movie

Finding the Silver Lining

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Bradley-Cooper-and-Jennifer-Lawrence-in-Silver-Linings-Playbook

After seeing Silver Linings Playbook, I’m 4 down and 5 to go in my quest to see all the best picture nominees for 2013. Hopefully, I can accomplish this quest in 2013. So far, it’s looking good.

But that movie resonated with me at a deep level. It’s about mental illness and broken people trying to fit the pieces back together again. The reason I could relate to it so very well is because I recognize the brokenness inside of me. In fact, I believe that everybody is fundamentally broken at some level. Some are just better at hiding the cracks and appearing normal. But face it, we’re messed up in one way or another.

So many times, we approach relationships with the mentality of “fix me” and “save me.” Maybe instead, we should have the attitude of “how can I make you better?” or “how can I bring out the best in you?’

Too many romantic relationships fail because one person tries to make another their world. No one person can be another’s world. It’s simply too much pressure and expectation. But that person can make the other’s world better. That person can make the other’s world a little brighter.

I still love how God has a heart for broken people like you and me. I love how gently he can bring together all the scattered pieces and put them back together to where you can’t see the cracks anymore. I don’t know how that all works, but I know that it does.

There’s no one better at loving broken people than someone who has embraced their brokenness and the healing that comes with it. There’s no one better at helping to pick up someone else’s broken pieces than someone who’s had their broken pieces fitted back together.

My goal shouldn’t be for you to complete me or fix me, but to see you become a whole person in Jesus, to see the image of God restored in you. So I look for the best in you and you look for the best in me and we help each other see not who we are but what we could be and– by God’s grace– will be one day.

 

Revisiting the Classics

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breakfast_at_tiffanys1

 

I may lose my man-card permanently for this, but I love the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve seen it, and it still has the same impact on me every single time.

Both Paul Varjak and Holly Golightly start the movie a bit dazed and confused. And lost. Neither one has a direction or purpose. Until they find each other.

I think life’s a lot like that. We help each other find the way. We help each other find God in the times where it seems God is nowhere to be found. We are Jesus to each other in countless ways day in and day out.

I still like to think I have a Holly Golightly out there. If she looks like Audrey Hepburn, it wouldn’t hurt.

We all get lost and lose our way. We occasionally forget who we are and what we’re here for. We lose our purpose and get trapped in some bad choices. We look up and wonder how we got where we are and wonder how we can ever make it back.

I think that’s where you and I come in. We remind each other of who we really are, not the sum of bad choices or a past history, but children of God, Abba’s beloved. We root for each other, cheering over victories and encouraging in the face of defeats.

That all may sound like a mighty heap of cliches. Maybe it is. But isn’t it comforting to know in the times when you’ve felt most alone and lost and confused that familiar voice that calls you back? Maybe it’s a phone call or an email or a text or a kind word spoken.

It’s good to go back to the classics. Most of all, it’s good to go back to the promises of God that never change, despite all the upheaval and uncertainty of our times.

May we remind each other of these promises and of the goodness of God every single day while we’re here.

 

Beauty and the Beholder

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Somehow, it seems to me that we’ve gotten it all wrong when it comes to romantic love. We look for the most attractive person we can find and hope that the attraction will lead to love.

But I think it’s just the opposite. Being loved makes you beautiful.

Think of the ultimate love that God has for us. His love calls out in us our best selves. His love calls out in us life and beauty and strength and wisdom.

If we are his children, then we can call those things out in each other, I think.

I heard a story of a guy who married a girl no one would ever have thought of as beautiful. But day after day, he called beauty out in her by telling her how lovely she was. In time, she came to be as lovely as he always said she was.

Ultimately, it’s not being lovable and lovely that brings us love. It’s in being loved that makes us lovable and lovely, as supremely evidenced in the transforming work of God’s love in us.

True beauty is beauty that lasts. It shows itself in kindness, gentleness, self-control, joy, peace, patience, and in so many other ways. It’s more than physical attractiveness which fades with the years. It’s about a beauty that’s within that shines out through a smile and a glowing countenance.

All this came from a movie. You may or may not have heard of it, but it’s called Enchanted Cottage and it’s about a man disfigured by war and a woman who is considered homely by just about everybody else, but love brings them together. Through looking with the eyes of their hearts, they come to see each other as handsome and beautiful.

That’s the way God has always seen you and me. May we as we grow in the love of God come to see each other that way.

Getting Ready for the Big Premiere (My Nerd Blog)

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I’m beyond excited about the December 14 premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I plan to be there for the midnight showing and yes,  I will probably pay the extra $5 to see the 3D version.

I’ve loved The Hobbit book as long as I can remember and I’ve read it every year for at least 12 or 13 years running. Which is good and bad. It’s good because I know the story so well. It’s bad because I know the story so well and I’ll be able to tell every time the film deviates from the book even just a little. Yeah, I’m kind of a nerd that way.

