I loved my trip to NB this year and also had the chance to visit the CN Tower, explore Niagara region and do a quick visit to the Parliament buildings. I spent time praying for friends and reflecting on ministry. One clear message from God was that it is vital to serve people who are hurting. One of the temptations of any church is to get caught up in being busy. Believe me, C-Road is a busy church but at the same time, the busy-ness is not meaningful unless we are in the business of God which is about serving the poor and binding up the broken-hearted. I am so grateful that our team is committed to this type of ministry and that our main task as a staff is to continue to unleash people into this ministry and facilitate the opportunities for lay people to serve. Praying that in this upcoming ministry season, we continue to make strides in helping the hurting in the name of Jesus. 

I am writing this blog on a week when there are much more significant and pressing issues going on in the world. Haiti is in the midst of apocalyptic distress. We should all be doing what we can to pray, give and support the effort to alleviate the suffering.

In much less important news. I have watched the late night television conflict play out in the popular media and it struck me that Jay and Conan are representative of a phenomenon I have experienced in my own life. Jay Leno is a baby boomer. To his credit, he is a hard worker, maybe one of the hardest working entertainers in Hollywood. Jay still draws an audience because of the power of his demographic. For Baby Boomers, it has always been about them. They were the biggest generation to hit North America ever. When they were children, schools were built, when they were teens, colleges and universities were built. Roads and Suburbs, homes, health care systems and new ways of doing church have been designed to meet the needs of the Boomers. I am not complaining. This is what has shaped men like Jay Leno.

Conan on the other hand is representative of my generation, Gen X. X'ers have benefitted greatly from all of the systems that had to be in place to accomodate the boomers. For X'ers however, we grew up with a sense that life revolved around the boomers and that our contributions would ultimately not measure up. X'ers are hard working and entrepreneurial as a generation a la Conan but have a difficult time breaking through in the popular imagination because their contributions get lost or are claimed by boomers.

For the millenial generation, Conan O'Brian is lumped in with Jay Leno and therefore only seems hip to X'ers who do not make up enough population to garner a winning audience. Therefore, Jay by the sheer number of boomers who still stay up late can win the battle for the late night time slot and leave Conan out in the cold.

I processed any bitterness about this generational reality a few years back when I came to the tough realization that boomers could not understand this dilemma. I have come into conflict with more than one baby boomer colleague and have never been able to help any of them understand. Most have been gracious and for that, I am thankful.

Jay Leno will win this battle because demography is destiny. Conan never had a chance.

I have been on a Blogging Break for just under a year. I cannot believe how time flies.

This weekend at SJ1, I am teaching from Genesis 32 about Jacob's wrestling match. The big idea for the message is that Jacob struggled his entire life to get to the top in any situation he found himself in and the impending meeting with his older brother has finally brought him to the end of his scheming and struggling. He finally calls out to God and as Forrest Gump said regarding Lietenant Dan, "God showed up!"

In North America we struggle and strive to keep everything under control and yet every time we think we have a handle on things, life has a way of catching up with us. We must not strive to end our struggles as much as we must understand God wants to meet us and grow us in the midst of normal human struggles that many times will be beyond our control.

Please pray that I may apply this message to my life and leadership and that God will bless us as we experience this message as an "Event in Time" this weekend.

Grace and Peace,

E