Link-Today: RPGSheets  

Posted by Devin Parker

Today's link is one of the pages I find myself using rather often (only slightly less often than the one with the free graph paper) - character sheets and a few other goodies for nearly any roleplaying game on the market. Not only can you find the sheets created by the game company, but you can often find custom-made sheets put together by other players that may organize the information more efficiently (or with more style) than the game company did.

Yesterday I got notice that my copy of John Eldridge's Wild At Heart arrived at the library, so I swung by on my lunch break to pick it up. I've really been looking forward to reading this. In part, I've been encouraged by Slusser and Skaggs's reactions to it, but I've also been considering the entire masculinity issue for the past few weeks, anyway.

As I've been reading The Silmarillion and Fellowship of the Ring (I have a big hardbound copy of The Lord of the Rings which I sometimes read before bed), and listen to Sharpe's Eagle on audiotape, I've been thinking about what it means to be a man from God's perspective, what He intended for us to be and how He meant us to act. These stories say a lot about honor, about courage, and about embracing what is right and true (though Richard Sharpe is a bit more rough-around-the-edges on that last part), and it has made me think about such things as "What would I be like as a father?" and "Why do I find these things resonating with me, when I have no actual desire to go to war or to experience hardship?"

I've been struggling with a handful of issues which have been keeping me from any real growth for a long time, both as a man and as a follower of Jesus (two things I am increasingly convinced are inextricable), and I think that over the past weeks I've been learning a few things that are changing my perception of God, both how He views me and how I am meant to follow Him. It's a bit difficult for me to put into words these thoughts and feelings I've been experiencing - it's a swirl of seeing the beauty and creativity of God through His Creation and the gift He gave us as "sub-creators," as Tolkien put it; being reminded of His sovreignty through the testimony of the Gospels and Paul; and while not feeling as though my masculinity has somehow been oppressed, I'm beginning to realize that I've lost out on something before now (or have only recently become ready to assume the mantle of these things), and have been called to much more than I have been in the past. That probably sounds a bit weird and jumbled-up, but in my mind it all flows together without seam; it feels like part of the warp and weave of Creation that I'm only just beginning to tap into. I wonder if perhaps it's still too soon for me to talk about this. In any case, it's been an overwhelmingly positive experience, and I really feel as though I'm coming to understandings that are giving me the strength of will - the earnest desire, really - to overcome the issues I've alluded to at the beginning of this paragraph.

So I'm interested to see what Eldridge has to suggest about the entire thing.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 at Friday, July 14, 2006 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

1 comments

I didn't realize you hadn't read Wild At Heart; I gave my copy to Michael for Christmas, I guess I just assumed you had already read it! I'm not a guy (really??), but I found it really interesting and it was helpful for me to read just to get a different perspective of menfolk. Hope you enjoy it! Now I just need to get a copy of Captivating...

11:56 AM

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