Between the Panels

A couple of Sundays ago, I was really challenged by something my pastor was sharing with us in his sermon.  His challenge/statement was that if we are neglecting our time with God in private, everything else we do publicly is just a show . Let that sink in for a moment.  Our tendency is to look for big spiritual hype in large crowds, where there is already a vibe on a group level to have this experience. It can almost at times become a show of comparing who had the deeper connection with God that day (Sundays usually).  However, we don't ask each other "How has been your personal time with God been?" The big reminder in this sermon was that we need to get back to those personal times with God, where we meet with Him without anyone knowing it. It kinda struck me as I was listening that this was like Bleach (shocker, I know, I am connecting a sermon to something nerdy).  Bleach fans love the big battles that Ichigo fights (Mr. Urahara, Captain Zaraki, Byakuya Kuchiki,...

From the very start of my D&D gaming/roleplaying career, Wisdom has always been a very important player statistic for me to invest in my characters.  I could be playing a Barbarian (who is all about Strength and Constitution btw) and I will almost always strive to make his Wisdom on par or better than his main stats. Why does wisdom matter in a game setting like D&D? How do you even use it? Excellent questions, my inquisitive reader or listener of our podcast 😉. In short, wisdom is about seeing the environment around yourself or other players and knowing how to best address it. Related skills under the wisdom stat are: animal handling, insight, medicine, perception, and survival. This differs from Intelligence which tends to be focused on facts or Charisma that focuses on your contribution to the environment around you. Wisdom is a bit passive, but it's actively looking for things that can help your adventure party in a bind to react well or to process intentions of other...

Back a few years ago I got into fantastic anime series:  The Rising of the Shield Hero .  What made this show amazing and also frustrating was the treatment of the main character Naofumi . I say that it was frustrating because this guy is teleported from his world to a fantasy world, asked to save a kingdom from destruction, but is treated like trash because he is the "weakest" hero of the four noble heroes. Not only that, they frame him for some pretty awful stuff and run him out of the kingdom to fend for himself. Naofumi of course doesn't like how he is treated and at first is very vocal about it, but over time he resigns himself to just push through it and live with integrity. This guy legitimately looks to help the kingdom and serve the common folk, he is the best hero amongst them. Over time you find out that Naofumi was actually being oppressed in more nefarious ways by certain members of the monarchy, yet he still stands/fights for them and the country.  You reall...