I was browsing on YouTube. If you are a guitarist, check out these videos I found. If you’r not a guitarist, you still might appreciate what thes guys do. Some crazy good guitar playing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW-VtY4J8ZI - if speed is important to you, watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8 - a young guy with a future, I dare say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8oxlPoZNbU - actually this is not guitar, it’s ukulele - but incredible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTziYivOLA - and played on a nice Larrivee
First of all, I appologize for not blogging in such a long time. Sadly I think this kind of sparatic blogging will be a reality for me for the next little while. I have a very busy summer this year. I will do my best to drop off my thought on these pages on my way past though…
So one of the big things that has been on my mind lately is that election of a new bishop next weekend. The Anglican Diocese of Calgary will be voting in a new bishop on Saturday June 24th - this coming saturday. Why am I so interested? A couple reasons…
1. I’m an anglican and a part of the diocese of Calgary. I feel we are at a critical time in our church’s history and good leadership is key for us to progress in a godly way. So I’d like to see the right person become bishop to help ensure good things for the future of the churches within our diocese.
2. My father, Gene Packwood, is a candidate for bishop in this election. For obvious reasons, I’m interested to know if he is voted in or not.
I feel that my father would make a great bishop. I feel this way because I know him to be a man who truly seeks after God in his life. I know that he has a active prayer life and is truly concerned about the people he has been called to serve. This means that if he were bishop, we would be a godly bishop who concerns himself with God and the people he leads/serves. That’s enough for me to know he’d do a great job. Besides all that, I think that out diocese could really use a guy like my dad as bishop. He’s a good guy with good morals and a great sense of right and wrong. He would be just and fair. I know he has a vision for our diocese which is absolutely key for any person in any kind of leadership. A leader without vision simply can not lead and therefore isn’t a leader at all.
I have some mixed feelings about all this though…
Lets say he becomes bishop:
Pros:
-he gets to move to Calgary with my mom and will be closer to me
-he gets to try and lead the diocese in a positive direction and do some great things for the diocese in the process.
-it’s kind of ”flesh” thing for me, but it would mean that he will have sort of made it all the way to the top. It’s certainly not the point of the whole thing, but I’d imagine it would be nice for him to retire one day feeling good about having made bishop in his career.
Cons:
-my parents would have to move to Calgary and find themselves at the mercy of our rediculous housing market right now. I would hate to see them have to sink all their retirement savings into a house. Though I suppose those dollars could be reaquired if and when they chose to move out of Calgary in order to retire.
-my mother loves where they live right now..so does my father. They have a great house in a great neighbourhood. My mom has a HUGE and beautiful garden which she would really miss…especially if they ended up in a condo or something here in Calgary and couldn’t have a big garden here.
-they would be an extra 3 hours away from my sister and their grand children. Though they’d be closer to me, Medicine Hat is pretty much right between us which is good when they try and visit my sister and/or us.
Lets say he doesn’t get elected bishop:
pros
-my dad’s current church (St. Barnabas MEdicine Hat) is a neat place in which my parents are both happy. They would be happy to retire there, so by not getting elected, they will get to continue doing what they enjoy.
-they keep the house they love.
-my dad is pardoned from the somewhat unsavoury task of being the bishop in a time such as this. It will not be a walk in the park.
cons:
-I’d image my dad will feel some amount of personal defeat…currently he is merely following a calling to let his name stand for bishop. As the process has carried forward, he has become more able to actually WANT to be bishop. Because he has a vision, he can sort of see a way through. I might be a let down to feel all the calling and purpose only to discover that it is not his purpose afterall.
-we might get a bishop that isn’t as good as my dad and the diocese might suffer because of it. Though most people would not know what they were missing, I would know what we were missing and I’d probably become overly critical of whoever does become bishop.
-I’ve been looking forward to the prospect of seeing my parents more frequently. It could even be that my mother attends church with Kristy and I. That would be nice. It would be somewhat disappointing to see those kinds of living close things not come to pass.
So yeah. These are my thoughts on all of this. One thing we all are sure about though is that it will be good when we have reached this time next week because we will know at that point. All of the back and forth hoping and wondering will be over and the decision will be public and generally set in stone. To just know will feel great for all of us.