Category Archives: In the Movies

Stuff I learn from films…

What could be better than Rocky in your corner?

Posted on by
Reply

My girls tease me about this now, but I’m always looking for valuable messages or correlations with my faith when I watch movies. It’s just how my brain works. Most movies have a “moral of the story,” or we might relate to a character’s struggle, or be reminded of important truths like self-sacrifice, friendship, doing what’s right in the face of danger, etc. You may laugh, but I was so convicted of over-protective parenting when I saw Finding Nemo for the first time.

After seeing a film, I used to ask the girls what lessons or messages they saw. Gotta take advantage of those teachable moments right?  When we watched “Napoleon Dynamite” I remember my youngest saying as the end credits were rolling, “Mom, I don’t think there were any lessons in that one.” I laughed and had to agree.

When we saw “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” with my grown-up kids during Christmas this past year, I promised I would refrain Continue reading →

Horcruxes are not the answer.

Posted on by
Reply

I don’t know if you’re a Harry Potter fan but I am. That used to be a risky claim for a Jesus follower.  You’ll just have to trust that even though I’ve read all the books and own all the movies, it hasn’t made me want to dabble in witchcraft. On the contrary, there are lots of great “morals of the story” and good messages woven throughout the series, the biggest one being giving yourself sacrificially for others, or a greater good, is a grand thing to do and evil can’t defeat that kind of love. (First taught to us by Jesus himself!)

The villain in these stories is Voldemort, a narcissist determined to be the most powerful wizard…ever. He also wants to live forever. As a young wizard he finds out about a dark magic device, a horcrux, in which you can split your soul into two pieces, storing one piece in an object apart from your own body for safe keeping. That way you can’t be destroyed if just your body is killed because part of your soul lies elsewhere. Voldemort deducts that if splitting in two pieces helps cheat death, then surely splitting his soul into seven pieces will make him infallible. So he does that very thing, putting the pieces of his soul into several objects, his snake and even Harry.

Well, eventually all the horcruxes, each containing part of Voldemort are discovered and destroyed, the last remaining piece of his soul vulnerable in his failing body and He is killed. No living forever for him. Apparently horcuxes are NOT the answer.

As I sat in the quiet today during my lunch, I was thinking about something I’m hoping for that hasn’t come to be yet. While praying about this something, I realized that I have to keep my focus and make sure that Jesus is the source of my joy and life, not the things I hope for in this world. I need His help with this, because my human heart can become so enamored with a lovely possibility, fascinating gadget, entertaining pasttime. It takes some doing to shift gears to return focus and keep myself centered solely in God.

We can be like Voldemort in a way. We, either intentionally or not, deposit pieces of our hearts and souls into all sorts of people and things here on this earth, in this life, thinking that will fulfill us.  We may not think it will make us live forever, but it can make us forget about the forever life ahead of us and get slogged down in all that doesn’t last and doesn’t really matter. Even good things and relationships can become too dear if we rely on them for all that only God can give.

When we give our soul to Jesus, entirely, not just a piece, He will guard it and love it and fulfill it. We will find our true identity, the purest joy, love and life that will really never end. We’ll become more like Him and be less and less concerned with ourselves, whether or not we’re the best, whether or not our wishes are granted or life turns out how we plan.

My lovely possibility is just that and I have to be careful not to rely on it for my joy and life. Jesus said, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” 1

Jesus, forgive me for sometimes placing my hope, my heart and soul in temporary things, ideas, plans, even in being concerned for those I love. I know my only hope and true, full, everlasting life is in You and only You. Turn my eyes from the things here in this earthly life that sparkle but don’t last. All will fade away but You remain. Capture my attention, my gaze, my thoughts, my everything, so that all of me rests in You.

 

1 Matthew 15:25-26 NLT

To Inifinity and Beyond

Posted on by
1

Do you ever feel afraid when you think about going to heaven?  That’s a weird question, I know.  I woke this morning thinking not so much about heaven exactly, as about eternity, about what happens when we die, about what it could be like to be somewhere forever…and ever.  It may seem crazy to you but whenever I start thinking about that I begin to feel anxious.  I’m pretty sure it’s because it’s something my mind can’t grasp or understand.   After all, I have no frame of reference.  Everything in my life, and in this world, has a beginning and end.  I was conceived and began as a cluster of cells multiplying and growing (a pretty huge miracle in itself).  When my time has come, I will die and my heart will stop beating, my brain stop processing and thinking, and my physical body will give out.  Each day has a beginning (the sun comes up) and an end (the sun goes down and the moon and stars appear).  I wake and sleep.  There are physical boundaries to my home, my town, my country, and my world.  Once into space, however, it starts to become mind-boggling since there is no edge to the universe.  Where does it end, if it ends and if it does, what’s on the outside of it?  OH!  I tell myself to just stop thinking about it, to stop trying to comprehend how it could be.  The truth is, there is no way we can see the edge or end of the universe, and from what I’ve heard it keeps spreading, so infinity seems to be reality.

If you’re still reading this rambling post, bully for you!   Continue reading →

Sending up a light

Posted on by
Reply

SPOILER:  This post contains some info about the recently released Disney movie “Tangled.”

I’m a sucker for a happy, fairy tale movie and just about always love Disney movies, so seeing “Tangled” seemed like a win/win prospect.  It exceeded my expectations – was funny, charming, visually stunning, and sweet.  One scene in particular made me really emotional and I felt pretty silly, so I tried to figure out why it moved me so.  If you know the story of Rapunzel, you know she was stolen away from her parents, the king and queen, when she was just a little baby.  She never knew any other parent than the old woman who kidnapped her and raised her as her own daughter, all the while locked up in a high tower.  Although she told Rapunzel over and over how she loved her and how the tower was for her protection, the truth was the old woman was selfish.  She didn’t care about Rapunzel at all.  She needed Rapunzel’s magical hair to renew her youth day by day so that she never grew old.

