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Midweek Messages - 2026 |
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In 2020, as
the world started to lockdown due to the spread of Covid-19, Rev. Dean
started to write a midweek message to help keep people’s spirits up. He’s
been at it ever since. Read his most recent messages below or go back and
enjoy messages from past years. |
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April 23 – A Name I Did Remember Something my daughter
always gets a laugh at is how bad I am when it comes to remembering and
pronouncing names. This is often the case when I talk with her about TV shows
we might watch together. It does not matter how many episodes I have watched
in the series, when I begin discussing a show with her, I will either forget
the name of a certain character or come up with a completely different name
for him or her. I seem to have the same issue when it comes to remembering
the names of some of her friends too. I will sometimes ask about one of her
friends and say their name, only to receive a blank expression back from my
daughter. After some awkward silence, she will say to me, “Dad. I don’t
have a friend by that name. Are you meaning my friend (insert name).”
When she says the name, naturally I reply, "Yes, that's who I mean.” This problem I have
with remembering names also pops up at times in meetings I moderate. This
past Sunday I was chairing a meeting after church, and I knew the name of the
individual making the motion, but do you think I could recall it when I
needed to. Thankfully the individual saved me by saying his name out loud. Remembering names can
be difficult for me, but so too can pronouncing them. There is a certain
basketball player in the NBA that Coral and I will talk about at times. Every
time I say this player's name, I pronounce it wrong. Even when my daughter
reminds me of the proper pronunciation, I will still say it wrong the next
time I bring his name up. I know what many of
you might be thinking right about now. Believe me this issue has not arisen
since I qualified for the senior's discount at Shopper's Drug Mart. Read more April 16 – One Good Deed Deserves Another In a message I wrote
a few weeks ago I shared how a new employee at Tim Hortons was giving his
best effort by being thorough when it came to cleaning the store and running
to hold the door when customers arrived and left. On Sunday night I twisted
my daughter's arm to agree for me to get her an ice cap from Tims to help
motivate her as she began studying for her university exams. Part of my
motivation for getting her to agree to do so was so that I could treat myself
to a late night double-double. When I arrived,
this same employee happened to take my order. When I met him the first time,
he shared with me how he had been assigned to work six days in a row that
first week. As he was making my drinks, I asked him if he had to work six
days in a row again this week. He stopped making my drinks and I could see he
was thinking carefully what his shifts actually were.
Not being able to recall what his shifts were, he ran into the back and
looked at the schedule without finishing making my drinks. He looked just as
confused when he came back as when he left. He went to the manager on duty
and said, "𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐨. 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐝." I considered the
reminder I gave him to look at his schedule as my good deed in return for him
making the effort to hold the door open for me a few weeks earlier. It should
come as no surprise to anyone that I was back at Tim Hortons on Monday
morning to get another large double-double. This time it was a female
customer entering the store ahead of me who did a good deed by holding the
door open. When she entered, she went in the wrong direction to get in line
at the front counter and ended up behind me instead. Having experienced a
good deed from her I insisted she get in line ahead of me since she arrived
first. We both waited in
line behind a construction worker who is doing some work across the road from
Tims. He had a big order of coffees and donuts for his coworkers on site. Read more April 9 – Daisy and the Painter In early March we had
a painter come in for three days to refresh the paint on our living and
dining room walls as well as in our kitchen and hallway. It is never easy
when a tradesperson comes to our house because our dog Daisy always puts up
quite a fuss. She barks aggressively at them when they first arrive, and even
when they try to make friends with her, she will show her teeth and snarl at
them. I have found it interesting over the years that Daisy is getting quite
a reputation amongst some of the tradespeople. A couple of years ago
I got a reference from my plumber about an electrician. When the electrician
came to my house, he told me the plumber had already warned him about Daisy.
