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Sunday greetings everyone!

If the saying, "The best things in life are free" is true, kindness has to be one of the best things in life.

It costs nothing to be kind to someone. Gentle words of encouragement or appreciation come at the same zero price as not correcting or chastising someone who clearly knows they made a mistake. Going over to talk to a person who is desperately alone in a crowd, or listening to another person's story and then not telling the better one that happened to you, cannot be bought.

The burdens lifted, hope restored, loneliness chased away, and self-worth felt because of such acts, and many more like them, is unmeasurable - especially when you stop to consider that those results may occur simultaneously in the giver and receiver, with unpredictable, ongoing results for both.

That said, there is also be a great price to being kind. The sheer act of trying to see life through another's eyes requires a challenging self-emptying and vanquishing of all the conditions that stand in the way of our being and acting unconditionally toward others. And if we are successful in that, we may then have to invest further creativity, time, money, and energy, into following through because of what we have seen, lest we turn away and end up being unkind.

This is why kindness is also dangerous, because to pursue it guarantees we are going to be changed one way or the other.

Today's video share is of an act that is all of the above and took many kind people to pull off.

Click watch to listen the video.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing!

~ Pastor Tim

Oh look, Chicken Thursday!

It has been a pretty busy day here at Cybersalt World Headquarters, so this week the news is not news: wherever you are - be it morning, afternoon, evening or tomorrow - I hope you are well!

Today's video share is a fun car race that I am sure all the drivers (and engines) will remember for along time!
You can view the video by clicking here.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing.

~ Pastor Tim

Sunday greetings everyone!

I had another "time is flying by moment" yesterday when I learned of the passing of singer B.J. Thomas.

I became a follower of Jesus in the fall of 1979, when I was 13. A couple of year's later I bought one of B.J.'s records (technically it was a cassette) and listened to it countless times. That would have been around 1981, which was 40 years ago! It blows my mind that those memories I have are as old as the amount of time that Israel wandered in the desert after being freed from Egypt.

As if that "40 years" math result was not enough to make me feel my age, I searched YouTube for the first song that came to mind from that cassette; "His Eye is On the Sparrow." That was an eye opener too, because as I listened to it for the first time in decades, I thought "You listened to that when you were a teenager? You are OLD!"

Listening to it again has reminded me of my teenage faith in Jesus and the promise and hope that in all the things I had ahead of me (known and unknown) His eye was on me and He would be with me. It's a popular conversational icebreaker to ask people what they would tell their younger selves if they could travel back in time. But in matters of faith, we might do just as well to ask what our younger selves would say to us if they could travel forward in time.

After all, what was true in 1981 is still true today, even if a lot has changed in 40 years.

Not surprisingly, todays "video" share is B.J. Thomas singing "His Eye is On the Sparrow."

Click here to listen the video.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing!

~ Pastor Tim

Oh look, Chicken Thursday!

For self-encouragement, I think it is important to seek out quick little victories from time to time, especially when other things you are forced to do become more complicated than they should be.

Case in point: A client, who usually pays by cheque in the mail, was more than a month overdue paying their most recent invoice so I charged them a late fee of 2 percent. They contacted me and asked if they could pay what they owed by credit card and I accommodated their request. I then realized that the credit card company was going to take a fee higher than the late fee I charged so in the end I was going to end up being paid less. I figured, "Oh well, that's the cost of being in business."

But then I heard back from the client that when they tried to pay the invoice by credit card the online form would not allow them to enter the full amount they owed. So I took some time to duplicate the issue on my end and then I called the credit card processor to try and get the situation fixed. I explained everything to a support person who then put me on hold to try and solve my problem. Twenty minutes later I was disconnected. I phoned back and explained my problem to someone else. They were a really good listener - so good, in fact, that at one point I had to ask, "Are you still there?" They were - until 5 minutes later when I was disconnected.

So I called back, a third time, and explained, a third time, what was going on. That person put me on hold to look into the problem. I was on hold for over 60 minutes. The hold music was the same song over and over and over and it wore me down almost to the point where I was about to give up the secret location of the troops when number 3 returned. He told me he was going to have to pass me to a different technical department - and did.

The guy in the next department answered and asked me what was going on and how could he help. Yup, I had to tell my whole story for a 4th time. Three hours after I had begun my quest for a solution, he explained that their payment form was best described as "finicky" and suggested a workaround.

Which brings me back to seeking out little victories in life. Since that little result took a 3 hour time investment to produce, I decided it was time to do something little that would bring some greater satisfaction. I went straight to unplugging some very slow flowing plumbing in the basement of our house. It was messy, gooey, and super stinky, but after 20 minutes I had won! I even broke one of my wrenches in the process, which I also consider a win because I can go shopping for a new one - score!

When some tasks have fought/are fighting you all the way, look around for one you can beat easily. Sometimes the biggest win you can get is only a small one.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing.

~ Pastor Tim