A few years back, I wrote the following and also spoke on it. I recently was drawn back to the theme of “Perseverance” as we journey into the fall and also as I have a milestone birthday. Funny, how these dates come up sooner than you think.

In the country area, where I was raised outside of Sault Ste Marie, we had the best hockey team in the locales surrounding us; most of the players were from the 2 small Baptist churches, which our Pastor served with.
A local Fireman Captain, Doug, was our player coach and his son also played with us; when we were losing, especially going into the third period, in the dressing room, he would look at us and say, we are going to overcome them in this period and you guys need to be resilient.

Throughout our lives, we face “Giants.” They have different names: Fear, Discouragement, Loneliness, Worry, Guilt, Anger, Failure, etc. They do battle with what all of us need, hope, peace, joy, etc. There is a verse in John 14: 27 which are the words of Jesus.
“ I leave the gift of peace with you – my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts – instead, be courageous.”

On the side of a hill, about a twenty-minute hike in from a secluded bay on Long Lake, which adjoins the lake where our family “Sugar Shack” is in Northern Ontario, there is “Balancing Rock”. My grandfather found it many years ago, while hunting in the area and we have made numerous trips there. Don’t ask some of my family about a trip, I was leading, and we got hopelessly lost; that is another story.

One of the chores I enjoyed on the farm (there were not many), was cutting hay; the warm sun, the smell of fresh mown hay and I was in charge of the tractor; I loved being in charge. One particular morning, I was walking out to the field to pick up where I had left off the day before and I was listening to my transistor radio (I just dated myself).

For this week, I want to give you an excerpt from a book which is in the publishing process with Tyndale Publishing and Focus on the Family. I was thinking about this, as I was preparing for this upcoming Sunday.

My parents were caretakers for a group of cottages on three secluded lakes in Northern Ontario. It is an area of 2500 acres with only 7 cottages, plus our family “sugar shack,” where we made maple syrup. It is pristine and still remains this way. I grew up on these lakes . . .