Age has not mellowed Daisy when it comes to contractors. When the painter
arrived, on the first day, Daisy barked and growled at him. I kept Daisy on
her leash the entire day and she stayed up in my office while I did work so
that she would not try and attack the painter. When he arrived on the second
day, he was greeted with more growls and barking. I had a meeting so I took
Daisy to my mom's house so the painter could work safely. By the end of the
second day, we began to notice a difference with
Daisy. Nadine had Daisy on her leash as she was talking to the painter and
decided to let the leash drop. Instead of barking at him, Daisy just wandered
around the area in which he was painting doing some sniffing and inspecting.
Daisy kept her distance from the painter but at least she was not barking
aggressively. When he arrived on
the third and final day I greeted him at the door with Daisy on her leash.
Daisy did not bark like she did on the previous two days. Instead, as he put
down his supplies she went over to him and began licking his hands. I
took her upstairs while he began to work but noticed shortly afterward that
Daisy had made her way back down to where he was working. I went down to make
sure everything was okay and saw Daisy lying on a chair in the living room
watching him while he was applying a second coat on the wall. She spent the
entire day watching and sleeping on the chair beside him while he worked and
never growled once. Read more April 1 - Giving Us His Best Two Saturdays
ago, Coral and I went over to Tim Hortons to sip on some coffee while we each
did some work. A few tables away from us was someone being interviewed for a
position there. After he finished his initial conversation with the manager,
he was handed two binders to read through before meeting with her again. I
peered over at him a few times and could see the effort he was putting into
reading each page in the binders. The very next
Saturday I spotted this same person working behind the counter. I ordered my
coffee and sat down to do some work and about 30 minutes later this employee
came out to clean the tables and empty the trash containers. What caught me
by surprise was that while he was cleaning, whenever he saw a customer
entering or leaving, he would run to the door and hold it open for them. He
did so each time with a smile and either welcomed or thanked the customer for
coming. I am sure this was not included in the training manual he read
the week before. When it came time
for me to leave, he stopped his cleaning and held the door open for me. When
I thanked him for doing so and commented on how it is rare to see an employee
go to such efforts, he responded by saying, "𝐈
𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨
𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐨𝐛,
𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫
𝐦𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭."
I was impressed by what he said, and how his actions and attitude expressed
this. The very next
night Coral and I returned to Tim Hortons to sip coffee and do some work at
one of the tables. Sure enough, this same employee was on and came out to do
a very thorough cleaning of the seating areas and washrooms while we were
working away. Even though it was his fifth day in a row working at his
new job, he was still giving it his very best. We often see this
with people when it comes to starting something new. Perhaps we had that same
approach and attitude when we started a new job, or something else new in our
lives. We often see over time however, that this attitude of maintaining our
best begins to dwindle. Read
more March 26 - Seeing a Proud Father I am writing this
message on the day my daughter celebrates her 20th birthday.
Twenty years ago, on this day I was at London's Sick Kid's hospital awaiting
the arrival of our daughter's birth which came six and a half weeks before we
expected. The people I talked to that morning were my wife Nadine and the
various nurses who were attending to her. I did talk as well to some of the
staff at Tim Hortons at the hospital as I had to have a few coffees to calm
my nerves. Twenty years
later I found myself at the bank on the morning of my daughter's birthday.
When the bank teller asked me what my plans were for the day, I shared with
her how it was my daughter's birthday and that we would be driving to her
university in London later to take her out for supper. That led to a
conversation with the bank teller asking me about what programs my daughter
was studying at university. When I shared
with her how she is planning to take a double major in
governance-leadership-ethics and history, the teller smiled and said that her
father apparently is quite interested in history. She went on to say how much
her dad would love to engage in discussions with a student like my daughter.
