On Thorns and Blooms....

Yesterday's worship services in Calgary were led by Tim Bergsma, a student for the ministry in his final year of studies at the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids. He preached from 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 where Paul prays for the removal of the thorn in his flesh (whatever that may have actually been) and his prayer is answered with "My grace is sufficient for you."

It was a very pastoral sermon in which many of the thorns that effect believers today were identified and the reality that God -- even though He is able -- often does not remove our challenges in life but equips us rather to deal with it, was poignantly brought home. The term "made perfect" in the text "my strength is made perfect in weakness" (KJV) was exegeted as "better displayed." It is in the grace given to His people in dealing with the thorns of life that God often chooses to display the glories of His person. "The strength to deal with our crosses require us to go to His cross and kneel before it."

Although we all have thorns and challenges in our lives to one degree or another, my life presently reflects more of a colourful garden of blooming flowers than it does a prickly thorn patch. On Friday and Saturday, I was able to participate in an invigorating conference with several neo-Calvinist friends (mostly involved either in a thinktank, higher education, or both) in which we learned more about each other and the challenges and opportunities which confront us. Yesterday was a restful Lord's Day as we could combine a wonderful time of worship with fellowship as we hosted long time friends en route from Ontario to BC. In the evening, we enjoyed a time of family relaxation and also a bit of reading. This week promises to be an exciting one as I head back to Ontario for the Cardus office opening on Wednesday (with a bunch of meetings booked to surround that) and back to Calgary for the installation of our first pastor Hans Overduin on Friday evening. Throw in the added pleasure of some Ontario family coming to visit for the week and the normal miscellania of stimulating meetings, emails and phone conversations with interesting people, the enjoyable comraderie of my colleagues, and the forecasted good weather which make the views from my home office, the airplane and other spaces I expect to traverse quite pleasant, and I start this week with a sense of gratitude for the privileges I am given. I also realize these things can quickly change. Even as I write this, an email from a fellow church member appears requesting prayer for his 44 yr old sister-in-law who appears to be on her death bed. The thorns continue to prick, even as we admire the roses.

Still, the message of yesterday afternoon rings in my mind this morning as I organize for the week. Whether it is a prickly thorn or whether it is a pleasant flower that is placed on our path, both are there in God's providence and we are to deal with them in ways that glorify Him. Our inclination is to frame the thorn or the flower in our own context and focus on how it affects us. The more faithful response is to see them in the context of God's kingdom and to cheerfully do what we are called to do, not focusing on our own position or results, but on His grace and glory.

Still Around, but busy...

But travelling this week and limited email access when I have not been travelling have conspired to prevent my contributions to this page. Hopefully that will resolve itself next week; in the meantime you may want to...

Read about the $4.8 million soccer complex that will be built on Redeemer's property, thanks to a partnership with the Ancaster Soccer Club and funding from all three levels of government. The official announcement was made this morning.

Read about a Premier who wants to stay on the job as well as one who has enough of it all.

Consider getting a ticket and joining us at the official opening of the new Cardus office next Wednesday at 7 p.m.

While you do that, my life of planes, meetings, and automobiles continues and blogging takes a back seat for a few days.

Hutterites and Freedom of Religion

I have a column published in Friday's Globe and Mail in which I argue that a recent court decision denying Alberta Hutterites a driver's licence unless they pose for photos is an unncessary violation of their freedom of religion. Given the fact that the system has worked well for over 29 years and that the objective of registering drivers can be achieved without the detail of a photograph, bureacratic objections notwithstanding, it seems to me that freedom of religion is a much more weightier right that deserves some accomodation. The column concludes:

Canada has a long tradition of welcoming people of different backgrounds and encouraging them to feel free to maintain their traditions. Excellent farmers and kind, peaceful people, the Hutterites are a rich part of Alberta.

