Saw Source Code last night.

Loved every second of it.

And I tend to analyze any movie having to do with time travel from beginning to end, back to front, and if possible, chronologically.

I felt like I was seeing something I had seen before, and yet had no idea where it was going.  Like reconnecting with an old friend, our last time together lost among a hazy fog of responsibility and crowded memories.

Speaking of memories…

There was so much depth to this movie.  I was relating to a friend how I love movies that gut me and fling me all over the room, so that weeks later I will be thinking of a scene, and have to pull myself together, possibly even shed a tear or two.  A great mark of a good film in my book.

Source Code, while not perfect, had all this in spades.  Heroism, sacrifice, love, family, loss, death, and of course, life and the value therein.

It got me thinking of my other favorites:
Groundhogs Day
Deja Vu
Frequency
Back to the Future (the whole pickin’ trilogy
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Somewhere In Time
The Butterfly Effect
Terminator/T2/T3
Star Trek IV: Voyage Home
12 Monkeys
TimeCop
Star Trek (jj abrams style)
The Lake House
Army of Darkness
13 Going on 30
The Jacket

There probably a few others I am missing but I know I truly enjoyed all of these films just for the fact they all tinker with the assumed perks of time travel.

Through every story the main character grows to be a better person, or becomes a hero, or tragically learns that time should never to be toyed with in the first place.

And every story that moves into the amazing realm that is the theory of time travel, boils down to one major goal:

Making every second count.

First of all, I should tell you. I love Jesus, Baseball, and writing. And in that order.
So when I first heard about this book coming out, I was thrilled. And they don’t get much better than Sir Albert Pujols.
I grew up admiring Mark McGwire, and even worked a bit along side of him and his family back in the mid-90’s while he was playing with the Oakland A’s. So you can imagine my disappointment with the choices he has now admitted to.
That said, I’ve been holding my breath when it comes to admiring anyone else. But one guy so far seems to deserve it. Albert Pujols not only deserves admiration but it’s about time a book was written about him, honoring his accomplishments. The only way to do honor Pujols, is to give glory and honor to that which created him. None other than God alone.
This book does a great job taking us along Albert’s journey from a young unknown to a strapping Herculean Major Leaguer wearing the famed red and white of the Saint Louis Cardinals. As the title states, “More Than The Game”, the scope goes way outside the foul lines of Alberts life, as far as to devote an entire chapter to his wife’s backstory. Very rare for a book of this nature.
Time and time again, we are reminded that everything good and perfect coming from Pujols is to be traced back to God, and how Jesus has saved him, and that baseball is the platform from which he will glorify is Savior.
It’s great to read about how a superstar lives out his faith with extreme work ethic; in both his professional life, and his family life. There is much more I could say about the positives but I think that sums it up.
As far as for the negative, I was really hoping for some more dramatic behind the scenes re-creations of some of amazing things he has done surrounding the playoff wins, World Series victories, like when Pujols and Houston Astros’ Carlos Beltran entered their own stratosphere in a slugfest battling out the NLCS in 2004, or in 2005 when Sir Albert hit a dramatic, towering three-run home run off Astros closer Brad Lidge, bouncing it off the closed Minute Maid Park roof before landing on the railroad tracks in left field, giving the Cards a Game 5 victory.
There is enough statistical information to fill a book. In fact, they did. And with good reason, but we all want the stories behind the stats. And while we get a LOT of background on Albert Pujols, and his faith in Christ and his family, I was still hoping for some more baseball stories.
But for this book, I think that’s okay. I am not sure it was set up to be a true Baseball book. More than the Game. It’s true: there is much more to life than this game. Albert Pujols is flesh-and-blood, and mind-and-spirit proof of that.

It’s funny.

There has been a tension within me for longer than I can remember.

In high school, I was content to watch.  (Take that however you want.)

In college I was content to learn – that’s the point of college right?

Then I moved away from home, and became content on living – I was on my own!

One day, I woke up, discontent.  And I am still working on it….

The more I lived, the more I learned.  And the more I wanted to learn, so I determined to concentrate on that.  I really buckled down on learning.  I thought that meant reading, studying, attending classes, even though i was happy doing other things…

The discontentment grew as I realized what I was “learning” or being fed, did not match with my personal experiences.  What people are selling in school, (and from behind some pulpits), what we are being fed as “education” isn’t true.  It’s a degree in miseducation.  By the time the spin-doctor professor knows enough to lie to you, it’s old news anyway.

My learning led to more seeking to learn.  Questions were met with more questions, and the answers were less than satisfying.  I was finding too many dichotomies that didn’t play out in life.  What good was I doing writing papers about my beliefs when only one person, mainly the professor, was going to read it?  Why was I sitting in class discussing causes of poverty, and assessing blame with hundreds of students when anyone of us could be out there helping to get rid of it?  Why were we accepting, “Think for yourself” from someone who used textbook written by another professor?

There is that brilliant scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, where the entire town, believing Brian is the Messiah, has shown up outside his house to hear his first words of wisdom.  Except Brian isn’t ready.  In fact he is so caught off guard, he isn’t wearing any clothes.  So he says to the massive crowd, “You’ve got to think for yourselves.  You’re all individuals!”

The crowd intonates back to him, “Yes, we are all individuals.”

Brian continues, “You’re all different!”

The crowd repeats again, “Yes, we are all different.”

And one lonely voice says, “I’m not.”

Get me out of here.

Free me from myself.

We have become so different from each other, we’re all the same in that we’ve drawn lines all through the human race.  Our innate differences are what should bring us together.  But we’ve lost sight of what’s important, and we don’t trust God; so we’ve chosen pride and protection over love and community.  Gang signs, anyone?  What is Iraq but just another gang war?  When will it stop?  As I’ve heard it said, “How can love stop at the border?”

Like the lone voice in the crowd in Life of Brian, I would rather stick my neck out, refusing to be an individual, if it means thinking for myself.  And when I say “thinking for myself” I don’t mean thinking about myself.  I mean staying true to what I have learned to be true.  And more importantly, then all of that, I mean being responsible for, and following through with my actions what I know to be true in my heart.

We should all be the same when it comes to that.

Especially the church.

While there are miracles that happen everyday where people are just “healed”, with no doing of themselves, or no explanation, I am finding that so much healing comes from seeking to be active in God’s work WHILE we are seeking healing for ourselves.  Meaning that God uses the broken, even as our dignity, and independence is spilling through our cracks.  We forget that God works with the little people, the forgotten, the dirty, far more than He works with the clean, polished, and educated.

Like the saying goes, it is far easier to hug a dirty kid than a stiff one.  For some, “stiff” means stubborn, or it can mean, dead, as in too little too late.

I am thinking the best way to learn this is not to seek it from man, or even other books, (although those are good for encouragement) but to get out and live for Jesus, taking Him at His Word, allowing yourself to be Jesus with skin on.  Becoming the Word Flesh!  Being Jesus!

I am struggling right now with the idea of comfort vs. discomfort.  I have found that i grow the most from discomfort, and God embraces me in these times.  While I praise God in the times of comfort, I look back and realize there was little growth.  So I wonder: what is better?  Can I say one is better than the other?

Another thought that comes to mind when questioning the framework of the American Church is a quote I heard a few years back: We have to unite ourselves as one body.  Because Jesus is coming back, and he’s coming back for his bride, not a harem.”

 Too any times it seems, that another church is established right down the street from another, and breaks its back, and its budget, screaming its differences from the one down the street.  why?  If we are the church, it shouldn’t matter our differences, except when we are celebrating the vast diversity that reflects God’s beauty! 

Another favorite quote of mine, “If we are to refer to the church as a building, that is tantamount to calling you and me two-by-fours.”  We are the church, we should be one.  Not many.

What I didn’t realize so much is the second part.  The disturbing of the comfortable.  It wasn’t until recently did I see that I had never thought about that.  I have been pretty comfortable most of my life.  For the most part I have also refused to allow Christ into my comfort zone.  That is to say, I would always invite Him into my discomfort, praying either to remove me from it, or to ease my mind, which I realize in essence, was yet another prayer to remove my discomfort from me, which is just another selfish prayer, just sounding more spiritual.

So in refusing to allow Christ into my comfort zone, I am now seeing that I don’t want Him there because largely, I know He’s going to destroy it.  Even further, Christ doesn’t really dwell in areas of comfort, at least in the areas that most of us know as comfort.  These areas, for most of us, and for me especially, are areas that we have set up for ourselves, where we look to our own strengths and independence, ignoring, and eventually forgetting our need for Him. 

So we dwell, or hide, there, and grow proud of our “systems”, and thank God for providing, when largely, we are thanking Him for our own insulation, not Him protecting us. 

And protecting us from what really?  Most of us live such easy lives, there is really nothing going on here to protect us from.  Oh sure, you could have been hit in traffic, or God spared you from the drive-by across town, or we are all healthy again, meaning that we are enjoying another month without a cold.  God forbid we have a real illness to be taken through, like leukemia, or heart disease.  We live in America people!  The land of the whiny, and home of the spoiled.  But at least we have our rights to do so, right? 

And we begin to wither.

Dying from a heart disease of a different kind.  We are disconnected.  And we lie to ourselves, listing the ways we help people along the way, justifying ourselves.  Instead of allowing Christ to justify us.

 And who are we helping?  Are we helping others feel good about themselves in their prosperity?  Sure we all excell at our jobs and that has meaning in helping “others” even if we don’t ever see them face-to-face, doesn’t it?  If someone is throwing their own pity party, we jump to support them, of course, because they are our friends, right? 

I would also submit that we do because it’s easy.  They are clean.  They are “educated”.  They are “professionals”.  They, for the most part, are also spoiled. 

I know people that are restless because they haven’t fulfilled the American Dream.  There is a pressure, and a ridiculous measure of success, in finishing a college degree and owning your own home, even growing a family.  One could argue that Jesus did finish his own version of a college degree by undergoing all his test in the wilderness.  But don’t you think what he didhas a little more value than getting an English degree or a degree in Criminal Justice? 

Even so, Jesus was homeless.  He was raised, and then he left home to be… homeless.  He even said himself, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  And he laid his head where ever he went, but a home?  Jesus had none. 

Jesus never married, and had a family.  He said that we are all his family.  We are all his mother and his brother.  Those who believe in Him and take Him at His Word. 

He planted seeds, recklessly loving everyone around Him,  and didn’t even stick around to see who Simon Peter became.  Because He saw Simon as Peter before Peter did.  Christ knew who Peter would become, because He knew that Peter cared deep down about the important things.

And we are so focused on what we are doing –  maybe that’s where the pity party came from in the first place.  Because some of us know we aren’t doing anything at all.  This dream of obtaining, this dream of owning, is really no dream at all. 

It is a dream of slaves.

Soren Kierkegaard once said, “The matter is quite simple.  The Bible is very easy to understand.  But we christians are a munch of scheming swindlers.  We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly.  Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly  My God, you will say, if I did that, my whole will be ruined.  How would I ever get on in the world?  Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship.  Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good christians without the Bible coming too close.  Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you?  Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God.  Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

Relax – if that’s what you must do to read this. 

These barbs I am wielding are directed at myself. 

But if you are bothered by this, you might wonder why. 

As well if you are not bothered by this. 

Wonder the same.

2.  “This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people.”

3.  “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

4.  “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is..

5.  “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

6.  “Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

 7.  “When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all.”

8.  “Odd, the way the less the Bible is read the more it is translated.”

9.  “You must not do, you must not even try to do, the will of the Father unless you are prepared to ‘know of the doctrine’.”

10.  “Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

11.  “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

12.  “Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

13.  “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else”

“Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little eyes what you see.  Cause the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little eyes what you see.”

I don’t know how many times I had sung it when I stopped.  Wondering.

The only times I had heard that were when I was a kid.  In church.

Or when some adult was trying to instill good decision-making in me.

But it always sounded more like guilt.

I thought of the words.  I thought of the faces and the mouths the songs came from.

They never matched.  The words are not harsh.  But they are from a loving parent. 

The Father is looking down in love.  He’s not looking down on us, as in disappointed.  He’s in love with us.  And if you put that “we should be careful” with the fact that He loves us, then you get that because God loves us, He cares about what’s best for us.

It’s funny.

Because I never got that from those that sang it to me when I was little.

It always seemed as though they sang it to control me.

“Here’s a good song to throw the wrench of guilt into his little heathen gears.”

“Hey kid, God is watching you!  Remember the song?”  And off they would go, shaking their finger this way and that, in eternal admonishment.

Remember, Jesus is watching you!

Which reminds me of the joke.

A burglar breaks into a house one night.  He shines his flashlight around, looking for valuables, and when he picks up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoes from the dark saying,  “Jesus is watching you.”

The burglar nearly jumps out of his skin, clicks his flashlight off, frozen in fear.  When he hears nothing more, shakes his head,  then clicks the light back on.  Just as he pulls the stereo out, clear as a bell he hears, “Jesus is watching you.”

Freaking out, he shines his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.  Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam comes to rest on a parrot.

“Did you say that?” he hisses at the parrot.  “Yep,” the parrot squawks, “I’m just trying to warn you.”   The burglar relaxes. “Warn me, huh?  Who in the world are you to be warning me?”  “Moses,” replied the bird.  “Moses?  Moses the parrot?” the burglar laughs. 

“What kind of people would name a bird Moses?” 

“The same people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.”

Obviously Jesus is not a Rott.  But I do forget that He’s much worse.  Much greater anyway.  At least for the burglar.  And there are times that I forget that. 

But I also forget that without His grace, I am that burglar, far more screwed than facing a raging rottweiler.

Which brings me back to the song. 

I don’t need someone to tell me to be careful cause God is watching me with love in His eyes.

It would be nice to hear when you are a child that God loves you no matter what.

Not too many people are willing to tell a child who is still learning the world that God loves them – no matter what. 

We only seem to hear other Christians tell us this after we have learned that God will never accept us as we are.  Then we have to re-learn Him all over again – when we find that we were lied to in the first place.

So as a child, we are taught guilt from “well-meaning” Christians trying to teach us morality by pushing us to grow up.

Then as an adult we are told that God never wanted us to “grow up” at all.  He simply loved us as we were and will always do so.

So now I imagine God singing that song to me. 

And for the first time, the mouth, and the face, and the words, all match.

And I believe them.

And the best part is I sense love from this.

Real love.

I can tell it’s real because it isn’t laced with guilt.

And of course, it’s not scrupulously sitting there in the dark waiting to kill me.

Such a comforting sign, isn’t it?

Thank God there are people, smart and young people like 18-year-old Lila Rose out there.

My new hero  is an investigative journalist and Editor-In-Chief of The Advocate, a student magazine of human rights, at UCLA.

Lila posed as a 15 year-old and caught Planned Parenthood in the act of covering up a reported statutory rape. She also discovered that UCLA doesn’t have any support for students who want to continue with the pregnancy. They have 2 abortion doctors but no pre-natal care, no adoption referral service,and no pregnancy support groups.

http://www.laadvocate.com/The_Advocate_Final8.pdf - please read this.

Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue said, “Lila Rose is a hero for her courage in exposing the child sex protection racket that so common today at our nation’s abortion clinics. Secrecy always works to the benefit of the rapists and abortionists, while the truth works to protect the innocent. We hope her exposé will help shut down the Planned Parenthood sex centers that give cover for predators at the expense of the safety and well-being of little girls.”

It’s obvious PP doesn’t agree with laws against sex with minors. They really believe that 13 and 15-year-old girls are actually ready for sexual relationships with 22-year-old men.  Besides, who are they to judge someone’s williness to have sex?  After all they are perpetuating genocide.  Quite a slippery slope.  I don’t think it the slope can take any more grease.

I’ve heard adults, excuse me, I mean to say, that I have heard 23 to 27 year-old children say, “why should I be able to watch a rated R movie if I won’t let my kids watch it?  Who am I to say what they can and can’t do?”

How about your their parent?  They are learning from you.  Do you get that?

 I keep hearing that we as a society are guilty of oppressing our kids from all kinds of things, like the rights to choose to have sex when they feel it’s okay.

Whatever happened to protecting the rights of kids to have a freaking safe childhood?

What happened to the God-given mandate of protecting our kids so they make it to their 20′s without getting all screwed up in the process?

Whatever happened to structure and some parents with backbones?

I don’t know how “Planned Parenthood” ever became the name of a multi-billion dollar corporation that pushes the agenda of planning to prevent parenthood and planning the slaughter of one’s own offspring. 

Shouldn’t it be called Anti-Parenthood?

Another deceptive, dishonest title is “Reproductive Rights.”

A man and a woman already have an unbridled “right” and freedom to reproduce. No one prevents this or interferes with this.  In fact God created this!

Nevertheless, the abortion advocates and their “roadies”, together with the mainstream news media, refer to abortion as a “Reproductive Right.”

How can abortion be a reproductive right when those that are being reproduced have no rights, or a chance to have rights?

Of course, we already hear so often about “Freedom of Choice” which is an incomplete sentence. It should be “Freedom of Choice to kill an innocent human baby.”

It also takes away any choice that baby has, thus violating the girl’s freedom and rights to choose from the start.  This is why Reproductive Rights is self-refuting.  It only works if everyone gets a fair shake.  If there are those that have rights violated in the process, then how is this good?

The right to life is EVERYONE’S FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT.  It’s not religious.  It’s not political.  It’s humane.  It’s not your choice.

Question:  Where do babies come from?

Everyone knows this, right?

Then why are people still acting surprised?

We all have the right to have sex.  We all have the right to not have sex.  There is your choice.  Everyone’s choice.

We should make sure that every child gets to make that choice as well.

Thanks Lila for doing your part. 

Without using a bomb.

For a wicked good summary with some zingers at the mainstream media, check out this link:

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/05/17/undercover-at-planned-parenthood/

I have recently been doing a little soul-searching.  My friends are exhausted.  Many are feeling void of hope.  Many are struggling with finding purpose in life.  But most are just tired.  So I have compiled a list here of the things that “center” me the most.  Hope these might help you.

1. Take a walk.
Even a casual reading of the New Testament reveals that Jesus and his disciples did a lot of walking. Of course, for them it was the primary form of transportation, not necessarily a spiritual discipline. Still, regularly taking a long walk can quiet your soul and help you draw near to God. Everytime I walk, I find myself wandering into clarity.  Even if it’s only a little at a time.

2.  Say no.
I have been having some discussions with some people very close to me that are just having a hard time with using this word. They are all “yes-men”.  Wanting to please people.  Not wanting to miss out.  Establishing proper boundaries is a critical discipline, and even more so to protect them.  Even Jesus turned down certain requests. People are always stealing our time and energy.  Learning to say no means saying yes to things that will give the soul room to breathe and find rejuvenation.

3. Turn off the TV (or the DVD player, or YouTube, or MySpace)
The amount of information available today is never-ending.  Stop seeking amusement.  This is one area of life that I think can be truly destructive.  We need to be asking ourselves, “How does this benefit me?”  Quite frankly there is not much on TV that is truly beneficial.  Personally I’ve been on a History Channel kick, but even then, there has be boundaries.  See #2.

