This Is A Game?

I won’t deny it.  I’m competitive.  I am a firm believer that the point of any good game is to have a single winner.  And if there is a single winner then there is obviously at least one non-winner…if not more.  Anyone want to play Settler’s of Catan or Ticket to Ride?

My daughter…she’s also competitive.  She recently got a new “game” and challenged me to play her tonight.  My response?  GAME ON!  The only problem is that this turned out to be no game…it was work.

The title of this game is called Create-A-Story.  The object is to move your game piece around the board collecting cards, which are labled such enticing things like, topic sentence, setting, character, dialogue, plot, resolution, and lesson.  (Sorting the cards into piles should have been my first idea…)  Then after you have safely manuevered your way through the board you begin to create a story. And then you score the story. You get points for each card you use and ultimately everyone gets 100 points.

This is definitely, not a game for two reasons.  First, there really is no winner.  And second, this one requires you to write.  I remember my English classes.  Creative writing was no game!  There were too many dangling participles and split-infinitives to make it fun.  In fact, to this day I couldn’t tell you what those are, but I can tell you I always used them.  Yep, no fun.

But I need to play because my daughter is actively and purposefully sorting through her cards, dulling her pencil, and shredding her eraser, I will begin my story…(maybe she won’t use all her cards.)

It was cold.  It was really cold.  The time machine landed with a loud thud, knocking me out of my seat.  I was at the bottom of the ocean. Me and a pilgrim, a gorilla, an Alien, and the town bully.  There were funny looking creatures everywhere.  Where was I?  Oh yeah…the bottom of the ocean.  The problem was that the gauges were telling me I had gone forward in time, only for my time machine to break.  Great….

Amidst my mumbling I thought to my self that one time on a cold and rainy, horribly terrific, freezing night, I received one million dollars for finding the ancient treasure.  It was too much for one person. It led me to discover how to be generous and that persistence and determination could pay off.  The end.

When adding up my score I get 10 points for using a topic sentence, 5 for when the story took place, and…oh never mind.  Don’t I win for finishing my story first?

Until next time…

Pastor Barry

What’s In A Word?

For those of you who follow me in the blogosphere world – it doesn’t come as much of a surprise when I say that it has been a long time since my last post!  I suppose then, that this is the time where I should run through a litany of excuses as to why so much time has passed.  However, if I were to end up doing that I would be assured of two things: First, excuses don’t really matter, and second, no one really cares anyway.  But this does matter…this post is finally making its way to your computer screen.

Now that the calendar has turned from 2011 to 2012 (and at the risk of over posting about the new year), I want to point out that we humans, as linear time marking beings, are naturally inclined to take this calendar turning thing as a moment to make resolutions.  This is the time of year where we decide on things we want to change or do differently in the future.  Now personally, I have never made it a practice of making resolutions, but because of my loving wife I do choose a “word” to live by for the coming year.  Last year, as a matter of fact, we both by chance, chose the same word. It made a huge difference in our lives. We chose “obedience.”

It’s kind of amazing when you think about what’s in a word.  Especially if you take the time to examine it, define it, choose to live by it and take ownership of it.  Obedience is defined as being willing to obey or the act of obeying.  It is submitting to someone else and their authority or command.  Obedience is what brought my wife and my family to the central California coast.  It is here that I pastor a wonderful community of believers at Living Hope Church of the Nazarene.  (You should check them out at here.)  But obedience was last year’s word…this year’s word is different.

Which, brings me back to why I am writing.  This year’s word is part of the reason I am sitting at my kitchen table writing as my children are studying.

My girls are home schooled.  One is doing math right now, and the other is writing in her journal.  Neither really wants to be doing their work at this moment.  But I guess who could blame them because there is, after all, an army of Barbie Dolls and a brand new Barbie House from Santa Claus beckoning from a few short feet away.  So to get them to work – I had to resort to bribery.  Which, actually begs the question, “Why should we as parents have to, or even resort to bribing our children to do something they should be doing in the first place?”  My bribe?  I told them I would sit and “work” if they would sit and work, which I was going to do anyway and wanted to do in the first place.

So here I am, with pencil, paper, and hand cramp writing my latest blog posting the old-fashioned way.  I can’t remember the last time I actually sat down to hand write something and not type with the familiar hue of unnatural light emanating from my computer monitor.  But here I am and it’s all because of this year’s word – “quality!”

Quality is why I have chosen to sit and write with my kids as they are doing school.  Quality is why I am with them.  Quality is why we are together.

For me, today, and at this moment quality is about being with, being present, and sharing an experience together.  For my girls, quality will hopefully be about them remembering the time I took to “work” with them, alongside of them, and in front of them, rather than in my office across the city.

Please remember this about this post.  Words are powerful.  Words mean something.  Words can change things.  And in this case, my word for the year – quality – when defined as the degree of excellence of something – can really enhance other words.  For example, quality when used in conjunction with time becomes so much more!  After all, wouldn’t we all want quality time than just time?

This year quality is my word and quality is going to guide what I do.  It is going to be my modifier!  So let me ask you – what’s your word for 2012?  I would love to know!

Until next time…

Pastor Barry