Yes, there are boundaries to cultural practices that may be accepted elsewhere but are unacceptable here. But if there has been one positive identifier in Canada's culture, it is that we are a reasonable people who respect each other's beliefs. Reasonable people should be able to accommodate the rich Hutterite tradition of peacefully farming Alberta's rich soil.

Eclectic or Weird?

The mix of religion, politics, and current events which prompt my musings on this page is, to use the word of one regular reader who recently corresponded with me, “interesting and eclectic.” It was a bit more encouraging description than the blunt assessment of another less impressed reader a while back who told me this page is “just plain weird.”

I don’t spend too much time checking the blog stats since from the outset, I determined readership would not be the determining factor of whether this blog would continue. (For the objectives of this blog, see here.) However, from time to time I do scan at the results and find the google searches that link people to this blog quite interesting. Just from the last few days, here is a sampling of what people are searching for as google sends them here.... (This data is gleaned from statcounter which runs in the background of this page. )

"Search terms from google in quotes" (brackets contain my brief explanation with the reference to the date of my blog entry that google directed them to - linking them all is too time-consuming)

“Dana Larsen” (former NDP candidate who was barred from their convention – 08/14/09)

“was August 3 2009 a statutory holiday in Alberta” (origins of civic holiday - 08/01/09)

“September 3 through 13” (blog on skipped calendar days in 1752 - 03/08/08)

“pastor letter acceptance call” (blog on Pastor Overduin accepting call – 04/27/09)

“nosus decipio amazing grace” (blog on Amazing Grace movie 12/06/08)

“evening worship Calgary” (don’t think this searcher found what s/he was looking for 07/07/09)

“pope economics” (07/30/09)

“free reformed Ontario obama” (curious what s/he was after – probably did not find it on 09/15/07)

“neopuritan” (04/09/09)

“treating others well” (10/18/07)

“Genevan Psalter, pictures” (07/05/09)

“chris pennings Ottawa” (have no idea why google sent them to 05/07/09 “is Ottawa regressing to puberty?”)

“the history of having two worship services on Sundays” (07/05/09)

“does sport bring out the best in people” (06/18/08)

“construction costs Ontario” (11/26/08)

“whoever finds a wife finds a good thing and” (06/26/07)

Trying to find common themes from that list is indeed an assignment that one might term “interesting and eclectic” and even “weird.” Aw well…..

Afghanistan's Big Day

Today is election day in Afghanistan. The politics of Afghanistan are complex and messy. I suppose the very fact that foreign troops remain in that country in an attempt to provide security makes this observation a given. I am not qualified to comment if President Karzai is the disaster some have made him to be; truthfully, I have no way of knowing which of the 37 candidates would be best.

The threat by the Taliban to amputate the fingers of those who vote (a dye is used to register voters) as well as the violence is undoubtedly effecting voter turnout. Still, the fact that millions did vote in spite of the inherent risks does speak loudly. Graham Thomson in the Edmonton Sun rightly points out the embarassment Canadians should feel regarding our own apathy in this context. The point is well-taken.

However, as I read the reports this morning on the voting, my thoughts went to the soldiers from various countries, but especially Canadians, who are sacraficing and risking their lives so this election can happen. I am thinking of the Afghanistan citizens who for so long have lived in the context of struggle and violence, and who are courageously standing in line in order to vote, hoping that the future will be different. Humanly speaking, the outcome of this election is very important for the legitimacy of the government of Afghanistan as well as influencing the attitude of other countries towards continuing to support the Afghan people with our troops and resources. The winners of the elections won't be known for a few days at least. The results and impact of the election won't be certain for a few months. However, what happens today in Afghanistan will, humanly speaking, shape the face of that part of the world for years to come.

Today, I am praying for Afghanistan.

Proud of Being Humble?

