he chose to bear
His heart with sorrow was torn'
Yet not my will but Yours,' He said

Come see His hands and His feet
The scars that speak of sacrifice
Hands that flung stars into space
To cruel nails surrendered

So let us learn how to serve
And in our lives enthrone Him
Each other's needs to prefer
For it is Christ we're serving

-Graham Kendrick

Surrey Lake/Pond

Yesterday I discovered that all I need for a good time is Daniel Dejong and a canoe :) we just got out on the lake and started paddling around till we found this creek which we proceeded to follow until we heard the calls of, "Four" and looked up to see people teeing off on a golf course that apparently ran on either side of our little creek. Pleading our innocence we continued our paddle all the way through the golf course to the club house where we promptly turned around and paddled back. We collected seven golf balls, a sweet little plastic red ball and we saluted four or five groups of golfers all of whom had a great chuckle at the two guys practising their canoe strokes in the water trap.
Afterwards we hit up T-Ho's and just had a lovely chat for what seemed like hours. I love doing genuine things like that after an afternoon of brilliant/clownish adventure. Then I stopped in at the Harskamps and chatted with them for another hour or so. James' parents are quality... if you're looking for some surrogate family members they are really good about bringing people in :) Love it.
Anywho. Hope you are all acing those exams. See you soon.

Albertan Adventures

So right now I'm in Calgary visiting my awesome grandparents and my lovely aunties: Tammie and Bonnie. This often means several different things but one of which is a traditional Alberta Beef steak dinner. So tonight I will feast on the best meat in all of North America and make merry avec ma petite famille. Who knows, I might even get to sample some of Grandpa's Own wine cellar? (he is quite the accomplished wine maker)
I also just returned from a little sojourn up to the land of dry dead vegetation, concrete and... people? I still can't get over why anyone would want to live in Edmonton... It was good times though, getting to see the sights where all the stories actually come from, meet the people in the pictures and spend some quality time with old friends. But honestly who names a main boulevard, Whitemud? Anyways, I largely had a wonderful time with all of my well-masked, stress-case friends and that is all that matters.
Can't wait for Peter's tomorrow after church! If you are ever in Calgary... Peter's Drive-In is a must. You won't be disappointed.

Mmmmm!

As I sit in my chair, assailed by the smells of stewing chilli and freshly baked buns, I am reminded again of what a blessing my mother is to me and my family. I think I'm going to marry a woman who will spoil me like my mother... back from the world of dreams. Oh, I heard a buzzer! The buns are ready, it's supper time!

I'm sorry but I'm quite overwhelmed by the stimulation of my olfactory nerves... I have nothing else to say.

Digging

This verse has been mystifying me of late: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. " Matthew 6:33
How do you seek the Kingdom? How do you pursue righteousness? If we knew how to do these things, God straight up made a promise to take care of all our needs.
I think that Peter knew how to seek the kingdom of God first, although still caged in broken human form, he was by no means a perfect example.
"28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."
(Jesus makes another promise for those who seek His kingdom first!)
Peter left his trade, his family, his friends, his home and EVERYTHING, just to follow after the man that he loved so dearly. He knew the person of Jesus, met with him, talked with him, shared life with him. He counted the cost and abandoned everything to become a fisher of men. All my life I have read that verse I completely missed that the promise is for this age with an added bonus of eternal life in the age to come.
What exactly did Peter do though? How did he seek the Kingdom? It sounds to me like he was just Jesus friend. Plain and simple. Daily walking by his side, praying with him, learning from him, and spending himself on him even when it seemed rediculous or when there were so many other things he could have been doing with his life. I believe the bible says we are the kingdom of God, the church. Peter was the Rock on which God built his kingdom.
So how do we pursue righteousness? "so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." Phillipians 1:9-11
*sidenote: our righteousness glorifies and praises God!!! Paul tells us that righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Are we all righteous because of Jesus? I certainly don't feel righteous. Is it even a feeling? Or is it a state? Can we become more righteous? "17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[a] just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:17
So righteousness comes from a faith in Jesus... "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" Romans 6:16
and righteousness comes from obedience. But what do we obey? God I guess.
So to seek righteousness means to have faith in Jesus Christ and to obey God's commands. That can be a daunting task when we don't know what they are... because we as a "modern church" don't. I don't even think that I could list the ten commandments off the top of my head. Something is wrong there. Psalm 119 is devoted to the psalmist's love of the commands of the Lord! Well I'll have some of what he's having.
"20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." 2Peter 2:20-22
Paul tells us that righteousness is our way of life. It is an identity. We are travelling on the way of righteousness, speckeled with much repentance and struggling to remember that the map is right in front of us if we weren't too stubborn to pick it up.

So take what you want, those were just some questions of mine and I had to dig... which generally just leads to more questions.

Sweet Victory

Now, I'm not much of a coffee drinker (unless it has chocolate or other flavouring in it), but fortunately for me I work with many individuals addicted to said beverage. I also don't think that it has ever been noted that construction workers have perticularly sharp memories. These two things in combination with the fact that Tim Hortons is presently showering Canada with free doughnuts and coffee make my days at work that much more exciting. You see in my travels on our jobsite I am very frequently confronted with empty or full, abandoned Tim Hortons coffee cups. Averaging about one find per day there is always a subconscious treasure hunt going on inside my head as I go about my daily projects. Well this wednesday, as I held the almost full, stone cold, not yet rolled cup in my shaking hand, images of my new SUV flashed through my head. But alas, it was not to be! But I won an extra large Hot Beverage! And what a sweet victory it was.

Then I went ahead and bough half a dozen doughnuts and got completely suckered into the whole reason that they give free stuff away in the first place: so that you buy MORE!!!... which isn't really a bad thing, cause after all I got to eat six doughnuts :) yum.

Musing

Love is a curious thing isn't it?
I think Satan hates it when we love eachother.
That's why it's so much easier not to love.
Satan's way is always easier.
God is love... that's why Satan hates it.
It's easier to just let go...
To let go and pretend that you've forgotten.
But we don't forget, do we?
Instead, we just stick to the wide, well traveled road.
But that's not ours to take.
We've got to love.
Love can overcome all things...
But only when it's implimented.
Love can bring you back from the brink.
Love that never fails reminds you that you're loved when you fail.
Love penetrates cold and hardened hearts.
Love is a fire burning out in the cold.
Love is a perfect man beaten and whipped,
The Son of God humiliated by those he created,
The High King of Kings crucified.
Love conquered death to bring life,
Now we live to Love.