Imagine: Knowing Yourself

Who is David Andrew Wiebe?

This has become an increasingly important question over the last few days as God has been showing me what I’ve been striving for over the last 13 years.

I’ve been seeking approval from my dad.

My dad passed on when I was 13. Shortly before leaving this world, he made me do a lot of things that he thought were for my benefit. He wanted me to learn English, because my reading and writing skills were poor. He wanted me to read my Bible, get better grades in school, write emails, and all sorts of things I wasn’t ready to take on. I just wanted to enjoy myself, hang out with friends, and play video games. My dad never said it in so many words, but he was basically telling me that what I was doing wasn’t enough.

I don’t think my dad was ever satisfied with where he was. He always wanted to accomplish more, and move on to the next big thing. He had a reputation for multitasking, doing many things simultaneously.

I had found great joy in spending time with my friends in Japan. I had also found a lot of heartache in the expectations of my father, and the abusive behavior that some teachers exhibited in Japan. “Paradise lost”, as Eldredge puts it.

In the last 13 years I’ve far exceeded my father’s expectations. I’ve become a proficient writer, an avid guitar player, and a Christ follower. I read my Bible and other books, and I’ve become adept at using my computer. I know how to construct web pages and send emails.

That’s all well and good, but this is the life my father wanted for me, not the life that I wanted. Would he be proud of me? I don’t know. Like I said, he wasn’t really satisfied with any level of performance. It’s one thing to have higher expectations for somebody; It’s quite another to fail to empower your own child.

Who is David Andrew Wiebe? I don’t know. I’m still looking. God please show me.

Imagine: Graduation

Have you ever woken up to find that you’ve accomplished the goals you set for yourself a long time ago? The goals you wrote down and forgot about until someone read them back to you?

Suddenly it dawns on you: the courses you took, the challenges you faced, the trials you overcame were all part of a bigger plan. Suddenly you realize the significance of the last 2 years, and every hardship you experienced. You think about every tribulation you took for granted. At the time you didn’t see why you had to go through such trouble. You didn’t realize that these difficulties were there to promote you. They were there to bring you to a new level in life.

Then you graduate. The door isn’t closed, but you know that you probably won’t return. You’re free to return at any time, but you’ve developed the skills and confidence you need to better manage your situation. You’re ready for the new tasks and challenges ahead of you.

You realize that you still have a long way to go. You realize that you’re not a perfect individual by any stretch of the imagination. You realize that you’ve been striving towards new goals without ever noticing the old goals you’ve attained.

Then you stop to appreciate the time you spent on your education. You begin to see that the puzzle pieces fit. You don’t know how, but all those hardships are somehow worth it now. In that moment, you are edified.

Imagine: Practical Guides

Love is a treacherous ocean
Storms from midst of
Clear blue
Reefs to wreck
This tiny ship
Lest not we be swamped
On shores hostile
Oh, save this soul.

In the ocean, reefs are marked by charts. Danger is signaled by buoys. Experienced navigators and pilots help guide the helm of ships in tight places where the captain doesn't know the terrain.

I need a pilot right now. Someone to help me navigate - because I've found myself on shoals. I don't know where they are, my chart seems to have washed up on the shore sometime mid voyage, and the crew are threatening mutiny.

It would be easier not to love. Then I'd still be safely bobbing at anchor.

But ships are made to travel - and that travel involves peril. Lord, bring me safely through.

Imagine: Turnkey.

There's something magical... when everything just works. Salesmen call it turnkey. It's the reason you pay extra for a Honda. It's the reason you're willing to go over your budget for that perfect house. In the event industry, we call it complete production.

I got two of the best compliments someone in my line of work can recieve - on Friday "I made a phone call, and it just happened." and on Sunday, setting up - "Wow - this system works - everything I need is here!"

In a world where people fail to come through on their promises, are you a turnkey person? Does what you've promised happen, on time, on budget, without unnecessary theatrics? And I'm not just talking providing services - what about relating to your co-workers, about your relationships with family, friends... can you be trusted? How important is it that your life just work?

There's hours of unseen labor that goes into making a turnkey product. Everything is refined, smoothed out, tested, guaranteed. Are you willing to put in the hours to make your life turnkey? It's aggravating, sweaty, thankless work. But it's the most vital thing you'll ever do.

Imagine: Elections that work.

I'm a Canadian citizen. And part of being a Canadian citizen is the right, and often touted as the duty, to vote.

Voting is a simple process. You receive an information card in the mail about two weeks before the election, you report to the correct polling station, and you cast your ballot. Simple, effective. You get to concentrate on the issues.

That's the theory.

Here's how it's working for me, in practice.

I receive a card in the mail that states "Please contact your local Elections Canada Office before Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM if: you did not receive a voter information card."

And you know what, oddly enough, I didn't receive a card. I voted in the last election - my card came just fine that time. But I didn't get one this time. Hmm. OK, I'll call the 1-800 number so conveniently printed on the card and ask for my voter information card to be resent.

So I call: 1-800-463-6868. I'm listing the number here because it is public, and if you're at all interested in learning just how annoyed I am, you can call it.

It's an automated voice system. After getting through "English" and "Voter information card," the voice tells me that I should have received my card by now... and dumps me out into the main menu. No way to ask about why I HAVEN'T received my card.

So here a phone system designed to answer problems... that dispenses the same information I already have on the card that tells me to phone the number. Quite literally, the recording was made by someone reading off the card. Except the card is more in depth and faster.

