Janet Sketchley's Blog: Tenacity, page 79
June 26, 2015
When Busy is a Good Thing
I am super pumped. No, I don’t think it’s because of the iced coffee I had this evening—though that could be part of it.
Ever since I came home from this year’s Write Canada conference, it’s been “full steam ahead.” These nine-and-a-half weeks before I head to Scotland for my son’s wedding are going to be jam-packed. And you know something? I love it!
What am I reading?
Most of the time, I thrive on having several projects on the go at once. Thi...
June 24, 2015
Abraham’s Example
Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.
Romans 4:20, NLT*
Abraham believed God. He obeyed, went where he was told, and tried to live a righteous life, but it was his faith that made him “the father of all who believe.”
Perhaps the hardest thing for him to believe was God’s promise to give him and his wife a son. Especially when the years kept passing with no sign of pregnancy. Humanly speaking, it was impossible...
June 22, 2015
Review: The King James Murders, by Linda Hall
The King James Murders, by Linda Hall (Linda Hall, 2015)
Teri Blake-Addison is a former cop turned private investigator. When she accepts an assignment to locate a missing woman, she has no idea how closely it will tie in with the case that made her quit the police force: the one the media dubbed “The King James Murders.”
The missing woman, Kim Shock, is the sister of Barry Shock, who murdered four teenage girls before killing himself. Kim had moved on from her brother’s death, and become a l...
June 19, 2015
Highlights from Write Canada 2015
I spent part of last week at Write Canada, an annual conference for Canadian Christians who write and/or edit. This is my happy place, where I gain practical teaching and build friendships, in an atmosphere that renews my spirit.
After many years at the Guelph Bible Conference Centre, the conference moved to a Toronto hotel this year to be more accessible. This was a positive step, althougha few logistics need tweaking for 2016.
I missed the restful beauty of the grounds in Guelph, but the o...
June 17, 2015
Beyond “Why?”
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”
John 9:3, NLT*
Jesus and his disciples encountered a man who’d been born blind, and the disciples asked about the cause. Apparently in the culture of the time, anything like this was considered a direct result of someone’s sin.
When we encounter difficult situations, how often do we ask if it’s because of something that person, or another, did? Or if we’re the one...
June 15, 2015
Review: Inner Sanctum, by Darlene Oakley
Inner Sanctum, by Darlene Oakley (Lanico Media House, 2014)
In the mid 2100’s, with a global war raging, underground cities were established as refuges. The plan was to assess the inhabitants’ health at the 50-year mark and then seal them in until those on the surface considered it safe to bring them back.
Around 400 years after its founding, Aurora Cassle and her childhood friend, Den Maron, hold responsible positions in the underground city of Egerton. Aurora’s discovery that the population...
June 12, 2015
Tea and Spontaneity
My husband and I can offer visitors over 50 varieties of tea, from one of perhaps 10 pots, in any of a frighteningly large number of mugs or cups. [If that worries you, well it worries me too and I’m on a new mission to downsize our tea capacity — since I don’t want to open a tea room!]
Suffice to say, we love our tea. So this building was iconic to me when I saw it recently in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Red Rose Tea Building, Saint John, NB “Only in Canada, you say?”
Here’s a link to Red Ros...
June 10, 2015
Seeing One Another
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:16-17, NLT*
When we look at our brothers and sisters in Christ, do we remember they’re new people? Or do we focus on the bits of their old nature still clinging to the edges of their newness?
When co...
June 8, 2015
Review: The Icarus Hunt, by Timothy Zahn
The Icarus Hunt, by Timothy Zahn (Bantam Spectra, 1999)
This is one of those novels that I loved on a first read and appreciate just as much (if not more) on subsequent visits when I can watch the hints and clues drop into place.
If Alistair MacLean were to have written a space thriller, it might look like this. Twists, turns, people who aren’t what they seem, and a protagonist I somehow trusted from page one even though his resume testified against him. (That might have had something to do w...
June 5, 2015
Running and Life Lessons
Last Saturday, I participated in my first-ever 5K running event (that’s 5 kilometres for my US friends, which translates to roughly 3.11 miles). This proves that God has a sense of humour, because I have never been athletic.
The Hillside2Haiti run is sponsored by a local church that regularly sends mission teams to Haiti to teach life skills. I’d wondered for a while about attempting a challenge like this, and when I saw the promotional material at another event, I recognized that the time wa...