I grew up in a religious tradition in which the importance of humility was emphasized. The phrase "Always think of others as more worthy than yourself" had proverbial status and was translated into "never vote for yourself" (in church settings, beginning with youth groups, there were votes for officers etc. on an annual basis) and a philosophy of service. This ethos, combined with the doctrine of depravity which is signature to orthodox calvinist thinking, resulted in a social context in which putting yourself forward for something was brash. It was more appropriate to wait to be asked to take on a task and when asked, not to agree without somberly pointing out one's lack of qualifications and unsuitability for the task. Only then should one acquiesce to the request.

Lest I be misintrepreted, there is much about this environment -- especially when set against the context of celebrity leadership -- that is commendable. It produces in many a genuine sense of their own weaknesses and reliance on others (an awareness of strengths and gifts for most people seems to come without too much help). It also worked - all of the assignments were taken on and the Reformed community of which I was (and still am) a part is well known for the significant amount of volunteerism that it engenders.

However, it sometimes does produce a sense of piety about being humble that, in an ironic way, easily becomes another form of pride. In my more cynical moments, I have quipped about being so humble that we're proud of it.

What prompts these thoughts is reading a blog posting by John Piper (h/t Justin Taylor) entitled "Lewis and Edwards on the Layers of Self-Admiration." I recommend the post highly as it rightly points out that when humility is trumpeted or pursued as a grace in itself, it always leads us astray. Starting with a quote from Edwards' Religious Affections, here's an excerpt to whet the appetite:

If on the proposal of the question [Are you humble?], you answer, “No, it seems to me, none are so bad as I.” Don't let the matter pass off so; but examine again, whether or no you don't think yourself better than others on this very account, because you imagine you think so meanly of yourself. Haven't you a high opinion of this humility? And if you answer again, “No; I have not a high opinion of my humility; it seems to me I am as proud as the devil”; yet examine again, whether self-conceit don't rise up under this cover; whether on this very account, that you think yourself as proud as the devil, you don't think yourself to be very humble. (quoted from Religious Affections in the online works of Jonathan Edwards)....

Humility senses that humility is a gift beyond our reach. If humility is the product of reaching, then we will instinctively feel proud about our successful reach. Humility is the gift that receives all things as gift. It is the fruit not of our achievement but of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It is the fruit of the gospel—knowing and feeling that we are desperate sinners and that Christ is a great and undeserved Savior.

Humility is the one grace in all our graces that, if we gaze on it, becomes something else. It flourishes when the gaze is elsewhere—on the greatness of the grace of God in Christ.

The Messiness of Federalism

The Canadian Medical Association wants a "a national "health czar" appointed with legal authority to impose directives on the provinces during the swine flu pandemic, reports the National Post the morning. Not likely to happen given that the delivery of health care is a provincial responsiblity in Canada.

I don't know enough about swine flu in order to validly weigh how much of the noise being made about pandemics and potential crisis is noise and how much is real. What I do know is that while borders between provinces -- just as borders between countries -- are inconvenient when dealing with issues like viruses, criminals, and other phenomana that don't respect borders, they are part of our system of government. If some want to argue that health care ought to be a federal as opposed to a provincial matter, go ahead and make that argument; it may even have some merit. Given the federal government's predisposition to influence health care (both by insisiting on certain conditions as well as solving its deficit problems on the backs of provinces, as was the case throught he nineties) combined with the fact that "our system" seems to be so defining to our nationhood in the minds of so many, there is a case to be made. However, in the always political battles regarding protecting jurisdictions in Canada, such changes are not easily made, nor should such constitional matters be changable on a whim.

In the meantime, however, the reality of borders and jurisdiction need to be respected and in the case of health care, it does mean that different provinces may adopt different strategies for dealing with a challenge like swine flu. It's the reality of federalism and division of powers and over all, that is a good thing, in spite of its messiness in dealing with specific issues.

Some Friday Loose Ends....

On Tuesday I linked to various media items that covered various Canadian political themes. Just to follow up in the name of completeness....

