I didn’t go to pay my respects at the cenotaph this year. Nor did I take a moment’s silence on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month–I was in my office by myself, which is no excuse, I suppose. But my heart and thoughts were there.

Over the last month I have devoted a lot of time at 37,000 feet meditating on the sacrifice made by so many soldiers for their homelands, their principles, and for our freedom. I’ve also thought about their civilian victims.

For airplane reading I’ve been spellbound by a fat, 1200 page book by a Dutch historian (”Europa” by Geert Mak) of the last century. In it Mak unblinkingly explodes the myths that have formed to cover up the ugly truth that people don’t want to live with. One example: the carrying out of the holocaust and “the final solution” were public and well known on both sides of the war. Yet the allies placed it very far down their priority list while the bureaucracies, the public, and the business folks in “The Third Reich” willingly participated in making it happen. So did most of the police, officials, and citizens of the occupied countries. And, with a few notable exceptions, the churches said and did squat.

In both Canada and the U.S. troops are still coming back in body bags or physically and emotionally battered and scarred for life. The price of freedom?

I’m so grateful for their sacrifice. May God bless them and keep them! But as Christ-believers we owe it to every member of our armed forces to participate vigorously in the moral and political debate as to our continued role in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

We can pray for Obama and for Harper as both have received new mandates from their respective electorates. But we need to do more as believers. We need to give guidance, individually and collectively. As churches we need to speak out–not with political, programmatic, and logistical advice. That’s not our area of expertise and that would diminish our ability to proclaim the gospel clearly and unequivocally. But on the moral issues we may not remain silent.

Check out what the CRC is doing/saying about war and peace (www.crcna.org). Lend your wisdom. Lend your voice. Lend a hand. Lest we forget.

Well, the time has finally come for you to vote. As one of the “frozen chosen” from the North Country let me assure you that we’re praying for you as you make the significant decision to vote or not vote, and, if you do (as, of course, you should,), whom you will vote for.

Please remember that your choice will affect not just you or your immediate community. It will also affect folks around the world. So think globally as you vote locally.

Think especially of your citizenship in  a realm that comes from God, a realm not made with hands, as the writer of Hebrews puts it. Act as a true ambassador of that country as you fill in your ballot.

That’s the only country that should enjoy your true allegiance. And it’s the only one that will ultimately survive.

The worldwide economic crisis we presently face is unprecented. More than ever before we see how deeply enmeshed all the players on the world stage really are: countries, corporations, investors–the list goes on and on.

Christians worldwide are not at all immune from the fallout. Right along with our neighbors, we’ll experience the sting of the sins of greed and the worship of Mammon. Yet we also believe that Jesus is Lord of all and Lord over all. What’s Jesus doing in all this and through all this? Is there an up side? If so, what is it? What are the opportunities for Christ-followers in all this?

I would love to hear from some of our economists and theologians. Like never before this is the time they need to sit down together, pray, and do some careful investigating with one eye on the Word and the other on the numbers.

We need careful discernment and some strong, clear leadership on this. Seems to me this  somehow presents us with a fantastic opportunity to witness to the Truth.

For starters, might this be the time for us to make wise investments in God’s promises (Jeremiah 32)?

Just askin’.

The debate between the five federal political party leaders in Canada and the debate between the vice-presidential candidates in the U.S. took place at exactly the same time. I toggled back and forth between them as I tried to focus in on the issues that interested me most on both sides of the border. I couldn’t catch everything that way, but I caught enough, I think, not to need to call an aging VCR into service (especially since I can’t remember where I left the blank tapes, which are now more than a decade old).

I wanted to remain cynical, but couldn’t. There was the usual amount of finger-pointing and posturing, of course. But the parties involved in both debates were also willing to voice agreement on key issues. I found that helpful to get a clearer view of where the differences really lay on matters of principle as well as practice.

What I concluded from both debates is that all these potential leaders recognize that in both our nations we’re caught between immediate financial concerns and longterm stewarding of this planet. The key differences among the wanna-be’s seem to be how aggressively they would tackle the one at the expense of the other.

Must we choose between  the well-being of underprivileged people today and the well-being of our children and grandchildren in the future? Is there a way out of this? As Christians we’re called to address both. Is there a win-win?

How small and interlaced our world has become! The present financial crisis has cascaded down to every nation and every social grouping around the planet. How did it begin? A faltering economy? A drop in house prices magnified by extending mortgages to folks who couldn’t afford it?

I’m no economist. But I’ll bet that, bottom-line, greed has a lot to do with it. So why should governments bail out those who selfishly caused this mess?

I really like the one example I heard and I wonder if it’s fitting. I’d love to hear from those of you who are more knowledgeable about the world economy whether the analogy holds or not. According to this example, the present crisis is similar to a guy who smokes in bed and puts his apartment on fire. Question: so if he’s going to be this irresponsible, why should firefighters risk their lives to rescue him and his place? Answer: because, if they don’t, the fire will also take out all the innocents who share the apartment complex with him.

While I pray for governments to make wise decisions, I’m also going to take a closer look at Jesus’ teachings about money. There’s something very rotten in the state of Canada, the U.S., China, Russia, and all the other states as well.

