Hibernation and X Games

It's the middle of Winter now, January 26, a week before Punxsutawney Phil annually informs us that winter will go on, and so often for 6 more week.  The holidays have passed and all the joy of those things has become irrelevant.

It seems I have two options at this time.  Succumb to the strong call to retreat into my home and hibernate.  The television seasons are all gearing up to help me with that options.  I caught Lost last week and can't wait for next Wednesday.

However, while scanning the TV channels this week, I noticed that the annual Winter Games are on.  Snow
boarders and skiers doing ridiculous tricks for points, but even when the loose by falling on their heads they get up pumped because of the adrenaline rush they produced.

I realize that this winter season gives me two options.  Hibernate and do little of anything or seek incredible weather related thrills by becoming an audacious snowboarder.

Since the snow stinks in my area and my knees don't work as they should, maybe I need to find other ways to seek my thrills so I'm going to use this Winter to start something new.  I'm going to try to do something and gather people together in a way that I've never seen before.  I'm going to be creative in doing so.  And I just might dream up the details to this new, exciting thing while watching the X Games in my PJs.

New Year Predictions 2009

Happy New Year to all.  I pray that you will find 2009 fulfilling.

I thought I'd make my predictions for the coming year.  Some are more obvious than others.  I don't think I get too ostentatious. 

• The economy will go up and it will go down, especially as we measure it according to the sock market.  In the end there will be a push to find another economic barometer because the stock market will be seen as too artificial.  
• We'll have a new president; he'll be a minority, the first ever in the White House; Conservative Christian leaders will not be happy with him, but many other Christian leaders will consider his first months in a positive light.
  
• The Obamas will get a dog as they move into the White House.  It will be a mutt (sort of). 
• The Eagles will not win the Super Bowl.  Some fans will continue to call for Reid's head.  Others will call for a change of quarterback.  Neither will happen before the 2009 season.
• Phillies fans will boo at least one of the World Series heroes before the end of the first home game.  The Phillies will not repeat as World Series champs.
  
• There will not be a civil war that fragments the US, but some tensions will rise.
• Microsoft will not have a Y2K10 issue, but they will make news sometime in the year for a major attack on their operating system.
• Gas prices will go back up this summer but not to the $4 mark of last summer.
• In Iraq, the US withdraw will be behind schedule at the end of 2009.  The Military will point to an escalation of insurgents uprisings as the reason.
• It will be cold in the winter and hot in the summer and everyone will claim climate is the cause for it seeming hotter than it used to be or colder than it used to be.  At least one hurricane will strike the US and people will again focus on how much climate change has increased the chance of the event happening.
• Captain Phil will return the the Cornela Marie.  His sons will rip him off, he'll get angry and say bleeeeep a lot, then in the end he'll tell them he's so proud of their progress on the boat.
• Jack will get the gang back together to search for the Island, but they won't find it this season.  Or they will find it, but they won't find their friends on the Island.
• I'll continue to love my wife and she'll continue to be a better writer than me.  My girls will continue to amaze me.  We'll continue to wish we had more money, but, in reality, will be happy we don't have everything we want.
  

Does God like Christmas?

This time of year I get what we call the I-wanters.  That is, I see all the good sales, and I want things.

Last weekend, I stopped in the ATT store to see how much the iPhone was going for these days.  It was nice, and slightly more than I had budgeted for my birthday gift.  Since I have a December birthday, maybe I could talk Stef into bundling it with my Christmas gift.  Yeah! That's a good idea.

So....I talked to the man about the iPhone, only to find out it was the only phone in the store that required a $30-per-month data plan.  Now the $200 phone would cost me... oh... around $560 for the year over what I'm currently paying for mobile service.

So, being a smart guy, I asked the guy, "Are there any phones that you'd recommend over the iPhone.

His eye's light up as he guided me across the room to show me the new Blackberry Bold. At only $400 this phone has high rating in just about everything over the iPhone. 

Oh, it looked so nice, and there was an option of a $100 rebate.  I'll I'd have to do is order the dataplan for 3 months.  Let's see, $30 data plan times 3 equals $90.  That's $10 saving and i get to use the super fast G3 network for 3 months.  Certainly, if Stef could see the 3G's blazing speed, she'd want me to have it.  "Oh," and he added, "This phone has one of the best turn-by-turn GPS system in the world.  It even beats those that they put into Lexus and BMW cars. That's only a $10-per-month service charge."

"WOW!  I love GPS! That could only be so cooooooool!"  And it could be my birthday present/Christmas present.  Now I want it, and I want it BAD!  Let's ignor that fact that this phone would only cost me $400-$100 rebate+$90 for the first 3 monts of data service + in reality $30 times 9 because I really want the phone for the cool data feature + $120 for the monthly GPS service.  I could have this baby for only $780. Only $650 dollars more than I had budgeted for birthday and Christmas gifts.

You see, we are trying to downplay gifts this year.  We don't need stuff, but as Seth Godin points out in his bog Hungry, its the marketer's job to make me want stuff.  It's my job to realize I don't need it.

The video at the top of this unusually long post is Jon Foreman performing his song Instead.  It is a lovely reworking of the sentiments in Is. 1:11-17 or maybe Amos 5:21-24.  When it comes to Christmas, I'm never really happy.

I wonder if it is because this season has become on of those festivals that Isaiah and Amos write about.  Could God really be pleased with me when I celebrate the coming of his Son with buying myself a cell phone or buying my child a new 50-inch flatscreen TV?  Maybe I'm not that far out--maybe it is just the Wii @ $400 that I'm getting my kid to set along side the PS3 and X-box?  Or whatever else it might be that is cause me to have the I-wanters?  Can those I-wanter be what God hates when they overcome my attention on justice and righteous living?