Shine Your Light Event

Well, this past Saturday marked our third annual "Shine Your Light" event. Each year for Halloween, we try to take advantage of the one evening a year where our whole community comes right to our front door. Our worship team sets up in my garaged and out onto the driveway and we play Halloween, television and movie theme songs. While the band plays, other family members and friends hand out hot chocolate to parents, candy bags with scripture to the kids and have lots of conversations with the neighbours who hang around for the festivities. It has been a great chance to meet my community and build some bridges with the neighbours around me.
I have been thinking back to all the great costumes that members of our group came up with, the work they put in to making it happen, the talents they shared from cooking a meal to designing the scripture tag etc. not to mention the night of music. It has got me thinking about just how much I appreciate this group I am a part of. This group is made up of our worship band from church and their families. We get together each week to share a meal, study scripture and share our lives and practice music. We learn together, share with each other, support each other and serve together. I am grateful for a group with whom to share this, and for an introvert like myself that is saying a lot! To me it is a glimpse at what the church is supposed to be, learning, sharing, growing ans serving together. I can look back at my spiritual life and clearly recognize that the most fruitful times of my life have been when I have been a part of such a group. We are not perfect...not by any stretch of the imagination (after all I am a part of the group!) but still, there is something significant about having such an experience.
Often I hear from people that you can be a "Christian" without going to church or without being part of a spiritual community. My response to that is twofold - firstly, in my experience a spiritual community has been extremely important for my spiritual walk. From the experience and wisdom I have gleaned to the support in very difficult times, I can't imagine life without it. Secondly, I think of the words of Jesus himself. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35) Jesus was talking with his disciples and so taken in context we can recognize that Jesus was saying that to be a disciple we must be loving other disciples. It was both Jesus' intention and command that we would be in community with other disciples (how else could we live out the command?). To try to be a follower without being in community would be both outside of His intention as well as disobedient, at which point we would have to ask ourselves are we really trying to be disciples? The flip side, however, is that there is an incredible richness to life lived according to Jesus' intentions and in obedience to His commands, which has been my privilege to experience.
So thanks to my spiritual family for all that you do and for sharing your lives with me. We love all that we get to share with you!

Daylight Savings Ends

This weekend marks the end of daylight savings in my neck of the woods. I like the fall because the clocks go back an hour... I love sleep. Another bonus is that sometimes people forget to change their clocks which means that there are a few extra bodies showing up early for church which is always great for set up.
This clock change got me thinking about time. Our whole existence seems tied to and even controlled by time. At the end of the day, however, the way that we experience time is really rather synthetic. With the addition of electricity and lights and now things like daylight savings etc. I realize we can really manipulate time, more often than not for reasons of commerce. We often talk about time as if we were subject to it without any say at all wishing we had more hours in a day to do this and that. The reality, however, is that aside from the sunrise and the sun set, we are really in control of the rest. The question that I have been pondering is how my schedule reflects my spiritual life.
This is my thought this week...if I am totally surrendered to the Lord who has complete authority and control of my life, does my calendar reflect this? Do I fill in my day timer and then try to fit in the spiritual things around everything else or do I give all that I am to God and ask that he would direct how I spend my time? Who is really in control of my life? Is it me, my employer, my family or my Lord? Of course, this may lead to many other aspects of my relationship with God such as trust. Do I really trust enough to give over control? Do I really trust God as provider should there be a decision between what God asks of me and what my employer expects? Do I trust that Jesus is the source of true abundant life when I decide that my child will not engage in every possible activity and opportunity? And there are many other questions that will come up I imagine.
I guess it really comes down to a question of authority. I am reminded of a passage in Daniel regarding one who "looked like a son of man," that I think lies behind Jesus' use of the title Son of Man. I think that Jesus was saying that what we read below applies to him:

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
Daniel 7:13-14

If Jesus has authority over all aspects of my life, does how I spend my time reflect this?

