Living Faith

"Faith enables people to be people because it lets God be God."

-- Carter Lindberg

"Your goals must always be beyond your ability but within your faith."

-- Earl H. Merritt

"Intelligence must follow faith, never precede it, and never destroy it."

-- Thomas a Kempis

"Faith is not the same thing as belief - belief is passive; faith is active."

-- Edith Hamilton

"Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former a gift from God."

-- Blaise Pascal

"Faith is building on what you know is here, so you can reach what you know is there."

-- Cullen Hightower

"Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith, when you have acted on it - risking everything - is to actually see what you believe."

-- St. Augustine
"As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit."

-- Emmanuel

"A person will have faith in and actually worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will eventually out us. That which dominates our thinking, our imagination, and our desires will determine our lives, and shape our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful in what we place our faith and very deliberate about what we choose to worship, for what we are secretly or outwardly worshipping (which is not always the same as what we appear to be declaring) we are actually becoming."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


I am focused with all my heart, mind, and spirit on living my faith - focused on the living and not the packaging and presenting and promoting - in a living faith in God, with all the horsepower supplied by Jesus and God's Spirit - and I am noticing more and more people becoming willing to actually risk everything they've known before to live this same way (vs. just knowing about or talking about it, while living something else) and it is both life-affirming and soul-invigorating. And when you get right down to it, why is it so important, really? Well, it's not like we're not all living a life and acting in ways that communicate our message and reveal our true faith and worship, regardless of what we're espousing. Knowing that our lives and actions truly communicate our faith and worship, I want to simply be clear about my truth inside and out, about where my faith and worship lies. I want to be careful to live my beliefs - to act on them enthusiastically and vividly - vs. the clever art of talking about one thing and living out quite another. Been there, done that, died there.

The true test of faith

"It is often difficult to actually live according to one's conscientious, well-thought out convictions and statements of faith; especially when these convictions go against the commonly accepted norms in the society. In general, the majority in any society pursues comfort and pleasure and thus whatever is done for them, as long as it does not harm other people's similar pursuits that are equally understood and accepted by the society. Apart from this, in a society there are generally accepted norms of religious and ethical behavior, as well. Although these norms originate from the human urge for the truth and real regard for the higher values like unselfishness, compassion, control of senses etc., the true spirit behind them is often forgotten due to worldly desires over the course of time, and they can degenerate into meaningless, often ridiculous customs. A person aspiring to live a life directed to the realization of the ultimate Truth, or in other words, a spiritual life driven by faith, has to develop courage to resist the powerful onslaught of two opposing forces:

A. The force of the very human and natural pleasure-drives in the mind; these become crystallized into force of habit.
B. The established social forces which do not understand (nor are they very tolerant of) this kind of spiritual life and feel threatened when someone insists on living like that, no matter what.

This courage has to be distinguished from the courage that one has to show to fight with other competitors in the pursuit of pleasure or worldly objectives. It also needs to be separated from the dare-devilry which people undertake to be famous or just because of the ignorance of the results of their actions. Spiritual courage is an outcome of the tremendous love for the Truth of God which outweighs the knowledge of the imminent dangers and struggles in following this life."

-- I no longer can find where I found this, but I seriously like and relate to it.


Spiritual Courage (Henri Nouwen Society)

Courage is usually connected with taking risks. Jumping the Grand Canyon on a motorbike, coming over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or crossing the ocean in a rowboat are called courageous acts because people risk their lives by doing these things. But none of these daredevil acts comes from the center of our being. They all come from the desire to test our physical limits and to become famous and popular. Spiritual courage is something completely different. It is following the deepest desires of our hearts at the risk of losing fame and popularity, even acceptance. It asks of us the willingness to lose our temporal lives in order to gain something even greater.


"Faith is not just hoping for (based on knowledge of and desire for) God to do something miraculous, or at least positive (meaning, 'consistent with our self-centered desires'), on our behalf; it must include volition (a cognitive process of committed action), in alignment with the clearly revealed (and totally transparent) will of God."

