Letters

Dear __________

Yes, please do call me Randy. When I moved from Winnipeg to Prince Albert to pastor the church there, there was already a guy called Randy Friesen there. So I shifted to my actual name, Randall. But as I age, I miss the old Randy, so I am more and more introducing myself as that. So, please feel free to call me by name.

Processing so much life when we are thoughtful individuals can be a real challenge. So we listen to a preacher or a talking head and it makes us think deep thoughts, and we need a place to process that stuff. Normally, when I preach, I try to focus on one big idea for the day, because usually one big idea is enough for people. But I find with this recorded format that I tend to sometimes be a bit all over the place. That also comes from not writing down what I’m going to say before I say it. The reason for that is it just takes so much extra time to work that out, so the recording can be a bit all over the place. I do try to edit that out to some success, :-) but it is what it is, and I am praying and trusting the Lord to use whatever there is there for his glory.

I do quite enjoy the discipline of it. The daily time in the word and prayer is good for my soul. The numbers aren’t vast, but I felt like when God was asking me to take it up again that numbers didn’t matter, hearts did. So I’m trying to leave that up to him and just focus on obedience and faithfulness.

All that to say, sorry about stirring up too many things each day. 🙄

One of your comments resonated with me so well. I believe it was where you identified that your upbringing was considerably safe or sheltered. That’s been my experience as well. And so it’s taken me well into my adult years to meet people who are actually wicked. I used to think that was just a Bible term but no, there are very wicked evil people out there. And for reasons that only God might know right now, the hearts of so many people are being exposed, and wickedness is found within.

The world is not what it was when we grew up. The divisions between races and genders, sexualities, and politics is so pronounced in these past years, That it feels like violence is just around the corner every day. If not physical violence, then certainly spiritual or emotional or mental violence comes at us every day. As you infer, it is exhausting. And so different from our childhood. I sound like an old fart when I say, I miss those days when we had some things in common with our neighbours.

(I heard an author the other day, who was indicating that her research, and the point of her latest writing was that you can tell that a culture or a country is about to die when it begins to wrestle with its identity in human sexuality. This is pronounced when the society moves into areas of gender, changing, and reassignment. She had observed it in her studies of nations of the past. But her point was that western civilization is now going down that road and so there is reason to believe that western civilization timing is up. And so we may watch as it disintegrates.)

So I suppose part of the tension we feel, and the violence we experience, is just in how our society is falling apart.

And then we see nature pushing back whether it’s killer fires in Chile, or killer rainstorms in California, or killer snowstorms on the east coast… And that’s just this week.

Rather than see them as God, calling us to attention, calling us to repentance, we blame global warming, and those people on the other end of the spectrum from where we might reside.

As you might’ve put together by now, the state of the world is high on my list of neediness right now. We are in trouble and I can only wonder that things will get worse.

I like your closing thoughts as well. That we only have our little corner of the world to manage. That’s what I tell our kids, all we have power over is our corner of the world and we can make a big difference there. And a wonderful, healthy world could be discovered as everyone just takes care of their own little patch. That’s all we can do and that’s all we’ve been entrusted with.

As I say, I enjoy your thoughtfulness, so yes, feel free to drop me a note anytime.

We need each other as we fumble towards glory. And so I am glad there are people like you in this world, making a difference.

Many blessings, Randy