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Ok, surely the Dead Sea Scrolls have little to do with Pop Culture, but they have been on exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum and have been making quite a splash in Toronto. We managed to take the kids on a field trip (an advantage of homeschooling) to see them. It was quite an amazing experience. The scrolls, as well as all the history, artifacts and information to set the context, were truly amazing and I feel blessed to have been able to experience it. One of my favourite moments was seeing a stone water jar that would have been used in Jewish purification rituals. Having just read John 2, where Jesus turns the water to wine, the jar caught my attention. I rushed to the plaque to read about the jar discovering it was used for ceremonial washing, then opened my bible to check out the dimensions on the jars in the story. I estimated that the jar was approximately the same size, and realized that this would have been very similar to the kind of jar that Jesus had filled with water and performed his first miracle. It was like the story jumped off the page and came to life in my mind, more clearly and more realistic than ever before. It was when I rounded the corner, however, that the most profound moment came for me.
Just around the corner they had two stones that were a part of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The first was a cornerstone with a Hebrew inscription, indicating is was probably the place from where a priest would blow the trumpet announcing the start of Sabbath. It was cool to think that Jesus may have walked under that stone!
The second stone bore an inscription in Greek. Why a Greek inscription on a stone from the Jewish Temple? This inscription indicated that no non-Jew (hence the Greek for non-Jewish readers) was to venture past this place, into the the Holy part of the Temple, an offense punishable by death. It was while standing in front of this stone, that I was profoundly affected.
For the first time in my life, I felt (albeit in a very limited way) what it was like to be excluded because of my race. This is an inscription that would have kept me, a Gentile, out and kept me away from the place God had chosen to dwell among and meet with his people. I was not welcome. I was profoundly saddened. It lead me to think about two things. Firstly, I celebrated the fact that this was not God's final intention. Whether it be the fact that God has created all people in his image, or His promise to Abraham that his descendants (the Jews) were to be a blessing to all nations, God loves all of humanity. I take comfort from the words spoken through Isaiah,

"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."
Isaiah 49:6

and Jesus himself who said,

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10:16

I am thankful that Jesus would give His followers the task to be witnesses to "the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

I am especially encouraged by the visions of worship in the heavenly realms given to the apostle John who heard this new song:

"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Revelation 5:9

and who saw,

a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Revelation 7:9

Secondly, I found myself asking if there are things that we still do that would cause people to feel excluded. What parts of our culture and context do we so mingle with faith that someone on the outside might have a hard time differentiating. What things might lead someone to conclude they are unwelcome. I am not talking about overlooking sin in the name of inclusiveness. There are some things that we would dishonour God by overlooking. But I think that there are probably many things that we could overemphasize to the point of excluding others. Are there things that have made people feel unwelcome and unwanted or like they don't fit in and thus impeded there hearing the Gospel or participating in the Kingdom community? Of the top of my head I am thinking of race, gender, language, culture, leaning style, personality types and I am sure the list could go on. I imagine that there are other things that I would never see from my vantage point. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them.
Well those were some of my reflections from the exhibit and all of this happened before I even saw the first scroll!

