Life Is A Journey Completed

This past Sunday, I attended the dedication of a memorial bench in honour of a well-respected minister who was the pastor of  an historic church in the Olde Sandwich Towne district of Windsor. Sandwich First Baptist Church was organized in the early 1840's, by escaped slaves from the Southern States. Rev. Burey, who was an avid student of history worked tirelessly to preserve not only the building, but educate the community concerning its importance. The church has now been designated a "National Historic Site".

Rev. Burey was a Jamaican Canadian who was involved in the larger community as well as the spiritual health of the church community. He was also a husband and father.  I will not go on to list all the credentials of this very vital and active man who passed away in 2003, but the inscription on the bench interested me.

Life Is A Journey Completed.  It gave me pause to think of my own journey.  Am I making use of all the opportunities God has given me to affect my community and the people I love? I think I have been doing my best with my children, my work, friends and relatives.  Is my own journey a fulfilling one, for me as well as pleasing to God? There are so many facets of my life I don't get a chance to work on.  I am really looking forward to retirement, when I think I will have time to do all the things I have been putting off! I'd better be well enough to do all those things!

This is something I must think about more fully, and perhaps report back to you!

Reason For Living

Why are we here? Why do we keep on "keeping on"? What gets us up in the morning, and why do we continue to go through our daily routine, even though some days we just do not "feel like" doing what we are supposed to on this particular day?

When we are younger, we just obey, and try to make our parents and family proud. Later, we find peers, personal goals, and maybe a dream of being a doctor, artist, parent, minister or missionary.  A book I am reading now says God has had everything planned for our life from the beginning. Maybe the key is to find God's plan for our life, and work from there.

But what about the day when everything is just too much?  God never promised us a 'stress-free, bed of roses' for a life! There will always be road blocks to fulfilling our dreams. What can we do to shelter us from the people and situations that attack our peaceful progress? What do you look forward to when you get home?  I enjoy my time of bible study in the morning, reading regular books (who done it's), painting, playing the piano, and just listening to music, most kinds; later in the evening, before bed I like to watch TV. 

I am a very fortunate person.  I have two wonderful sons, a daughter-in-love, granddaughter, sister, aunts, uncles and cousins (my parents have both passed now) and of course, many friends. If you don't have that, what helps you to keep going? I like listening to music, when I'm upset I prefer quiet music, but, everyone is different. As I said in my last blog, we just got a dog, I had forgotten how dependent they are! But wait! What a joy to enter my house now!  Just walking through the door, he is so excited to see me!  Be it three minutes to get the mail, or after a morning of work!  Taking him for a walk is pure adventure! He sees and smells so many interesting things, I just doubt if I will ever know the significance of each.

One thing I pray for each morning, is that God will allow me to be a blessing to someone every day,  when you are looking for blessings around each corner, it is hard not to see God's work in progress. In my case, the key to each day is to study God's word, pray hard and often, (known as a constant state of prayer) and trust God to be just in time.  In the meantime, find joy in everything you see, hear, and experience, and rest in Him.

Have a great, and joy-filled day!

Phoebe