As the teller continued processing my deposits, we continued the conversation
by talking about some of the areas my daughter's degrees might lead her into
after graduation. When we came to the end of our conversation, the bank
teller said something that caught me by surprise. She said, "I can
tell how proud you are of your daughter." As I walked out
of the bank I began reflecting upon the bank teller's comment. Read more March 19 - Reminded of Three Things My daughter and I
have become big fans of F1 racing these past few years. Rarely do we miss
watching a race together even if the start time is as early as 3:00 a.m. like
it was in China this past weekend. We have our favorite racers we cheer for,
but they did not end up on the winners' podium this past weekend. The top two
places were captured by Mercedes' drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell
with Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton coming in third position. Lewis Hamilton
drove for Mercedes for twelve years before switching over to Ferrari in 2025.
When he was with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton won 84 races and 6 world
championships. Even though he switched to Ferrari, Toto Wolff who manages
Mercedes still has a soft spot in his heart for Lewis Hamilton. This was very much evident last weekend seeing Toto Wolff's
expressions watching his two current drivers and his former one together on
the winner's podium. There was a huge smile on Toto Wolff's face when he was
interviewed and he said on camera how he could not be more pleased by seeing
these three drivers together. March 12 - Seeing the Writing Over Time On Monday night
my daughter Coral forwarded me an essay she had just finished writing so that
I could proofread it. I was under a tight timeline because I was in the
process of helping Nadine wash down our walls in the living room because we
had a painter coming on Tuesday morning. I received the essay around 9:30
p.m. and it had to be submitted to her professor before midnight. I sat down at the
computer with a coffee beside me and began the task of proof reading. I
love reading her essays because they are often on topics I do not know much
about, so I come away afterward having learned some new things. I do my best
when it comes to proofing, and usually will indicate the corrections I have
made to her spelling or grammar by highlighting them in “red." After I
finish, I usually reach out to her to tell how impressed I was by what she
had written, and I take time to discuss some of the things that intrigued me
as I proofread. Of course, it does not surprise me to hear from my daughter a
few weeks later that she got a high mark and many compliments from her
professor on her essay. After reading my
daughter's university essay on Monday night I read something else done by her
on Tuesday morning. Before the painter arrived, Nadine and I started moving
furniture around so that he would have plenty of access to our walls. When we
placed one of our coffee tables upside-down on the couch, we discovered some
things Coral had written underneath when she was between the ages of 4-7. Read more March 5 - My Recent Film Role I shared with you
last June how I had an acting role in a film my daughter and a few of her
classmates submitted to the Crosscuts Video competition at BCI. Ever since my
acting debut I have been looking to add to my resume. I have been going
through a dry spell as some actors do, but recently my services and skills
were requested. One of the
assignments my daughter had this past week for one of her courses was to come
up with jokes and then film an episode of "Weekend Update" which
appears on every episode of Saturday Night Live. When my daughter first told
me about this, I thought I would be the perfect cohost. I quickly found out
that she could be the only person telling jokes at the news anchor desk. With this role
not being available, I then offered to write some jokes for her. I think
I am a funny guy, but my wife often rolls her eyes at some of my humor. I
wrote up a couple of pages of jokes that included some about the Toronto
Maple Leafs, a few surrounding the Olympics, and
even a couple with respect to politics here in Canada and the United States.