- It seems Gilles Duceppe isn't planning to go anywhere except perhaps to the campaign trail where he smells an opportunity to pick up a few seats at the expense of the Tories. Ms. Hebert makes good sense in her arguments and, au contraire to what I have factored as self-interested BQ thinking re avoiding a fall election, there may be a case to be made for the BQ ready to call the Liberals bluff. I suspect that certain members of the BQ caucas may be a little more skeptical than their leader about this strategy, but in reality, they don't have too much say in the matter.

- The NDP convention is this weekend in Halifax and I find it a bit amusing that this party, which always makes lots of noise about openness and free debate etc., has banned Dana Larsen, one of its former candidates from attending the convention, seeking to avoid a pro-marijuana resolution from becoming the news highlight of the convention. Katie O'Malley rightly points out that these actions usually result in the issue getting more publicity but it also does point to the fact that the NDP is trying to reposition itself to take the next step. It has been my take for several years already that the realignment of Canadian politics is only half completed with the "uniting of the right" in the Conservative Party, and that the next decade or so will see a reconfiguration of the left, (which will probably lead to a redrawing about what these terms mean in the context of Canadian politics, but that's for another day.) This NDP Convention seems to be about repositioning itself to capture a broader spectrum of the center-left constituency, voters that may be vulnerable to leaving the Liberals. Political conventions are "insider baseball" for political junkies, and even I won't spend my whole weekend glued to CPAC, but I will be paying attention for what is happening in Halifax this weekend does have import for where the NDP heads in years to come.

- There is lots of manouvering on all sides to create the right spin on the EI issue. The Conservatives are keeping their options open, knowing that they have the power to put forward a position at the 11th hour (very late September, in other words) which the Liberals will have to either take (in which case both parties will claim they put the interests of Canadians first in working together for a solution) or leave (in which case, Mr. Ignatieff to retain any credibility has to force an election on the issue, which from this perch, seems a difficult issue to campaign on, given the Conservative position is definately going to be something more generous than the status quo.) As for the day-to-day headlines of who is co-operating, being more reasonable, or not, I'm ignoring them.

Its not just whether, but how we read....

In a LA Times column (h/t Justin Taylor), David Ulin reflects on the experience of reading and how it becomes real when you give up control and allow yourself to be immersed in someone else's world. He laments that in the age of twitter and facebook, even regular readers are seeing the erosion of "the ability to still my mind long enough to inhabit someone selse's world, and to let someone else inhabit mine." The ability to reflect and comtemplate is challenge in "our over-networked culture, in which every rumour and mundanity is blogged and tweeted."

I suppose blogging on this subject is sort of ironic, but I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with Ulin. His basic point is valid but not exclusively so. My own media diet consists of daily scans of websites (relying on aggregators to send me to places I otherwise would never go, including this morning the LA Times site); a half -dozen or so magazines to which I subscribe in hard copy (Economist, Hedgehog Review, Books and Culture, Comment, plus several faith-related journals) and a mix of books. I try (not always possible given that my reading is often project-driven) to have no more than two books on the go at a time: one typically is a serious non-fiction (theological or theoretical in nature) and the other lighter fare (often political junkie books, a bit of fiction, or biography). When it comes the theology, I consciously try to rotate readings that are more than a century old with contemporary authors.

Rather than lament technology, which admittedly can be a distraction if you let it, one could also focus on how technology -- if well-used -- provides an opportunity to take in a wide range of thought from a variety of sources. In my experience, this provides depth and context to my readings -- even those from centuries back -- which help me make applications and see the relevance of what I am reading. As for reflecting and contemplating on what this means, this is an art that each of us learns for ourselves. I am active contemplater, meaning rather than seeking a quiet space for dreamy reflection, I am helped by forcing myself to articulate thoughts. If you see me talking to myself while driving, overhear my shower debates with myself, or read my blog posts (or other snippets of insight, scratched in almost illegible scribbles in my journal that is almost always near my side), that is my way of reflecting.

