Thought-Provoking Movies

In the last couple weeks we got a couple movies from the library; both are set in L.A. I've been to Los Angeles once, just over a decade ago for a wedding of one of Beth's college roommates. L.A. is a distinctive city; it becomes a character in both movies.

Crash came out a few years ago, receiving several acclaims. We checked it out because our church had hosted a racial reconciliation discussion around the movie recently. It's a rough movie. There is much violence as well as language and brief nudity. But it also has a lot to teach us--especially about race relations. It is the story of a myriad of people who's lives are intertwined through the course of a day and a half.

The thing that struck me during the movie was how much anger was in everyone's life--and it often came out through racism. I'm not sure that racism is even the real issue, but it masks all the anger in people's lives. Many addictions also have their root in anger--the addiction being a coping mechanism to "deal" with the anger. I think many of us have anger in our lives that works it's way out in unhealthy ways. We need to learn to deal with it better.

The Soloist came out just last year, also receiving good reviews. It is based on a true story about a journalist who discovers a Juilliard drop-out playing beautiful music on a two-stringed violin on the streets of LA. The man is a musical genius, but schizophrenia has made his life unstable, and he ends up living on the street. It's a beautiful story about the importance of seeing people as people--getting to know them rather than simply feeling pity for them.

On the wall outside the homeless center where much of the movie takes place is this verse: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." I was struck as all the transients (there are 90,000 homeless in the greater LA metro area alone) milled about in front of the wall about how the wages of sin lead not only to our death, but to the death of others as well. Our lives are interconnected. Jesus tells us that whatever we fail to do to the "least of these" we do to Him as well. And, at the Judgment, He will separate the sheep from the goats. And the goats will be sent to eternal condemnation. We need to get to know others, not just treat them as charity cases.

The Blind Side is a more recent movie (the last one I actually saw in the theater!) that shares similar lessons on racism and getting to know others. I hope that with whatever movie you watch, that you get something more out of it than just a couple hours of sitting and being entertained (even if it's just some good laughs). But I also hope you're finding movies that you can have great discussions around with others. Movies are a great, unassuming way to get into deeper conversations with others about issues that can speak to the greater Truth.

Waiting & the Ascension

Today is the day on the church calendar that we celebrate Jesus' Ascension--40 days after Easter. In ten more days it will be Pentecost when we remember the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of Jesus' promise that He would always be with us. The Sunday after is Trinity Sunday. I'm realizing that it's important to remember those days even though we don't makr them at the church we attend.

I was just reading an article by Lisa Burnette in The Covenant Companion called "The Revealing Work of the Holy Spirit." She talks about how following Jesus' resurrection He gave the disciples the instruction to wait. Then 50 days after Easter, 10 days after the Ascension, The Holy Spirit is sent upon the disciples at Pentecost.

There's a lot of waiting in the Bible: Noah's family waiting for the waters to recede; Sarah, Rachel, Hannah and others waiting to conceive; the Hebrews waiting to enter the Promised land; all of Israel waiting for the Messiah to arrive.

Even on the church calendar we wait. We've just been through Lent, a period of 40 days waiting for Easter morning to arrive. Now we're in the midst of 50 days of waiting for Pentecost.

My wife and I feel like we've been waiting the last two years for the next journey in our life to begin. Waiting is difficult. It sucks at times. I know it's supposed to develop patience, perserverance and a deeper trust in God. That's not always reassuring when you're in the midst of waiting.

And this is why it's important to remember those church holidays I mentioned at the beginning of this post. We are in the midst of waiting: Ascension Day reminds us of this as we patiently await the return of Christ. Pentecost reminds us that we're not in this waiting alone. The Holy Spirit is with us. We often forget this--at least I do. I don't realize the Holy Spirit's work in my daily life, even though He is busily working. It's important to take time to reflect on how God has been at work in our daily lives.

It's important to remember the Holy Spirit's presence during our waiting, I'm realizing. I need that reassurance. I need that hope. Our God is One, but He exists in three distinct manifestations. Each is important in our life. I need the reminder of the Holy Spirit's presence during struggles with waiting.

