Missteps Caused by Habits

Don’t you hate it when you suddenly make a misstep?  You feel so dumb.  Our kitchen in our heritage home has been renovated this past month.  The floor was raised up three inches which was badly in need of levelling. There had been a small ramp up to the living-room from the kitchen.  Out of habit Gary and I often find ourselves stepping up high from one room to the other. We also have to keep ourselves from “thunking” down into the laundry room beside the kitchen which is 3 inches lower than before.  Gary was pushing a kitchen cabinet out the back door and again misstepped due to the porch being lower.  He fell on the cabinet and came up with several scratches on his body.  Do you think we will ever learn? At least if we drop a marble on the one side of the kitchen it won’t roll down hill to the other side.  (You will have to ask him about his marble story!)

Gary was out walking one day when some teens whizzed by him on their noisy unlicensed, off-road motorbikes.  He put up his hands to slow them down, but they paid him no heed.  One guy came so close that Gary misstepped sideways and fell to the ground – one more scratch added to his wounded body.  He decided to call the police who arrived five minutes later.  As they were talking near our home, two of the riders returned speeding.  The officers quickly stopped them with the result they were not allowed to drive their bikes home.  Gary became the hero of the village for a few days over taking a stand with these teens who are looking for something exciting to do.  They will make a lot of missteps in their lives to come, unless someone comes along side of them to change their misguided habits, don’t you think?

Milton is a town full of people who are constantly misstepping due to poorly ingrained habits, lack of hope or maybe a lack of guidance from someone who cares. Our Hillside church wants to have the opportunity to show that we do care and can help with their sad lives; however, we have not made much progress thus far.  We do not know the reason for not being approved for the Canada Summer Jobs program this year which is a great disappointment.  We are planning a smaller outreach campaign in August based on funding from internal and external donations that the church has received.  This will be managed by Scott Lockhart.  He will soon return from visiting his parents in BC who run a Christian camp on Victoria Island.  He is looking for another reasonably-priced apartment in Milton for September.  We still have not found a new meeting place for the church.  We do value the prayers that you make when you think of our situation with all the ups and downs. 

As we get older and have accumulated numerous inconsequential habits along the way, we are prone to misstep or stumble more and more physically or otherwise.  It is comforting to read the Psalmist David’s words when he reports, “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37:24

I hope you are enjoying another holiday weekend,

Wendy   

Wendy.carter@kainos.org