Alright, so I'll send out an email. There's no excuse for Elections Canada to not have a phone number that actually works, but I'm conversant with technology - I'm sure I can send out an email and have an answer by tomorrow.

Except there's no email address listed on the card. There's a physical mailing address - except that I'll be out of the country and not be able to actually carry on a conversation via postal service, probably including four of five letters back and forth, before the election occurs.

Oh, I can FAX Elections Canada. I don't have a fax machine. I run my own business and WE don't have a fax machine. I work as a contractor, ordering supplies, sending drawings, documents with signatures... I've used a fax machine twice in the last ten years.

I take a more careful look at the card... it says "local Elections Canada Office." Maybe that 1-800 number is national - I can find a local number, and they'll be able to help me out.

Except Elections Canada isn't listed in the government directory. I end up calling the general information line. They hook me up with... you guessed it - the same 1-800 number I just called. Apparently there's people there, waiting to take my call (wondering why none of the phones ring, because the automated system doesn't allow you to speak to an operator).

So come election day, I'll walk into my polling station, and vote. Without my voter registration card. Without using the system they put in place to streamline things. I'm the guy that makes them put in extra time and paperwork to record my vote.

Because apparently, voting is a complicated process.

Imagine: Ice cube tray racks!

Yes, ice cube tray racks. I was at a friend's house the other night, and noticed that their freezer was bereft of any separation save one: A pair of wire racks in the upper left corner to hold ice cube trays.

My heart leaps for this all the time - not the stellar, show-stealing amazing new iPhones or the fancy gadget that does 387 things, but the slow, steady, measured, intelligent design. Road cases that are as strong but 60% lighter, to save on fuel costs. Color coded wires so that tracing cables is easier. Maintenance covers that open without tools. Designs where every single screw on the entire item requires the same screwdriver, not three separate ones. Packing methods to get more in the same size container. Helpful guys that label things right and load trucks right.

These aren't the flashy things, but they get the job done. They ensure that when you need those ice cubes, you'll find them.

Don't overlook the little things.

Imagine: The Fast Fury of Fall

Have you noticed that you feel more alive lately? There is something about the transition of seasons, the creeping from sleepiness of summer into the brisk climax of fall that shouts of God's glorious landscape. It makes me feel squirrelly. It's the kind of feeling that there is opportunity everywhere, so much to harvest and plant before the winter (figuratively) that you don't know where to start, what adventure to take on. Maybe it's a throwback from school days gone by when September invoked feelings of opportunity, excitement and challenge. Each September had me thinking that this would be the year that I would really 'get it together'.

The band is buzzing with the excitement of upcoming shows, new challenges are overflowing everywhere and commitments are resuming at work and abroad. So in the midst of this all.....is there time to just s.t.o.p? breathe in, hold, breathe out and repeat?

Lord, please give us Your vision. Set us apart from the busyness that is for busyness sake only. God, give us projects, hopes, dreams that give You joy. Make us Holy and pure enough to accomplish those tasks that You want us to live out here on earth. May we stop to just rest and recharge with our true Father. Amen.

Imagine: Sweatproof

Posts from this blog will get divided into three categories: Imagine, which is all about ideas, good bad or ugly (especially ugly!); Inspire, which is all about people - groups, individuals and communities of all shapes, sizes and forms; And finally Transcend, which is about faith, God, spirituality, and what happens when more then we put in somehow comes out.

So, enough description, onto our first imagine: Sweatproof products.


Imagination rating: 7/10

I was looking to replenish my supply of hair gel today (something every urban 20-something needs to do, but not something to be enjoyed). I saw upon the shelf something that made my heart leap. Sweatproof hair gel. This goes under the "Why didn't someone think of this before?" category.

As a guy, prior to this product, I had two options. Put no gel in my hair and go for the Einstein look (which I sported quite frequently during school), or put gel in, and have it melt and run down my face if I did anything more physically demanding then walk over to my next door neighbor's place. Even attending weddings and events in the summer in a suit and standing still would cause the dreaded "psst... can you tell if my hair is melting?" to the guy standing next to me.

Unfortunately, I didn't become better at snowboarding or surfing or diving out of planes or any of the other "unstoppable" activities pictured on the packaging. I was kind of hoping that merely by putting the product in my hair I would be instantly invited on some sort of extreme sports tour. "Hey, you've got sweatproof hair gel! Cool, man! We SO need to test it out! Come bike across the Sahara with me!" Yes, people still use the word "cool" in my unrealistic fantasies.

However, in the real world, much to the relief of females everywhere (and one in particular), I can continue to look suave while diving for frisbees, chopping wood, running for the bus, and other manly activities. Well, I'll probably never reach suave, but at least I know it won't be my hair holding me back.

Imagine. Inspire. Transcend.

Three words. Three powerful words. What do they mean? Well, if you're legalistic, you can use Websters. If you're instinctive, you've already decided what they mean (and if they're important). If you're average, you'll run out of attention span after the second one (they are, after all, surrounded by other words, and reading entire entires is so last year). If you're rare, and patient, you'll stick around and find out.

This is a beginning. And like most beginnings, it doesn't spring out of nothing. Just like the best stories have been told since the dawn of time, the best ideas have always existed in the minds of just about everyone. It's just now that some of those stories get written down.

Should you stick around? That depends. Do you value community? Do you work on a balance of art and commerce, freedom and justice, a pursuit of life, true life? Do you end up with better questions instead of answers when you ask?

If so, welcome.