Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  Welcome to 2014.  It's a good day to pause and reflect over the past year (or groan and try to get over the `I stayed up way too late last night' headache).  So I thought I'd post a passage from Matthew I came across recently, since it got me reflecting.

Matthew 25:31-46

New International Version (NIV)

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”



  I was just struck by how incredibly similar the two situations are.  I can think of a time or two when I walked right by someone outside the mall holding a Will Work for Food sign.  And I can think of a time or two when I stopped and helped someone even when I didn't feel like going out of my way.  

I suspect that both the condemnation and the praise could be said to just about any of us and be perfectly true.  The only difference is that those who accept Jesus forgiveness, well He forgives everything, even the sins of omission.  That's why the times you did the right thing stand out.  They're just there over the white background of forgiveness, instead of lost in the black and red, like a picture too messy with paint and scribbles to see clearly.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them: and they were sore afraid.  

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David ad Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.  

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger.  

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.  And all they that heard it wondered at these things which were told them by the shepherds.  But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Luke 2:8-20

A Post Thanksgiving Post

I said in my last post about seeing God work in our lives this past year.  I feel like maybe I should have expounded on that a little.  As you know if you've been following this blog, my dad died this summer.  

Last year he had surgery that was really a miracle.  We didn't think it would be able to happen, and it did, and although he wasn't as cured as we first thought, we did get an extra year with him, which I am thankful for.  Also, I've really seen God in the way dad died.  He wasn't in pain.  He was home on hospice, and he lasted several weeks longer than the doctors predicted, so we were able to truly say goodbye.  He knew he was on his way to Heaven, so it was a very peaceful passing.  We had a lot of visitors and did a lot of singing.  I still have a little trouble singing sometimes now, but not in a bad way. 

Before all this I had been going through a spiritual dry spell.  I have a brother who developed some health issues a few years ago and (I know this doesn't make sense) I blamed myself for that.  I'd had some problems a number of years before that had similar symptoms but a really different cause, and I felt like that kept my parents from getting him the right help as quickly as they might otherwise have done.  It's hard to trust God when you're blaming yourself for things that you can't do anything about.  Seeing God at work while dad was dying helped me accept that first off, there honestly are things I can't control so I need to not hold myself accountable for them, and second -God could have healed my dad.  I realized that after the surgery.  It was such a miracle that Dad was able to have it.  God chose to take dad home instead, but he could have healed him.  So he could have healed my brother, too.  He just chose not to.  And that means I can't blame myself that my brother has health issues.  

I'm not saying I've suddenly become a fatalist and think all I ever have to do is sit around twiddling my thumbs while God works around me (though that would be nice.  Thumb Twiddling: new favorite sport!)  I just believe that the things outside my control are not outside of His.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving, everyone!  I've seen God working a lot in my life and in my family this past year, and for that I am thankful.  

I'm posting a picture I did while resting up after the holiday.  I hope you all like it.

Handing out Fish

Okay, so once again I've let too much time pass between posts.  Not only because I've been busy (and now I'm catching a cold and feel like my head is stuffed with moth balls) but also because I haven't felt like I have anything to say.  I'm doing too much thinking of the sort that doesn't reach a conclusion.  But since I need something to post about....

I've been thinking about problems and root problems.  It's best summed up in that old proverb `give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.'  It seems to me that right now so many people I know are struggling, and the only thing I can do is hand them a fish.  That is, I try to help, but all I do is scratch the surface.  It's frustrating because I know tomorrow they'll just need another fish.  

Then there are the even deeper root problems; people who are angry at other people and take it out on a third party (those sorts of stresses always seems to crop up near the holidays.) or people who make bad decisions but you can't stop them because they're adults and you have no control over their lives.  The best you can do is pray for them, and feel like smacking them up the back of the head to knock some sense into them (only it probably wouldn't work).  

I all you can do is give what help you can, pray a lot, and trust that God can take the little bit of fish you offer and multiply it into something of actual use.     

Blogging

It's an interesting thing, writing a blog.  It feels like I'm writing a letter to a friend, except there's the chance that some of the readers are people I've never met.  (A slim chance.  This isn't exactly a widely publicized blog.)  At the same time, they're letters to my future self, reminding me what I happened to be thinking that day.  
For example, I wrote a post on playing with that old `It's a Wonderful Life' scenario of what if this or that character was never born?  Only to realize, looking back, that I probably just thought it was a nifty idea because I was outlining a story about parallel universes at the time.  

Then there are the book and movie musings that only cover one aspect of the story.  I wrote a post about the love story in Megamind.  If I'd written about the character arc instead, I would have pulled on completely different points -maybe even contradicted some of my thoughts from when I was dealing with the love story.  (Like whether or not Megamind was evil in the opening.  I still say he was never as evil as he thought he was, but he was definitely selfish and needed a good kick to make him shape up and stop feeling sorry for himself.  But hey, that's what character arcs are for.)  The best thing about book and movie discussions is that stories are open to so many interpretations.    

I haven't exactly been a consistent blogger.  Life keeps tossing me distractions.  But I do enjoy these letters.  I hope you all do too.

Untrustworthy characters

I've been thinking about untrustworthy characters.  You know the ones: Han Solo, Captain Jack Sparrow, Dustfinger from Inkheart.  The guys the hero shouldn't trust, but somehow do anyway.

It occurred to me that one thing these guys all have in common is that they're highly motivated.  Take Han Solo in the first Star Wars movie (Or Episode IV if you count the prequel trilogy).  If he doesn't get lots of money quick, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be after him.  Sure, he took care of Greedo no problem, but eventually superior numbers will get him.  To save his skin, he needs cash.  Rescuing princesses pro bono publica goes against his story goal.  (So does returning to save the Rebels from the death star instead of rushing back to Tatooine to pay off Jubba.  In fact, Han blows his story goal so badly that Empire Strikes Back ends with him in the clutches of a ruthless bounty hunter.)

Captain Jack Sparrow in Curse of the Black Pearl is equally motivated.  He wants his ship back, and he'll do whatever it takes to get it.  Sure he doesn't want to see Will and Elizabeth hurt -he's not heartless- but that doesn't keep him from using them as bait.

As for Dustfinger, he's pretty driven.  Not only does he betray our heroes early on, but when he learns that if he reaches his goal he'll die, the discovery doesn't actually change his mind, it just makes him a bit depressed.

I think what makes these guys come across as unpredictable is that they don't have the same goal as the rest of the heroes.  We know they're highly motivated, what we don't know is how far they'll go to get what they want.  Will they betray the hero to get what they're after?  Maybe they like the hero.  Maybe they make an effort to save him -but still betray his cause, then wonder what he's so grumpy about.  Or maybe they decide their personal goal isn't so important after all and put all their energy into making sure the heroes win.

If they decide to throw over their own goal out of loyalty to the heroes, it shouldn't be an easy choice.  After all, they've wanted whatever they want since before they met the heroes.  Letting it go now should be hard -hard enough that your audience doesn't know until the last moment which direction they'll go.  Maybe (as in Star Wars) that choice ripples through the rest of the story, causing future problems for the unpredictable character and the heroes.  Your heroes might have to decide if they're loyal back -or if their cause is more important.  If they decide it is, does their friend resent being hung out to dry?  And how does that affect his loyalty?  Or the other character's perception of his loyalty?  Will they still trust him if they know they turned traitor on him?  Should they?  

There are lots of possibilities as soon as you have a character with a different goal from your hero.  The guy doesn't even have to look shifty.  There may be lots of other things that make those wonderful, lovable rogue characters, but different goals is one that's definitely worth playing with.