The Birds Are Angry

Ok, I admit it - I do play games on my smartphone.  Not a lot of games, mind you - I just don't have the time.  Mostly I play Sudoku (and usually just during conference calls ;)

A little while back I read about the new gaming rage - Angry Birds.  As it turns out, that game was available on the Palm Pre.  Today, they also released the Christmas Edition!  This game is HIGHLY addictive and you should absolutely never, ever play it!

;)

The Sound of Music

The last couple of years we have started a tradition of taking in live theater during December.  This year we went to a local production of The Sound of Music.   Besides doing a great job in a small, rustic venue, the lead was a friend of ours - Coppelia.

Coppelia happens to be not only a superb Maria (her voice is amazing) but she is the music director at The Ridge Church as well as one of the on-air personalities at Air1.  If you are local to south Placer county, try to catch a performance (make sure to get tickets for the "Vienna" cast).

Get In And Drive!

I was listening to one of my favorite radio preachers this morning (during a commute from hell) and he shared a scene from the movie Blackhawk Down.

An army ranger colonel is trying to lead a convoy to safety amid a firestorm of enemy fire.  He stops the convoy to retrieve some wounded soldiers.  He drags a dead soldier out of the driver's seat of a jeep and turns to a sergeant standing near by. 

"Get in and drive" says the colonel.  "But colonel, I've been shot" stammers the sergeant.  "We've all been shot - get in and drive!" yells the colonel.

The point of the preacher was, of course, that in the process of living we have all been shot - most of us repeatedly.  I find that this is so very true.  We are a world of the walking wounded.  Some of us "get in and drive" and others sit down by the side of the road and give up.  Every time I see the public out-pouring of support for some small child suffering from (put your favorite disease, condition or traumatic event here) all I can think about are the thousands of children suffering from the same thing in total obscurity.

I don't know why it is that some of us can keep putting one foot in front of the other while some curl into a ball and hide under a rock.  I have hidden under a rock on occasion but God keeps gently prodding me until I get back on my feet and start moving again.  I know that to live life engaged, interactive and relational is to brave a hail storm of bullets.  Unless we completely isolate ourselves from the world (and especially from people) we are going to get shot at and occasionally wounded.

Ultimately it is what you do after getting shot that matters the most.

Get in and drive!

Oy

What a week it has been at work.   I have been working on a project that is visible all the way to the top of the corporate ladder (42 levels best I can tell).  Not that there is any pressure but I was told "the staffing within the group will change if this isn't a sparkling success."  As a result, I have been up to my ears in work trying to get the project back on track and back on schedule (the lead has been stuck out of the country for over 2 months now so I am now "driving").

We got all the decorations down and put out the ones we still have room for.  The house is slowly starting to look like we live there (not just staying in a hotel).  Andy and Dale hung racks and shelves in my garage so I am able to park 2 cars there now.

Cookie Day was a smashing success.  We got 4 batches baked (usually only 2) and several thousand cookies distributed to family members.

Anyway, that is all I have time for as my task list isn't getting smaller while I type :)

blessings on your day