I don’t usually get emotionally involved in sports, but the combination of Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings was the perfect storm for me this year to lose myself in the drama.

It was the most amazing season I can remember and well worth the heartache at the end.

Watching one of my generations best athletes compete at the level he did at 40 was a wonder to behold. To see Brett grit it out under immense personal stress on the National stage was riveting. For our sake, I hope he makes the decision to come back one more year, America desperately needs people like Brett Favre to cheer for. Hard work, determination, risk, heart, and good old fashioned unbridled passion are qualities we should celebrate in those we call leaders.

I don’t pretend Brett is perfect, I don’t think he is above reproach, but when this guy was squeezed, good things came out. I wish I could say the same for myself, but watching Brett makes me want to be a better human being.

Thank you for following your heart Brett. Thank you for risking your reputation to do what you were made to do. Thank you for being faithful to your wife and kids and holding your head high to the end. Thank you for giving Minnesota your best and bringing the best out in those around you. Thank you for playing with everything you had and leaving it all out on the field. Thank you for sharing the gift God placed in you and not hiding it under a rock.

It was an incredible year Vikings fans, heartbreaking at times, but worth every bit of the pain.

Not sure if Emily liked Blister in the Sun by the The Violent Femmes or not.

Telling hopeless people the reason for their destruction, is that God won’t help them because of their sin, is contradictory to the message of the cross. People in darkness are not to blame for stumbling, they are in darkness and can’t see.

For the record, God doesn’t need you to tell broken people about the mess they have made by shining the golden light of your life on theirs. God has not appointed or anointed you and your club to be the benchmark of Godly living. Wearing fine clothes and driving fine cars and living in gated communities does not qualify you to measure the rest of the world by your standard. The thing hurting people need is compassion and love and when questions about why bad things happen to them come up, “I don’t know” works every time, so say more of that.

Here are a few other suggestions I would like you to consider:

Can you please stop thinking and telling people God is American? God loves the world, not just North America, and if you read his book you will notice He is really quite fond of the Middle East.

Can you please stop drawing distinctions that one religion is better than another? Jesus wasn’t even Christian, he was Jewish, so stop thinking Christianity is the end all be all when it comes to trying to please God. Religion is mans attempt to please God but He is already pleased so stop trying to make Him happy with religion. God made it clear He hates religion. What He really wants is relationship.

Can you please stop telling people that God is somehow punishing them for the actions of their ancestors and in the same breath, demand they serve that vengeful God you just painted for them? God settled all this a long time ago on a hill at Calvary.

Can you please stop selling the name of Jesus like it is a secret decoder ring that once put on makes you exempt from pain and suffering? Life is hard Pat. Earthquakes happen, planes fly into buildings, wars are started by selfish men, and being saved does not exempt you from having trouble. In fact, it all but guarantees you will, the good news is you won’t go it alone.

And finally, will you please stop reinforcing hurting peoples idea of an angry God by telling them He caused pain and suffering because you sir, are wrong. God isn’t angry at us – He loves us.

If you could work on those things for me I would really appreciate it because when you do the opposite, from behind your cameras in your multi-million dollar studio up the road, it makes it really difficult for me to talk to people about my God.

To be fair, there is much good that comes from CBN, so thank your for the good stuff Pat. Thank you for Operation Blessing, and your prayer ministry, and Regent University, and lots of other positive stuff. You might think about letting the good people that work for you talk about tragedy when it comes up. They seem less apt to get all “Old Testament” and you can avoid most of the problems of late.

Speaking of problems, there is one thing that truly breaks my heart about all of this. It is the thing that makes me want to disassociate myself from anything “Christian” when I hear it. It is the revelation from Christians that they somehow “know” the real reason behind tragedies in the world. This banter usually comes up right after tragedy strikes and if it is true, that they “knew”, a painful question burns in me.

If you knew Pat, really knew, why did you do NOTHING to stop it?

Let’s pretend for arguments sake the earthquake in Haiti was a result of pacts with the Devil. Take this a step further and why not associate all the pain and suffering of Haiti to this same revelation – pacts with the Devil. If that is the case, and you “knew” the reason for their destruction was an alliance with evil, why in hell didn’t you do something to stop it? Saying people deserve destruction because of something outside their own ability to control leads them to question the nature of God. The message you are sending is God made this happen but you sir, could not be more wrong.

You can’t blame the people of Haiti for this as they are in darkness, by your own admission, so aren’t you in fact guilty of murder by letting them stumble to their death? To come out after the fact and tell people you “know why” tragedy happened, and in the same breath offer to them the solution to what could have prevented it appears to be incredibly mean spirited! Especially when that solution was so simple, to turn from darkness.

If you need someone to blame for the pain and suffering in the world don’t blame the people in darkness, blame me and blame you because we know better. People in darkness are doing the best they can as they stumble through life but God has given us light hope and love, so we know better how to see in the dark.

And since we know better, and were content to let them stumble, their pain and suffering is our fault.

Behold the power of the cookie.

Here is the latest picture straight from Cupertino of the new iSlate.

As you can see, Apple has gone green retro with this new device. Not to be outdone by the OLPC, the iSlate can be used as an actual slate when power is off!

The screen is a breakthrough silicone hybrid impregnated with actual slate.

With the included “chalk recognition” your notes are instantly digitized when power is restored. Doodles and artwork are added to iPhoto and status updates are automatically sent to Twitter and Facebook.

Amazing.

My favorite part of the iSlate is the 100% recyclable redwood frame. I can hardly wait to have natural materials in the palm of my hand again.

Hopefully the rumors are true and we can expect the new iSlate soon!

My friend George Lutz is coming up on the anniversary of the death of his son Tony this December. George started a grass roots foundation to establish a national flag to honor the men and women that have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

Please visit HonorandRemember.org and sign the petition and if you are able, consider giving a tax deductible donation this Christmas.

She is definitely Daddy’s girl.