I felt so foolish and humbled. I was 16 years old, and was a leader of a group of younger guys in a group called Christian Service Brigade. We were camping out at a provincial park in Manitoba, and went hiking in the woods. Of course, when you go hiking with younger lads, a good leader will take every opportunity to teach along the way. “You see where the sun is in the sky? Keep track of your shadow. See that moss there? It always grows on the north side of the tree.” I was so full of wisdom in those days.

After about 90 minutes of leading these young guys through thick and thin, they began to wonder out loud where we were going, and when were we going to get back to the camp? I regaled them with words like “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” , “we’re not quitters” and other equally innocuous clichés. We managed to squeeze in another fifteen minutes or so of huffing and bluffing, when one of the older fellows piped up, “We’re lost, aren’t we?”

I have a small confession to make. At least once a week I went out drinking with the boys. At least once a week, maybe on a Friday morning, I would make my way across the street from my place, and meet with three or four other guys at the Deli. We drank more than our money’s worth of Java, and there we discussed the problems of the universe. Sometimes one can find valuable nuggets of wisdom while shooting the breeze with a salty cab-driver or an old-fashioned blacksmith (who swore by his wife’s health secrets while knocking back jugs of coffee). And sometimes, it got pretty banal!

Col 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

I hesitate to talk about a movie I haven’t seen for fear of giving it any publicity, nor will I see it. The Time magazine did an article once on the movie entitled “The Public vs. Larry Flynt”. Apparently it is the story of the Hustler publisher as he fought TV preacher Gerry Falwell in an American court of law. Hustler won. The battle cry for freedom of speech quickly becomes an emotional one. And no where is this battle cry heard as loudly as on the Internet. “I have a right to publish what I want!”

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

I think the argument of relativity and absolute truth all started the day we first heard the story of the elephant. (I admit my tongue is presently firmly pressed into my cheek.)

It's early in the morning and I receive a telephone call. Someone in the hospital needs a visit from a pastor. A patient is dying. He is well past 70. I arrive thirty minutes later. He doesn't have to say anything. The questions are written all over his anxious demeanour. "Why is this happening to me? This shouldn't be happening to me! This is not the way it's supposed to be!" Yet it has happened to every member of the human race, without exception.