Laurels to all those who participated in this cross-continent biking event. I know the experience was exciting, character-building, stretching, and well-worth the effort of raising many $$$ to end the cycle of poverty. I’m ever so grateful.

But I’m more than grateful that there were no deaths or life-altering injuries along the way. Given all the cyclists I know who have sustained serious altercations with motor vehicles, potholes, curbs, et al, we prayed hard for the safety of all who journeyed continent-wide with only their own hide as a bumper.

All in all there’s something deeply wrong with North America if we have to take our life in our hands every time we climb on the iron horse. We need to learn from Europe.

I viewed Obama’s acceptance speech yesterday. I won’t offend the sisters and brothers south of the 49th parallel by recklessly intruding into your political discussions. But what caught my attention was his promise of bringing morality back into government. I hope he means it. And if McCain gets to be president I hope he will do that too.

I’m rather astounded at the ethical ambiguity displayed by the West when it comes to the Russian bullying of Georgia. It roundly condemns Russia for conducting a military invasion on a country that is not directly threatening it. Okay so far. But what about the invasion of Iraq and the decapitation of its leadership? Why was that not roundly condemned as well?

And take a look at what’s happening in the North now that global warming is opening up the North West passage. There’s a mad dash by any number of countries, Canada at the front of the pack, to get in on the action, quibbling about who has sovereignty over what. It seems like the same old same old when it comes to nations shifting or entirely occluding geographical and moral boundaries when it is to their own perceived advantage.

Obama promises change. I hope he means it. I hope and pray that the next president of the U.S.A., whoever it will be, will bring virtue, unflinching morality, and sound ethics to federal and international politics. But, frankly, from my own admittedly jaded perspective, and from re-reading the Old Testament books of Samuel and Kings, it makes me think that that would actually be the very first time in human history that strong, moral leadership on such a grand scale actually managed to get past mere rhetoric.

As “resident aliens” in our own countries, regardless of who gets the nod from the America voter, we need to remain vigilant as ambassadors of that other Kingdom that is already here but that is still in the process of becoming.

So the Christian Reformed Church, together with the Reformed Church in America, is busy putting together a new Psalter Hymnal. Is that something we still need when techies in every church can import songs directly from the internet into their screen projection programs? Why not just buy the CCLI license every year and be done with it?

Well, first off, some churches still use the books they have in the pew and prefer not to go with projection. Secondly, there are some things about the present Psalter Hymnal that aren’t doing us any favors (e.g.: the majority of the Psalms that are  universally ignored). And then there’s the built-in obsolenscence factor–we burn out some good songs and are always discovering new ones we want to have included in our repertoire, something we can’t expect from a quarter-century-old songbook. So it’s time to look for something new.

All good reasons, at least, to consider making the investment. But, perhaps, the most important would be to create a Psalter Hymnal that would include, and only include, those songs that we all agree should be in our shared fund of songs that we should all sing and know: young or old, contempory or traditionally oriented, rural or urban, western-Canadian or Floridian. The collection, whether printed or online or both, would be very small–maybe two-hundred max. That way every church would have a reasonable expectation of singing each one at least once a year. Each congregation could then supplement that collection with any and every other song from whatever place it might scrounge them up.

Why would a shared fund of songs be a high value? Because we sing our theology. And we use the Psalms and hymns we remember when we comfort ourselves or our loved ones on our deathbeds. That’s when it really matters that we don’t just have songs only in hymnbooks or in computer collections, but that we have them imprinted in our memories.

Much of the confessional depth and unity we once enjoyed as a denomination was directly due to the songs we sang and knew. Much of the comfort and strength we experienced in excruciatingly hard times came from them. Today we’ve pretty well lost the depth, the unity, and the comfort of a shared musical treasury. If a new Psalter Hymnal can reverse that trend, then I’m all for making the investment. But let’s not bother to make the vain attempt of covering all the bases again. In this info age where there’s an explosion of new songs and accessibility to them, we can’t possibly do that and there’s simply no need for it.

Okay, so I admit I like watching the Olympics. The drama! The intensity! The fact that I hate getting involved in physical exertion but can watch it for hours!

At the time of writing, after a week of events, Canada has not yet gained a single medal. Frankly, I’m fine with that. I can’t say that I get any vicarious glory from fellow Canadians excelling in sports I am and always have been incredibly lousy at.

What I do find painful is to watch competitors who devote their entire lives striving for Olympic glory having their dream dashed in a single gaffe or bad call. And there are tons more of those than the very few who find their way to the podium.

I define an idol as a no-god to which we sacrifice too much. Does Olympic glory fit that bill? What do you think??

Off on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I’ll let this blog lie fallow for a spell. But do keep your responses coming. Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you who have responded to any of the posts. I really appreciate your input. I don’t agree with everything y’all say, just as you don’t agree with everything I’m on about. But the on-going conversation is very helpful to me. I often have to repress the urge to interact more and continue with some of the discussion threads that have developed. But I have to watch my time closely, what with being a half-timer and all.

But thanks again for your interest and willingness to share your advice, your info, and your opinions. I do watch this blog closely and the stuff we stir up here has a way of enriching the print Banner.

God bless!