Every January we get to grapple with the implications of the second half of that familiar Christmas Greeting: “…and a Happy New Year!” Alexander Pope said in 1733: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Pope suffered from childhood tuberculosis that left him hunched over, reaching a height of only 4 feet 6 inches. But he never let this steal his hopefulness and his joyfulness.
“Happy” comes from the old Norse word “Happ”, which means chance, luck, or lot. Happiness is just that which happens to you by chance occurrence. Many people are desperately trying to be happy. But happiness, by definition, is haphazard, arbitrary, and temporary. As a teenager, I tried to be happy, and to make my personal happiness the purpose of my life. What I discovered is that chasing after the elusive goal of happiness is guaranteed to make one unhappier than ever.
Rather than aiming for temporary happiness, I have learned to value the more lasting quality of joy. Joy has such depth that I have found that I can be joyful when unpleasant unhappy things happen haphazardly to me. Simon Peter taught that it is possible to be joyful with an unspeakable joy. Joy is described in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as a “vivid emotion of pleasure, gladness, thing that causes delight”. What causes gladness and delight in your life? The birth of a baby? Graduating from High School or University? Attending your son or daughter’s wedding?
I have found that joy is a choice. I can choose to rejoice always, even in the midst of great suffering and setbacks. James, Jesus’ brother, said that we should count it all joy when we face challenges. It is not easy to be joyful in all circumstances. The good book teaches that joy is a fruit of God’s Holy Spirit. When the Christmas angels turned up at the Bethlehem manger, they proclaimed glad tidings of great joy for all people. Jesus, right before his crucifixion, said that he wanted His joy to be inside of us, and our joy to be full. In other words, he wants us to be inwardly joyful: full of joy, overflowing with joy. Without the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, this is impossible. Joy needs to be like an artesian well springing up from within. It can’t be artificially produced or induced.
All of us need more joy in our lives. Joy is the secret of a genuinely happy New Year. Joy keeps the stresses and pressures of life from burying us before we are dead. Thirty-nine years ago in January 1972, at age 17, I encountered a joy that changed me from the inside out. This joy was so joyful that it made me full of joy! Without trying, I developed a smile that wouldn’t go away. I really became a different person, so much so that my friends at High School noticed the difference. Some even wanted in on the action.
My parents initially were a bit worried. Having a joyful, peaceful teenager in their family took a little getting used to. But eventually they too saw a permanent change in their son that made them joyful too. There is something about an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that connects us deeply to the gift of joy. No wonder that C.S. Lewis, the atheist turned believer, entitled his autobiography “Surprised by Joy”. My New Year’s prayer for those reading this article is that joy may spill into all of our lives in surprising and life-changing ways.
The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, BSW, MDiv, DMin
-previously published in the North Shore News/Deep Cove Crier
P. S. Click this Amazon link to view for free the first two chapters of our new novel Blue Sky.
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident…”
Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.
Sandy receives shocking news that her children aren’t safe, which brings back haunting memories of the trauma she experienced as a girl. Then, the unthinkable happens…
A brutal attack puts Sandy on the brink of losing everything she’s loved. Her faith in God and the family she cherishes are pushed to the ultimate limit.
Is healing possible when so many loved ones are hurt? Are miracles really possible through the power of prayer? Can life return to the way it was before?
Blue Sky reveals how a mother’s most basic instinct isn’t for survival… but for family.
If you’re a fan of Karen Kingsbury, then you’ll love Blue Sky. Get your copy today on paperback or kindle.
-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook form. Dr. JI Packer wrote the foreword, saying “I heartily commend what he has written.” The book focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus’ healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how we can embrace a holistically healthy life.
To receive a signed copy within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
To purchase any of our six books in paperback or ebook on Amazon, just click on this link.
There are few people who had as deep an impact on the Baby-Boomers than the late Dr. Timothy Leary. He was even portrayed speaking at a rock music festival in the amazing Jesus Revolution movie.
Born in 1920, if still living, he would be 103 this year! Many people remember him for his hippie slogan ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out.’
I recently read a fascinating Timothy Leary biography by Robert Greenfield. It showed me how little I actually knew about Timothy Leary, and yet how deeply he impacted the lives of my fellow baby-boomers. Just like his ‘great American hero’ the late Hugh Hefner (1926 to 2017), Timothy Leary was from the older ‘builder’ rather than ‘boomer’ generation. So why did we boomers trust someone over 30 when Leary advocated the LSD revolution?
Dr. Timothy Leary’s impact came from his Harvard & Berkeley university credentials, his oratory skills, and his claim that LSD would open you up spiritually and socially. Some people see him as the ‘Forrest Gump’ of the counter-culture; he was always there reinventing himself as culture shifted, even in the 1990s. Timothy Leary was a tragic ‘pied piper’ figure who led many youth into addiction while destroying his own health and personal relationships.
