Heaven – The Faith Cafe

Posted on January 7, 2021December 29, 2020 by Lori Cartmell · 5 Comments

Believe Six Impossible Things!

Alice In Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party. Image from Pixy.org CC BY-NC-ND-4.0

With 2020 behind us, it’s time to believe that good things are in store for us in 2021.

Are you having trouble believing that? Has your faith been a bit battered by the events of the past year? Do you find it difficult to believe that God has something good lined up for your future?

You’re not the only one to think certain things are simply impossible.

Have you read the book, “Alice in Wonderland,” by Lewis Carroll? At one point in the story, Alice is challenged by the White Queen to believe impossible things.

When the Queen says that she’s a hundred and one years old, Alice is incredulous.

“I can’t believe that,” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the Queen said, in a pitying tone. “Try again; draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed.

“There is no use trying,” said Alice; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Even though this story is fictional, I think we as believers in God can learn a lesson from it. Sometimes God wants us to believe things that the world might consider to be “impossible.”

Posted on December 7, 2020November 17, 2020 by Lori Cartmell

Preparing a Place Just For You

If this were a normal Christmas, I imagine that many of us would be preparing to have guests over for the holidays.

We’d be spiffing up the house, decorating the Christmas tree, and getting the guest bedroom ready for overnight visitors.

We might also be planning the decorations for the dining table: choosing which candles and flowers to use, bringing out the best china, or making whimsical place cards.

It’s fun to prepare for guests, isn’t it? Selecting special touches that you know they’ll like, ensuring that they’ll be comfortable, even customizing things so that each guest feels cherished.

This year, however, COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into our Christmas plans. For many of us, preparing for guests is something that’s off the menu.

But did you know that there’s someone who’s still preparing a place for you, pandemic or not?

Posted on November 5, 2020October 14, 2020 by Lori Cartmell · 3 Comments

Signs From God

I used to love eating Doritos, and would buy them regularly at the store.

I finally admitted, however, that junk food like this wasn’t very good for me, so I stopped buying them.

Except when they were on sale: then I viewed it as a sign from God that I could buy some.

I’m just kidding, of course: a sale on Doritos is NOT a sign from God. I was just fooling myself and creating a reason why I could have what I wanted.

It’s sometimes hard to recognize when something really is a sign from God, isn’t it? We put our own spin on circumstances, and conveniently draw the conclusions that align with our desires.

But there are some things that we can be absolutely certain are signs from God, because they align with His Word.

When you see the following “signs” in your life, take note and obey them:

Posted on August 27, 2020August 25, 2020 by Lori Cartmell

Blue Roses and Black Tulips

For generations, gardeners have been trying to achieve the impossible: to breed a truly blue rose or a perfectly black tulip.

These two flowers have so intrigued people’s imaginations that they’ve entered both lore and literature.

Blue roses are often used to symbolize mystery and a longing to attain the impossible. Some cultures even say that whoever holds a blue rose will have his or her wishes granted.

Black tulips were featured in an 1850 novel by Alexander Dumas called what else but “The Black Tulip.” This swashbuckling tale of love, murder and greed centres on the quest for a unique jet-black tulip.

The problem is that blue roses and black tulips don’t exist in nature. Roses lack the specific gene that allows for a “true blue” colour. It’s the same story with black tulips: optically black flowers are virtually unknown in nature.

Plant breeders have come close to achieving a blue rose through hybridization, but the “blue” is often closer to lilac or mauve. To produce a bluer flower, they’ve had to resort to dyeing or genetically modifying the plant.

As for tulips, the “black” ones are usually a deep eggplant or plum colour. They give the appearance of being extremely dark, but are not optically black.

Maybe this is a hint that we were never meant to find perfection in this world.

Posted on March 17, 2020March 27, 2020 by Lori Cartmell

Nervous? Take The Long View

Historical graph of the Dow Jones over the past century
Public Domain photo from Wikimedia Commons

Life is a bit like the stock market, isn’t it?

The markets experience exuberant high points, crushing lows, and times when things just seem to meander sideways. So it is with our lives.

But there’s a trick to keeping your perspective:

Step back.

Posted on February 25, 2020February 24, 2020 by Lori Cartmell

The Best Driving Tip of All

How NOT to park
Photo by Todd Dwyer on Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

As a follow-up to last week’s post, “Life Lessons from Driving in Snow,” I thought I’d continue on the topic of driving and give you the best driving tip I’ve ever heard.

I learned this valuable piece of advice from watching the TV programme, “Canada’s Worst Driver.” There are various iterations of this show around the globe: perhaps your country has something similar. These “worst driver” shows are often hilarious but are also educational. You can learn a lot about how not to drive from atrocious drivers.

Before I present the best driving tip of all, here are some memorable examples of appalling driving as reported by driving instructors:

Posted on February 10, 2020March 23, 2020 by Lori Cartmell

World’s Strangest Collections

Assorted Stamps
Photo by Frantisek Krejci on Pixabay

Do you enjoy collecting things? Many of us do. Perhaps you collect stamps, vintage baseball cards, Barbie dolls, movie memorabilia, autographs or folk art.

Or maybe your hoard is a little more esoteric. You might specialize in collecting Cracker Jack prizes, Coca-Cola ads, thimbles, snow globes, or vintage fountain pens. These interests may be a bit more off the beaten path, but still within the realms of normal.

But it’s possible that your collection veers into the truly strange and oddball, like the following:

Posted on November 21, 2019December 26, 2019 by Lori Cartmell

Feline Prison Break

Photo by Mark Turnauckas on Flickr CC BY 2.0

Did you hear about the “prison break” at a Houston, Texas animal shelter recently?

A cunning criminal had been opening the heavy door of the senior cats’ enclosure for several nights in a row, setting the captives free to roam the shelter. Each morning, workers at the Friends for Life Animal Rescue would arrive to find the door mysteriously opened, and would have to wrangle the 15 cats back into their room.

The staff were stumped at who could be responsible for the feline jail break. It was only when they looked at footage from the building’s security cameras that they were able to crack the case.

The identity of the culprit came as a shock.

Posted on November 15, 2019December 26, 2019 by Lori Cartmell

When The Wall Came Down

“The Fall of the Berlin Wall–November 1989” by Gavin Stewart CC 2.0

Ever wonder if there’s a world out there beyond your imagination?

Citizens of the former East Germany got a partial answer to this question thirty years ago when the Berlin Wall began to be dismantled on November 9, 1989.

Those who had been trapped behind the wall for decades were suddenly able to travel to West Berlin and visit parts of Germany they hadn’t seen in almost a generation.

What they saw there astonished them.