I thought my jokes were quite funny and submitted them to my
daughter. Somehow none of my jokes made the final cut. On Saturday
night, right around the time that Saturday Night Live was on television, my
daughter decided it was time to film. Read
more February 26 - Singing the Blues One would think I
would have been excited on Monday morning with the start of Roll Up to Win
at Tim Hortons. Don't get me wrong, I am happy at the chance of winning some
free coffee. For some reason though I was feeling the blues when I woke up on
Monday morning. I don't know if it had to do with Canada losing to the USA
the day before in the gold medal game at the Olympics. It might have had to
do with having to take my daughter back to university on Monday morning after
she had been home for the past ten days for "Reading Week." My
feeling the blues might have been how some of us feel at the start of a new
week. Whatever was the source for these "blues" I realized I
was not myself emotionally. As I took the
garbage to the curb around 6:00 a.m., suddenly, I found myself humming the
hymn then singing the words to "Precious Lord, Take My Hand." Precious
Lord, take my hand, Lead
me on, help me stand; I
am tired, I am weak, I am worn; Thru the storm, thru the night, Lead
me on to the light, Take
my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. It is not the
first time I have experienced a song being placed on my heart through the
Holy Spirit when I have been feeling down. The hymn lifted me up
somewhat, but I was still feeling the Monday blahs and blues. About 30 minutes
later it was time for me to take our dog Daisy out. As I waited for Daisy to
find her favorite spots to do her morning business, I experienced another
hymn being placed on my heart. Read
more February 19 - What My Shoes Are Telling Me I have been
searching for a new pair of running shoes ever since Christmas. I have looked
at Costco a couple of times and at Al's Shoe store here in Brantford but
could not find anything that I liked in my size or price range. Most of you
who read my mid-week message on a regular basis can guess my price range when
it comes to shoes. The last time I
purchased running shoes was for tennis back in the summer. I was shocked at
that time that I fit into a size 10 when normally I have always been a size 8
or 8.5 when it comes to my shoes. Sometimes I have had to buy shoes that are
extra wide in these sizes due to the reality of my feet. Last week I
stopped into the mall to try the shoe store there while I was waiting for my
mother to come out of an appointment. I spotted a pair of shoes that I liked
the look of and that fell into my cheap price range. They had a great
selection of sizes in this particular shoe and what
excited me was they were all the wide sizing. I started by pulling a box off
the shelf at 8.5 wide. They were too tight. I moved up to 9 wide and found
the same thing. I began thinking I possibly might not need another size 10. I
found a 9.5 wide and tried it on only to find it was too tight. When I put on
the 10 wide, sure enough, it fit perfectly. When I came home
after my shopping experience I shared with my wife and daughter my recent
experiences when it has come to shoe shopping. I
told them how I expected my waist size, the number of grey hairs on my head,
and the number of wrinkles I have to increase as I age, but I never expected
my shoe size to do so. I am in my early 60's now. If this trend continues, I
might be wearing a size 11 or 12 by the time I reach 70. Read more February 12 - I Talked Myself Out of It On Monday morning
I drove my daughter back to university. Usually, I carry her suitcase
into the main door of her campus, give her a big hug
goodbye, and make a quick stop at the bathroom before driving back to
Brantford. This past Monday I decided to take her suitcase up to her room and
help her quickly unpack because we arrived a bit later than usual. When
somebody parks at her university and plans to stay for any considerable time
they must pay on the Honk mobile app. I knew I would be only ten to fifteen
minutes, so I decided to take a chance and not pay for a parking voucher
because the minimum time is an entire hour. In all of
my visits to the university I have only encountered a parking attendant once,
so I felt the odds were on my side. When I came down
from my daughter's room, I took a quick glance outside and did not see a
ticket on my car. Nature called, so I thought it
would be safe to visit the bathroom before leaving. When I came outside, I
spotted the parking attendant standing by my vehicle about to write me up for
an infraction. He must have just started the process when I said to him,
"You caught me!" I explained to him that I had just dropped
my daughter off from Brantford and went in quickly to use the bathroom before
my return trip. Yes, I omitted taking 15 extra minutes to help my daughter
unpack. Thankfully the parking attendant showed my bladder some grace in this
situation. He told me, "Don't worry about it. You got to do what you
got to do." With that he walked off and I realized I had just
successfully talked myself out of a parking ticket. It is funny how
this incident got me thinking back to a time 42 years earlier when I talked
myself out of a ticket. I was 17 or 18 at the time, and I remember parking
the car on Darling Street at a parking meter. I am pretty sure I put in a
dime or quarter, but the time ran out before I got back to my car. When I
returned to my car, I stumbled upon a by-law enforcement officer writing me
up. I tried to talk myself out of that ticket, but I was not successful.