Good writing captivates me and so I have little problem losing myself myself in the author's world -- I end up blocking out everything else quite easily when so captivated. It is taking the time to ask myself basic questions of the material I read -- What are the author's presuppositions? If I follow her advice, what would I do or think differently? What issues are there in the world today that might be helped if this advice were followed (or harmed, as the case may be)? If I disagreed with the author and had the chance to discuss this with him/her, what arguments would I use to convince them of their error?

Asking and answering these questions are the most important part of reading in my experience. It isn't simply escaping into someone else's world, but rather the process of coming back again into my own world and using the insights from their world to improve mine, which makes reading the powerful gift that it is.

Random Political Musings prompted by Media Miscellania

Several items in this morning's papers catch my attention, so I simply link them for your reference along with a few quick hits.....

Adam Daifallah's column suggesting that Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe may be thinking of moving onto other pursuits has, as Adam rightly suggests, significant potential impact on both the timing and outcome of the next election. The landscape in Quebec changed significantly in the last election when the BQ's pitch was not independence (as it had been every previous election of its existence) but rather "it makes no difference if the government is Grit or Tory; let the rest of Canada decide that and vote for the BQ to be the broker for Quebec's interest with the rest of the country." Duceppe had the credibilty and trust to make that deal with Quebecers; finding a replacement that fits the bill may be a challenge.

Lawrence Martin notes that in the current Ekos poll, young people support the Green Party in greater numbers, and implies that a younger leader is required if one of the major parties is to attract the youth. I don't find his logic overally compelling. Young voters have much stronger environmental awareness than older voters and the Green party is linked to this issue. This shows up in polls, but those younger people who do vote are, I would suggest, more likely to consider a broader range of issues (not discounting the environment, but realizing there are other issues too.) While Martin may be right in suggesting none of our leaders are particularly "youth appealing," it is not the age of the leader that makes this connection. My guess is that the numbers regarding a leader's youth appeal will run parallel to the general leadership numbers of the leader.

Kelly MacParland provides five suggestions to the NDP for them to improve their fortunes. It generally makes a lot of sense but I doubt much of it will be followed. They seemed a bit mesmorized by the Obama campaign and some seem to think that by removing the "New" from their name so they too become a "Democratic Party" and by mimicing some of the social networking and on-line campaign techniques that were successful in the US last year, they will improve their fortunes. It will be fun watching.

Secular Religion in Canada

Shuffling around some papers on the weekend while I was looking for something in particular (which I still haven't found), I re-read John VanHeyking's chapter "The Charter and Civil Religion" in Faith in Democracy? Religion and Politics in Canada. The entire chapter is well worth reading, but I reproduce the opening paragraph to give you a flavour:

"Human rights has emerged as the new secular religion of our time." So said Canada's former Justice Minister, Irwin Cotler on numerous occasions. His view seems to be shared by a significant part of Canada's population, especially legal, journalist and academic elites. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, along with the Supreme Court, are the focal points for an evocation of civil religion. This claim contradicts the expectation of many, since Canada is an allegedly secular socitey. Commentators frequently locate the level of its secularity somewhere between that of the religious United States and the nonreligious European continent. However, the manner in which important consituencies speak of the Charter, and the progressivist assumptions upon which their speech is based, reveal an attempt, intentional as well as inadvertent, to create civil religion based upon the language of rights found in the Charter. This civil religion postulates that Canada participates in the unfolding of a progressive history toward a more democratic and egalitarian future in which individuals are thought to be unencumbered by history, nature, religion, tradition, or community. The 'divinity' in which this civil religion cultivates worship is not the God of Abraham or any other ancient god, but "humanity" which has been the object of worship in the Enlightenment, and whose ideological exponents have included John Stuart Mill, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and others.

