60 minutes

Yesterday we turned our clocks back one hour. This has to be a procrastinator's dream -- to be able to turn the clock back and get an extra 60 minutes to do what should have been done an hour ago. Of course we pay it back in spring.

What is one hour of time worth and how significant is it?

In one hour one can go 100 Kilometers down the highway, which would in most cases reach the next city. One hour could be spent with a friend over coffee. In one hour the financial picture of the world could change dramatically. In one hour you could watch a boxinga match or play a game of Scrabble. (the two are not related). In one hour you could read the newspaper or play nine holes of golf. Some would call that wasted time. They would rather spend 12 hours in a boat, dangling a fishing line. That has never been my game. I'm convinced that time has no value of its own -- we give it value by how we spend it. We spend it in different ways.

Time is the facilitator for our actions. Time is like a silent messenger that never stops. It passes by like a shadow.
Here is my thought for today.

Only hours before Jesus was crucified He suffered in prayer, as a precurser to the Cross. His disciples, however, had fallen asleep. He asked them a very poignant question. Matthew 26:40, "Could you not watch with me ONE HOUR?"

nostalgia

 

nostalgia

Fay and I recently spent a week in the northern part of our province (or should I say in the central interior) - Prince George. P.G. is a growing city with a population approaching 100,000. We celebrated Thanksgiving with several members of our family.

While in Prince George we took a trip down memory lane and visited the train museum. I'm really not a railway buff, but it was for us the only way to travel from Prince George to Penny, which was 70 miles away. A penny in your pocket is a piece of metal almost worthless; Penny as a community was to us, 51 years ago, a community of several hundred people with whom we had the privelge to share the message of God's love and grace.

Back to the museum. The Penny railway station just as it was a half century ago is now sitting in the train museum. That was the coolest exhibit. We saw the station agent's living quarters with the usual furniture in the living room and the bedroom The coffee pot on the stove was a reminder of the need for the Agent to be awake day or night as trains arrived and departed. We smelled the old wood and the old typwriter and in our minds we heard the dot-dot-dash-dot of the Morse Code being tapped out. Also we "heard" the lonesome whistle of the steam engine; the swwoooosssh of the escaping steam as the engine came to a halt; the clunk, clunk as each coupling that joined the train compacted. On our way out I spotted, in the souvenire department, a piece of wood measuring about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches square with notches at one end. I bought it for $12.00 to amuse my friends -- It's a whistle that very accurately mimics the old steam engine whistle. Ladies you should buy this, it would wake your man any time of the day or night.

If I can do this I'll post a picture.

My story

About eight years ago I set out to write my autobiography. Three years later I published a 250 page illustrated book - the title of the book, "Boots & Bibles". As a pastor of small country churches I was sure that notoriety would not follow me for the rest of my life. However I felt that in order to preserve the accounts of my life, which in many ways are similar to pastoral ministry regardless of the size of the community lived in, I needed to put my story into print. It was by far my greatest writing challenge. I believed that the stories would be interesting enough to hold the attention of the reader. I have been assured that that has been so. I am very grateful. "Boots and Bibles" is an easy read written with a touch of humor, romance, poetry and pictures.

I should say that I come from a very large family --I am the youngest of 16. That could be my second book. Let me see...I could call it

Family Planning -- Lots!

or Ten, and a half dozen

or Sweaty socks in the soup and other homestead humor

By the way if anyone reading this and can identify with a large family (10 plus) I would be interested in hearing from you. email me waltreimer@shaw.ca

God has been and is very good to us.