But what else can you do for a hockey fix in the middle of summer?

HT: From the Rink

“Somebody told me one time that you know you are getting old when you know all the answers but nobody asks you the questions.”

All I know is now I have an excuse for how much older I am feeling.

The camel they were on stood out from the rest. As soon as it rose to its feet, it lunged forward and tried to take a chunk out of another camel. When they arrived at their destination, all the riders safely disembarked (after the camels lay down to allow it). My brother noted that their camel was treated differently from the rest – after all the riders were off, his camel was made to stand and led away from the rest of the group. Apparently some of the other riders didn’t notice this special treatment, as they came back by the camels for pictures. My brother’s camel decided that two fellows approached too closely for its liking and tried to take a chunk out of them as well. (The fellows were also preachers…)

So, what does this tell you?

Clearly, the camel was a fundamentalist.

1. He was separated from all the others
2. He was mean and nasty
3. He had a low tolerance level for other preachers

Of course, I am using ‘he’ in a generic sense because I don’t know if the camel was a ‘he’ or a ‘she’, but I’m thinking it was a ‘he’ because fundamentalists don’t believe in women preachers. [UPDATE: a conversation with my sister-in-law confirms that all the camels that day were males. So there you go.]

One commercial we have been seeing over and over up here is promoting Tim Horton’s coffee shops, almost a national institution up here. It is one of those very few commercials that you don’t get tired of, so I thought my American readers might enjoy seeing it:

The screen here in Canada says it is based on a true story, but I haven’t been able to find any background on it.

I did find this discussion of it, which I think helps capture the emotion of the spot… and the ‘Canadian-ness’ of it as well.

My name has a long and sometimes storied history. It belongs to a whole host of characters. According to wikipedia, it is the second most common name in the USA. Alas, in the land of my forebears (Scotland), it doesn’t even make the top 20.

As I understand it, my name originally meant that its bearers were descended from one John (Iain), son of the MacDonald, who branched off and formed his own smaller clan, the MacIains (son of John, i.e., Johnson – or Johnston as we were known in the Old Country).

My name has caused me a little trouble. Some unsavoury characters share the name. No end of mocking occasionally ensues when some Johnson publicly embarrasses the rest of us possessing the name.

The worst trouble I had with my name ended up with having to resort to the intervention of our government representative (MLA – Member of the Legislative Assembly, equivalent of a State Representive in the USA). The worst of it was the fellow to whom we had to appeal for help was the man who had soundly defeated my dad in the election for the seat in the Legislature. Oh, the irony… Oh, the ignominy…

As it happened, a certain fellow (who cannot remain nameless) not only shared my last name, but also my first name and one of my two middle initials. It seems that this fellow was not a good boy like me and had been apprehended driving a vehicle while rather intoxicated. The problem was that something happened on the way to suspending his license and the notice came to me (while I was a preacher boy at BJU, no less!!). And of course the offense was published in my local newspaper, whose editors, being political opponents of my dad, were only too happy to splash his name in the headline announcing ‘my’ misdeeds.

So you can see, my name has caused me some trouble. The little incident mentioned above was eventually sorted out, but had to involve the help of the MLA I mentioned. I am not sure if the paper ever published any retractions.

In any case, I have been thinking about the trouble caused me by my name. What should I do about it?

• Should I change it?It seems to have lost some of its original meaning, eh?
• Should I use it only as an ‘in-house’ name for my own family members, lest I should experience more ridicule by those on the outside?
• Should I be concerned that others might think that I am a Johnson like those drunken Johnsons they know down the street from them?

What do you think?

Personally, my name is Johnson, and I’m comfortable with it. It is who I am and describes the line from which I am descended. I think I’ll live with it, no matter what my lunatic possible relations might do.

P. S. Disclaimer for the humour-challenged: If you don’t see any humour in this post, you are either unaware of what I am referring to and/or possibly one of those narrow-minded f________ists that you aren’t comfortable being known as.

Those with sensitive constitutions be warned. Here is the link.

The docs were great, I am now fine, under strict orders to hopefully prevent a reoccurrence.

I do appreciate each of you (about 5) who have comments in the queue that I need to deal with. I hope you will be patient as I will get to them in due time.

A few observations from the experience:

It was a wild weekend, but certainly shows how dependent we are. You can go from walking around, seemingly as fit as a fiddle and within hours be flat on your back, totally helpless and dependent on others. And that is where we need to always be, spiritually.

We were in Ps 91 last Wednesday night at church. I haven’t put the audio up on our site yet, but the psalm ministered to me while I was lying in the hospital. It is one that starts with the psalmists testimony of trust in the Lord (note the "I" in v. 2), then goes to the psalmists ‘sermon to the reader’ (note the "you" or "thou" in vv. 3-13) and then goes to God’s promise to the man who trusts him (note the "I" in vv. 14 to end).

The promise is given by God to the believer for three reasons:

1. Because he (the believer) has set his love on me (14)
2. Because he (the believer) has known my name (14)
3. Because he (the believer) has called on me (15)

Believe me, we were ‘calling’ Friday night!

I will deal with the responses to my last post soon, but I am in ‘take it easy’ mode just now.

****Dr. Frank Garlock went to Jacmel, Haiti last week to preach for the Missions for Haiti school and church. We have not had any communication from him or the missionaries since the earthquake occurred. Please pray with us that he is unharmed and that he can be a tremendous help and testimony to the Hatian people at this time. God is good and we trust Him.****

Follow the link to the Majesty site for updates.