Glorious secrets

So much of God's work is done underground, behind the scenes, in the heart. It's about what goes before. It's about what survives after. It's a quiet undercurrent. An overlying spiritual reality that alters all the physical truths that lay underneath. Like a grand transparency, God's work so often goes unnoticed by the world, but it makes glorious what He chooses to reveal to those who belong to Him.

Flock of Wild Indian Monkeys

I was surprised that hearing Ron on that sat phone in the sanctuary was such a rush. I was really excited.

The pictures from India were great -- good composition, interesting subject matter, great lighting. And the message they told was priceless. God gives us all value. What a privilege to share the message with so many precious people living in a culture that drastically undervalues them as it has done to their parents and grandparents and great grandparents, for centuries.

I was really proud of the work Ron does and the passion with which he does it. Then, I come home and get this email:

Subject:
Flock of Wild Indian Monkeys

Text:
"Hey girl,
Well, that was certainly a weird phone call... The bats were flying around overhead, we were standing next to a busy highway at sunset. I hope it didn't sound as stupid as it felt.I'll check-in later.
RD"

I can't wipe the smile off my face. Creative people are like film developing chemicals, exposing just the right details, allowing the picture to tell its story, and losing themselves in the process. What comes to light during the development time is fresh, and spontaneous and real.

Rather than detracting from the message, the vulnerability of the messenger makes it even more embraceable.

I love creative people!

Still Spinning My Wheels

Friday night. Kids are at the school play. Ron's in India. Not enough billable hours this week. As so it begins. Or maybe better said, continues.

Why am I still hiding from the world? Why does everything in my life induce premature panic? Does identifying problems before they materialize help me to keep up the charade? I cannot control of the uncontrollable. I'm powerless to console the unconsolable. So many of my prayers are too predictable. Will begging God spare us from the inevitable?

Like the mud ruts the Sebring made in the front yard, I'm branded with the remnants of my past.

Babel

Guess I'd better start with a disclaimer: I did not see the first two films in the trilogy. But after all the 'critical acclaim,' we bought the movie "Babel" and watched it last night.

For me, it was a real disappointment.
Yes, I cared about the characters, so the director did something right.

But watching such long portions in languages I couldn't understand (while it made a point) still proved more than tedious at times. And finding our common humanity only through banality was annoyingly post-modern.
While the premise: "We are all human, we all suffer" is true, suffering is hardly what makes us human.

Guess my biggest beef was not in the shallow answers the film offered, but in the questions it neglected to ask.

Why are so many mommies and daddies running off to third world countries entrusting the care of their young children to illegal aliens then acting surprised when other countries don't operate the way we do in the United States. (Note to self-absorbed parents at home and abroad: If you don't take care of your kids, why should you expect anyone else to?)

What did the Korean subplot have to do with it? And do we really want to watch as she drops trou, shoots the beave and repeatedly sets herself up for physical rejection while feverishly spribbling notes we cannot read.

Oh yeah, I forgot, language barriers are the only thing that divides us. The need to pee on a regular basis and invite moviegoers into the bathroom with us has the power to unite us. There's nothing dumber than a U.S. immigration officer, right?

For me, "Babble" would have been a more accurate name.

Call me intrepid

Okay, so I just heard this week that God tells us to "fear not," 366 times in the Bible. That's more times than he tells us to do anything else, like "love they neighbor."

Very interesting thing to ponder. It's as if He's trying to clue us in that fear is a monumental barrier to faith and to the kinds of actions that faith-driven people need to take. So... here's my small step in that direction.

Writing anything worth reading presupposes a willingness to reveal something of yourself. Something that rings true to the reader. For me, that's a scary proposition. "How would people react if they knew what I was really thinking? What if they judge me too harshly, write me off as a hyper-sensitive piece of litmus paper, then crumble me and throw me in the trash?"

I guess at my age, it's time to get over myself. I think that my work will never get better or be as effective as it could be if I'm not willing to put myself on the line a little. So, starting today, when it comes to writing, call me intrepid.