I wonder if the difference this past Monday had to do with me being a better
talker since becoming a pastor or was it because I failed to blame my bladder
back then. I am sure we have
all had experiences of trying to talk ourselves out of situations. Sometimes
these situations involve conversations with others like in my case on Monday,
but other times we are talking just to ourselves to get out of doing
something. Read more February 5 - Checking Our Thermostat When I climbed
out of bed Saturday morning, I could tell right away the temperature in the
house had dropped overnight. Nadine got up to inform me that she noticed the
temperature drop and replaced the batteries in the thermostat during the
middle of the night thinking that it might fix the problem. We both thought
the worst at this moment: that our furnace was not working. So many negative
thoughts began to go through my mind, starting with why did this have to
happen on a weekend when the temperatures were as cold as they were? I
also began to worry that if the furnace needed a part, would they have it on their service vehicle or would we have to wait until
Monday to get it working? I also began contemplating whether we should stay
in the house and endure the cold if we could not get the heat back on after
the service call or stay at my mom's house. Naturally, the cheap side of me
began to worry how much more it would cost having a contractor come in on a
weekend. When I got down
to our main level I went over to the thermostat and saw the temperature in
the house had already dropped to 15 degrees Celsius. When I looked at the
thermostat, I noticed that the setting was not on heat. I switched the
setting back to heat, and said a prayer while waiting to hear if the furnace
would kick in. Read more January 29 - Let It Snow The title alone
to my message may already have some people reading this upset. Many people
have shared with me how sick and tired they are of all the snow we have
experienced to date. We knew a bad snowstorm was coming this past weekend.
Last Friday we were already hearing reports to expect flight delays and
cancellations over the weekend. Churches and other groups were beginning to
send out news that their services and programs might be cancelled on Sunday.
Warnings were also issued to stay in on Sunday and avoid being on the roads. Sometimes these
storm warnings do not turn out to be as bad as predicted, but this one
delivered as expected. Like most people, I found myself bundling up in warm
clothes and shoveling my driveway several times on Sunday. Even though we got
a lot of snow, thankfully it was not too heavy to shovel. While I was
shoveling, I found myself singing over and over,
"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." I was surprised
that I was singing these words to be quite honest. I like the sight of snow,
but I do not enjoy the disruptions that storms like we received on Sunday can
cause. I do not mind shoveling my driveway, but 3 or 4 times during a day can
be much. After I got back
in, I sat down at my table and wrote out the word "snow." As
I focused on the word, I began seeing other words that can be derived from
its letters. Read more January 22 - No Worries I had quite an
adventurous drive on Monday morning driving my daughter back to university in
London. We left early because she had an appointment at 10:00 a.m. with an
academic advisor. We had no sooner got off the 403 and turned onto the 401
westbound when the traffic came to an immediate stop. After almost a half
hour without moving more than a few car lengths we decided my daughter should
message her academic advisor to reschedule because we had no idea how long we
would be caught on the highway. After she sent a message to her advisor, my
daughter began to worry if she might miss her first class because she had a
test that morning. I told her not to worry that at the first opportunity I
would get off the 401 and take Highway 2 into London. Thankfully, about
15 minutes later, I was able to get to one of the exit ramps in Woodstock and
start making our way toward London. When we arrived at my daughter’s
residence, I grabbed her suitcase while she got her backpack so I could free
up her hands as we entered. It just so happened that another student was
coming out the door as we were about to enter. I did a quick jog, without too
much heavy breathing on my part, to keep the door open for my daughter
because it automatically locks afterward. When I thanked this student for
opening the door for us, she responded, “No worries.” This is not the
first time I have heard somebody reply this way when
I have thanked them for something. More often I will hear them reply with, “You
are welcome,” or with “My pleasure.” I don’t know if
it is a generational thing, or just this student’s preference, but I found
myself thinking a lot about her response on the drive back home. Wouldn’t it
be nice if we had “no worries” to speak of. This is rarely the case for us at