-- Jerry Wiles, stated at a morning devotional at Living Water International

So, in my own words, faith is not true faith without aligned, consistent action, and that is the hardest thing, especially when the world scoffs at such a notion. It takes great, if not insane courage to walk in faith, acting consistently with what you Know to be so. Hollow hoping (i.e.; wishful thinking), while claiming to believe in something supernatural (as a mental function of "trying to look good" within a religious setting) is not quite it, although it's a compelling compromise, this straddling of the fence in a fumblingly futile, yet totally societally acceptable way. To walk in true faith literally risks one's acceptance in the world, even possibly in one's church, because the world has figured out how to consume and absorb religion (and all verbal and organized, programmatic religiosity) and make it its own, so with God, ... truly, ... "yonyown."

Faith and waiting, while honoring what you're feeling

"In this life, there are plus factors and minus factors. Living day to day, if we add all the plus factors we can accumulate, later it becomes a huge blessing, like a giant snowman. But if we add the negative factors as they accumulate, the destruction can come to us like an avalanche. What is a plus factor? It's simple. It's thanksgiving. As we give thanks and praise, a plus factor springs up. As we give thanks for what we have, and give thanks and praise for even what we might not think we have (but do), by faith, then it brings the positive factors to us. If we give thanks concerning health, then a plus factor that makes us feel healthy comes to us, and if we thank God concerning the provision of the materials of life, a plus factor that will bless us materialistically comes to us, and if we give thanks concerning peace, there is a plus factor that brings forth peacefulness. Plus factors are amazing phenomena. If you continuously pile them up, then God transforms them into rich blessings. However, resentments, complaints, and laments produce minus factors. If we are not thankful for what He so generously gives to us, and seek out only those seemingly non-existing things, while not giving thanks, if we always resent, complain, and speak negative words about others, even while feeling totally justified by the circumstances, we pile up negative factors. At first, it may seem it's not a lot, but if the minus factors pile up continually, they will crumble upon us like an avalanche, and we will face total destruction. Therefore, I bless you in the name of the Lord that, in your life, you'd give thanks and praise, which are the positive factors. ... We should never be impatient with God and run around in haste. As a farmer waits long after sowing seed, it is important for us to wait long after we have chosen to believe. It is not only important to believe, but also it is important to wait for however long it takes after believing. God's answers are fulfilled in God's time and by God's methods. ... When we believe, then we should never be disappointed or retreat in our belief. We must wait for God all the way to the end. ... Therefore, we should not be disappointed. God said, 'It will be done according to your faith!' It is saying that if we wait, thinking positively, dreaming, believing, confessing with our mouth, and giving thanks and praise, then it will happen accordingly. 'It will be done according to your faith.' We should not give up on this faith. Through this faith, it'll be fulfilled immediately, or it'll be fulfilled in God's time and by God's methods, sometimes after waiting for a long, long time. We should go forward, not being disappointed, looking upon God with thankfulness, giving praise, looking at the things that don't exist as if they do, because they do, giving thanks. The time and method of 'it will be done according to the faith' are totally under the sovereignty of God. I bless you in the name of the Lord that, like Abraham, you may hope and wait for God in a situation which is hopeless, believe in a situation where it's just not believable, and be dazzled when you wait on Him as long as it takes, and He delivers."

-- from a website I can't find anymore

The above, found by accident and now nowhere to be found, serves as further affirmation of my favorite Bible verse:

"Pray for what you need, believe you have received it, and it is yours (Mark 11:24)."

And time is not a factor in this (it is in His hands) so we are to factor it out.

And then this came, "special direct," straight into my heart:

"When we are not THANKFUL (as an act of faith) for what SEEMS so WRONG, we are so often OUT OF POSITION to RECEIVE and APPRECIATE what is clearly (when we are not blinded by our misguided complaints) so RIGHT!"

and then this one came in from a friend:

...Error and its results are continuous in the life of everyone until we come to that point in our development where we are willing to let go, redeem, and build anew. When this process starts, we seek through our conscious mind to cease forming opinions and conclusions based on appearances, and we turn to God for His perfect guidance in all things..."