Blaming or Owning

We all like to point fingers. Even in the church. For years the Catholic church has blamed pro-choice and pro-gay marriage advocates for accusations of abuse in the church. No longer, though. The Pope has owned that it's the fault of sins within the church--not those outside. I've only skimmed to article linked above, but I appreciate the Pope taking ownership on behalf of the church. Now if we could all do the same. It's not just the Catholic church--we're a nation (maybe even a world) of blamers.

I became an expert blamer. I didn't want people to think ill of me, so I became good at pointing my finger away from myself. It was a dis-empowering act that had long-term consequences. I'm doing better at taking ownership for things, but I still must guard myself.

And while I'm doing better at taking ownership, I already see my son becoming a blamer. Nothing is his fault. There's always an excuse. We're trying to nip that in the bud right now, but it seems like we're going to have to be persistent and patient in waiting for it to end.

When we blame, we weaken ourselves. When we own, we empower ourselves, even if it means looking bad for a little while. It makes us stronger; it makes society stronger. So, let's follow the Pope's model and start taking ownership of things.

Treasure Them in Your Heart

When Anders was young, probably around two or two-and-a-half or so, we had the other volunteer youth group leaders at Pomeroy Covenant Church over at our house in Iowa (I remember at least Pastor Karl & Cindy, Jane DeVries and Beth and myself). We were praying for the year ahead, for the students, for guidance and so forth. We were all gathered in our living room. Anders sat on the floor in the room with toys scattered before him.

As we each took turns praying, Anders would sit and pray as well. He did so by looking around the room and thanking God for everything he saw--each little toy. I think he believed that one of us would pray and it would all be done (as at mealtime), but as we each took turns praying, Anders paused and started all over again. It was at least 10 to 15 minutes of praying.

Luke ends his narrative of the visit of the Magi by saying, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). There are plenty of those moments from my children's lives that I hope I remember to continue pondering them for the years ahead.

Communion

Yesterday I had the privilege of being one of the communion servers at church. I love being a part of Eucharist--whether I've led it as a minister or serving as a laity. Those hands-on, sensory parts of worship seem to connect with people more than usual.

I enjoy getting to serve at our church because as the people walk through and take their wafer (personally, I dislike the wafer, but I understand the ease of using them in a big church) and I say to each one, "The body of Christ broken for you," I am reminded of God's great love for us. Each person who walks by is made in God's image, yet each one is completely different than the one before them. And God loves them each so much that He lived among us and died an horrific death for them. His body was broken. His blood was shed. And it was done for each of those people--young and old, black and white, rich and poor--who passed before me to participate in that sacred re-enactment of Christ's love.

It is humbling. It is joyous. It is solemn. It reminds me of who I am before God. I pray it never becomes something that I just go through the motions in doing--"not because we must, but because we may" as one of the words of institution in the Covenant Book of Worship reads.

Counting Your Blessings, Then Do Something with Them

"When you're tempted by the greener grass on the other side of the fence, it might be time to water the grass you're standing on."

"Everyone loves the IDEA of justice & compassion . . . until it involves personal sacrifice and cost. Be people of ACTION."

- Eugene Cho

I'm Not as Poor As I Believe

This past Sunday, Eugene Cho spoke at church. Eugene is the pastor of Qwest, a Covenant church in Seattle and the founder of One Day's Wages, a movement to give up one day's income (which is something like .3% of your yearly salary) to help people who are living on less than $2 a day.

He spoke on a common topic of his: money, our possessions and how we use them. Jesus tells us that we can't serve both Mammon (money) and God. Mammon is not a god, of course, but it becomes a competitor of our worship. Most of us typically spend 80 - 85% of our waking time earning, spending or dreaming about money. It can control us, or we can control it.

We must simply acknowledge that money is a tool. It is not good nor evil (though we often quote that "money is the root of all evil", the Bible actually says "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil"). We have the freedom to choose to use it in good or evil ways. But we must choose or it will choose us.

