And This Little Piggy...

I started my third week at Conestoga Meat Packers today. I seem to have a knack for finding the unusual employment options and this one is certainly no exception. At Conestoga, we kill pigs. Lots of pigs. Over 3000 a day! Then other people cut them into pieces and other people like me package them. Then people like you and me buy and eat. I remember taking my first full tour of the plant and actually seeing for the first time the rows and rows of slaughtered pigs and being surprised that inasmuch as the sight is disgusting, it's the smell that makes the biggest impact. But even that I am sure, as with other things, you get used to eventually. Though there is no denying it does something to a person to witness death on such an extensive scale, even if they are only animals. I don't think I could ever again read about blood or sacrifice, or mass execution without being reminded of what I have now observed.

But on a lighter note, to answer that ever present question, "Can you still eat pork now that you know where it comes from?" The answer is yes. I love pork. And my employee discount will certainly see good use during my time here. To close, I am submitting my list of top pork puns that have come to mind during my shifts.

Monotony: It's a boar-ing job but someone's gotta do it!

Monopoly: I have hotels on Boar-walk and Pork-place!

New Testament: What you Sow you shall Reeeeep!

Old Testament: [File not found]

That's all folks,

Blessings,

Jake Rivers

Vacation!

This weekend will mark the close of my first summer vacation in several years. Not to mention my first summer vacation with my wife! Although fairly humble to some standards, for me, these days of rest have been life-changing. What began as a plan for a week away at the cottage eventually metamorphosized into a seventeen day venture between Orillia, the aforementioned cottage, and our lovely home.

For the past several months I've found my energy levels steadily decreasing from 12 hour days and fluctuating shifts at work. As mentioned in the previous blog, I've been wanting to get out from where I worked for a while now! The real angst came with finding out my current job had scheduled me for two days right in the middle of our time at the cottage, which would have left us with only five days away. I don't know if this really exposes my human weakness or not, but I was so discouraged when I found out. Probably more than I have ever been for a long time. But like many of the seemingly despairing situations in life, all one can do is trust that the Father to know better than we do.

How stunned and amazed did I feel, when an unexpected offer for a new job, mere hours before my "final" shift before the weekend, signify the Lord's grace in this circumstance. A new job and the offer to delay my orientation 2 weeks! Needless to say the Rivers' apartment was quickly transformed into a bouncy, worshipful, hustle and bustle as we proceeded to adjust the rest of our plans for an early morning departure as soon as I finished my final shift that night.

There's no time to adequately surmise the many adventures we had! Suffice to say it was a very restful, very relational, very refining, very worshipful, and very transformational experience! I'm excited to see what other surprises are in store for this summer!

Blessings,

Jake Rivers

A Mechanic, a Pig Farmer, and a Youth Worker Walk Into a Bar...

Right now I'm entering into another entertaining life transition. An employment transition. At present I have three options I am carefully sifting through. They are as follows:

Stay working for Linamar

Pros: simplest solution, maintain friendships with co-workers

Cons: Job sucks, lousy pay, temp status, long hours, and (more than likely) another five months of being promised full time employment *any day now*

Take job at Conestoga Meat Packers

Pros: good pay, quick access to benefits, sweet hours, shorter commute

Cons: job is super gross

Take Child and Youth worker job

Pros: hardcore life skills and experience, opportunity to use my degree, opportunity to step way outside my comfort zone

Cons: 45 minute drive one way, even lousier pay

Yes, the next few days should be very interesting ones indeed!

Blessings,

Jake Rivers

P.S. Here's a shout out to all the babies who came into the world this week, and to the many more all set to arrive over the next few months. God is so good!

Prayer and Falsehood

Today I counted three reasons I find prayer very difficult above all other spiritual disciplines. It's partially because I get distracted easily. It's partially because most of the time I am content with life and feel no need to draw near to God. But primarily, I struggle with prayer because there are cavities in my heart that still cling to false notions about God; notions which have yet to undergo the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work.

By God's grace I can say that I am sick of the false life to which these falsehoods seek to subject me. By God's additional grace, I am seeking that over the next 30 days, the Holy Spirit will draw me into a deeper grasp of what is true about God's character. Here are some of the key falsehoods I desire to be freed from over the next month.

Falsehood 1: Men are to be feared and submitted to over God.

Falsehood 2: My standing, worth, and significance before God is based upon the work I do.

Falsehood 3: God's Word cannot be trusted

My prayer, is that above all, Jesus Christ will bring glory to himself by manifesting his power in my life in a way that transcends to even the slightest aspects of how I live the life he ransomed.