-- Frances W. Foulkes, in Effectual Prayer

I love the way these messages unfold so naturally for me,

like a flower beginning to bloom.

And in the midst of the "waiting in joyful expectancy," emotions and sensory feelings are a factor, but they are not the end game. They provide vital "access." They are important "lubrication." They move things along. Remember, it is vitally important to feel what you feel, as part of the birthing process to the next thing - to fully cry it out, scream it out, laugh it out, but for the "soul" purpose of "deliverance" vs. "over-indulgence." You can over-indulge feelings by avoiding them or getting stuck in them. Both make them too important, and both miss their point. The unfolding point, the vision to be held in faith, the object of the whole design, lies right on the other side of this transient, yet oh so necessary step. The object is the flower, the fruit, the life that awaits. When the path is honest and true, fruitfulness abounds naturally. The birthing woman screams, not to revel in screaming, but to deliver her baby, and herself, to the next great thing.

This is a woman in "transition"
during natural childbirth. Can't
you feel the really good scream
coming up and demanding its
release right about here?

And can't you imagine the joy
and life awaiting, right on the
other side? Yes! He delivers!

Faith determines receptivity which determines availability.

"Are you listening to this? Really listening?"

When they were off by themselves, those who were close to him, along with the Twelve, asked about the stories. He told them, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can't see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight. These are people—

Whose eyes are open but don't see a thing,

Whose ears are open but don't understand a word,

Who avoid making an about-face and getting forgiven."

-- Mark 4:9-12 (The Message)

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

-- Mark 11:22-25 (NIV)

My faith in divine guidance has expanded and enhanced my receptivity to it, which seems to have expanded its availability to that of "on-request," anytime, anywhere, and it's flowing freely now, in the face of much human noise. I am hearing and speaking truth with passion and purpose, and it's not for my benefit at all (not for the Jim I made, in overcompensation out of fear), therefore it's not mine at all, and I need not feel any attachment to it. After all, He said: "Relax my child; stop chasing the work; I will bring it to you; speak the truth and let it go."

And I have become intimately and very personally aware that my experience of peace in the sharing of the truth is a direct result of my faith in Him and my total acceptance of and completion with others, including institutions, recognizing that it is truly well with my soul - that all is in perfect order, that nothing is missing, that everything is in its place, that there is no human, worldly justice needed to be imposed or inflicted anywhere, that no retribution or revenge needs to be carried out or delivered, that there is no victimhood anywhere for me, that He is in control of everything, and I totally accept His guidance.

Whether I am accepted and/or even understood or not in the human realm - loved or hated by people based on my good performance or lack thereof - I am living the life and experiencing the experiences I have chosen, based on listening for and obeying my simple instructions from Him, and I am learning again and again that He and our relationship are all that really matter, and that with that awareness I can walk through any treacherous acrimony or thunderous applause from human beings without making any of that noise matter or mean very much.

God made it clear to me that there are those who will use me and what I share for all kinds of things, whether misquoting me or taking things they think I said out of context when it suits their own purpose, or attempting to discredit me by attributing things to me that I did not do, mean, say, or even think for a moment, or giving me way too much credit and power in their lives, claiming that I have created or done or made possible things for them that they couldn't (or wouldn't) have done for themselves with their own direct and personal access to Him (which is nonsense), making me way too important in their lives (and Him and themselves not nearly important enough). In other words, people are going to be people, and the more I truly follow the lead of Jesus, the more I will experience how people treated him, remembering that he did not accept their brutality or their praise as right or warranted; he simply looked to His Father for all things, including forgiveness for those who either applauded or blamed, exalted or violated him.

So, there is nothing to deny about me or earn from others to compensate for my deficiencies or "too-much-ness" in their eyes. You simply love me, God, and have totally forgiven me for forgetting that from time to time (while trying to act like a god or pursue an alternate one), freeing me to love and forgive others, as You have instructed, no matter what they are doing to or for me, now and forevermore, and thank You.