We also need to constantly remind ourselves how blessed we are. Using my wife's salary (since I get very little income in my current role), she discovered on the Global Rich List that she is the 394,655,173rd riches person in the world. Not a very impressive number until you know that means that she is in the top 6.57% riches people in the world. Even if I take in just $1000 per year from watching my niece, writing some magazine articles and doing other odd jobs, I am still wealthier than 65% of the world. We can place our emphasis on God's blessings on us, or focus on what we don't have. But God reminds us in gentle, rebuking ways: "You are blessed." When we look at those statistics of our ranking in the world's wealth, we can no longer say "those rich people." It now us to be "we rich people." God doesn't bless us simply so we can enjoy that blessing by ourselves.

Eugene reminded us that "generosity rescues us from the abyss of our greed." Of course, generosity isn't just about money. We our called to be generous with all we have: our possessions, or talents, our time. But we're not allowed to sit back and think that we're too poor to do anything. We are indeed, truly blessed.

Blooms

Beth had picked up a shift at work for today before knowing that her mom was able to get a ride to come visit us. So, we had the afternoon together. We checked out the parks in the neighborhood where we'll be moving. The boys played on the play center for a while (til we had a bathroom emergency). There's a cool chess/checkerboard on a rock table there.

Then we headed over to Como Park (with the hope of the boys taking in a nap--but that didn't happen). We didn't have time to see all the animals, but had some fun seeing what we could. Before leaving, we spent some time enjoying the blooms in the conservatory. I'll just finish with those pictures, as they're the highlight of this post.

Chinchillas and Bearded Dragons

One of the ladies who was doing songs and other things at the Earth Day celebration at the Nature Center this morning at one point brought out her pet chinchilla and bearded dragon. She mentioned how cute, cuddly, soft things like chinchillas are easy to love. But rough, scaly, ugly creatures like a bearded dragon requires extra effort to love. But they're lovable all the same, once you pour some time into them.

I got to thinking that it's the same with all God's creatures--especially people. It's easy to love the attractive, friendly people. It's hard to love those who are rough around the edges, disagreeable and "ugly." But they're still lovable. And we're called to love them. It may take some extra effort and work.

Admittedly, it's less appealing to love the bearded dragon. Chinchillas are easy. You want to touch them, hold them, cuddle them. Unless you are a herpetologist, bearded dragons force us to overcome our revulsion to even get close to them. They make us get out of our comfort zone before we touch them. They require us to look beneath the surface to love them.

We all have bearded dragons in our life: a rude co-worker, an unfriendly neighbor, that kid who doesn't behave (maybe we're even a bearded dragon to someone else). It takes work to love those kind of people. But doesn't anything worthwhile require work (such as marriage, parenting and even work for that matter)? Relationships are seldom easy, but some are much harder than others.

I'm reminded of the lesson Atticus teaches Jem & Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird by making Jem read to Mrs. Dubose. Scout and Jem learned that there was more to Mrs. Dubose than her mean demeanor as Atticus explains her bravery and courage. She wasn't easy to love (and really, only later in life to Jem & Scout see why Atticus had them get to know her), but the children were taught invaluable lessons from their time with her.

I suspect (though I don't know as I have little experience with them) that bearded dragons have lessons for us as well. I do have experience with the human variety (though, admittedly, not as much as I should), and though loving them takes much work, but we grow through our relationship with them. Not to say we should ignore the chinchillas--indeed, I think we need them in our life to recharge us--but we also need to reach out to the bearded dragons.

Treasure

Anders brought this home from school today. It was something he did for St. Patrick's Day. At the top, the "gold coin" has a large blank line, and below that it says, "is better than gold."

Anders wrote in "God." Apparently it was up in the hallway for the past month. I'm proud of him. I hope he doesn't get to a point of being shy about that in the future (and I also hope he never becomes an insensitive, "Bible-thumper"). I also hope he does a better job of sharing his faith than I ever did. He's off to a good start.