times in our lives. Read more January 15 - Socks and Soles and Other Souls In the lead up to
Christmas my wife often complained that I was borrowing her black socks and
stretching them out by wearing them. I wish I could say her complaint was
unwarranted, but it was legitimate. The problem was I could no longer find
matches to any of my black dress socks. Even though
Nadine's black socks were casual in style, they fit the purpose well enough
whenever I had to dress up for ministry. After many
legitimate complaints I figured I would be getting some black socks of my own
for Christmas. I tried to find my wife some new socks before Christmas too,
but where I normally get them was out of stock. Nadine purchased some from
Amazon for herself, but when they came in, they were very thin on the bottom,
so she sent them back. A few days ago, I happened to notice a pair of my new socks on Nadine's feet. I was about to complain
when I realized I could not say they would be stretched out because her feet
are much smaller than mine. We have quite a collection of socks in our house
right now. It begins with a pile of socks that we have no matches for. Every
time we do a load of laundry and find a sock without a match, we look through
the pile to see if we can find its mate. Unfortunately, it seems like the
pile keeps growing rather than dwindling. Read
more January 8 - Reminded of a Parable I shared in my
mid-week message last week how my neighbour, who is
a Montreal Canadiens fan, provided me with some of his salt so I could put it
on my icy driveway. It is interesting how we get along so well as neighbours considering the difference in hockey teams we
cheer for. I am wondering if I am coming across in a positive way to other
Montreal Canadiens fans as well. The reason why I say this is because on
Sunday after the church service was over a Montreal Canadiens fan came up to
me with a gift. They wanted me to open the gift with them
present and much to my shock they gave me a Toronto Maple Leafs
ball cap. It is one thing to receive a bag of salt from a Montreal Canadiens
fan, but to be given a Toronto Maple Leafs cap came
as a complete surprise. I tried my new hat on for the first time when I got
home and even my daughter commented on how good it looked on me. I can't wait
for warmer weather to come along again so that I can show off my new Toronto
Maple Leafs cap. These two
incidents during this past week reminded me how, despite the differences we
may have with others, it should not stand in the way of us showing care and neighbourly love toward one another. While this has been
the case with the differences I have with Montreal Canadiens fans, this was
not what we saw happen in the parable Jesus shared about the Good Samaritan. Read more January 1 - Some More Salt Needed Most winters I
can get through with only needing one bag of salt for my driveway and steps.
I tend to use it sparingly with having a dog to take out regularly. Like
other years, I started off this winter with a bag of salt ready for another
Canadian winter. After the freezing rain we received on Boxing Day my
driveway became a sheet of ice. It did not take long for my bag of salt
to be used up. I went over to my local Home Hardware on Sunday afternoon to
purchase some more only to discover they were sold out. The staff said that
they were expecting another shipment on Monday morning. I noticed one
customer was eyeballing the salt sold for water softeners as a possible
alternative. When I arrived
home empty handed, my neighbor happened to pull into his icy driveway after
being away for a few days. As soon as he got out of his vehicle, he had
to grab his car to avoid sliding all the way down his driveway. An hour
or so later I was outside in the rain doing my best to chip away at the ice
on my driveway. My neighbor happened to come out to do the same and shared
how he had 4 bags of salt. Even though my neighbor is a Montreal Canadiens
fan he showed kindness toward his Toronto Maple Leaf-loving one. He offered
me one of his four bags of salt to throw down on my driveway. I gratefully
accepted and told him I would replace it when Home Hardware got their
shipment the next day. When I stopped
into Home Hardware on Monday morning the shipment had not arrived
yet. At the same time, I received a message from my neighbour
that he would like a few more bags of salt if I found them there. I stopped
into Home Hardware again on Monday afternoon and noticed they had some
salt. Unfortunately, the brand they got in was three times the price
that I normally pay. Of course, many of you know how cheap I am and the
dilemma I was finding myself in. Thankfully at the
same moment my neighbor texted again and said he was at No Frills and found 4
bags of salt. It is a short drive for me from Home Hardware to No Frills, so
I headed over immediately. Read more |
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