Thanksgiving

Well, another Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a great reminder of all that I have to be thankful for. We had a great service at church on Sunday morning before heading to the cottage for an amazing family dinner (there were bout 26 of us and there were actually five families missing!) Sunday night, followed by a relaxing day on Monday.
Saturday was a great day for me as well, really setting the stage for Thanksgiving. A good friend, her daughter and her grandson, invited us to go pick apples. We loaded up in the car, and after hitting a few of the expensive, incredibly crowded tourist driven farms, we finally happened upon William's Orchard. It was a little family run operation were there was no admission fees, no crowds, no rented animals for a petting zoo and where the picking of the apples was the actual attraction. For anyone who knows me, this was far more my speed! Getting out into the orchard truly helped my frame of mind and my heart and the Thanksgiving part of the weekend began for me. I remembered all the years that we had gone apple picking for my brother's birthday as I was growing up and was thankful for family. My own family and friends were there with me in the orchard and I was thankful for time them as well. I was also reminded of the year that I spent working at an orchard giving school tours. It was a few years ago now, at a time when the church I work for could not yet support a full salary for me. I took the part time day job to make a bit of extra money. My wife and I often look back to those years when we followed a call to come to Milton, where there was no salary, right after my wife had just lost her job (the salary we were counting on!) as some of the most formative and important years in our faith development. It is where we learned to truly trust in God, that He would keep his promise to always take care of our needs and that we could trust His provision. We often fall back on the lessons learned during that time when we followed obediently (crazily by the world's standards) and had no other choice but to trust and rely fully.
Well, as I was out in the orchard, another thought about God's provision struck me. I was thinking back to the spiel I would run the tour groups through, about the Bud turning to a Blossom, pollinated by the Bees which would become the apples we were picking (done with hand motions for added emphasis!). It really is an amazing process to think about and I was once again amazed at the care, attention and detail that God has gone to to ensure provision for the people He loves.
There is a song that my family learned at camp that speaks to this. We often sing it as a blessing before meals . I think that it actually came from a Disney film way back. It is simple, childlike, and yet is profound in its simplicity:

The Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord,
For giving me the things I need,
The sun and the rain and the apple seed,
The Lord is good to me.
For every seed I sow,
An apple tree will grow,
And there will be an apple tree,
For everyone in the world to see
The Lord is good to me.

Many blessings and Happy Thanksgiving!
I'd love to hear some of the things you are thankful for...leave a comment.

Worship with Creation

It is that time of year again, when the air here in Ontario gets a little cooler and a little crisper. The leaves are beginning to change colour, and soon the horizon will be a veritable canvas of colours painted by the expert hand of our Creator. I love this time of year and I can't wait to get out into God's creation, to explore, to stand in awe of what is around me and to be led to worship. Of course, God's creation is all around us all the time, all four seasons of the year. I am hoping to use my excitement about fall to be a catalyst to start appreciating all that God has done around me all year long. With this in mind I started a new opportunity at church called Worship with Creation. The whole premise is to take one day a month, each month, to plan an outing into creation. My goal is to pick somewhere fairly local, and free (inspired by our Thirty Days of Almost Nothing experiment) and lead a group from church out into nature to experience some of the amazing things that God has for us right in our own back yard. As we experience God's creation up close, my prayer is that we would learn something more about its creator and to have a response of worship well up in our hearts.
We started last month with a visit to Grindstone Falls in Waterdown. We stood atop the falls, experiencing the mighty sound of the rushing waters while reading from Revelation 1:15 ... “and His (Jesus) voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” We then followed the creek down stream and witnessed both its beauty and its power as we traced its path carved through rock and wood. We were reminded of the beauty and the power of the resurrected Jesus.
Our next adventure will be to venture into some of the forested area atop the escarpment to experience the leaves changing colour to vibrant reds, oranges, golds and browns. I am excited to see how God may use this to teach us, inspires us, refresh us and nurture our souls.
Behind all of our adventures lies the thoughts articulated by Paul in Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." When we take a close look at all that God has made we may experience and come to understand something about God's character, God's power and God's nature. Whenever God chooses to reveal something about Himself to us then there is an opportunity to respond - and that response is worship.
So how about were you live? What are some areas that you could get out and explore?

Almost there...Almost there...

"Almost there...Almost There..."
Yes, that is a Star Wars quote, so bonus to anyone who can identify where it came from (just leave a comment below). In some ways it sums up this last week as our "Thirty Days of Almost Nothing" challenge nears it completion this week. I thought I would share a few last thoughts from this journey, a few things that I have learned and what I might take away from the experience.

Firstly, I realized that it was not that big a deal. I think that we had been trying to introduce some of these principles already, although not as consciously or dramatically. This may be due,in part, to the fact that I have a bit of a cheap streak. But more importantly, I think this is because I have an amazing wife who has been trying her hardest to manage this crazy zoo we call the McGibbon home. It didn't come as quite the shock to our lifestyle that it could have.

