Christmas Joy

I don't have any kids; but from talking to those who do I have an idea how much pride, excitement, and happiness a parent feels when they see their child born. Imagine what the Father was thinking as he watched Jesus being born. What pride he must have felt as he saw his son come into our world; and this was no ordinary father, but the God of the Universe! I can just imagine all of creation being caught up in an tremendous overflow of Joy from Him. I can just see supernovae going off throughout the universe, flowers sprouting from the earth, and the angels zooming through the air shouting and carrying on. And not only was this the Son of God, but the celebration of a deciding victory (read Revelations 12) in a universal war.
I hope that we can take some of that joy with us through the next year - for God is with us and the war has been won.

TV Tirade

Three years ago when I joined the Air Force I decided not to buy a TV so that I wouldn't be distracted from my flight school stuff. Since then I have gotten a TV but no Cable (I just use it to watch movies), and that has been such a good decision for me. The last couple months I've been staying in on-base billeting and I've remembered how easily TV can become a huge part of our life. It's just the natural thing to do when you walk in the room, and it does its job as a filler of empty time very very well. The question though is how much empty time do we have? Do people really need to leave a good time with friends early so that they can get home in time to catch the latest episode of the "Bionic Woman" or whatever? Should we waste our own lives watching other people live in the many permutations of reality shows. How many calories does one burn watching other people get healthy on "The Biggest Loser?" I love "Man vs. Wild," but couldn't we be out in nature ourselves? Okay so I'm not saying that laughing at Dwight on "The Office" is anything but hilarious, just that it seems important to recognize the TV for what it is, a way to fill some time and be entertained. Not a focus for our lives and families. Ever think about how the layout of living rooms have changed in the last fifty years?
Okay I'm done. Merry Christmas!!

Grounded Eagles

Planes were meant to fly, Pilots were meant to fly them, and fighter pilots were meant to fight with them. Yet right now and for most of the many days since 3 Nov no F-15s have flown. You may have heard on the news about the F-15s being grounded because of a structural failure. Well it's true there is a possible problem and they're inspecting all the jets and taking their sweet time about it. Not that I can really complain since it will be my little pink body in trouble if another jet falls apart; but I can still be frustrated.
So what does a squadron of 25 highly motivated , highly trained, hard charging fighter pilots do when they can't do their job? Oh, we train in the sims everyday, we study the books, we talk through different scenarios. But we're starting to get frustrated. So the other day the whole squadron took out our angst in a legendary game of dodgeball. We've also started messing with the raptor squadrons next door. Right now we have a pretty good war going on. We stole some stuff and held it for ransom, they stole our mascot instead of paying the ransom; so we took half the wheels off every one of their chairs so they have to sit crooked; they stole all our computer mouses. The next shoe will drop tonight...