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Faith is the nerve center of every ideology.

What you believe today shapes your destiny. Align your sextant to the horizon, then set your proverbial sails. Yet, you must realize that what you have come to believe may or may not be accurate, or wise. What you hold firm and dear may or may not have any bearing on the future of anyone (other than you).

Ancient peoples have left us their ideologies in stone. When they were crafted, those stories and structures either carried or buried entire civilizations. Ideology make believes all the idols it wants.

Moons, planets, suns, systems, and galaxies – all revolving mind-boggling distances from one another. Yet, viewed together in distant harmony, orbits, constellations, clouds… there are patterns somewhat measurable and seemingly consistent.

At the macro and micro levels, we do our best to understand, extrapolate, measure, verify, and predict – but we really only have a few dimensions to work with and clunky technology bound to the limitations of our thoughts and senses to give us a bit of knowledge by extension. It’s the stuff right in front of us that humiliates us.

Praying for Ireland and Korea today, for one reason or another, I got thinking of Maltese citrus, drenched in Mediterranean sun,  nurtured by ancient roots.

One perfect orange, from one perfect tree, on one perfect day, during one perfect visit, surprised me. I was in awe of the colours, the aroma, the warmth, the weight, the honour, the life. It was such a joy filled moment, treasuring every last drop of juicy healing fun.

That orange was so fantastic it became the standard for all other oranges. And frankly, I have not found it’s equal; I haven’t really been looking.

In an hour, I’ll be leaving the warm fireplace to work in the forest of Kananaskis all day; minus 15 degrees Celsius (snow accumulating for two days).

As seems to be becoming habit, I was up at 5 am this morning, brewed a mug of hot tea, sat down by the fireplace to read Isaiah 32 in The Message (and Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Bonhoeffer and Calvin).

Four years ago today, I blogged this @ theocity:

(quote) This past year, while on a sabbatical from work, under the arches of various rainbows, God gave me these four parameters:

1. Three words: discover, develop, and deploy kingdom leaders. 2. Something to do with [a certain amount of money]. 3. Look forward to meeting 10,000 young kingdom leaders. 4. Move my family into the mountains of Canmore, Alberta. (unquote)

On October 1st, 2006, one month to the day before writing that particular blog entry, Dar and I agreed that I would help Terry Woodthorpe launch a new oil and gas company. We shared Terry’s story and his dreams. We established the plan that would eventually raise seed money.

Just watched The Fellowship of the Ring with our kids (first time they’ve seen it). It strikes me afresh that I identify with Gollum, not Frodo, or even Sam, or Aragorn, or Gandalf, etc. And our kids, after the movie, playing innocent games with rings and low shadowy voices; all three of them identifying with who? – Bilbo and Gollum, repeating over and over to each other with smiles, “My precious!” The innocence of actually being human children…

I’ve come to deeply appreciate David Hayward @nakedpastor and nakedpastor.com who sent me his original print of Jesus and the elders (very kind of you David, thank-you).

This piece of David’s original art now hangs in a prominent location in our living room, an area of our home I mention on pages 44-45 of Clairvaux Manifesto (in a chapter entitled Welcome to Our Home) this way:

I’m a bit bewildered these days. For a solid month now, I’ve been in the forest of Kananaskis, where the G8 met in 2002, hauling around heavy lumber like a pack mule, thinning the forests to help deter forest fires. This past week was particularly emotional. Trudging through the deep moss and sawdust, I was praying for my family, friends and 4000+ delegates attending The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. Sweat dripping off my nose, I wondered all week long, why I wasn’t in South Africa.

Had breakfast this morning with the COO of a major international company; an exceptional person fast becoming a friend. Our ongoing conversations are heart-level and faith-based. At the same time, we are both challenging the status-quo in the other; iron sharpening iron. Neither of us will put down our swords – It’s fun and invigorating hunting for the faith of God in the other.

Mike Rowe of Pilot Communications staged this gorgeous shot inside St. John’s Basilica. This time last year, Mike and Pete Laing (the other guy wearing glasses on the Pilot homepage) did much of the interior and exterior design work for Clairvaux Manifesto (including Mike doing a photo shoot with me that ends up in Christian Week).

The other day, I flew out of St. John’s an hour before a hurricane landed. I pray for my friends on the rock.