I learned that mending is cool! We throw out so much these days and seek to repair so little. I know that in many cases, sadly, it is more economical to replace things than to repair them, and that many things are manufactured in a way that they just can't be repaired. But there are some things that we can mend. I learned how to mend my favourite pair of Jeans (well ok, I had my mother in law do it, but I found out how and passed a web site along to her) on line : mend jeans.
It was great. It had all the excitement of getting a new pair of jeans, but ones that you already know fit amazingly and were worked in perfectly - Christmas in September without the credit card bill in January!!!!

I realized coffee is a complex issue - from addiction to fair trade, cheap to gourmet, politics to economy, feast to famine, necessity or small blessing the topic is vast in breadth and depth! It will have me thinking for sure.

I was reminded that Grandparents have a lot of wisdom to share, and experience to teach from. We in North America may have a lot to learn from other cultures who manage to revere and respect the wisdom of the elders more intentionally than we do. When my mother told my Grandmother about our challenge, my grandmother looked slightly confused and asked "why would you buy something if you didn't really need it." My grandparents have lived like this their whole lives, and they didn't need to turn it into some grand experiment in order to do it. They knew a time when circumstances made this lifestyle a means of survival, and have not been swayed by the changing tide of commercialism or consumerism (aside from perhaps the Canadian Tire flyer...but even at that my grandfather was the first to notice when they lowered the percentage on the dollar for the Canadian Tire money incentive). My grandparents are also incredibly aware of how they use other resources. I was reminded of the time that the Hydro company came and replaced the water meter on their home because Hydro thought it was broken. My Grandfather told them that it was not broken, but they insisted. As it turns our my grandfather was right and the meter was fine. My grandparents just use so little water that the hydro company couldn't believe that the meter was working properly.

I have been challenged to make things this month and have loved the opportunity to be creative. I think it is an opportunity to live in imitation of the Creator God, whom we love and serve.

The last thing that I have been thinking about is hospitality, people and celebration. We managed to celebrate a wedding, our anniversary, host a last minute meal for my brother, his new wife and her brother, as well as having our usual group of about 15 people over for dinner each Thursday. In each case, there would have been a last minute scurrying to buy things, a desire to show ourselves well and thus buy things to do so, and a well intentioned hope to serve and please people that again led to last minute purchases. We learned however, to be a bit more organized and plan ahead limiting some of the last minute, costly impulse purchases. We learned to use what we have and be creative. There were some purchases to be made, but we did well and had fun finding used alternatives and making them work. The greatest lesson however, was that we got less caught up in the externals and focus more on the important things. We really connected with, shard with and celebrated with the people in our lives. Focusing less on the other things made more time and energy to focus on people. I was reminded of how many times in the gospels that Jesus was visiting with people, meeting in homes, sharing meals with people and celebrating. I can't think of many examples in which the room decor was mentioned, whether there was matching silver ware or even what food was served. We are told about the people, what Jesus was teaching or how he invested in there lives. Serving, loving and showing hospitality really is about sharing your life with others. It is about people. It has been easier to remember that this month.

So those are just some of the thoughts from this month. I am interested to see how they will affect our lives and decisions in the upcoming months now that the challenge is over.

Wedding Bells, Socks and Celebrations!