In anticipation of the first of a trilogy based on the book, I pulled out my DVD of the old animated version done by Rankin-Bass, the same duo who brought you such Christmas classics and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. It’s not the best animation and some of the voices for the characters are over the top. Yes, it’s cheesy circa 1977. But I love it.

It gets pretty close to the book, or at least as close as 78 minutes will allow. I can certainly relate to ol’ Bilbo Baggins, who gets roped into an adventure where he’s in way over his head, but manages to come out all right in the end.

If you do happen to catch this on DVD or on TV one night, you might recognized the voice of the narrator/Gandalf the Grey as none other than legendary director John Huston. That has nothing to do with the new movie or anything else, but I thought it was cool.

If you want to continue the amazingly fun and cheesy adventure, check out the animated versions of The Lord of the Rings and Return of the King. I’m including a link to amazon.com so you can purchase these for your own collection and be as nerdy as me!

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Orson-Bean/dp/B00005MP59/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1348547516&sr=1-2&keywords=the+hobbit

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Animated-Remastered-Deluxe/dp/B0033090D2/ref=sr_1_5?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1348547516&sr=1-5&keywords=the+hobbit

http://www.amazon.com/The-Return-King-Orson-Bean/dp/B00005MP5D/ref=pd_cp_mov_1

My Confession Booth (Stolen from Blue Like Jazz)

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I love the fact that they kept the confession booth from the book entitled Blue Like Jazz for the movie of the same name. I also love the fact that it is a very non-religious Christian movie.

The idea behind the confession booth is not receiving confession, but in giving one. Sorta like this.

We confess that we’ve done a poor job of representing God and Who He is. We’ve made Him in our image and had Him hate all the same people we do, people whose sins we magnify and villify because those aren’t the sins we struggle with.

We confess that we’ve made our faith a means to a political platform and getting our man elected. We’ve made our faith a means to more effectively climbing the corporate ladder and making even more money.

We confess that while we look down our noses at unbelievers, we don’t look much different. Our vocabulary and our lifestyles are too much like theirs for them to take our message seriously.

We confess that we’ve replaced the holier-than-thous with hipper-and-trendier-than thous, and made faith an exclusive club that you have to dress the right way and know the right words and the right people to be able to join.

We confess that we’re so proud of knowing God and have forgotten that the only reason we know Him is because He first loved us and revealed Himself to us. We confess that without His revelation, we’d be completely in the dark, the blind leading the blind, banging our heads against the same stone walls.

We confess that for too long too many of us have been ashamed of this Jesus who saved us and wasn’t above being made a spectacle in front of the crowds so that we could have life better than we thought was possible.

We confess that we have tried to give bumper-sticker answers to complex questions and given people Bible band-aids for deep soul wounds.

We confess that we’re not perfect people. We’re not better than anyone else or more holy or more likeable. We confess that we are the worst of sinners who have found out what it means to be forgiven and free. We want you to know what that looks and feels like, too.

I confess that I need to re-read Blue Like Jazz sometime in the near future because the movie reminded me how much I didn’t remember from the book.

I confess that it is way past my bedtime and I will turn into a flesh-craving zombie if I don’t get to bed in five minutes, so GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS!

Thoughts on The Hunger Games

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I saw The Hunger Games last night. I believe that leaves two people on the planet who have not seen the movie. I am a bit behind on these things, but eventually I figure them out. One day I may tackle this whole “world wide inter-web” thing.

The premise is that there is a country called Panem with 12 districts. Once, these districts rebelled and were summarily squashed. As punishment, each district must send two tributes, one male and female, each between 12-18 years old, to fight to the death until only one remains.

I was reminded again how foolish it is to trade freedom for security. To trade inalienable rights for immediate needs. Kinda like when Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup.

When we give any government enough power to give us everything we want, we also risk that same government taking away everything we have. In exchange, we get told how to raise our children and how to run our businesses.

This is not about how one political party is right and the other wrong. This is about keeping your eyes wide open to what’s going on around you. To getting the facts before you jump to conclusions. To making informed choices at the voting booth.

The Bible tells us to be innocent as doves and wise as serpants, to know the times, and to trust not human beings, but only God.

Ultimately, we as believers can’t forget that our hope is not in a President or Congress or a revamped judicial system or new Supreme Court justices, but in a King and a Kingdom.

We’re not called to take back a country, but to help usher in a new kingdom– the Kingdom of God that will never end and will see wrongs made right and justice prevailing at last.

I love that in the movie what ultimately wins is being willing to lay down your life for another. After all, greater love has no man than he is willing to lay down his life for his friends.

That reminds me of another story. The greatest story ever told.