Recalling my favorite poem once again -

"If," by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same:

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings,

And never breathe a word about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

P.S. This poem, "If," written in 1895, at one point became so ever-present that it became like cliche - very much made fun of and "parodied." I once had a gift given to me (by a very proper Brit, mind you) of a paperweight with the words "Spivey Rubbish" engraved on it, and I've had people referred to as having been "Spivey'd" after meeting with me and starting to sound like me, and I realized, when you have something meaningful to say, and you find the courage to keep saying it repeatedly, you can expect all kinds of ridiculous treatment (whether adulation or adversitivity), and none of it means anything except that you've entered the public consciousness, wherein you will be chewed up and spit out, and so be it.

But true life is lived above the fray, anyway, up through the noise to the clear skies above, ... and when I image-searched on this phrase, "Above the Fray," here's what first showed up:

Beautiful!

It pays to visit him every "Nouwen-then."



I might not like the thing around my neck, but I'll gladly follow His lead:

(This dog's name happens to be "Faith.")

It just turns out that I'm having money problems, ... again, ... and only to the extent that there isn't a predictable enough flow, especially when the needs mount, and they're mounting, and it doesn't appear to be flowing to the degree its mounting, but I've been here many times before over the last 11 years, and I have learned not to attempt to solve this problem myself, either totally alone along or with a "sidekick" or two, building some catchy, sophisticated "solution" (which never really is) to a grossly misunderstood problem. Yes, I've gone that route before - superhero and sidekick, off to score by creating the perception of or totally taking advantage of the pain of others, and it has always landed me in way more hot water than I bargained for (I was always "looking for the hot tub," and I would naturally end up "floating like a boiling frog"). So, once again I turned to Henri, (who I alway like to visit every "Nouwen-then"), and here was this amazing little story from Tales of Ancient India (translated from the Sanskrit by J.A.B. van Buitenen in 1961), which said it all. This life has been carved from and crafted in mystery, and in mystery, it seems, it shall remain. My first stop always is to thank Him, and then to ever so humbly ask Him, leaving the "doing" to others as He chooses. Otherwise, I just find myself in the thick of stories like this one.

"Four royal sons were questioning what specialty they should master. They said to one another, 'Let us search the earth and learn a special science.' So they decided, and after they had agreed on a place where they would meet again, the four brothers started off, each in a different direction. Time went by, and the brothers met again at the appointed place, and they asked one another what they had learned. 'I have mastered a science,' said the first, 'which makes it possible for me, if I have nothing but a piece of bone of some creature, to create straightaway the flesh that goes with it.' 'I,' said the second, 'know how to grow that creature's skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.' The third said, 'I am able to create its limbs if i have the flesh, the skin, and the hair.' 'And I,' concluded the fourth triumphantly, 'know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete with limbs.' Thereupon the four brothers went into the jungle to find a piece of bone so that they could demonstrate their specialties and the magic of their integrated creation. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion's, but they did not know that and picked up the bone. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life. Shaking its heavy mane, the ferocious beast arose with its menacing mouth, sharp teeth, and merciless claws and jumped on its 'creators.' He killed and ate them all, and then quietly turned and vanished contentedly into the jungle, never to be seen by man again."Yes, I've been attacked and eaten before by solutions of my own making, and I'm not "lion."

And as Henri Nouwen stated so eloquently after sharing the above story in The Wounded Healer,

"Nuclear man is the man who finally realizes that his creative powers also hold the potential for total self-destruction, ... and that the only answer is experiential transcendence - a fusion of mysticism and revolution. I suppose you might hesitate to consider yourself a mystic or a revolutionary, but when you have eyes to see and ears to hear, you will recognize him in your midst. ... You will find him in your own town or neighborhood or church community, even in your own family, and even in the bolder strivings of your own heart, because he is in every man who draws his strength and sustenance from the grander vision that dawns on the skyline of his life and leads him to a new and better world. It is this new world that fills our dreams, guides our actions and makes us go on, even when we do not know how we're possibly to endure, with the increasing conviction that one day man, every man, will finally be free - free to live and love!"

