Almost every year at Christmas my parents and I hike into somewhere we can't drive due to the snow. Usually we hike somewhere near Madge Lake and this year was no exception. For some reason I was given the boots that have nearly one and a half centimeters of rubber between the foot and the ground - so warm....not. Anyways, it was a good time.

Mmmm....home.

It is super nice to be home after yet another long semester. I do not have to worry about due dates, papers, and exams for another few weeks - beauty. It is also nice to read what I want rather than Old or Middle-English.

Although I am not a huge fan of Winter, I do wish it would snow so it would feel more "Christmasy." But being at home does make it feel enough like Christmas I guess - endless amounts of coffee, tea, beer, and Christmas baking.

My dad and I went for a drive/walk yesterday with our camera's on these old country roads that we can still drive on because they aren't covered in 40 feet of snow. It is funny that I can still find roads that I have never been on. I feel like I know all the country roads here like the back of my hand - apparently not.

One thing that I do miss about Spring/Summer/Fall is the fishing. Ice-fishing can be a good time but I enjoy river fishing so much more.



Merry Christmas, friends.

Exam Week....

My favorite part of this season....exam week.

Late Night Reading by the Fireplace Post....

The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day. Our salvation is "external to ourselves." I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ. Only he who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, his cross, and his resurrection, is with God and God with him.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Community...

I have been thinking much about community these past few weeks. I started reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer since I have been home this weekend and I have really enjoyed it so far.

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

I feel like I am part of so many different communities at one time. I am part of communities such as Providence, Faith Covenant Church, Norquay Covenant Church, etc. These communities are all a very big part of me and who I am. But at the same time, they feel so different. I do not think that these communities should feel the same by any means; it is good that they are different. But I think that my place in these communities looks very different from one another.

Some of my best friends at Providence recently mentioned that they hardly ever talk to God and had a hard time remembering the last time they did talk to God. I didn't even know what to say at first. But after thinking about it for a while, it really is not that hard to believe. It left me feeling pretty convicted that I had never really even thought to ask questions about faith.

The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and His work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

I think that I have to make more of an effort to make my relationship within these communities a little deeper and open.

Be well, friends.

My Stupid Mouth...

Do you ever have one of those days where it seems like everything you say is wrong? That is how this whole month or two has felt. Right on.

Serving

As I sit in this little coffee shop that serves the best americano's I have ever had, I am supposed to be studying. But I can't help but to think of anything else. I did terrible on my first exam (which should have been very easy,) so I should do well on this one.

When I was in Calgary, some friends and I went to go serve at a homeless shelter downtown called "the Mustard Seed." We really had no idea what to expect when we arrived. But we ended packing food hampers which would be given out at a later date. We packed for around 45 minutes and then by that time much of the space that was usable to store the hampers was used up. After this we went on a tour, which was cool but it wasn't what I had in mind for the whole experience. The tour guide was quite a derelict though which was very entertaining. My preconceived notion of the whole experience was way off. I expected to be preparing food in a kitchen and or serving it to these people, but that was not the case.

I had a conversation about service with a good friend this weekend. Service should be something that we should be willing to do anytime. But in our world nowadays, this is pretty unrealistic. We all have jobs and school that we often put before serving. Service is (oftentimes) something that we "fit in" to our schedule. I do not think that this is what service is supposed to look like but I can't see it looking any other way, in my life anyways.

I think that often my view of service is very narrow-minded in terms of what service actually does look like. When I think of service I think of helping homeless people or serving in a church but I think that service can look different for everyone.

Serve well and serve always. Something I need to work on.

Michael