Blessings,

Jake Rivers

Children of Iluvatar

"And it came to pass that Iluvatar called together all the Ainur and declared to them a mighty theme, unfolding to them things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and the splendor of its end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Iluvatar and were silent."

- Ainulindale: The Music of the Auin
J.R.R. Tolkien

I've come across many passages like this as I've worked my way through some of Tolkien's additional works about Middle-Earth. I finished The Silmarillion a few weeks ago and am now only a few pages away from completing Unfinished Tales (no pun intended). The references to the mythical Iluvatar (the great and holy creator god of Middle-Earth and all that dwells within), are always written with the utmost poetic reverence. Everything from elves, to men, to Istiri, and Valar are resolute in demonstrating the highest, solemn respect towards the One who sits upon the highest throne. It's actually given me a fair amount to think about when I consider how I understand reverence towards the one true God of the Bible. I sometimes think that perhaps in disguising it as "Grace-based communion", I am actually living a lifestyle that proclaims that daily devotion to Christ is less important than work, family, entertainment, business, or however many of the other distractions that pervade my life. Where is that reverence that causes me to regard Christ as King and Lord over the whole earth? What is wrong in my heart when the sacrifice he made to usher me into his presence, in face of his transcendence, has me regarding Him less, and "stuff" more? Who answers to who here anyways?

"But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."
- Habakkuk 2:20

Blessings,

Jake Rivers

Top Ten

For a couple of weeks now I've been trying to scheme ways to maintain discipline in writing and blogging. As was unfortunately typical, the designs never made it off the drawing board. This past week was a pretty eventful one for me. It marked not only the 2 year milestone from when Ash and I started dating (May 22), but also the ten year anniversary of my coming to Christ (May 19).

To be perfectly honest my original aspiration was to let loose with some mind-shattering, literary masterpiece that would elevate me overnight into blogger-of-the-year. Sadly after several hours of attempts over the past few days, all I've gathered is that good writing never finds its origin solely in a desire to produce good writing. To be more to the point, I rarely have difficulty with ideas for things to write about, it's just a matter of overcoming my obnoxious ego to get there.

With that said, here are at least 10 subjects that have had the greatest impact on me over the past 10 years of following Christ. 10 things of which I am committed to continue growing in my understanding.

1. Grace - An offense to pride, and the only firm foundation

2. Humility - If maturity is a feast, humility is your plate

3. The Call to Mission - Created in Jesus Christ to do good works

4. Total Depravity - Sinners need a Saviour

5. The Biblical Narrative - The Word of God stands firm

6. Spiritual Leadership - Passion, vision, towels and basins

7. The Church - Home away from home

8. Death - The final enemy, reduced to an empty tomb

9. The Sovereignty of God - Unshaken through the storms

10. Marriage - The Gospel wrapped around my finger

Happy Long Week-end!

Blessings,

Jake Rivers

Overflow

I often find myself trying to find ways to get away with doing less. Nothing quite criminal, just a few corners here and there. After all, why exert the extra energy if no one is going to notice one way or another? Some may say there's nothing wrong with simplifying the daily tasks of life. (Don't we shame the fool who exerts himself for no return and no profit?) Well, Ockham may have been a pretty sharp philosopher, with his simplifying razor, but I find I have a tendency to cut a bit too deep when it comes to responsibilities at home and at work.

We are all fully familiar with boredom that comes from daily tasks and I know for a fact that life does move through seasons which are less exciting than others. The real battle for me is against that little voice in my head that "warns" me against giving too much of myself. It's that type of hoarding, self-focused mentality that makes even basic tasks a threat to my survival.

"Does it really need to be done right now?"

"Does anyone really care that much about punctuality?"

"Will it make a difference whether you check your work throughly or not?"

I remember this was most devastating while I was in school and how getting the best marks for the least effort took great priority over how much I was actually learning. It was even celebrated when someone could skim a book and whip out a report in a matter of hours and still pull off a passing grade without really learning anything. At the base level however, this manner of living is of a mindset that believes in no greater reward for honest discipline and no access to the strength to see our responsibilities carried out well.

As I was journaling last night about this infectious trend in my life, I was reminded of how, in Christ, we are no longer bound to this minimalist fatality. When I look at myself and am tempted to see frailty, emptiness, dryness, and want, Holy Spirit points me back to the cross and the gift of life that comes from the Father.

"but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" John 7:38

These words transform lives. These words make empty people overflow.

Blessings,

Jake