Cracked Virtue

It could only get better from there…

Once a wetsuit is on it seems to shrink. Getting it back off to make adjustments was difficult but after some contortionist moves I was out, it was turned around and worked much better with the zipper on the back. The next problem was actually getting zipped up in back. I will just say that I have a greater appreciation for my wife and all women who zip up their own dresses in that impossible spot between your shoulder blades. Keep reading →

Back when cable first arrived in the neighbourhood where I grew up I remember watching a movie called, “Big Wednesday” every time it came up on the HBO rotation. Friends and surfing. Gary Busey before the head traumas. The great Gerry Lopez surfing some incredible waves. From that moment on “surfing” went on my list of things I had to do some day along with hot air balloon, bungee jumping and skydiving. So far I’ve been 0 for 4 despite two attempts at skydiving, including the full lesson that were thwarted by weather. This past Saturday I finally gave surfing a try. Keep reading →

I’ll fill in the details later but I did want to let CV readers, who knew I was going surfing for the first time in my life yesterday, know that I am still alive! Story to follow. It was short but more fun than you’d think was possible this side of heaven. And I am DEFINITELY going again!

“Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right.” - Charles Spurgeon

This is from one of my favourite cigar chomping preachers. I’m sorry I missed him but I look forward to sharing a walk on the other side one of these days.

(If you are NOT a Christian, please skip this post. If you ARE a Christian, please feel free to skip this post.)

“Mundus vult decipi” (“the world wants to be deceived”)- Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Cutter: “Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it because you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know the secret… You want to be fooled.” – from the movie “The Prestige”

Over the last month and a few weeks I’ve been watching something unfold that has shocked me, depressed me, confounded me and, to be honest, left me wondering about the present future of the part of the Church – “charismatic” for those keeping score – of which I am a part. In part it’s why I posted the videos by Derren Brown.

Over 17 years ago I was working in a church down in the States. One of the families that I worked with had put the ‘funk’ in dysfunctional. The teenage boys were all in various stages of crisis and instead of therapy they took turns being shipped off to military school and being put on various drugs to modify their behaviour. Getting to know the family I learned that the biggest part of the boys lives, prior to getting into the context where I met them, had been spent at a church where the pastor told them, literally, what to do, when to do it and when to stop. They signed over loads of cash, changed their clothes if they didn’t meet with pastor’s approval and followed his injunction to be generous toward their children with the “rod of discipline”. As their story was unpacked I was shaken by the facts and that two reasonably intelligent people could, in the name of faith in God, unplug their brains and subjugate their God given wills and common sense so they wouldn’t miss out on “God’s blessings” via their pastor and his wife. Keep reading →

So what should we take away from what just happened there?

Here’s one shade of my nerdiness: I love reading books on leadership and business. I don’t believe or take seriously everything I read in them but I usually find them insightful and thought-provoking.

I’ve just finished a new book called, “Executive Stamina”. Aside from what Freud would make of the title, this is one of the very best books I’ve found for anyone interested in getting a grip on their life. Keep reading →

You may or may not have heard about this guy. He’s heading up a series of continuous church meetings down in Lakeland, Florida but he’s a Canuck. People have been coming from all over the world to experience what some are calling “revival” and others are calling “an outpouring”. Lots of people are getting healed at these meetings from various ailments and they are saying that as many as 10 people have been returned back from the dead (the recently dead, no famous historical figures or anything as cool as that). Keep reading →

I was standing in the road at the end of my driveway yesterday and I was thinking. Not to get all Zen or anything but I became conscious of the reality that the pavement I stood on runs as an unbroken road from my house to my parent’s home where I grew up. Keep reading →

The thing that makes the BBC “The Office” so good is that it hits so close to reality that you can’t help but squirm, laugh and cry. The NBC “Office” has become a bit of a farce rather than satire. With that profound critique out of the way, check out this great video that’s part Christopher Guest ensemble inspired and part “The Office”. It’s too right on for the players not to have some real life church experience. Enjoy!