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The Fault in Our Stars; The Perfection in the Son

11/30/2014

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I know, I know; here I go drawing something spiritual out of another movie.  As Greg Kinnear's Frank says to Meg Ryan's Kathleen in 'You've Got Mail', I just can't help myself!
So the movie reference this week is 'The Fault in Our Stars'; about a young girl Hazel who has cancer.  She seems to be coping, but worries about her parents.  She ends up going to a support group for people with cancer and meets Augustus who seems to be past his cancer.  Tears and laughter follow them through their tale until the end (spoiler alert if you haven't seen the movie), Augustus dies.  At the end of the movie Hazel gets a copy of an emial that Augustus had sent someone and it says' "Hazel was not loved widely, but she was loved deeply".  This coming from a young man who felt that he had to leave his mark on the world in a large way to validate his meaning.
I watched this movie and came away with the fact that most of us will not be loved and adored by the masses.  In fact most of us have maybe a handful of friends who are available at 3 in the morning if there is a crisis.  Most of us probably do at times feel that we are alone and forgotten and have never made that much of an impact.
Don't let Facebook and all the other social media machines fool you; those 527 'friends' you have are not really your friends.  Some of them may be, but the majority just want to up their numbers so they can feel important.  Don't we all want to feel that way?  That we matter.  So we seek to be loved widely when we only have to realize that through our relationship with Jesus, we are loved deeply.
The title to the movie comes from a quote from Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'.  It says, "The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings".  Meaning that we alone are responsible for our lives.  The movie takes it the opposite way in that sometimes bad things happen and they just can't be avoided.  So either way, we are just left up to our own devices and life is a crap shoot.  For those of us who follow the perfect Son, the fault does not lie in our stars, but rather our hope rests in Him.  
When I realize that in Jesus I am loved deeply, I can then in turn love others more deeply.  Because His love fills me, it will overflow to those around me, and therein lies the magic.  If we love others more deeply, and share the love of Christ with them, they realize that they are valuable for just that reason; that they are loved.  Not for what they do.  Not for how widespread their circle of friends is.  They are loved because they are His.  
So what we need to do is not to look to the stars as a sign of our insignificance, but rather look at them and behold the glory of the one Who made them.  The same one Who created the glimmering stars, the luminous moon and the brilliance of the sun hand-fashioned you.  He knows you intimately, warts and all.  And He still cares for you passionately, loves you deeply.  Always.
Okay.


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We Have Contact

11/16/2014

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Some people wonder why I use movie references in some of my posts.  Some may even find it irreverent.  I just know that in my relationship with God, I seek Him wherever I may be.  If I am outside, I see Him in the majesty of the mountain peaks.  I see Him in the ever changing sky.  I see Him in the other-worldly orchestrated ballet of trees in the forest swaying together in the breeze.  I hear Him in the crash of the waves and the sound of thunder rolling in a summer storm.  Romans 1:20 says, "For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks)."  And Psalms 19:1-2, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork.  Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge."
The glory of God is all around us if we take time to look for it.  As I said before, I see Him every day all around me, but I also see sign posts that point to Him in more obscure places, like music and movies.
The first time I vividly remember experiencing a revelation of God and His power in a movie was while watching the movie 'Contact' with Jodie Foster.  The movie is about an astonomer who is seeking for signs of intelligent life in outer space.  She hears sounds that she believes is a message from another planet and gets backing to build a machine to take her into space to explore this.   There is a scene where she is all alone on a beach, somewhere out there, and she sees a figure that she believes is her father, who died when she was a child.
I was watching the movie late, probably 2 in the morning.  I remember so clearly after the movie was over going into the bathroom, trying to be quiet because the rest of the family was asleep and just weeping for the longest time.  That deep from the gut kind of sobbing that takes everything out of you.  Thinking of that scene on the beach and realizing that I had a Father, who no matter how large the universe was, no matter how many billions people there were, loved me to such a depth that what I was feeling was but a drop in the ocean of His love for me.  That like all of those grains of sand on the beach, I was but one of them, but I was special and unique to Him.
I felt such joy and such peace and reassurance of His love for me.  It was an almost physical feeling of being loved and protected, cherished.  I woke up that next morning still feeling that embrace of His love and wanted to share it with those who were in church that morning.  I could barely speak, trying to get the words out, of the unending infinite love the Father has for us.  It went over like a lead balloon.  I remember clearly some saying, you can't hear from God in a movie.  Like the God of the universe cannot choose to speak in any way He sees fit.  
That was a huge lesson for me.  A lesson to trust my relationship with Him.  To trust that as I seek Him daily He will be found.  That as I listen for Him, He will be heard.  And that He can be found in the most unexpected of places.  He is a God who delights to meet with His children and speak to them.  He met with Adam and Eve in the garden.  He spoke to Elijah in the sound of a gentle blowing.  He appeared to Moses in a burning bush.  
God is a creative God and will use creative means to get our attention, maybe even in a movie about contact with something out of this world!  
Lord, I'm listening...