Despite what my adult children may think, I was never a hippie. Relative to the 70’s, I thought that my hair was relatively short, even if it was way over my collar. I remember when my parents warned me against drug usage at the local Oak Park that I hung around. I naively told my parents that there were no drugs at Oak Park. Later that night, I saw drugs everywhere. I noticed a pecking order in drug usage. Glue-sniffers were definitely at the bottom of the heap, as everyone knew that this was bad for the brain. I can still remember the smell of young people doing glue-sniffing late at night.
My favorite band as a teenager was Led Zeppelin, who I later discovered treated women badly. Seeing them in person at the Pacific Coliseum, I wondered what was missing. Out of the blue, someone offered to sell me LSD. I unsuccessfully bargained with the pusher for a reasonable price, as I felt that he was overcharging me. Later that year, a teenage girl at Oak Park opened my wallet, took out my money, and went off to buy LSD. Coming back later, she offered to share it with me. I thought: “Well, I paid for it. I shouldn’t let it go to waste”. But then I heard voices from my Winston Churchill High School Guidance Class, saying ‘don’t do it. It might hurt your brain.’ After a twenty-minute internal struggle, I again said no.
Shortly after this, I saw the Son Worshiper film. This led to my having a spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ that took away any desire to do drugs. Countless hippies and other young people turned from the hollowness of Timothy Leary’s promises and became part of the Jesus movement of the 1970s.
I remember going to the 1972 Easter Be-in at Stanley Park where a person would be offered drugs every twenty feet. But instead of doing drugs, we sang spiritual songs, gave out free food, and were baptized in the ocean at 2nd beach. Part of our generation’s attraction to Leary’s drug promotion was that we were spiritually empty, and needed to be filled up on the inside.
My baptismal reaffirmation with the late Len Sawatsky and Pastor David Hayward
Even today fifty years later, being filled up spiritually is one of the best antidotes to the emptiness of drugs. Join the Jesus Revolution. Give him your heart today. You won’t regret it.
By the way, you won’t want to miss out on the Jesus Revolution movie that so powerfully tells this amazing story or revival.
P. S. Click this Amazon link to view for free the first two chapters of our new novel Blue Sky.
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident…”
Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.
Sandy receives shocking news that her children aren’t safe, which brings back haunting memories of the trauma she experienced as a girl. Then, the unthinkable happens…
A brutal attack puts Sandy on the brink of losing everything she’s loved. Her faith in God and the family she cherishes are pushed to the ultimate limit.
Is healing possible when so many loved ones are hurt? Are miracles really possible through the power of prayer? Can life return to the way it was before?
Blue Sky reveals how a mother’s most basic instinct isn’t for survival… but for family.
If you’re a fan of Karen Kingsbury, then you’ll love Blue Sky. Get your copy today on paperback or kindle.
-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook form. Dr. JI Packer wrote the foreword, saying “I heartily commend what he has written.” The book focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus’ healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how we can embrace a holistically healthy life.
To receive a signed copy within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
To purchase any of our six books in paperback or ebook on Amazon, just click on this link.
While completing my book Battle for the Soul of Canada, I reconnected with an old friend, David Bentall, who has also become an author. David and I met back on a dark, rainy evening in February 1972. I had been invited to a youth meeting by another friend of David’s, John Edmondson. But my ride failed to turn up. Being a fairly determined individual, I jumped on my 10-speed Pugeot and sought to find the meeting. Unfortunately I wrote down the wrong address. By the time I found the house, I was half an hour late and totally drenched.
When I rang on the doorbell, a youth leader named Len Sawatsky welcomed me with a big smile. That evening changed my life. I remember seeing David Bentall and John Edmondson, beaming with a joy of which I knew nothing. I said to Dave and John later that evening: ‘Whatever you have, I want it’. the late Len Sawatsky then took me to the kitchen and patiently explained to me what it meant to know God personally. I said yes, and my life has never been the same since.
Thirty-four years later, David Bentall s book The Company You Keep (Augsburg, 2004) allowed me to catch up with his life journey. David discovered that though he was successful like his father and grandfather in running Dominion Construction, his heart was not really in construction. So David wisely chose to change course and become a family business consultant with Next Step Advisers who regularly teaches courses at the Business Families Centre at the University of British Columbia. David tells in the book how isolated most men are from each other. Our radical independence as men is the problem, not the cure.
David comments in the book that Most dating couples spend sixteen hours a week together. Once married, they are too busy to give each other one hour a week.
David shows chapter by chapter how having close male friendship helps us have stronger marriages, healthier children, more effective businesses, and better spiritual lives. David is in an accountability group with Bob Kuhn, founding partner of the law firm Kuhn and Co., and with Carson Pue, President of Arrow Leadership Ministries. This male accountability group help each other stay focused on the priorities of marriage and spirituality. David comments: Marriage is a delight, a comfort, an inspiration, and an adventure. It’s a wonderful gift from God, and at times it s exhilarating. It s all of these things and much more, but one thing it often is not easy. In fact, if you want to build a marriage that will last, you are likely in for a battle.
With unusual transparency and vibrancy, David shows how challenging it is to keep one’s head and marriage in today’s fast-paced business world. Solid male friendships have been David’s lifesaver. I strongly commend David’s book for anyone who wants to retool their life and marriage.
