Today's soundtrack was the discography of iconic Canadian band Glass Tiger, as I revisited it ahead of their Peachfest show tonight in Penticton. "The Thin Red Line" was one of the first cassette tapes I ever owned. (Yes, the nostalgia industry is now targeting my generation. I'm OK with that.) It's funny how all music hits different as an adult than when growing up, but one line in particular stuck with me today:

Look at me, I'm watching worlds crumble.

To my Christian friends, and particularly leaders in the Christian Church:

I'm seeing more and more posts on Facebook expressing dismay at how Facebook seems to be "censoring" things that have a traditionally Christian viewpoint. There is an increasing amount of hand-wringing over this, which is a bit confusing to me, since the hand-wringing is happening on...Facebook. (The irony of someone using Facebook to comment, "Fascistbook" on a post of this sort isn't even subtle.)

September 30 marks a relatively new "cause day" in Canada. Since 2013, the day has been set aside as "Orange Shirt Day", a day to remember and honour the survivors of a dark chapter in Canadian history: residential schools.

I've always been fascinated by the amount of cross-promotion there is within media companies. I'm not just talking about the ads for shows on the same TV networks that you'll hear during a pro football game. That's one form, but at least that isn't subtle. There's all kinds of other stuff going on, and it's become a bit of a hobby of mine to see whether I can catch the more subtle stuff.

I shot a video today for my congregation, and am sharing it here as the post for tonight. Once you watch (it's only a few minutes), you can read more about it in John 16:1-33.

Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant, keeping the law of God perfectly. He kept the Sabbath, the day of rest on the seventh day of the week. And now, we New Testament Christians, we are freed from needing to observe that day in the same was as ancient Israel. We now find our sabbath rest in Jesus (Colossians 2:16-17, Hebrews 4:8-10); we don't have to work to enter the rest of God.

One of the significant impacts of this pandemic is that people are physically distanced from each other. Well, duh, you might say, but stick with me for a minute.

For so many people, a handshake, a hug, a high-five, are so brief but so meaningful in terms of connection. There are reports out there (I’d look them up if I had more energy; if someone wants to source these for me, that’d be great...) that we need a certain amount of physical contact in a day to be healthy. Tragically, it’s reported that infants can even die without adequate physical touch.