fingernails

I was watching the movie Juno last night at the Juvenile Detention Center where I work. We have a privilege session for the youth that followed the rules that day and watching that movie was our activity for that the privilege session that day. There is some great dialog in Juno. It is very witty. As I get older my tastes broaden. I don't think I would have liked the music when I was in high school, but I do now.

Anyway, one thing that struck me was the scene where Juno (the female main character) goes into the abortion clinic. There is a classmate mispronouncing words and shouting (with good intentions and not angrily) in protest of abortion outside of the clinic. As Juno is about to enter the clinic the protesting student says, "your baby probably has finger nails." This seem to make Juno stop and think for a second as she walked into the clinic. She sat down and noticed the fingernails on various people in the waiting room. The noise of the fingernails grew louder and louder in her head until she finally ran out of the clinic and decided to embrace her pregnancy.

I consider myself to be pro-life. There are lots of "what ifs" that go into the abortion issue. I am not going to go into all of them at this point. I just like the statements that were made in this scene about the value of human life, taking responsibility, and the information about how babies grow inside the mother's womb. In closing, I am glad that my mom was pro-life, because if she was not then I possibly would not be here right now.

Hope in the midst of annoyance

I don’t watch a lot of “chick flicks”, but I have seen some. I think that most everyone has. While I do like silly comedy, action, and sports movies, occasionally a love story is unpredictable, entertaining, and somewhat inspirational. There is one “chick flick” that keeps popping into my head. The Notebook is that movie. This is not because I really like the movie. The movie actually irritates me. I really like the movie Hitch, which is a movie that both girls and guys seem to really enjoy. There is good reason for this-it is an awesome movie! The Notebook seems to appeal to mainly one gender. It seems that for most girls between the ages of 14 and 35 The Notebook is one of their favorite movies.

It has been a couple of years since I saw The Notebook (I only watched it once), but I can’t seem to be able to escape it. Love stories are often predictable, cheesy, and unrealistic. What I remember of this movie could have actually happened. I am a sucker for sports movies. They always seem to have a happy ending. I think I don’t really like The Notebook because not everything works out in the end. At the end of the movie the wife has Alzheimer’s. Her husband who has loved her for many years keeps visiting her it the nursing home. There are moments where it seems like she is going to recover and recognize him again for good. The couple will have a romantic moment, a dance, a conversation, and then she won’t recognize him and yell at him with orders to go away. I remember watching this and getting frustrated because I have been spoiled by happy endings in the past.

Lately because this irritating “chick flick” keeps popping into my mind. I have decided to ask girls and women at several ages why they like this movie so much that simply annoyed me. I learned that it was because the husband had unconditional love for his wife. He loved her even when she didn’t recognize him and could not love him back. He loved her in the midst of his suffering. He took the words “till death do us part” literally (as he should). He loved his wife even when it wasn’t easy or convenient.

We live in a world where (according to the most recent statistics that I have read) most marriages end in divorce, where over half of men cheat on their wives, and a third of women cheat on their husbands. While I have a “leave it to beaver” family tree where every adult is a Christian and no one (outside of maybe a fifth or sixth cousin) has been divorced I still see reason for lack of hope for romantic relationships. I have to admit that it makes me angry when anyone cheats on any person whether dating or married. Humans are not savage beasts, but sometimes they act like they are. I know that we all are vulnerable to sin, but people don’t accidentally make out with someone that is not their significant other.

In this movie that I found irritating because not everything “got fixed.” In the end I see a glimmer of hope for society. I see an inner longing for monogamy and unconditional love. I see a desire to fulfill the vowel of “til death do us part.” To me one of the greatest sights is a couple that has been married over 50 years and you know just by watching them hold hands or have a conversation that they are crazy about each other. I could go on and on with my theories about romantic relationships. But for now I will just say that “till death do us part” is very possible and much more likely in a Christ-centered relationship.

A tale of two Sundays

A week ago I visited another church in the area (probably not the one that you might be thinking of). I had just spent a week at high school work camp and wanted to be fed spiritually with no responsibilities in an casual environment. A lot of my friends go to this church and God is doing great things there. I don't agree with a couple of their denomination's teaching, but I still do agree with most everything that they do. Their service was possibly the most creative worship service that I have ever been to. I wore a t-shirt and shorts because that is more of what is the norm there. I sat on a stool eating popcorn (that the church had provided) during the service. There was the first good use of a beach ball in a spiritual event that I had ever seen. The theme of the service was joy. The beach ball was tossed around while a secular song (with words slightly changed to tie into the message) was played. There were banners that expressed the theme of joy on the walls all around the room. There was a great discussion that the senior Pastor had with the kids that tied into the theme. The children were given the opportunity to blow bubbles. I love blowing bubbles! Instead of a full length sermon at the end, there were two Pastors taking turns making points. It was like mini tag team sermons separated by God songs, a video, a prayer exercise and talk with the children. The prayer exercise was very cool. Along the wall at the front of the sanctuary were banners that had the word joy on it in huge bubble letters. Near it was a bowl full of crayons. We were encouraged to grab a crayon and talk to God as we wrote or drew on the sign. I grabbed a red crayon and drew fire on the inside of the letter J, telling God that I wanted to be spiritually on fire for Him. I drew a trinity symbol on the outside of the letters, telling God that I wanted to lead people in creative ways that are "outside the box." I want to learn about creativity from the author of Creativity-God Himself. The Pastors of that church were speaking about how God has expressed joy in creating. The way that they explained it was that God has child-like joy. Children often times when they are getting tossed up in the air say, "do it again!" Children can enjoy the same video over and over. As we get older often times we enjoy life less and get frustrated with the monotony of life. Our sin "ages us" and we enjoy life less that what God intends us to do. One of the amazing things about God is that He can clean us up and make us new again. The Psalms say, "restore to me the joy of your salvation (51:12a)" I don't believe that God thinks, "I have already made millions of dandelions and I am annoyed to make one more." I believe that it is the opposite-that God takes joy in creating. I think we could learn so much in creativity and joy from seeing how God works. I want to help people experience God in creative ways.

I went to second service at Fairhaven Church yesterday. I was unfamiliar with many of the songs, but the words were still good. The songs tied in well with what we were doing and the flow of the worship experience. We took communion which is always powerful. The message from Kirk had a video, a personal story, great Biblical insight, and practical truths. It was not as creative as the church service I went to the week before(but neither had any other worship service I had ever been to), but it was still creative. I left not feeling like I had really worshiped. I began to think about why I was feeling this way. Our service was well put together and truth was proclaimed. The difference was that the week before I was not distracted and I came expecting God to teach me and to connect with Him way more than I did yesterday. Sometimes it becomes natural because of the rest of culture influencing us to come to church with a consumer mentality, asking"what will they do to meet my needs?" I believe that instead we should come to church with an attitude that says, "God I want to praise you, focus on you, learn about you, serve you, and glorify you." God is speaking all of the time, but we are not already ready to listen. Today God is still speaking and still inviting us to listen to Him.