Every year on Rapunzel’s birthday, the king and queen held a ceremony in which they would send a paper lantern up into the night sky.  The people of the kingdom followed suit, so that hundreds of paper lanterns could be seen rising up off in the distance by Rapunzel, looking out of her tower window.  She wondered what it meant, what they were. Continue reading →

One step closer to hope

Posted on by
Reply

SPOILER ALERT:  This post contains details about the movie “Devil” currently in theaters, story by M. Night Shyamalan.

Do you believe in the devil?  If so, what do you think about him?  Or what fables have you heard about him?  I’ve always wondered where the image of a little red guy with a greasy mustache, pointy tail and a pitchfork came from.  There really aren’t many details about him in the Bible that tell us who he is other than a fallen angel, thief, prince of darkness, father of lies, and deceiver.  Jesus said the devil only aims to do three things:  to steal, kill and destroy  (John 10:10).  Peter warned us, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  I Peter 5:8

M. Night Shyamalan uses that verse from Peter as a springboard to tell a story about sinners and their fate.  Although it’s fantasy, there are some truths in the movie, truths that won’t leave me alone today. Continue reading →

Can we survive the fire swamp?

Posted on by
Reply
Buttercup: We’ll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.
This was Buttercup’s response when with Prince Humperdink and his men catching up behind and the fire swamp the only way in front of them, Westley suggested they forge ahead through the dark, foreboding woods.
You know how when you’re scared it helps to have someone with you who actually makes fun of the situation or who doesn’t seem frightened in the least?  That’s how Westley was for Buttercup.  He led her in by the hand with confidence, thinking no one would follow them through the swamp so they were surely going to find freedom and the chance to be together on the other side.
After her gown caught on fire from bursts of flame shooting up out of the ground and almost “drowning” in a deep quicksand pit, Buttercup became a bit frazzled. Continue reading →

Not so scary

Posted on by
Reply

I watched “The Sixth Sense” for the first time, believe it or not, on Friday night.  I’m becoming a fan of M. Night Shyamalan’s early movies.  They’re so interesting and thought-provoking.

You know me, I tend to link up things I see with spiritual matters, looking for illustrations to real life from what I’ve watched on-screen.   I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie but one of the biggest lessons one of the main characters learns is to not be terrified of ghosts (dead people) that he sees, even though many of them are pretty ghastly.  They appear to him the way they were when they died or were killed so I don’t blame him for wanting to keep far away from them!  Continue reading →

Wise Mary Poppins

Posted on by
Reply

Have you watched a movie you had watched a hundred times as a child and caught lines you never noticed before?  Or at least the meaning of those words had flown right over your head as you sat caught up in the story or what was happening on-screen?  Consider the story of Mary Poppins.  She was one wise gal and seemed to always have just the right thing to say.  You know, like “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” and “well begun is half done” and my favorite:  “Close your mouth, Michael.  We are not a codfish.”  One of the things she said in the Disney movie that I missed as a child is “Enough is as good as a feast”.   In other words – stop your grousing, be happy with what you have and don’t ask for more.

Our human nature, from a very early age, causes us to cry out “more, more!” all throughout our growing up years and sometimes on and on, even when we’re “grown ups.”

Give a child a trip to the store and they want a candy bar, too.  Give them a candy bar and they want a slushee to go with it.  Continue reading →

Muchness

Posted on by
3

[SPOILER alert: If you haven’t seen the latest “Alice in Wonderland” film you may not want to read on]

I tend to see the “deep” in just about everything.  I can’t help it really.  Because of this I’m always watching for messages and morals in movies and books and when I find one it can move me and stay with me a while, giving me ponder material.  When I saw the “Fellowship of the Ring” and watched near the end as Sam tried to swim after Frodo to keep him from going on his terrible quest alone, I cried seeing the loyalty and tenacity of his friendship played out on the big screen.  I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. “Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.” And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to. It was beautiful to me.  Likewise when I watched the last movie, “Return of the King” I was moved at the visual image of battle scenes between good and evil, dark and light…the willing sacrifice to fight for what was right in a last-ditch effort to push back what was so wrong.  It reminded me of the world we live in and the battle we fight as followers of Christ.

Sometimes when I mention what I learned from or got out of a movie, my family will humor me  with rolled eyes but then say things like “I thought the graphics were amazing!”  or “I liked the fight scene” or “wasn’t it funny when Gandalf smacked Sam on the head with his staff?”  I do remember after watching “Napoleon Dynamite” a few years ago, Krissy saying to me, “I didn’t see any lesson in that movie, Mom.”  I actually agreed with her on that one.

I was surprised when we went to see the latest remake of “Alice in Wonderland” to find myself inspired by some of what I saw and heard.  Continue reading →

Beautiful flaws

Posted on by
1

This video has made me cry three times now.  Every time I watch it I am so moved by the love expressed.  What a beautiful perspective and reminder that we’re all pocked with scars, flaws, imperfections and more.  To think that we’d fondly remember someone’s blemishes or even irritating habits with love, as signs that person is a living, breathing human being, flies in the face of most people’s attitudes toward others.

I wonder why we measure and rate people in our minds against the high standard of perfection when no one can ever meet it or achieve it.  Is it pride?  Is it because it makes our spots and specks seem less ugly or noticeable if we focus on someone else’s?   Continue reading →