There’s a very popular game by the name of “Angry Birds.” I must confess that I am addicted. At first glance, it is mindless fun. However, when you begin getting into the deeper levels you see that this is a game of strategy. I will do my best to describe the game to those of you who are not familiar with it. Basically, you have a structure with little green figures sitting on top of it. The object of the game is to make sure that you destroy all of the little green figures. The ammunition that you have at your disposal is a sling shot and various types of birds. You must sling the birds into the structure in order to destroy the little figures. The only way to progress to the next level is to kill all the little figures.

Now, that you kind of have the gist of the game, let me explain to you its relevance in our spiritual walk. When I started the game, it was relatively easy to move through the levels. As I started to get to the higher levels, I found it was becoming more complicated. The main reasons for the complication were the structures. In the earlier levels, the structures had been pretty open and gave a straight shot to your opponent. However, the higher levels came with structures that made it difficult for you to get to your opponent. On top of all that, they seemed to be adding more opponents. The little green foes started to outnumber the number of birds that I had. And, I began to get extremely frustrated because I couldn’t seem to figure out how in the world to get to my foe.  Continue reading →