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Every Party Has A Pooper

11/2/2014

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"Every party has a pooper, that why we invited you! Party pooper! Party pooper! Every party has a pooper, that's why we invited you, George Baaanks!"  Bet you couldn't say that line, or more correctly, sing it without doing Franck Eggelhoffer's crazy accent!  Another iconic character in a great movie, Father of the Bride 2.  Poor George Banks, finally gets through his daughter's wedding and then finds out both his daughter and his wife are going to have babies!  And of course the baby shower has to be over the top!  Incredible decorations, food, and as Franck says, possibly even 'sterks'.  George is so overwhelmed with everything, including a seeming mid-life crisis that he puts the kibosh on everything and is deemed a 'party pooper'.
It takes planning to have a successful party.  Guest list, refreshments, decorations and amibiance.  A lot of thought goes into having an event where all the attendees will enjoy themselves.
I put a lot of thought into my events.  Birthday parties, Fourth of July celebrations, Christmas galas, pity parties.  I am good at all those.  Especially the pity parties.  I can plan those with the expertise of a Martha Stewart.  Right down to the last detail.  The dress code is simple, sackcloth and ashes.  The menu is relatively small; buckets of shame, bowls of regret, cups of anger.  The guest list is easy; just me.  I get good and comfortable and settle in for a fine time of dejection and distress.  These parties are periodically on my to do list.  I have become very efficient with all the details.  
The only problem is that lately I have been having an uninvited guest showing up; a party pooper.  He throws a real damper on all of my pathetic plans.  Here I am ready for a day of tears and tissues, whining and wailing, crabbiness and crying and this one keeps showing up.  And to make matters worse, he brings gifts!  Like mercy and grace and compassion.  Love and forgiveness and peace.  How the heck can you have a most excellent pity party with those party favors floating around!
I just don't get it.  I set aside this time to have totally to myself; me, myself and I.  Then, like a fresh breeze blowing away the smells of a sewage plant the Holy Spirit just goes and shows up!  Perfectly ruining my sour mood.  Spoiling my bad attitude.  Crushing any hopes of wallowing in the pit of despair.  A party pooper demolishing a perfectly good pity party.
Sheesh, what's a girl to do?
Seriously though; I do tend to wallow.  I do fret overmuch and worry like no one's business.  And every time I get into that place, the Holy Spirit comes along and brings me hope.  Hope that there is a bright future.  Hope that prayers will be answered.  He strengthens my faith by reminding me of promises that the Father has made to me.  He refreshes my memory by bringing scriptures to mind, of how the Father never changes, and how His love for me endures through all things.  He brings me peace in the midst of turmoil and quiets my inner chaos and anxiety.  He brings me gifts that I don't deserve, just because He loves me.  James 1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect (free, large and full) gift is from above, it comes down from the Father of all light, in Whom there can be no variation."
In fact He loves me too much to leave me to my pity parties.  He loves me so much that He makes it difficult for me to stay in that place of despair.  He makes it uncomfortable for me to try to put Him away in the closet and have my party without Him.  He keeps showing up, keeps drying my tears and keeps assuaging my fears.
I think the next time I am planning a good old rip roaring pity party I will just dispense with all the formalities and start singing a song..."Every party has a pooper, that's why I'm inviting you.  Every party has a pooper, dear Holy Spirit that's you!" 


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    Gail Holleman

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