I know what I'm supposed to do, and it is to pay ATTENTION - to LISTEN and OBEY - and the instructions after that are always quite simple, and they are to GIVE and to LOVE way beyond my previous understanding, exactly who and where and when He asks, and here we go again, another week of life by faith and obedience.

P.S. In case anyone was wondering how camping went over the weekend, well, it was really great, except it got down to 31 degrees Saturday night, which meant little sleep and very tired and stiff old bones in the morning, but we made the most of it by snuggling.

Faithfulness

"Our misery is that we thirst so little for these sublime things, and so much for the mocking trifles of time and space."

-- Charles H. Spurgeon

"Faith in God is putting all your eggs in His basket and then joyfully counting your blessings before they hatch."

-- Ramona C. Carroll

"And fear is not the absence of faith, but is simply faith in the wrong thing - that it won't ever work out."

-- Unknown

"Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of reason and thought."

-- John R. Stott

"'What you believe' moves people, especially when it lines up exactly with what you're saying."

-- Yours Truly

"Every life is a profession of faith, exercising an inevitable, silent influence on the world."

-- Henri Frederic Amiel

What influence do I have on the world? It all depends on what/Who influences me.
It is amazing to consider how little there is to be afraid of or concerned about.
We are delightfully imperfect; He runs all of it; we get to learn and grow.
I am only as effective and powerful as I am aligned with His wisdom.
My faith is the only real enabling or limiting factor in my life.
Walking in faith is the only place of freedom and peace.
From within faith, all anxiety and pain melts away.
Following, there is nothing else to do or say.
I am grateful for the experience of You.
I am grateful for seeing the game.
I am unconcerned about winning.
I am only concerned with truth.
I am loving the opportunity.
I am learning and growing.
I am joyfully here, now.
I am no longer afraid.
I am transcendent.
I am at peace.
I am bliss.
I am.
I ... ay ay ay ... aaahhhhhhhh.

Faith in suffering without deflection


"This idea of 'dying to self' and 'taking up your cross' is one of the hardest concepts in the Christian faith to understand. But it is hard not because it is complicated. It is hard because it is so difficult to accept. We try to complicate it precisely because we know intuitively what it means, and we do not like the idea at all. No one really likes to die. ... The value of the cross in my life is directly proportionate to my awareness of my own sin in any given moment. The minute I fail to see my own sin, the cross loses its meaning. As soon as my problems can be explained on some basis other than my sin, based on someone or something outside myself, the cross becomes superfluous, and I become the most dangerous kind of hypocrite, wreaking of self-righteousness. As difficult as the cross is to understand, only my sin will give it any meaning at all."

-- John Fischer, in On a Hill TOO Far Away

"Refusing to be disillusioned and heartbroken is the cause of so much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens - if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it, we become angry and cruel and vindictive, refusing to accept the disillusionment and heartbreak; yet we are clearly demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will surely end in disaster."

-- Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost for His Highest

"We human beings instinctively regard the seen world as the 'real' world and the unseen world as the 'unreal' world, but the Bible regularly calls for almost the opposite. ... For example, the point of the Book of Job is not about the blind suffering that Job experiences: not 'where is God (outside and visibly) when it hurts so much?' The prologue (chapters 1-2) dealt with that issue. The point of the Book of Job is about faith: more like 'where is Job (on the inside) when it really hurts?'"

-- Phillip Yancey

"Trust in the Lord is the only true antidote to fear. Focusing on God rather than the trial will keep us from sinking into fear and despair. However, learning to face our fears and own them does not mean that we will never have another anxious moment. Faith does not lie in trusting God to stop the storm, but in trusting Him to enable us to walk through the storm. When trouble occurs, He will give us the ability to cope with and grow through it."

-- Jill Briscoe

"God's favorites, especially God's favorites, are not immune from the bewildering times when God seems silent. Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either. Faith demands uncertainty, confusion. The Bible includes many proofs of God's concern - some quite spectacular - but no guarantees. A guarantee would, after all, preclude faith."

-- Paul Tournier

"The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love."

