quote of the day

Talking about what we're all doing for Christmas....

Nicki: "We'll be visiting the unreached people group known as the Williams family."

Come Back Soon

I believe that everything happens for a purpose.

Not because I read it on a coffee cup or a Christian bookmark.  Not because I just believe that sentence so that I don't have to face reality.  If I believe that God is the author, creator, King of everything, then I believe that there is a grand purpose for everything. And that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing for me and for Him.  I think He sees the big picture and I only see the 75 or so years that I get of my life.  I haven't really said much about last Friday's news, mainly because how do you even process something like that?  When all you hear in the news lately are shootings in schools, movie theaters, malls, football stadiums.  Do I think our gun laws could stand to be looked at? Absolutely, let's look into it and see if something can't be changed so that everyone isn't running around with a rifle in their hand.  Maybe the media needs to chill out and in some cases stop idolizing violence in our country.  I mean I agree with some of that stuff and if something, anything, can be done to get it under control then I say let's go.  But what happened in Connecticut wasn't a gun law's fault.  It wasn't the media putting fun ideas in people's heads.  What happened was a result of anger and hate.  Not much we can do about that one outside of Christ.  

Why does a God who loves us SO much allow stuff like this happen?  I have no idea.  I don't know why He thinks I deserve a bed each night, food to eat everyday and people who love me either.  My only thought is that sin is huge.  It effects everyone, it's in everyone, and it will never leave us until we leave this life.  There has to be something more than these few years full of pain and crazy that we get.  We had to have been created for something greater, because God loves us SO much.  He won't leave us alone to all this.  But until then, He's all we've got.  

"So we groan in this great darkness
Are we alone in this great darkness?

If nature's red in tooth and in claw
Then it seems to me that she's an outlaw
'Cause every death is a question mark
At the end of the book of a beating heart
And the answer is scrawled in the silent dark
On the dome of the sky in a billion stars
But we cannot read these angel tongues
And we cannot stare at the burning sun
And we cannot sing with these broken lungs
So we kick in the womb and we beg to be born
Deliverance!
Deliverance, O Lord!"

-Andrew Peterson, Come Back Soon

quote of the day

Me: "What cuss word did you say?"
Sarah: "Probably all of them!"

Sarah: "I know that Hebrews is about how Jesus is the better of anything that has ever happened."

Touchdown Jesus: Why Notre Dame will win the big one

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in the National Championship game for the first time since 1988.  Will Heisman Trophy finalist, South Carolina homeboy quarterback, and Jesus guide them to glory? Or will they become just another victim on Nick Saban's ridiculous list of Championships?  No way to tell, except to keep reading.

• #5. On defense he is Manti Te'o.  Definitely the best defensive player in the country, who has already won 6 awards this year and was a finalist for the Heisman trophy.  On offense he is Everett Golson, a Myrtle Beach boy who only thew 5 interceptions all year. He threw for 11 TD's and rushed for 5 in some pretty big games. 

• Fans.  Only the TRUE sports fans drink the Hater-ade when it comes to Notre Dame.  I'd put them up there with teams that people pull for when they have absolutely no idea who they want to win anything.  Other examples: the Red Sox, the Cowboys, Manchester United, UNC Tarheels.  The true sports fan thinks they only got #1 votes because the "masses" love them and I would be willing to bet what little money I have on the fact that more blue will be in Miami than red on January 7th.  The story of Notre Dame playing for a National Championship was just too cute to pass up. 

• Rudy.  What a great movie.  If a team bonding sesh breaks out the night before the big game complete with some thin mints and this movie, Bama's got no chance.

• Freedom.  As of late, conference commissioners and athletic directors across the country have been pondering and paying for their next big conference move.  While most schools are saying, "Give us more money", Notre Dame says "We don't need your money" aka "Our football program is better than yours." They sleep well at night knowing their air time is locked down, while a little TV network called NBC televises all of their home games.

• Touchdown Jesus.  If the help of talent, mass groups of fans, or the luck of the Irish won't bring home the BCS trophy, our Savior will.  Notre Dame's football stadium, which is officially called "Notre Dame Stadium" (it doesn't need naming rights aka "our stadium is better than yours") is known for its view of the famous mural from inside.  This mural, apparently a gift to the University, is Jesus holding up his arms like a referee signaling a touchdown. If that's not FAVOR, tell me what is.

Final Score of the BCS National Championship game (prediction) : 

Alabama - 17       Notre Dame - Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand