A Christmas Story

[Ralphie, the main character, is at the mall waiting in line to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.  We has been wanting a Red Ryder B.B. gun ever since he had first seen one.]

I will admit, I myself was surprised that I was able to draw something from this movie.  As I watched this clip I recognized that this could be a very good analogy about how we approach God, especially during this Christmas season.  So often we look up to God as Santa, the giver of good gifts, but only if I have been a good boy/girl.  And if you are not a good person then you don't get what you want.  We have this mentality towards God all the time, we think good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell.  It is not an issue about bad or good, it is about the nature of whether or not we want to be in a relationship with the person who grants us this wonderful gift that began at the Incarnation.  When God told humanity, "I love you so very much, that I will become one of you."  Heaven is not a place, it is a relationship, and hell is the opposite the constant lack of a relationship.

The second part is that we often look up to God and ask him for all sorts of things.  Now I am not saying not to ask for things from God, but have you ever stopped and asked what He wants from you?  Santa is a person too, does he not deserve our love?  Relationships are meant to be two way streets.  If you catch yourself this holiday season asking God for all these things, and then get upset when you don't get them, ask yourself why am I asking for this?  Am I looking at God like so many people do Santa, just somebody to ask things from without being required to give?  

God does not respond as Santa does in this clip, nor the way the elves do.  God is there to love us, and He wants to spend as much time with us as possible.  He has the ability and the time to spend an infinite amount of time and energy focused on you, your desires, gifts, talents, troubles, and everything about you that you can imagine.  He loves you so much he became like you.  So take time this Christmas to say thank you to the God who has given you Himself, but also to listen to what He has to say. 

Love Actually 

[The President of the United States (Billy Bob Thornton) and the Prime Minister of Great Britain (Hugh Grant) had just concluded there private meeting about affairs between the US and England.]

I have mixed reviews about the film in general, but this scene is rather heroic.  It is nice, even in a movie, to see good politics.  It was amazing for the Prime Minister to stand up to the President.  Often times we are viewed in awe and fear since we have been a super power for quite some time.  Without getting into politic discussions though it is true that the only way to stand up to a bully is to show strength.  This clip does indeed show the Prime Minister showing strength by standing up to the President, and doing so with comedy.  

You might ask though, is only to standing up to bullies the point of this clip?  And no, is the obvious answer, but there is a deeper meaning here.  We have just been around our families during this Christmas season, having just celebrated the day Christ was born.  The deeper part of the clip is that the Prime Minister doesn't let bad actions go unnoticed or challenged.  This Christmas season lets take the time to bring the issues that we are facing with our families out into the light, because it is only in the light that anything can be resolved.  When we let things sit in our dark closet, and never deal with them, how are they ever to be resolved?  We need to take this holiday season, this beautiful time of Christmas to actually bring the healing that Christ himself promised in the world.  If there are wounds you have this year take time to address them before the new year.  If you need counseling, go to counseling, if you need to talk to your dad, do it.  Do not wait longer for what you need this day, Christmas has come, the wait is over, God is now here!

A Good Year

[This is the trailer for the movie.]

This movie is all about stopping and smelling the roses, well the vines.  Max (Russel Crowe) is this hotshot business guy, but he is forced to come to where he grew up and spent his summers.  The sad thing is that since he had become this money grubber he had forgotten who he was.  It is the life of the ones that we love, that we give our hearts to that can change us.  Max loved his uncle, and it is his uncle that ultimately moves and makes Max question what he is doing.  

The movie unfolds showing Max, and his growth back to being human, and wanting the true things of the heart, like love, and passion, not money.  So often people desire wealth, or money, but why?  It shall not bring us happiness.  Money is only good because of what you can acquire with it.  Even with all the things you can acquire, does it matter?  If I have the basic necessities of life taken care, then what more does man need.  He needs passion, friendship, family, and ultimately he needs love.  Without love what is the point of life?

Captain America: Winter Solider

[Captain America (Chris Evans) has been working for a CIA-like program called Shield, that is run by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).  He is upset with how things are going with it.]

What is the point of government?  Well our Declaration of Independence states "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." It comes from the governed excepting the role of those over them.  Captain America is correct in his statement that this isn't freedom this is fear.  We could understand that in order for us not to be hurt, to be wounded is to be ahead of the curve.  The only problem is escalation is never an appropriate response to violence.  If you hurt me with a knife, well next time I will bring a gun, and then you will bring a bigger gun.  The question with that becomes when does it end.  If we are to change the world we must be different from the world.  "To love at all is to be vulnerable." - C.S.  Lewis

There is a man who actually came to respond to that very issue.  The need in us to constantly protect that which we have, freedom.  Christ came so that we might be truly free.  Cap and Fury are arguing over the state of the world, but the best we can do is fight for a good cause.  If it wins it wins, if it doesn't it doesn't.  We are too attached to certain things, but they cannot provide ultimately safety.  We attempt to make sure that everything is under our control, but the thing is it cannot be.  There are very few things if any that we can control in this life.  The only thing I have control over is myself.  I can choose to live in fear, or in hope, but they cannot both exist at the same time.  So choose hope this day.  