4. Exercise, i.e. get off your butt
Regular exercise is critical to the health of the soul as well as the body. And research has shown that a healthy body positively impacts a person’s emotional and mental capacities.  Exercise is the best way for me to recharge. Some of my best thoughts come while breaking a sweat. It also allows me time to come face-to-face with my phyisical weaknesses.  Then I can recognize a starting point of what I can work on.

5. Laugh – with people, not at them.
I am appalled sometimes that so much of humor these days is about tearing others down.   Most comedians these days are not even intelligent using putdowns as their main act, or hosting radio shows that involve slamming on their callers.  We are being taught to insult people with alarmingly quick comebacks.  This does not encourage community.  Gathering with people and sharing jokes, or even poking fun at yourself for a change, is bound to encourage some bonding, and in the meantime, take your mind of your troubles.  Or at least not take them so seriously.

6. Get Outside Yourself.
Vacations are about relaxation, mission trips are about serving, but pilgrimages, as I once was told “are an outward expression of an inward journey.” The word may conjure images of superstitious peasants on fastastic quests seeking ancient relics, but some people I know are finding personal pilgrimages meaningful.  Living in the house I grew up in has surprisingly been therapeutic in ways I never imagined.  Taking time to walk up and down the streets of where I grew up allows me to see how far I’ve come, and how much I have learned.  Of course there are other ways to do this – possibly getting away to some place you’ve never been where you can appreciate God’s beauty in a way you never have

7. Find Someone Who’s Been There.
Not exactly therapy, not quite coaching, a mentor offers something else: a God’s-eye view of your soul. Just meeting with a spiritual director every so often can help you recognize God’s movements in his life. If you have someone in your life to help you step back and notice the activity of God in the intimate details of your life, it will almost always give you a fresh sense of hope, with a greater awareness of God’s will.  Isn’t that the point?

8. Meditate in Silence.
The goal is to focus your mind on God so you can commune with him more intimately.   Think about what you know of Him, or maybe things you would like to know.  Try sitting in silence for five minutes.  See what happens.   Afterward, center your thoughts on one word or phrase and allow it to inspire your own prayers to God. I have done this numerous times and usually I remember verses like “think upon things that are holy, beautiful, pure and worthy, and the God of peace will be with you.”  That alone usually reminds me that I usually frazzled because I have lost focus.  I usually lose focus because I am concentrating on things that aren’t healthy for me.  So I switch my line of thinking and I feel peace return.

9. Begin a hobby.
Do something that helps you learn, or grow.  Some hobbies can be highly physical, like surfing or rock climbing. Others were more contemplative and creative, like scrap-booking, playing guitar or blogging.  Find about its history, and those who have helped develop the activity.  Learn what it says about you, and how it can help you, or others, in other areas of life.

10. Write an encouraging letter.
Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up.” The proverb does not specify whether the benefit is for the heart that receives the good word or the heart that gives it. I don’t think it matters.  Take time to reflect on a person who has blessed your life and tell them why you are writing them.  This just goes to show that the more love you give away, the more you get in return.  Sir Paul McC said something to that effect I believe.

11. Break something.
I have come across some old furniture in the past, and every now and then, take a bat to it.  34 inches; 34 oz. of aluminum.  Ka-BOOM!  Splinters.  Dining room chair.  In pieces.  Entertainment Center.  Threw it from a truck.  Very entertaining.  An entire stinky sofa.  Threw it from a balcony.  The cloud could be seen from the highway.  Drastic? Perhaps. Therapeutic? Definitely.

12. Spend time with your family.

No agenda. No plans. Just sit and soak them in. Think about showing them love without telling them.  If you couldn’t speak, how would they know you love them?  Focus on them and just remember we don’t have long to enjoy the ones that love us most.

What feeds your soul?

Can you even answer this for yourself? 

Take some time.  It’s essential for good living.