stolen silver could have been a moment to send
Valjean back to the despair that he knew, but the
Bishop knew of a greater truth. The Bishop knew
that God had a better life for Valjean. Because of
grace, Valjean became a new creation- a true
story of beauty from brokenness.
Les Mis�rables
might be fi ctional tale, but the
story holds incredible truths. We all have that decision
before us � to continue to live in despair or to choose
a life of grace. A life with Christ is all about grace.
Grace to have new life more than we deserve, or
can
even imagine. Jesus wants to
rescue, rebuild, and re-
deem our lives � in fact,
He already has, but we
get to choose whether
or not we want to live
that life of grace. What
does it take? Just be-
lief in Jesus as your
Savior. Jesus de-
sires to make
you into a new
creation, where
the old has
gone the new has
come (2 Corinthi-
ans 5:17).
We are not who the
world says we are.
We are not stuck in
brokenness. We have
hope! Just like the artist
of the tree transformed the
cardboard and newspaper into
a grand masterpiece, Christ trans-
forms our hearts. When that hap-
pens, we become the masterpiece � ab-
solutely beautiful.
Just as it should be.
-- Trina Pockett
@trinapockett
May
2O14
W W W . S A I N T E R S E C T I O N . O R G
I
f you haven't been glued to your smartphone trying to
navigate an overweight bird through a series of pipes,
then you most likely know someone who has. In what
could be described as an overnight sensation, the most popular
download on both Apple and Android iOS, Flappy Bird,
recently came to a crashing stop.
The creator of Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyen, decided abruptly
in February that he simply couldn't handle the attention his
game was generating, so he pulled it off the market. It wasn't
enough that he was reportedly earning $50,000 a day from the
addictive and highly aggravating app. Nguyen just wanted to
be left alone. Shortly after he announced the removal of the
game from smartphone app stores, he tweeted,
"Flappy Bird is a success of mine. But it also
ruins my simple life. So now I hate it."
What makes all this interesting is
how quickly this simple, low tech
game became so popular. In just a
few short months, an estimated
50 million people had down-
loaded this game onto their
devices. It was not uncommon
to hear people share their
experiences with the game �
both good and bad. Some people
were pretty good at the game,
while others were not so good. But
what every user had in common was that
it was practically impossible to put down. In
an interview with Forbes, Nguyen seemed disappointed over
the game's popularity: "...it happened to become an addictive
product. I think it has become a problem."
With countless hours spent trying to beat the high score
on Flappy Bird (or any other game, for that matter), are we
doing harm to what might otherwise be productive time well
spent? The writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, cautioned that,
"through laziness the rafters sag; because of idle hands the
roof leaks" (Ecclesiastes 10:18). There may not be too many
of us today who need to be diligent about keeping the roofs
over head in good repair, but what about the "proverbial"
house -- is yours in order?
Flappy Bird may be considered a diversion to the busyness
and stress of the day, but when it begins to consume consider-
able amounts of time, is it worth losing hours in the day to get
the high score? Probably not. I'm sure there are other things...
and people... that could use your attention.
But it also
e it."
g is
a
ut
was that
ut down. In
Flappy Bird:
Distraction
from
Reality
IN THE
HEAD
LINES
d Trees,
esticks
&