My Girls

Ten years ago my mind was filled with thoughts of girls. I was single and young, checking out any pretty female that walked in front of me – Could she be mine? Could I win her, hold her? I’m 31 now, and my mind is still filled with thoughts of girls. These new girls are mine, forever will be, and they love when I hold them. Let yourself fall, commit, and stay in love with the right people and life works out just fine. (RSS readers make the jump for the pic.)

A Flower

I took my dog for walk yesterday afternoon, a gorgeous spring day in Atlanta. We walked up the hill and down Cameron Street. As we turned back onto Waldo Street, headed for home, a shrub was near the sidewalk and covered with vibrant pink flowers. I stopped and picked one of the blooms (don’t tell my neighbor) to take home to my little girl. I’ve probably walked by that beautiful shrub a thousand times, never knowing it had so much potential within. It would’ve been easy to commit the crime and walk by it again.

Daisy Duck and Simple Trust

A couple weeks ago our family and some friends went to Orlando for a few days. My in-laws have a home there, and we are privileged to use it a few times a year. We take long walks in the morning then sit on the patio overlooking the lake. On Wednesday of that week we went to Disney World. My little girl is only two and a half, and I know she probably won’t remember any of the day’s happenings, but it’s still worth handing over my life savings to enter the park. After boarding a people-mover, then a train, we walked into the park. Everything was immaculate, the sun was shining, and Daisy Duck was fifty feet in front of us. I quickly hoisted the little one up so she could see Daisy. Unbounding joy came out in a squell. We then waited in line for thirty minutes for a moment worth all the money and time.

I’m in awe of my little girl’s joy, pure pleasure in a given moment, without worry or fear for the future. Without consciousness of it she knows more about living in trust than I.

Isn’t Blood Sacrifice Barbaric?

The Bible teaches that there must be a blood sacrifice for our sins. In the Old Testament we see this in the sacrificing of animals, all to point to one great sacrifice coming one day. In the New Testament the person of Jesus becomes the final sacrifice, so people are atoned for and free from maintaining their own standing with God. The standing is now secure, forgiven and righteous, by the work of Jesus.

So it raises two questions, isn’t all that quite barbaric, and second, why blood? Why does blood have to be shed?

#1: Isn’t all this quite barbaric?

Well, we view things different than God. We try to hold on to every living thing, but everything dies. It’s the cycle of life. God doesn’t seem to attempt to hold on to every living thing for another day like we do. He seems completely ok with killing things and letting them die. I wonder if our view of this would change if we had a greater sense that death is not finality. If death is a doorway then the killing of some animal is no different than leading them from one pasture to the next.
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Lollipop

If you hold a lollipop in front of a starving child he will long for it. He will badger you for it and lick it till it’s gone. Soon after his stomach will hurt, for his body needed real food.

Freedom isn’t the ten minutes with the lollipop.
Freedom is knowing the lollipop will do you no good.

Clarity of Thought

I spent some time in the woods yesterday. I saw a man in a pasture cuddling with his lady friend on a blanket. I saw another man walking backwards up a two-mile hill.

What I learned, not so much from those observations, but from the silence in the woods: clarity of thought is a gift. Take time to get it.

Main Character

I read this yesterday, “If you must write a memoir, make yourself the least important character. Shared experiences are always greater.”

We won’t all take pen to paper, but we are all living a story. Decide who is the most important and go live.

The Gospel Hidden in the Movies (Christianity and Film: Part 2)

[extended entry]

Before we talk about movies let’s talk about history. The Bible communicates the history of the world in four stages: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.

Act 1: Creation
The world was created – light, darkness, water, land, animals, all of it. The climax of creation was the formation of a man, skin and bone around a heart and soul. The human heart was created for a place where things were right – unbroken and in harmony. At this point in history the world was without fault and shame (Genesis 1 and 2).

Act 2: the Fall
Humanity rebelled. We rebel. In this rebellion, wrong is created, shame and brokenness enter the world. Doubt, hate, lust, impatience, all the evils in and around us are birthed. The first man and woman chose not to trust God, and thus they saw their nakedness. They saw good and evil and covered themselves with leaves. They began to hide their shame (Genesis 3, Romans 3).

Act 3: Redemption
But there is hope for things to be made right (Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 5). For centuries, religious strivings bound people to endless rules and laws, showing them their deep imperfection. At just the right time God broke into the physical world in the person of Jesus, fulfilling the religious laws and becoming a gift to humanity, paying the price of death for the sins of humanity. We are redeemed by his actions, declared righteous by his work.

Act 4: Restoration
One day Jesus will return, and all things will be made right (2 Peter 3, Revelation 21).

This is the gospel – sin and rescue, but this is also what story is – conflict and resolution. The truths of the gospel create a world where story can exist, a place where people can speak or write stories into existence, with a framework of plausibility for it all to exist upon. The reality of the fall creates conflict in the world, and thus the ability for conflict in films. Conflict exists because sin exists – things are frustrated.
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Avett Quote

“If you’re loved by someone you’re never rejected. Decide what to be and go be it.”
- Avett Brothers

Can Christians Watch Sin? (Christianity and Film: Part 1)

[extended entry]

It wasn’t until late high school, in a mega-church down here in the South, that I was told certain pieces of media were Christian and others non-Christian. Basically, we were told not to watch R-rated movies – period, no exceptions – make the rule a law and obey it – good Christians don’t watch R movies. But then a few years later The Passion of the Christ was released. It was rated-R, and the rule seemed to disappear for the night, as all us Christians went to see the rightfully violent film.

I don’t think the thought behind this banishment of certain movies was out of ill will or unhealthy control issues as much as ignorance. This un-based belief, which I did hold as truth, went like this: Christians should not support movies that have sin in them. But then this does raise an important question: Is it okay for Christians to view sin? Can we watch a movie where a husband has sex with his secretary in the work room closet, or rebellious teens drink beer and dance in a feed warehouse? (Please note the Footloose reference.)

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Tags: culture