Goal! The Dream Begins

[Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) is an up-in-coming player for Newcastle United footballer.  The head coach has a word with him after seeing a play.]

Isn't this the story that all pro teams need to be taught?  The ball/puck can travel faster than you.  It points out though one of the oldest lessons that is so important for us to learn in the western world, that the team is more important than the individual.  Now I am not saying that a single person does not matter, but if the person is not looking out for others then there will be no team.  It takes people out on the pitch working together to be able to accomplish the goal (pun intended!).

In our culture in the west we have a great emphasis on the self, and that is good, but it tends to create a neurosis.  We tend to think that the world is about me, and it ain't. I have to come to recognize that their our people on this planet, and that at times they need my help.  I need to look at the human race at my team mates, the people who help me accomplish winning the best and greatest game there is, life. Without them I will not succeed in my endeavors.  As much as people love to think that there are solitary and need nobody or nothing, they only need start thinking about all the things that allow them to be in their nice comfortable world.  May you be challenged today to act on behalf of somebody on your team, pass the ball. 

Xmen

[Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) has prevented his friend Erik Lensherr (Ian McKellan) from murdering people different than himself, non mutants.]

Now this is not the best clip from this series of movies to describe their relationship, but it does show something beautiful, friendship.  Erik is known as Magneto, and Charles as Professor X.  They became friends early on for different reasons depending on whether you follow the comics or the movies, but none the less they are friends.  Most people today would think how could you be friends with somebody and yet have them thrown in prison?  The answer can be found in a quote from Thomas Jefferson, "I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friend."

In our modern day and age we think that we cannot be friends with someone because they do not believe the same things as us.  There is great danger though in surrounding yourself only with like minded people.  It creates a bubble, and isolates us from the world, not to mention the muscle of our mind becomes atrophied.  Our mind is meant to be challenged, and stretched.  We can never gain that if we do not seek out opinions that are different from ours on a wide variety of views.  I will admit I have trouble doing this at times, but thankfully God always has a way of making sure that my ideas are challenged by the people I meet or the shows I watch, or videos I see.

Another connection with the last point is that it is good to be challenged by a friend, somebody you trust.  If you are pursuing truth, and I myself am pursuing truth, why does it matter if we are not in the same place yet?  You provide me with a sounding board, a way to check whether what I have discovered, figured out is truth or not.  This has to be the case if truth is outside myself, not bound to my decisions.  This is why Professor X could have Magneto thrown in jail and yet still be his friend.  Friendship is borne from a love for the other, to will the good of the other.  Magneto had done something wrong, and he needed to face the consequences of his actions. 

Evan Almighty

[Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), a new politician,  has just come to the realization that God (Morgan Freeman) has in fact asked him to build an ark.]

Has this ever happened to you?  Has God appeared to you and asked you to build an ark, or maybe something of a Divine Task?  Well He has never done this for me the way that He has done it for Evan in this clip, but He does speak and ask things of us.  How often are we like Evan and asking why me?  You are a unique combination of talents, desires, and faults.  But the beautiful combination of who you are is what makes you exactly the kind of person that God could use for a particular task.  He chose Evan, who made his campaign slogan "we can change the world," because God likes that campaign.  He has an idea or two for the world.  

Do you ever look at your circumstances and think I hate this, and God must hate me because He put me in this situation?  I know I do plenty of times.  God in the clip responds wonderfully though to why He does what He does "because I love you."  We are not made to be content, and happy all the time, their will be times of pain and sorrow (especially given the call of what it is to be a Christian "pick up your cross...").  All these experiences, moments, are given to us for our good and maturation as human beings.  We are meant to grow closer to Him through every circumstance. 

Kung Fu Panda 2

[Po, the panda, (Jack Black) has just suffered a defeat, but in his defeat he has learned something.]

Kids movies can teach us things too!  Why is it that Po is able to throw the cannonballs back at the ship that is firing at him?  It is not some fancy Kung Fu trick, but rather that he is at peace with who he is.  Po took the entire film to be able to come to this realization.  It is not something that is easily done, yet it is important to reach.  We are called to be at peace with who we are.  It is not to mean that we ignore our faults, nor are we to dwell on them over much.  It is this happy balance.  Only through this balance are you able to do miraculous things like Po did by catch and redirecting the cannonballs sent his way.  

Many people I might say it is so hard to stay focused on it though, and right they are.  This is why when Po first does this his hand catches on fire and he scrambles around to put it out.  And then as he learns how to do it at first it is bobbling, and then he can soon direct where it goes more than just away from him.  We learn things in a process.  You are not going to do it amazing the first time you do something.  Give yourself time to learn, and be ok with when you fail a little or a lot.  Get back up and try it again.  Po had his hand catch fire the first time he did this task, but did that prevent him from continuing?  No, Po realized that even when you don't get it perfect the first time, you keep doing it, and eventually it will get where you want it to be.