Kevin Dibbley

(my early morning drive) " Everyday, I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever ." (Psalm145:2)             As many of you know, my wife, MariAnne, and I have been on sabbatical and are in a period of seeking the Lord for our future. We are determined to live by faith and to trust the Lord for His direction and His provision. Learning to be obedient daily to the Lord outside of a "normal" routine continues to be a blessed discipline. One of my prayers has been to be alert and available so as to "seize the moment" to serve when God opens an opportunity for me to bless one person at a time. As you might expect, almost always, it works the other way around. God opens up opportunities to serve others and I end up leaving the conversation or meeting with my heart full of thanks. Who is serving who? Who is blessing who? Living attentively by the Spirit is like those "take your kids to work" days. God the...

                  If there is anything that is clear, it is that Islamic extremists know how to use the media. In a few weeks, America's largest corporations will pay 4.5 million dollars for every thirty second commercial during the grand extravaganza called the Superbowl. A few weeks later, the Superbowl will be history and the news reports will return to the stories of violence, horror, and the increasing terrorist threat facing Europe, America, Africa, and well, most of the world. What the cruel fanatics know is that every time and every place that they manage to perpetrate some heinous act, they get free air time for hours, days, and weeks on the major news networks of the world. It is free for them. Well, it only costs blood. They pay for their airtime with the lives of people in coffee shops in Australia and grocery stores in Paris. They pay for it with the supposedly expendable lives of the dupes...

            In the summer of 2008, I attended a lecture on artificial intelligence and Christian faith at Cambridge University. At the C.S. Lewis Conference's annual Summer Institutes, Nigel Cameron of Washington's Center for Policy on Emerging Technology gave us a cursory glimpse of some of the fast-developing advancements in the field of A.I.  His primary purpose was to introduce and to explain a few of the real and challenging ethical dilemmas that these technologies were posing for researchers, academic institutions, and political bodies. For those of us who were on the outside looking in, it was almost a bit surreal. First, the technologies that were already being developed sounded like they were coming out of a sci-fi novel. It was hard to believe that we would see some of these things in our lifetime. However, we were told and we are now seeing that technology is advancing far faster than most of our imaginat...

            Every once in a while, my wife and I like to watch a television show called " Shark Tank ". It is a hugely popular program in which a panel of wealthy business men and women listen to the sales pitches of "budding entrepreneurs". Then, if they can be convinced of the legitimacy and potential of the presenters' ideas, they offer to invest hundreds of thousands of their own dollars into these fledgling businesses and inventions. The sharks, of course, want to do more than share their wealth and expertise. They want to make big money by partnering with the best opportunities out there.             It is fascinating, on the one hand, to see how many creative people there are who are thinking up, patenting, and producing goods to fill the shelves of Walmart or to be sold on television shopping networks. It is also tragic to see how many clueless people ris...

            When the Green Bay Packers got off to a shaky start to the 2014 National Football League season, veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a simple message for all those panicking cheeseheads (nickname for Packers' fans, see picture above): " Five letters here just for everybody out there in Packer-land: R-E-L-A-X, Relax. We're going to be OK. " Rodgers' comments seem prophetic now that the Packers have been winning in dominating fashion and Rodgers himself has suddenly become mentioned as a midseason candidate for Most Valuable Player. His words also have been repeated regularly. Humorously, a video of his words was played on the NFL network ( see Rodgers remix ). When the Cleveland Cavaliers stumbled out of the blocks with several losses, returning NBA star Lebron James tweeted out these words: " In the words of the great @ AaronRodgers12 "RELAX "!          ...

         This past summer, my wife, MariAnne, and I were walking along a street in Oxford England. As we passed one of the many Oxford colleges, we had to make our way around a large group of international students who were lined up along a long stone wall which stretched to the end of the block. The most clearly noticeable feature of this group was that they were all (and when I say "all", I mean "all") absorbed with their smart phones. No one was talking, laughing, or listening to one another. They may have been chatting with each other by means of texting. Who knows? However, it seemed clear that they were using the break between classes to catch up on whatever was happening online.             It is pretty clear today that it takes no effort to fill the gaps of time in our lives with information. That information may be as shallow and mundane as Facebook posts about the weather, ...

"In peace, I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8             It is not often that there is a great deal of Canadian news dominating the headlines in the United States. Other than the antics of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, Canada tends to be the sleepy, easy to ignore neighbour to the North. We ship many of our best hockey players, comedians, and theologians south of the border, but most people just assume that they have always been from America. Canada typically remains out of sight and out of mind. It is only on a rare occasion such as yesterday that Canada is thrust into the spotlight. On October 22, 2014,  all over the U.S., and the world for that matter, major news networks covered the unfolding events surrounding the deadly attack at the Parliament buildings of Ottawa by a Quebec man who had become radicalized into an extreme and violent Islamic ideo...

                      Before long, grief comes. It is the inevitable and often heart wrenching experience of every one of us this side of heaven. For those who profess to be Christians, there is no escaping what is common to all people everywhere. None of us grieve precisely the same way. For some, grief will be part of our experience until it is our time to leave our earthly tent. For others, the pain will pass more quickly with only occasional times when it seems to appear out of nowhere and catches us off guard.           The Scriptures encourage us by not dismissing or making light of grief. We do grieve. Jesus wept. Such deep trials will "distress" us, according to the apostle Peter [1] . The Bible also remind us that grief, though real and difficult, is fundamentally different for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ...