The Benefits of Citizenship: Or...Fear and Loathing at the Canadian Border

A couple of weeks ago I was on a business trip, preparing to cross the border from Port Huron, Michigan, into Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. As a dual citizen (Canada and US), this border crossing is never a problem. As I approached the Canadian border, I entered the line for expedited processing (NEXUS), reserved for those who have "Trusted Traveler" status. I flashed my card at the electronic reader and proceeded to the customs officer. When he asked the purpose of my trip, I casually replied, "business and pleasure." I explained I was going to visit family in Ontario and then conduct 2-days of training for the City of London, Ontario. He looked at me for a moment and then asked, "Under what authority are you doing business in Canada?" I smiled and casually replied that I frequently provide training for Canadian customers on behalf of my American-based company. When he started writing, I knew something bad was about to happen. Rather than being quickly waved through customs, I was told to report to the Customs office for additional inspections. Immediately my mouth got dry, my heart began to race, and sweat popped out on my forehead. What on earth was going on?

I had absolutely nothing to hide, but as I approached the officers and their dogs, my anxiety increased. I was told to leave my vehicle and report to the office. Upon entry to the office, I was faced with a grim lineup of customs officials who waved me forward to explain myself. I was briefed on the limitations and illegality of Americans working in Canada, as prescribed by the North American Free Trade Alliance (NAFTA). Large forms appeared and the interrogation began. I began by explaining that I frequently am in Canada doing exactly the same thing I was doing on this trip, and had never had any problems at Canada Customs. (Probably NOT the right thing to say at this point!) The official raised her eyebrows as though I had just admitted to being an international drug courier, celebrating my successful smuggling activities. Things had just gone from bad to worse.

As the sweat ran down my back I began to think through all the dire possibilities of how this could end. In desperation I asked, "Does it not make any difference that I'm a Canadian?" The official looked up and asked, "What did you say?" I repeated my question and her demeanor suddenly changed.  Sensing a glimmer of hope I continued, "I was born in Owen Sound, Ontario and I lived in this country for the first 30-years of my life." With a dramatic flair, she swept the piles of paperwork off her desk and into the trash. "I'm so sorry sir, this is all a mistake. You are free to go and I apologize for the inconvenience." "Hold on," I said. "With all the modern technology, how is it that my records didn't show I was a Canadian citizen?" She explained that if I had produced my passport, the agent at the border would have simply waved me through. However, I had attempted entry with my NEXUS card which simply shows me to be a "Trusted Traveler" from the United States, thereby implying American citizenship. She concluded, "You should never have been detained and you are free to enter, and work, and do anything else a citizen of this country is entitled to. Welcome to Canada...and please, accept my apologies for this. I'm really not even allowed to question you since you are a lawful citizen of this country."

As I left the border and proceeded into Ontario, I thought about the amazing benefits of citizenship, and I regretted the stress and anxiety that I had allowed to torment me for the hour that I had been detained. It got me thinking about many professing Christians who seem blissfully unaware of their citizenship...and the anxiety this creates as we all have a "border crossing" in our future. One day we will die, and I am more and more amazed at the number of professing Christians who seem terrified at the prospect of what will be the greatest day of our lives...the day that we get to enter our country.

I fear that so much of the anxiety experienced by Christians, and so much of the unChristlike behavior and conversations that are taking place around this election are simply the result of a great blindness that is being experienced by those who profess faith in Christ Jesus. Our enemy, Satan (not Hillary, or Donald, or any other human being) has convinced those of Christ's family, that they are simply Americans. If you proudly consider yourself an American, or Canadian, or Mexican etc., I challenge you to see yourself as your Redeemer sees you: As a citizen of Heaven, placed on this earth as a "foreign" Ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't believe that this is your true identity, read this from 2 Corinthians 5:

 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become sthe righteousness of God.

The passages I have placed in bold (above) state the case as clear as it can be stated. God created you, He loves you, and the greatest fear (if God can fear) that He has is that you will go your entire life and never realize that He loves you and has paid for all of your sins. He is not mad at you, or eager to punish you. HE LOVES YOU-So much that He gave His only Son to pay the price for every sin you have ever committed. If you will simply acknowledge your guilt before Him, and believe in what He has done for you in Jesus Christ, you will be "born again" into a brand new creature. Your "old man"...that gave you citizenship in Adam's race and was a slave to Satan will DIE, and you will be born again...a brand new creation! If you have been born again, you are no longer an American, nor any other nationality. You are a citizen of heaven with all the rights and privileges and responsibilities afforded to citizens of Heaven. As a citizen of heaven, God already sees you as safely and securely with Him in heaven! (Eph.2:6) So why the distress about the election, about death, about all those things that citizens of this world worry about? If your faith today rests on the shed blood of Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins, and you believe that God actually raised him bodily from the dead, You have nothing to fear from anything that this world brings to pass, even death!(Romans 10:9-10)

One closing thought. The passage above tells us that as citizens of heaven, we don't view people the same way the lost race of Adam does (those who have rejected Christ as their Savior). Citizens of heaven don't view people according "to the flesh". As citizens of heaven we see only two races of people on the earth. Those of Adam's race who we desperately desire to introduce to Jesus Christ, and those fellow citizens of heaven who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the actual body of Jesus Christ on this planet...with all the privileges and potential and power that Christ himself had available in his physical body 2000 years ago. How should this affect our thinking...and our speech, and our behavior when Hillary Clinton and/or Donald Trump is brought up?

Hillary and Donald suffer from the same affliction as all the members of Adam's race. Unless they confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, they are lost, devoid of the power of the Holy Spirit, and that fact breaks the heart of Jesus Christ who died for Hillary, Barak, Donald, Steve Clark...and the entire human race. God had an amazing plan to display His eternal glory through his greatest creation: human beings...and he has never stopped viewing you according to your eternal potential. Sadly, as citizens of Adam's race, we rejected God's plan for us, and embraced the enemy...and willingly becoming his slaves...and the rest is history.

I thank God that though I used to be a citizen of Canada and the United States, I am now a citizen of heaven. The greatest news ever is this: There is no wall in heaven. "Whosoever will may come." (Rev.2:17) There is only one requirement when you reach the border of that heavenly country: To enter you must be a citizen.  Regardless of what happens on Tuesday November 8, 2016, my job as an Ambassador of the King will be unaffected. I will still have the glorious privilege to serve my King, no matter who moves to the White House. I pray for Hillary and Donald, and for all in my sphere of influence that are still in Adam's race. I pray that they too would one day come home and join me as a citizen of Heaven. If you would like more information about how you can gain citizenship in heaven, please contact me and it would be my privilege to share with you this glorious gift.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The Farmer...

The Farmer…

My dad was a farmer, and I miss him. He wasn’t a homegrown farmer, but rather, a city kid who left school in 8th grade to enter the workforce at RBW Printers in Owen Sound. By the time I came along, he was in his early 20s, and  already had a daughter. I was his 2nd child of what eventually would become a brood of seven.

I vaguely remember moving to an old farm in Derby Township as a young boy. Dad was taking night school classes in the city to learn to be a farmer. Soon, he abandoned his successful printing career and struck out on his own as a farmer. As a small boy, I had no idea how my Dad’s decision would impact my life.

I grew up around farmers, and as a young, aspiring rookie, my Dad depended on these characters for advice, for help, but mostly for friendship. I remember as an 8-year-old child, driving an old Case tractor with a hand-clutch, because I was too small to reach a regular clutch...baling hay for my neighbor Mervyn Johnson. It was terrifying, and exhilarating, and I would take that experience over Disney or any other theme park. Imagine, my Dad allowing me to bale Mr. Johnson’s hay! Me driving, while he worked the stuker. How many kids today even know what a stuker is?

I learned so much from those farmers. My life featured an amazing array of characters that seem today to be larger-than-life. I’ll always think of the hearty laugh of Alex Torrie, my father’s closest friend,  of thoughtful and quiet Basil Haefling, of calm and gentle Mervyn Johnson, and who could ever forget the brilliant, but slightly volatile, George Bothwell? These guys were friends. Friends to my Dad, and by extension, friends with me. I would sit for hours and listen to them, “chew the fat”.

Often times my Dad would load up the car with kids, and over Mom’s protests, he’d say, “Let’s go drop in on Alex and Shirley” or “George and Azelda", shortly thereafter, with no prior scheduling, or lengthy preparations, a carload of Clarks would arrive, unannounced for an evening of delightful fellowship. Those were some of the best times of my young life. As the night wore on, the farmers would begin to think of morning chores and we would head home early, by today’s standards. There was no staying up until midnight when 5 a.m. milking was just around the corner. As a teenager I learned the hard way, what the farmers already knew. A good night’s sleep is a priceless treasure...and…”Nothing good ever happens after midnight.” This axiom from the farmers frequently came to mind in later life, when as a police officer I would be dealing with some horrific tragedy, usually fueled by alcohol, or drugs, and in my mind  I would hear the farmers say, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight.” Words to live by.

The farmer’s life is a simple life of faith. No person on earth has as much faith as the farmer. Who else pours blood, sweat, tears, and huge sums of money into a venture that is almost 100% in the hands of God, or the government, or often both? Perhaps this is why Jesus used the farmer in so many of His parables. The farmer bears the scars of great disappointments, and yet, is up before dawn, and will work past dusk, trusting that “whatsoever he sows, that shall he also reap…” The farmer’s life is a life of faith in action.

Enemies abound, but the farmer walks by faith. Weather, blight, insects, government regulations, commodity market manipulations, and the day-to-day tragedies that befall each member of Adam’s race, all conspire to defeat the farmer. Perhaps that is why they are in such short supply. The farmer requires almost superhuman optimism and that is becoming increasingly rare in this dark world. Bumper crops bring great joy, followed by disappointment as the bottom falls out of the market due to oversupply, Failed crops mock the many thousands of dollars and hours that were invested in the cultivation, planting and harvest...followed by the realization that the price for this pitiful crop has skyrocketed, because of the scarcity caused by the crop failures. The farmer is a pawn for the bankers and commodity brokers,, and yet he simply dusts himself off, and begins to plan for next year. Thankfully he keeps going, and thereby keeps our freezers in meat, and our pantries stocked with his wares.

Ask a farmer a question and you will typically get a short reply, dripping with common sense. Farmers aren’t confused about genders or mixed bathrooms, because they live everyday surrounded by nature. Aberrations are a part of life, but they are just that...aberrations: unnatural and strange. Queer is word that some embrace, and the farmer would probably agree. Much of what tries to pass today as normal, is queer: defined in the dictionary as “strange, or odd.” I have often said, that with all the craziness that passes as today’s sophistication, what we really need is to sit down with an old farmer and listen to his take on the issues. Most in the world view farmers as simple...and that simplicity speaks volumes about the foolishness of the worldly intellectual. My worldview was shaped by farmers, and for that I'm thankful.

Appearances can be misleading. Farmers are deep thinkers. Nobody thinks as much as the farmer who spends hour after hour on a lonely tractor in the “back 40”,  or walking amongst the livestock checking herd health, or anxiously awaiting the midnight arrival of the prize, (hopefully) heifer calf that may become the next Brookview Tony Charity...the greatest Holstein show cow of all time. The farming life is a solitary life with great stretches of precious silence...surrounded by nature. Farmers rarely experience perfection, so for all the farmers out there, here she is! The $1.45 million dollar cow. Having worked with her at Romandale Farms, I can tell you, she wasn’t perfect. (but I digress)

Farming can bring one to tears. I recall as a young boy, my mother’s tears upon the death of one of our prize cows. My father’s response: “Don’t ever cry over a cow. It is just a cow. Save your tears for human death.” My father suffered bitter disappointments and his dream farm evaporated in the skyrocketing interest rates of the early 1980s. As he watched his dream being auctioned off to repay the bankers, I failed to understand just what a devastating loss this must have been for him. A true farmer, he never showed it. Instead, for the sake of his family, he picked himself up, and moved to Virginia, where he reinvented himself as a handyman. Without him making that sacrificial move, my life would be a much different story. It was through that move that I met my precious wife.

Regardless of what he did for a living over the last 30 years of his life, he was always a farmer to me. He could be harsh, he expected a work ethic that was almost impossible to live up to, but my life was blessed because the Lord gave me a farmer for a father. Throughout his life there were three constants: He loved his God, he loved his wife, and he loved his family. So many of the lessons that impact my life today, came directly from this simple farmer.

Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, who is undoubtedly leaning on a rail fence in glory, “chewing the fat” with his farmer friends, a stem of Orchard Grass between his teeth. My dad was a farmer...and I miss him.

In memory of Albert Thomas Clark-Feb. 24, 1941- May 17, 2012

Tom Clark Obituary

If You Ever Are Tempted To Believe Big Business Advertising...

I think the same way when I see advertising for "healthy" cereals, frankenfoods...and anything low-fat. We all used to think my Dad was crazy because he absolutely despised anything low-fat, loved his bacon and eggs, his raw milk, and especially his butter. He used to rant and rave whenever anyone tried to serve margarine. Now, to be absolutely honest, my father died of a stroke at 71...but he didn't darken the door of a hospital until his stroke. He lingered for about two-weeks and died a peaceful death. So...is 71 years a tragically short life? For a man that had high blood pressure from the time he was a young man, he was on and off medication for many years...until he finally refused anymore. He died at 71...not bad I would say. Many have lived longer, but with long life, comes more sorrow and pain. As he used to quote from one of his favorite Bible verses: Psalm 90:10

10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

January 2016 Update...and why HersheyPark Pennsylvania is NOT a good location for a Very LowCarb Vacation.

After such an extended absence from my blog, I am overdue for an update. The learning process continues and here is an opening tip for 2016: If you intend to live LowCarb, ideally Very LowCarb (VLC-less than 40 grams of carbs/day for me) don't, under any circumstance, decide to visit HersheyPark PA for a Thanksgiving getaway. This is exactly what we did. I had been traveling extensively for work, and we had a 4-day open long weekend over Thanksgiving. The married boys were going to their in-laws' to feast so we decided to take the three youngest on a little last-minute getaway. Hershey, PA was a place that we had talked about going earlier in the Summer, and now seemed like a good time to go. 

Chocolateland USA is not LowCarb friendly. I know this isn't a revelation to anyone, but I assumed I would have a bit of high-sugar chocolate and then merrily return to my VLC ways. This was not to be. The trip to Hershey kicked off a holiday season of compromises and I find myself entering 2016 at 240 lbs. My lowest weight after my 30-day meat/dairy-only diet was 228. So...basic math reveals that relaxing my VLC ways and going back on a very modest amount of sugar/sweets from late November through early January, (about 6-7 weeks), resulted in a 12 lb weight gain. How is that for a great example of the effect of sugar and a very small amount of grains?

I am getting back to the VLC way of eating (WOE) and as I sit looking out at the first snowstorm of 2016, I wonder why I ever changed from my high-fat, VLC WOE. I can't say I really missed the sugar or grain. I had a bushel of super-sweet Fuji apples that constantly called my name but now they are gone. I feel great and super energetic on beef, bacon, butter, salt, high-fat dairy, cheese and a few mushrooms (eaten with the beef). I haven't been traveling for the past couple of weeks and I find it more of a challenge to eat VLC at home, just because of day-to-day family life that includes regular foods that I am used to eating. I have become much better at staying consistent even at home. One of my most important tips is to avoid restaurants whenever possible. Eating VLC is almost impossible at restaurants. During my recent trip to Philadelphia I had great success. I had access to a kitchen in my hotel room and an outdoor BBQ grill. Every night was the same food and it was fantastic. Ribeye steak, mushrooms fried in KerryGold butter, and a head of cauliflower. That's it...and it was highly satisfying. For four days I ate the same thing every night. I wasn't hungry throughout the day...until about 3pm when I would start to dream about...steak and mushrooms...and cauliflower. 

On my next trip to Dallas (Feb.1-6) I'm planning on following the same pattern. Great energy and very satisfying food. I'm looking forward to the Dallas trip because I'm actually only training in Dallas one day, after which I'm headed about an hour southeast of Dallas, out into the country for 4-days of training in Kaufman County TX. I'm staying at a cabin on a ranch where I will have access to a grill and a full kitchen. I'm seeing more ribeyes, mushrooms and cauliflower in my future!

I have lots more to write and will try to get caught up here. Upcoming are a few rants that I had better put in their own section. My first rant will be on the scam that is known as Grass-fed beef. Other rants that are percolating beneath the surface...all things politics.