Place Matters

Winging my way home from a few days of work-related business in Ontario last night, I mused about place and why it matters. What prompted the thoughts was the happy occasion yesterday of Cardus taking possession of the property that will become our organizational home. (More details to follow in due course as the official opening and move unfolds.) There was a special feeling among the team yesterday and after hearing word that all of the legals associated with a real estate closing had gone through, we went to the location just to walk through the place.

There really was no reason to - we had seen the place before and there is nothing we can do with the property until the contractor has made a few necessary renos required before we can move in. Still we went there and it was different than every other time we had gone to the place before. The anticipation of the move was also defining of a strategic planning session we held earlier in the week. What aspects of our organizational culture were important and worth presevrving? How do we ensure that the way we organize our new home and provide furniture and space that encourage particular sorts of conversations? On the other hand, what part of our former space created patterns that were perhaps not so helpful to our productivity and colleigiality as a group, and how do we improve in our new space?

Space and place matter, more than we usually realize. I am based out of a home office in Calgary and when we moved from our previous home to our current home, where the provision of a workspace with lots of natural light, room for easy access to my books, and a pleasant view out of the windows, my productivity definately improved. It speaks to who we are as flesh and blood people, that our physical sensory experiences cannot be separated from what we think in our mind or experience in our emotions. They are all interconnected. So here's hoping that an improvement in the physical space which Cardus is able to occupy will help us do an even better job of engaging the hearts and minds of those we touch with ideas for the renewal of North American social architecture.

Happy Civic - or whatever your jursidiction calls it - Holiday

It is the first Monday in August, hence an official holiday as long as I can remember. As a kid, it was most memorable for me in that it was the Youth Camp weekend for our churches. This camp was typically held close to where I lived which meant a very full church on Sunday, and an anticipation for the time when I would be 16 and able to go. The memories of camp for the five years I went as a youth, the two as a counsellor, and the occasion (many many years later when my name and youth no longer were ordinarily used in the same sentence) as a camp speaker are all very positive. This weekend, I remembered camp in a slightly different way, filling the Monarch pulpit yesterday for Rev. Jack Schoeman who travelled to Ontario to be this years camp speaker. As for the day off, it is a time to catch up on a few volunteer duties and go with my wife on a dinner date.

As for the officialness of this holiday, it is one of those unique Canadian things which varies according to jurisdiction. Wikipedia is not always the most reliable source to quote, but their summary is accurate as best I can tell.

Civic Holiday is the most widely used name for a public holiday celebrated in parts of Canada on the first Monday in August,[1] though it is only officially known by that term in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Manitoba. It is a statutory holiday in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, but not in Manitoba.

The holiday is known by a variety of names in different provinces and municipalities, including British Columbia Day in British Columbia, New Brunswick Day in New Brunswick, Ontario Day in Ontario and Saskatchewan Day in Saskatchewan. In Alberta, Heritage Day is an "optional" civil holiday, having being downgraded from a statutory holiday following the introduction of Family Day in 1990. The holiday is celebrated as Natal Day in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, but is not an official holiday in either locale.

In Ontario, the holiday is observed as a municipal holiday known as Simcoe Day in Toronto, Mountie Day in North York, Colonel By Day in Ottawa, Joseph Brant Day in Burlington, Founders' Day in Brantford, McLaughlin Day in Oshawa, Alexander Mackenzie Day in Sarnia, James Cockburn Day in Cobourg, Peter Robinson Day in Peterborough, and John Galt Day in Guelph, as well as numerous other names in smaller municipalities...The holiday is not generally observed in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, or Yukon,[4] except by federal employees. In Newfoundland, the Royal St. John's Regatta, which usually occurs on the first Wednesday of August effectively displaces the Monday holiday even though it is only officially celebrated as a civic holiday in St. John's.

So to my American readers, sorry you don't have a day off like most of us Canadians can enjoy. For those of you from most parts of Canada (with my sympathies to Newfoundlanders, Quebecers and Yukoners), Happy whatever-you-call-the-first-Monday-in August day off!