Bill Murray

What Would Your Groundhog Day Be?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

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I was browsing through Netflix looking for something to watch and I ran across a movie I hadn’t seen in a while– Groundhog Day ,starring one Mr. Bill Murray.

It’s one of my favorites (though honestly when I first saw it I got a bit annoyed with its premise and would have been very happy to not hear “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher for a long, long, long time).

The premise (for those of you living under a rock who haven’t heard of the movie) centers around a weatherman who gets stuck in Punxsutawney, PA in a time-loop where it’s always February 2 a.k.a. Groundhog Day. No matter what he does, he always wakes up in the same bed with that same Sonny and Cher song playing on the alarm clock radio.

That got me thinking. If I could relive one day over and over– and got to choose that day– what day would I pick? What day would you pick?

I might pick a day from one of my memorable vacations growing up (especially the ones in Gatlinburg)

. Or maybe one of the family reunions or Christmas Eves where everyone I loved was in the same place.

I’m guessing you’d pick a day based on who would be there. It wouldn’t be that day that you made your first dollar (or your first million). It probably wouldn’t be the day you got that bonus or that promotion or that raise.

In the end, it won’t be all the awards and certificates that we are asking for. It will be those closest to us, those whom we want to share one last word of blessing, to say “I love you” one last time.

For me, I wonder if reliving those moments might take away some of the magic, kind of like watching the same program over and over. After a while, it wouldn’t mean as much or be as special. Maybe it’s better that I can carry those moments in my memory.

 

Christmas Eve Eve (Or Is It Christmas Adam?)

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Today is December 23. As the old joke goes, the day before Christmas Eve is Christmas Adam, for obvious reasons. And no, I didn’t say it was a good joke or even a funny joke.

It’s hard to get in the Christmas spirit when you can’t even take a moment to breathe. For me, I’ve been working crazy hours and getting some very last minute shopping in. All those plans for having all my presents bought early and devoting more time to celebrating Advent went the way of the BetaMax and the HD-DVD. They didn’t last long.

But as Bill Murray’s character in the movie Scrooged asks, “It’s not too late, is it?”

No, I don’t think so.

It’s never too late to turn your eyes to the manger and see the child laying there. It’s not too late to come and kneel before the infant King with the Shepherds. It’s not too late to make room for Immanuel, God With Us.

Whether it’s December 23 or after a lifetime of missed Christmases, it’s never too late. Even if you’re older than 92, you can still become like a child and receive this gift, despite what The Christmas Song says.

That’s why I love Christmas. God the Infinite became an embryo to show that no place is too small for Him to come into and make a difference. As my pastor always says, all He needs is a place to start, the tiniest opening in the heart, the most hesitant of acceptances to begin the miracle of change.

If God can change a heart like mine, He can change yours. That is what Christmas is really all about, Charlie Brown.

I Just Felt Like Running (Said In My Best Forrest Gump Voice)

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As I mentioned earlier, I have resumed running again. I have my new red shoes and an app which tracks my distance and speed and maps the routes I run (or route, since I’ve only one one route a grand total of two times).

So far, I’ve run 2.02 and 2.3 miles respectively at a clip or roughly 10 1/2 minutes per mile. The sad part is that the second time I walked part of the route and it didn’t significantly decrease my run-time. In other words, I’m either an extremely slow runner or a very fast walker.

But I’m out there doing it. I may not be running marathons yet, but I’m running. I don’t have any lofty goals other than a possible 5k in my future (hopefully when it’s a bit warmer out than it was this morning).

Whatever your dream or goal is, you’ll never see it happen if you don’t start somewhere. If you want to get in shape, you don’t start out by eating only broccoli and celery and running triathlons the first week. You start by maybe running a mile or two and cutting back desserts.

You maybe taking baby steps, but at least you’re taking steps. And if “baby steps” made you think of Bill Murray in What about Bob, you’re not alone. I was thinking it, too. Great minds think alike, right?

There doesn’t have to be a magnificent end-game. You can just decide to go walking or jogging a few times a week and see what happens. You can rescue your bike from mothballs and take it out for a spin.

It feels good to stop talking about exercise and finally start exercising. Odds are, in the long run, your life won’t be all that impacted by that show about tracking grizzly bears on the Animal Planet that you missed.

So take it from this slow white guy. You’ll never get to where you want to be if you don’t start somewhere.

 

The Most Un-Epic Blog You Will Ever Read

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I am sitting here with my lap top and my lap cat snoozing contentedly away (the lap cat is sleeping, not the lap top). All is well.

I didn’t wake up today with the super spiritual powers of ultimate patience, unending mercy, and unconditional love. Honestly, I didn’t feel like getting up at all so I set the alarm clock on my phone back 30 minutes before I finally rolled out of bed.

I still get angry too easily and I still am not very good at taking those thoughts captive. Sometimes, I have a terrible attitude and even blame God every now and then that my life isn’t what I think it should be.

But I can see that I’m a little more patient, a little more kind, a little more understanding, a little more ready to forgive and not plot revenge in my head.

I am a little more trusting in God’s plans for me and a little more willing to wait patiently and silently. I’m a little more at peace with unanswered questions and unfulfilled longings and desires.

The life of faith for me is the baby step by baby step version (did anyone else just think of Bill Murray in What About Bob? ‘Cause I sure did).

Somedays it’s 4 steps forward, 3 steps back. Some days, it’s 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. Overall, I am moving forward, ever so slowly, but ever so surely.

Sometimes you get the Charleton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea moments, but more often than not, you get the quiet moments when you’re waiting for the still, small voice.

For me, my life of faith is less like an action movie filled with CGI and exposions and sometimes scantily-clad women and more like a quirky independent comedy-drama with complex yet endearing characters, a scenic backdrop, and a quiet ending with an epiphany or two in it. Maybe with subtities, maybe not.

By the way, the lap cat is purring, so that probably means she approves this message. And so do I.