The View From Here

…with a bang!  I have to say that after season 2 I was a little skeptical that they would return to the things that made season 1 so good.  Let me first throw a warning out there.  There is some content of sexual nature.  This was present at the beginning of the first season as well but they got away from it.  Hopefully they will do the same with the third.

Like I said, the things from the first season that I enjoyed so much were back in full force.  They threw in some great twists.  The witty humor was back.  The action was better.  I am actually interested in the story.  All of these things added up to a great beginning to what I hope will be a great season.  Next up, The Office starts on the 25th!

Brian

Some major players in the US financial market (and the world financial market) are crumbling before our eyes.  We are facing government intervention on a massive scale.  Who is paying for this?  We, the American taxpayer are.  Too bad most of us are just like babies.  Our world is out of control!  We flail, we cry, we scream, and then we get a bottle shoved in our mouth and we shut up.  To bad that bottle is the mark of a major shift in the role that government plays in our lives.  As long as we can keep on watching our football (read the sport of your choice) and the next big movie doesn’t get derailed we will be fine.

So while we are in this brief period of wailing and gnashing of teeth, there are many fingers being pointed.  It is the President’s fault, it is Obama’s fault, it is McCains fault, it is the Left Wing, Right Wing, Corporate big shot’s fault.  I will be the first to say that there is enough fault to go around.  All of the above mentioned get some.  Why is that?  They are all a part of our economy and society.  Everyone participating has some fault in what is going on right now.  Including you and me.  We participated in the system that elected these people.  We put such a high value on “Me” that it is no wonder some guy at Lehmen’s was making $17,000 per hour.  Do you really think that we can be on lookout for number one yet expect others not to do the same?

Your finger should start by pointing at yourself.  How am I contributing to the problem?  What values do I want others to have that I don’t exhibit myself?  Government can’t fix anything.  Sure, they can prop things up for a small window of time and make us babies feel like our world is safe and normal again.  It is sad, but we live in a world tainted by sin and there is no way this world will behave like we think it should.

Without Christ, this world falls apart.  I praise the Lord that my hope is not built on a financial system run by fallible people but on a God who is perfect.  As frustrated as I get by the events that are unfolding I can’t get away from the thought that no matter what happens I stand on the solid rock of Jesus.  Because of this I have the option to act the way He prescribes that humanity should:  whatever we want to be done to us, we should do for others.

Before looking out on a predicament and assigned blame, first look at yourself and decide how you need to change.  As the Great Physician, Jesus knows just the medicine that this world needs.  The only way to get that is through Him.

Brian

No, I am not in Puerto Rico.  The title just worked.  You will see.

I know that the weather won’t stay this cool for long, so I wanted to quickly capitalize on the coolness outside, cementing it in histroy by writing about it on my blog.  I stepped out of my house this morning to a bisque fifty-something degrees.  I absolutely love breathing in that cooler air.  It is very invigorating.  The last couple days have inspired me to grow, what I am calling, a trial-beard.  I know that the temperatures will go back up for a couple more weeks so I won’t keep it long but at least I can act like the weather will stay this way from here on out.  I believe that fall is my favorite time of year.

One of the great things that fall brings besides the weather (actually because of the weather) is opportunities to do inside activities, like board games!  Most of you who know me know that I am not talking about your Monopoly-type-games here.  Even thought those are great games there are many games that I have found or been introduced to that far outpace the Monopolies of the world.

I don’t know exactly how to categorize these games.  Most of them are designed in Germany so I guess it is safe to call them Deutschland games.  That might be too much of a mouthful so maybe I will just go with G-games.  I digress.  We were introduced to one of these G-games last night at a couple’s house from church.  It is great to find other people who enjoy these games with the same intensity that we do.

I have wanted to play Puerto Rico for a while now but haven’t had the money or opportunity to.  Let me just say that it is a great game with deep strategy.  Since last night was my first time to play I know I am just scratching the surface but I can see how deep this game could go.  At the same time it was very accessible.  My wife and I both picked it up quickly and had fun playing in our first play.  It is no surprise that this game has gotten the great reviews that it has.  Check it out a FunAgainGames.com.

If the above is all you need to know to be happy, great.  If you want to know some more details then read on. Puerto Rico is all about commodity producing and trading.  The trading aspect isn’t between players, it is with a market.  This does limit the player interaction a bit but this wasn’t an issue for me.  The turns revolve around taking the actions of some set professions.  There are (I believe) seven professions and the players choose which profession they want to use that turn based on the actions the profession can take and the special abilities it has.

For example, if someone chooses the Settler, they take the Settler action and the get the Settler bonus.  Everyone else will take the settler action in turn but does not get the bonus.  The settler cannot be picked by anyone else that turn.  You try to pick the profession that will help you the benefit you the most and help other players the least.