It is the Tuesday morning after four straight days of festivities in celebration of the marriage union between my brother and his now wife (and no longer "almost" aunt) Nathalie. Friday was a dinner and a great opportunity for the two families to come together, many of us meeting for the first time. What a great chance to see all the faces of the many people that Nathalie has told us so much about. Saturday was the rehearsal which we did as a picnic at the Toronto Island. The celebrations were growing as we added the wedding party and many friends to the festivities. Then came Sunday, the big day, as all the family, extended family and friends came together to witness, participate in and celebrate the momentous occasion. I had the honour of officiating the ceremony and was thrilled to be invited to play a role in such a special day.
As many of you know, my family has been living out our Thirty Days of Almost Nothing experiment during this month and we knew that when we started, this major celebration for our family could provide some unique challenges. We all had a role to play in the service from ushering to being the flower girl, from ring bearer to officiating as well as Kim singing with my dad and I. There was no hiding in the back corner so we would all have to look presentable! Well, for the most part I think we did quite well. In all honesty, the girls had there dresses bought months before our challenge began. The boys and I were not as proactive, however, and so had to find outfits during our month of challenge. We managed to start with what we did have and dug into our closets for our shoes shirts and ties. I also had a suit that perfectly matched the requirements of the day. The boys, however, had definitely grown a bit since the last occasion that they needed to dress up for, and being in the wedding, also needed to match the colour scheme. We took the opportunity to scour my favourite clothing outlets including The Salvation Amy Thrift Store, Goodwill and when all else fails Value Village. I love these stores, and without a word of a lie, I have an unofficial challenge to see my whole wardrobe consist of used clothing from these stores (except maybe underwear, but that is not really relevant here). For one thing, when there is a necessity to purchase something, the prices are far below regular retail. I feel like I am being a good steward of my finances. There is the added ecological bonus that when I buy something from a used clothing store, I am re-using and therefore helping to keep something out of a landfill. And lastly, in many cases, as I am buying used clothing I am also helping to support some important charities in my community. Another great thing about buying used clothing for kids is that kids grow out of clothing so fast that there is a lot of clothing available, especially for special occasions, that have only been worn once or twice and are in great condition. We were able to find suits for both the boys!
The one challenge came when we realized quite late in the week, that my one son did not have black dress socks. He had found black sweat socks that he had assumed would be fine. Kim and I has to stop and ask whether this was a necessity, and whether we should buy some proper dress socks. In reality, we new the sweat sock would be fine, would serve the purpose and that no one might even notice, and even if they did would not care in the least. On the other hand, however, this was a wedding, a very special occasion between two people that we care for deeply. We really wanted to help them make this a very special day and wouldn't new socks be the least we could do?
I found myself thinking about Jesus, and his first recorded miracle as told in John chapter 2. Jesus' first recorded miracle is the changing of the water to wine at a wedding in Cana. I recognize that this is a very deep and theologically dense passage. Consider the location, consider what the wine might signify metaphorically, consider the significance of the stone jars used in ceremonial washing, and consider the role of signs in John and there is no doubt a lot to unpack. There still, however, remains a surface level to the story and I have often been struck by this wedding scene.
Firstly, Jesus is at a wedding. Having just chosen his first disciples, he takes them not to an intense bible study, but to a wedding celebration. When the creator of the world goes to a wedding celebration I can't help but think that He considers it a worth while endeavour. The fact that he does a miracle there, so that it would for sure be recorded and remembered for posterity, only lends weight to the idea that Jesus himself considered weddings special and important. This should not surprise us as it was God himself after all who created man and woman and ordained this special relationship from early on.
Secondly, although the miracle itself had a very rich theological significance, it also had the direct impact of keeping the celebration going. When the wine ran out, the celebration had the risk of ending and ending in embarrassment. Jesus' miracle, however, kept the celebration alive. The celebration was important enough to do something special about.
With this in mind, I came to the conclusion that there are times worth celebrating, worth doing something a little bit special to mark. As someone noted in a comment a few weeks ago, there are times for feasting. Weddings are definitely one of those occasions. A pair of black dress socks, although not a definite necessity, was surely one small way we could mark this occasion as special.

By the way, the socks came in a pack and so I too wore a pair. They were made from bamboo fibre...and they were nice!

Another way the event was made special was the cake (seen above) that my aunt Coleen made...AMAZING (and it tasted great too!!!)


Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments, e-mailing me your thoughts or posting on facebook. I love to read your thoughts. Thanks especially to all those invested in my choice of coffee I appreciate all the advice and help with choices to satisfy both my palette and my conscience.