Glove Award? We have a very short list of two candidates whose job description we tried to put together over lunch the other day. The officials are actively in the employ of the government; all encounters with him and her are positively unpleasant. These two represent the taste of Imperial Petty Officialdom to us and are a part of our Island memories. Memories that reflect the poverty of the small (normally in stature and position) government employee involved. Imperial what you may well ask? Well, yes indeed, the pettiness of the official comes straight from the "jolly old" British Empire text books of the 1950s. The job requires the ability to hold a swagger stick under the left armpit while swaggering with the upper half of the torso and strutting slowly with the bottom half. An immaculate uniform is a must. Candidates should be less than five feet five inches in height. Being a natural bully is an asset. An ability to read but neither interpret nor comprehend the point of government regulations essential. The candidate's pomposity must be beyond the shadow of a doubt as must be their instinctive ability to reduce others to the dignity of hungry street dogs. The Candidate should be able to operate in every circumstance with great
rudeness and no communication skills. An ability to bark is mandatory. I transferred the image of a certain Inspector in the Pink Panther movie onto one of the Award Winners the other day. It was my undoing; I smiled at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Luckily my taller frame came to my rescue and I was able to point past the official's head at a humorous encounter between two small boys. I took your point with glee, Lord, you are good; some days simply delicious! How I wish I had your sense of the absurd. Stay tuned for next month's White Glove Award!December was a cool, fresh 
month for us. It was a time of confusing emotion wrapped up in the twenty-four hours around Christmas Day. What social beings we are. How do we really feel about spending so much time by ourselves? Why must we always do the balancing act between what could have been and what was? What measuring stick will give a true measurement of "progress" for 2010? Why do we need to make progress and not just solidify what we have, isn't that progress too? Then there's our home and native land of ice and snow that is rapidly becoming more and more distant. How do we get back there? Can we be sure that a white rabbit will "come by" at the appropriate moment in time; if not, will we be able to follow a line of ants?
Apart from some minor repairs 
that still need to be completed and the delivery of two large tanks of propane gas for cooking, the manse is coming along nicely. A five ton truck load of builder's debris and other garage has been hauled off to the dump and the lot the manse sits on is now ready to be turned into a garden that will do justice to the great natural beauty around us. We have until the rainy season, which starts in June, to get it organized enough to take full advantage of that remarkable growing time.
In Hebrews 4: 12 we find, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even thoughts and attitudes of the heart." How do we live within constraints that are placed on us by others yet stay true to what we know as truth? I've always had the need to race away from institutions on a high horse yet I am also aware that if I am here doing what I do I am also choosing to exercise leadership of some sort. One of my heroes, Vaclav Havel, playwright, dissident, prisoner, one time President of the Czech Republic, thought that the power for authentic leadership is not found in external acquiescence to it but in the human hearts that it leads. Authentic leaders, Havel claims, aim at liberating the heart, their own and others, so that its powers can liberate the world. Truth I have also been taught can only be known when it moves from the head to the heart. Jesus said the truth will set you free. How is your heart? Have you placed it beside God's loving word recently? Another of my other heroes, Rosa Parks, took her stand with clarity and courage. Mostly, it seems, I take mine by diversion and default. My world still waits for the truth that will set us free, my truth, your truth, our truth, the truth planted in our world when each of us arrived here formed in God's image. Consider yourself liberated, consider yourself free.
Our prayer requests for this month are simple. Pray that we can help some children learn to read. Pray that they can be set free.