You produce resources using plantations of different kinds of resources (corn, indigo, sugar, and coffee) and matching them with factories.  Not only do you have to have both of these, you have to have both “peopled” to produce a product.  “Peopled” just means that you have to have colonists working both the plantation and the factory in order for them to work to produce a product.  The colonists come from the Mayor profession.  There are other buildings in the game that you can build that provide other benefits.

Once you have produced resources (using the Craftsman profession) you can load them on ships (using the Captain profession) to earn victory points.  You can also earn victory points at the end of the game through the buildings you have built throughout.  The person with the most victory points at the end wins, but that should be obvious.  Play time for people who know the game would probably be about an hour and a half or so.

The game is much deeper than what I have described here.  If I had put all of the ins and outs of Puerto Rico in four paragraphs then I would probably have a job writing instruction manuals for board games.  I am happy to say that I have finally played this game and I look forward to playing it again, and again.

Brian

I had the opportunity this weekend to go with a bunch of guys from church on a trip to the metroplex area, to Cabela’s.  Is there a better guy trip?  I submit that there is not!  We all piled in a van and headed out early in the morning.  The purpose behind this trip was for people to get some things they needed for the annual fly fishing trip that men from my church take.

Now, I have never been fly fishing so I don’t have the slightest clue what most of the words these people are saying mean.  One of the things I thought I understood was what a fly was.  I was wrong.  Upon entering the fly fishing section of Cabela’s I encountered hundreds of these:

Don’t be thrown off by the size of the picture.  These guys are small.  Apparently there are many people out there who tie them by hand.  They put all of these tiny elements together to make an imitation of a food item that a fish would just love to eat.  On top of that, when you are fly fishing, you have to know exactly what the fish are looking for at that moment.  It was absolutely amazing to me to see all of the different ways created to tempt a fish to bite. As I was looking at all of these flies, something hit me.  No, it wasn’t a truck.

Jesus draws parallels many times in scripture between fishing and evangelizing.  We are supposed to be “fishers of men”.  The thought that occurred to me is that as much as we are fishers of men, our enemy is as well, just a different kind.

Looking at all of these different flies made me realize that however many tools were here to catch fish, Satan must have an equal or greater number of tools to catch us.  Just like fish, we are prone to different sins at different times and the enemy has just the tool to catch us with.

In 1 Peter 5:8 we see that we should “be of sober-minded and watchful” because “[our] adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  We might also think of him as a fisherman with just the right lure to catch us off guard. Sometimes they can even look like truth.  Being watchful is paramount when our enemy has so many ways to catch us.  Be on the alert!  What looks like what you want just might be that lure that will trap you.

Brian

The Sacred Marriage study Lacey and I are doing requires that we do a little homework.  Part of that homework is reading the chapter from the book and part of it is answering some questions about the reading material.  One of the questions asked us to think back to our wedding day.  It asked us to think about how we felt about that day and how we could relate that to the marriage feast we have to look forward to with Christ.  Here are a few things I came up with.

• Anticipation - My wedding day is one that I really looked forward to with great anticipation.  What would it be like?  What would I feel like?  What would life be like afterward?  These thoughts went through my head quite often in the months leading up to our wedding day.  If you are a follower of Christ then you should have the same kind of anticipation for the marriage of the church to it’s Savior.
• Preparation - We did so much planning and preparation before our actual wedding took place.  If we hadn’t it would not have been as beautiful as it turned out to be.  We researched vows, and flowers, and talked to caterers and musicians.  We went through a time of counseling to make sure we had thought of as many questions as is possible.  In the same way, we should be preparing for the marriage feast in heaven.  We need to know what is going on and why.  We need to know what it means.  This is the culmination of our lives as believers in Christ.  Be prepared.
• Invitation - Our wedding was held in the presence of many people.  We wanted people to be a part of this celebration.  So we sent out invitations to people requesting their presence (and their presents).  As Christians it is our calling to call others to be there for the marriage feast but not just as witnesses, as participants.
• Consummation - Our wedding day marked the consummation of our commitment to each other.  We started our relationship as two separate people.  We became closer as time went on but on our wedding day we completed our commitment by exchanging vows.  In the same way, the marriage feast will mark our completion as the bride of Christ.  The ones that He loved so much that he would die for will be there with Him.  We will finally be complete.

Our marriages are God’s way of communicating to us what to expect when our Savior returns.  We should have greater anticipation for the wedding feast to come than our wedding days here.  That is a tall order but one we can prepare for with great joy and hope, knowing that our consummation with our Savior will be a new beginning for us with Him in eternity.

What are some of the parallels you see between your earthly marriage and the marriage feast to come?

Brian