I am so sore! I wonder what I’ll feel like tomorrow morning trying to roll out of bed and go to church. The reason for the extreme soreness is that a group of guys got together this morning and played tackle football. We only had enough for 5 on 5, so that made for the offenses having their way for much of the game. It was fun, and I have several “badges” to show for it. Oh, but I’m sore.

But why do you care? I read part of a great article that was all about writing on the web. One of the author's points was that those web writers shouldn't just keep a log of daily activities, but explain why those activities matter. What it means. Why another person should care.

So why should you care that I'm sore? Perhaps it is that God could teach you sympathy through this experience. Or he could use this as a test for you because you were tempted to think, "Stupid kid, that's what he deserves for playing a violent game." Or perhaps you were tempted to jealously because where you live there aren't enough guys that you know that would like to play tackle football. Or maybe jealously because you are a girl and though you secretly would like to play, you don't feel that it would be "ladylike" and besides you can't possibly imagine where you could find other girls with the same secret ambition.

I smile when I think about
The way You turned my life around
I smile when I think about
The happiness in You I’ve found
I’m so amazed at what Your love has done
And when I think the best is yet to come
I smile.
-Newsong

Since I like to write songs, I'm going to take the liberty to point something out about the above lyric. It's catchy, but not without its flaws. Take a look at the fourth line, how it twists the words around. An experienced and published songwriter once told me that you should write words to a song as you would speak them. Someone wouldn't pray, "God, my heart is filled with joy when I think about the happiness in You I've found." Obviously, it's not a fatal error, because the song was pretty popular, but it's something that I attempt to stay away from, though I haven't always.

I’ve been singing this "Smile" song a lot today. I sang it when we were rushing to find seats at Mac Court, to see the University of Oregon basketball teams scrimmage. And again when we were in the mall getting our pictures taken. “Our” in this case means my brothers, my sisters and I. And I was singing when I walked out of the mall. I wondered then what I would think of someone walking past me just singing. Probably think them strange. No, I actually would probably think good of them. And finally, I was singing it as I took my shoes off upon returning home. Singing's great, but it can annoy brothers and sisters. Mostly brothers that you share a room with.

By the way, it looks as though UO should have a couple of good basketball teams this year. The ladies have a freshman center who is 6’6”. Think about that. A woman six and a half feet tall. Of course the men have a couple of 7 footers.