Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

A couple of weeks ago, the school I work at had its Spring Break. One of the things I did in my week off was go see two movies. The first movie I saw was I Can Only Imagine , which tells the story behind the hit MercyMe song. The second was A Wrinkle in Time , based on the 1962 sci-fi/fantasy novel by Madeline L'Engle. Even though I had initially only planned to watch one, I am glad I changed my mind because I enjoyed both movies, although neither was perfect. Here, in no particular order, are a list of the strengths and weaknesses of these two movies. Visuals: One of my favorite things about A Wrinkle in Time  was how beautifully done all the visuals were. Even though I was unable to see the movie while it was still in IMAX, the visuals were still immersive enough to draw me into the story. The colors were dazzling on Uriel, and the ever-shifting landscape of Camazotz lends a tension leading up to the climax, where we are introduced to the jet-black, multi-tentacled It. The ...

"Only love can drive out all the darkness What are we fighting for? We were made to carry one another We were made for more"-" Bleed the Same "~Mandisa Late last week, I was on Twitter, and I noticed quite a few posts about the school shooting that occurred on Valentine's Day. Most of the posts called for people to pray for the victims and their families, but others took a more combative tone on the issue. One of the ones that was particularly disturbing to me came from someone who is not only a good friend of mine, but also a Christian role model. This person insinuated that Republicans are a bunch of hypocrites because they call for immigration reform following terrorist attacks but don't want the shooting to be politicized because the families of the victims need to be left alone to grieve. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of divisive tweets I have seen recently from this person, and they are by no means the only one doing this. I...

"I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail, but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them."~Acts 5:38-39 The above quote may seem like an odd way to start a post. In fact, there may be some of you that don't even realize that this is in the Bible. I didn't really notice it until two years ago, and that was after having read the Bible a couple of times. This verse isn't often quoted, it's not one that's assigned to be memorized, and, at least at my church, it's not really preached about. However, I feel that this verse is as important to the spread of Christianity now as it was when it was first said almost 2,000 years ago. This statement was said by a Pharisee named Gamaliel during the time when Christianity was just getting its start. The Pharisees were angered by Peter and John's refusal to stop speaking about Jesus. They were planning their...

"There's just a million little memories that remind me you're not here. It's just a different kind of Christmas this year."~" Different Kind of Christmas "-Mark Schultz It's the most wonderful time of the year, isn't it? Unfortunately, that's not always true. For many, this Christmas marks the first one they're celebrating without a beloved friend or family member. As much as they want to celebrate, every part of the celebration is a reminder that there's one less person celebrating with them. Personally, I have felt this way two separate times, once thirteen years ago following my grandmother's death, and then again last year, following the death of my friend Katherine. She lost her battle with cancer only four days before Christmas, and since I knew it was coming, it was hard to get excited for the season. I knew that as Christmas was creeping closer, so, too, was her imminent demise. I prayed that she would survive long eno...

Today is Thanksgiving here in America, a day filled with family, turkey, and football. It's also a day to reflect on the things we are thankful for (which may or may not include the family, turkey, and football). However, I think thankfulness should not just be reserved for one specific day. The leader of a group on Facebook that I am a member of has created a "30 Days of Thankful" challenge for the group members. Each day, she posts something she is thankful for, and the rest of us reply with things we are thankful for that day. Doing this every day has really challenged me to think every day about what I'm thankful for, which means that I have been more open to seeing the good in each day. Not only that, but since I have decided to write something different each day, I have been challenging myself to come up with a variety of things to be thankful for. I have enjoyed the challenge so much that I plan to continue thinking of at least one thing I'm thankful for ...

This past summer, I read the book Me, Myself, and Lies  by Jennifer Rothschild, and it really made me think. If you read my post " What are You Really Saying? " you know that I realized that at least for me, saying "I can't believe I said/did/forgot/lost that!" was really a way to put myself down, and I was determined to stop saying it. However, this book helped me to realize that though I wasn't saying things like that out loud, I was still putting myself down. I was challenged to continue to assess how I talk to myself. In the book, Jennifer compares our thoughts to items in a closet. We have the comfy ones that we wear so often that they start to wear out, but we refuse to stop because we love them so much. We have the ones that aren't our favorites, but we will wear them at certain times and they fit us well enough. Then there are the ones that we never wear because they don't fit and we don't like them. However, she likens our negative tho...

"No one ever wins when the goal is to settle the score."-For King and Country, " Ceasefire " On August 12th, there were two protests conducted in two separate southern cities. Both were concerning a hot-button issue in this country, and both had the potential to make headlines, yet only one did. The reason why is quite simple: one protest ended violently, while the other remained peaceful. The one that actually made headlines was of course the one in Charlottesville, Virginia. A white supremacist group was protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee when they were met by counter-protesters. Insults began to fly between the two groups, which led to fists flying, kicking off a domino effect that ended with a man driving his car into a group of people, killing one woman and injuring many others. The white supremacist group was blamed for what happened, and while I agree that they were at fault for their actions, the counter-protesters were as much ...