-- Parker Palmer, in A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life

"It is the spectators, the people who are outside, looking in on the tragedy, from whose ranks the skeptics come; it is not those who are actually in the arena and who know suffering from the inside. Indeed, the fact is that it is the world's greatest sufferers who have produced the most shining examples of unconquerable faith."

-- James Stewart

"Men will never be great in theology until they are great in suffering. The most eloquent form of prayer I know is to cry sweetly."

-- Charles Spurgeon

"He who has God has everything; he who has everything but God has nothing."

-- St. Augustine

"Faith is holding onto uncertainties with passionate conviction."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

"Don't pray for a lighter burden. Pray for a stronger back."

-- Unknown

"Real faith is refined in the fires and storms of our pain."

-- Eugene Peterson

"It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey."

-- A.B. Simpson

There sure are a lot of people in a world of hurt out there, whether in emotional, financial, health, relational, or spiritual crisis, and it's all the same hurt, and, quite agonizingly, there's no one to blame, really. It is our human condition, predictably playing itself out. For some, it seems like crushingly pointless victimhood, where it seems there is no relief in sight or possibly to be found in this lifetime, and the strongest desire is to run to the point of distraction, or to self-medicate, to be able to "fog out" for a while, while for others, it is the fiery baptism of their blessed and true faith walk here on Earth, and it is a startlingly beautiful and intentional self-crucifixion, and their day in the sun is clearly upon them. It is usually impossible for me or anyone else to truly know which is which in any given moment, and it can change at any time, based on so many unpredictable factors in a human lifetime. So, as a coach, loving friend, and supporter, and to exercise my own faith in humble obedience, it's just best to love them all and to pray relentlessly, and to remember my own walk through the fire, which continues as we speak.

And speaking of that faith walk, and others' walks that I can really relate to, I had another "movie night" last night, and once again I leaned on Anne to pick the film, and once again the choice was no coincidence and perfect. On this night, I was to see the movie, "Amazing Grace" (http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/the_film.php) and soak in the stories of both William Wilberforce and John Newton, brave, dedicated, tormented men who risked everything and gave their lives to following God and gaining their own redemption through walking their path without deflection, and talk about "faith in the midst of suffering." And yet it was nothing compared to the suffering of those who they reached out to try to help, in order to "make the world better." And the song; ... it is so hauntingly beautiful on its own, and yet so deeply enriched when coupled with an understanding of the physical circumstances behind its writing.

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, hut now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The LORD has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But GOD, who called me here below,
Will be for ever mine.

And it reminded me of my last "movie night," when I went to see "Children of Men," which elicited similar emotions about the future that Amazing Grace did about the past, regarding how man treats man, and what I feel about that. This was the fictional story of Theodore Falon, a disillusioned and oft-drunk bureaucrat who feels hopelessly lost in a 2027 dystopian London in a world that's gone mad now that women can no longer have babies. Theo is led, kicking and screaming, through great pain to his calling, which he somehow finds the courage and faith and will to embrace and then endure, and his life finally becomes "meaningful," even if in the midst of chaos, horror, and violence, for the first time. Such consistent character development, set over 200 years apart, depicting the human story so many of us face right now. Sounds like our lunch yesterday, eh Sean?

Children of Men

Without a doubt, the images in the film should remind us of our own times, in which the global "war on terror" is a politically-motivated travesty. As in the movie, terrorism and xenophobia are used to cow the populace, while war and violence are perpetuated around the world for profit and power. But in this sea of pain, misery, and despair ordinary people are able to act to save the one hope we have for a different future.

Maybe the film's argument that “the children are the future" will appear corny to some, but perhaps only to those who have become too calloused by all the hate and war in the world. With threats like nuclear annihilation, global epidemics of various sorts, rampant poverty and hunger, and ecological disaster looming, humanity's real fight for survival seems more in doubt, but more necessary than ever before. And the film's suggestion that an alternative to the present system of fear-mongering and violence, repression and decay – a human project – is integral to survival seems fitting as well.

This is a brilliant film driven by imagery, collective memory, and emotion as much as it is by a well-written story full of believable characters. It is poetry on the big screen.