May David’s book inspire us as men to refocus on our wives and families in the midst of life s frantic pace.
P. S. Click this Amazon link to view for free the first two chapters of our new novel Blue Sky.
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident…”
Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.
Sandy receives shocking news that her children aren’t safe, which brings back haunting memories of the trauma she experienced as a girl. Then, the unthinkable happens…
A brutal attack puts Sandy on the brink of losing everything she’s loved. Her faith in God and the family she cherishes are pushed to the ultimate limit.
Is healing possible when so many loved ones are hurt? Are miracles really possible through the power of prayer? Can life return to the way it was before?
Blue Sky reveals how a mother’s most basic instinct isn’t for survival… but for family.
If you’re a fan of Karen Kingsbury, then you’ll love Blue Sky. Get your copy today on paperback or kindle.
-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook form. Dr. JI Packer wrote the foreword, saying “I heartily commend what he has written.” The book focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus’ healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how we can embrace a holistically healthy life.
To receive a signed copy within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
To purchase any of our six books in paperback or ebook on Amazon, just click on this link.
Who can figure out this mysterious, intangible reality called ‘love’? It won’t show up under a microscope, an ultrasound, or a CT Scan. But most of us know in our heart of hearts that love is real and love matters deeply. Without love, something dies inside. With love, something miraculously comes alive.
In the mid-1970’s, my wife and I were part of a soft rock band called ‘Morning Star’ which played for five years throughout BC. We were also part of a concert promotion group entitled ‘LivingStone Productions’. One of our favorite rock musicians that we brought in to the Queen E Theatre was the late Larry Norman, the father of GodRock. One of his songs ‘I Love You, I Love You, I Love You’ impacted us so deeply that my sister and future brother-in-law sang it to each other at our wedding.
“We can be together now and forever I love you, I love you Hey, can you hear me, I’ve got to have you near me I love you, I love you I was lonely till you came along Now you’ve got me singing your love song I love you, I love you, I love you….”
It is not enough to sing a love song once at one’s wedding. We need to re-sing it every day in a thousand ways. After 41 years of marriage, I have learnt that love needs to ‘have legs’. Love needs to be practical. Love is taking out the garbage. Love is driving the kids to school . Love is doing the dishes when you are feeling exhausted.
The Good Book says that it is not good for man to be alone. I too can sing ‘I’ve got to have you near me…I was lonely till you came along’. A loving marriage is a gift beyond description, a gift of intimacy, caring, and hope. God knew what he was doing when he invented the miracle of marriage.
“Life is a mystery, love is a dancer I love you, I love you I had a question, you brought the answer I love you I love you Oh but I need you so I could never let you go I love you, I love you, I love you…”
No one can figure out love. It just is, or it just isn’t. Love brings a contentment that makes no sense. Love is stronger than death. Thirty-three years later I realize more than ever how deeply I need my wife, how much she calls forth the best in me and our children. My wife, to put it frankly, is irreplaceable.
“I was lonely once but then you came along And you gave me love so I wrote down this song I wanna spend my life with you like the angels on high You’re the morning star, you’re the Son in my sky. I love you, I love you, I love you…”
All of Larry Norman’s music pointed to Love beyond love, Life beyond life, Hope beyond hope. My wife and I have discovered again and again that the heart of our marriage is Love, the love of God found in Jesus Christ. May each of us discover the heart of love, the morning star, the Son in the sky.
The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, BSW, MDiv, DMin
-previously published in the North Shore News/Deep Cove Crier
P. S. Click this Amazon link to view for free the first two chapters of our new novel Blue Sky.
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident…”
Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.
Sandy receives shocking news that her children aren’t safe, which brings back haunting memories of the trauma she experienced as a girl. Then, the unthinkable happens…
A brutal attack puts Sandy on the brink of losing everything she’s loved. Her faith in God and the family she cherishes are pushed to the ultimate limit.
Is healing possible when so many loved ones are hurt? Are miracles really possible through the power of prayer? Can life return to the way it was before?
Blue Sky reveals how a mother’s most basic instinct isn’t for survival… but for family.
If you’re a fan of Karen Kingsbury, then you’ll love Blue Sky. Get your copy today on paperback or kindle.
-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook form. Dr. JI Packer wrote the foreword, saying “I heartily commend what he has written.” The book focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus’ healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how we can embrace a holistically healthy life.
To receive a signed copy within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
To purchase any of our six books in paperback or ebook on Amazon, just click on this link.
Rather than aiming for temporary happiness, I have learned to value the more lasting quality of joy. Joy has such depth that I have found that I can be joyful when unpleasant unhappy things happen haphazardly to me. Simon Peter taught that it is possible to be joyful with an unspeakable joy. Joy is described in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as a “vivid emotion of pleasure, gladness, thing that causes delight”. What causes gladness and delight in your life? The birth of a baby? Graduating from High School or University? Attending your son or daughter’s wedding?
Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.
Edhird's Blog 