This year has not been easy. As I write that I think, really, is any year here at Sanctuary an easy year; this one though, for myself, has been especially trying. I often think of the song by Keith Green “Asleep in the Light”; when I hear it I ache inside. The song really speaks to the heart of why this has not been an easy year for me.
“‘Cause Jesus came to your door and you’ve left him out on the streets.”
We do our best not to leave anyone out on the streets. So why then, in the midst of welcoming so many people do I feel so uneasy? I am reminded of Jesus’ saying “that you do to the least of these you do also to me” and then I am attacked by the least of these accusing me of my unchristian attitude when I refuse someone entry who regularly physically attacks people. “By this they will know you are my disciples, by the love you have for one another.” (John 13:35). “Love your enemy, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who persecute you.” (Luke 6:27, 28). I struggle so much with how to love my enemy…how to bless those who curse me (and believe me, that is no small number when the wind blows right); Praying is easy, but I notice that is the last point that Jesus makes, it’s the first two that I don’t quite know how to process, especially after someone has threatened, punched and tried to strangle people during our worship service.
That in and of itself would be difficult enough on a regular basis, but add to that death. Deaths of friends. Deaths of people whom I’ve known for almost 8 years. To this day, I have grieved over a dozen people, and the process does not get easier; especially when they are people who have touched my life so deeply, friends who have shared so much of their journey, their pain and suffering with me. (I wonder if I’ll ever learn how to grieve properly.) I recently talked with Joe, a pastor friend of mine, and mentioned how I am still grieving certain friends and that it surprised me. He had this interested and puzzled look on his face, “Why would it surprise you?” It was my turn to look puzzled right back. Then I thought about it. The first person I remember losing was my father’s father. That was when I was 7. I did not stop crying when I thought about him until I was almost finished high school. So, if the loss of someone close to me, whom I knew during the first seven years of my life, affected me so deeply, why did I think that the loss of these friends, whom I’ve known for the past 7 years, affect me less deeply.
Gracie was one of the most vivacious, hardy women I had the pleasure of know-ing. She weathered a lot in her lifetime and still she maintained a beauty like the Rocky Mountains: crisp, powerful, cold and yet inviting to the most adventur-ous. I had the pleasure of working with Gracie several times on various projects. She performed her own poetry twice at different arts eXtravaganza’s; her poetry was angry, insightful and vulnerable. I also had the splendidly challenging op-portunity to direct her and another community member in a short humorous play by Shel Silverstein, One Tennis Shoe. The play was a smashing success in spite of half of the script appearing in various places where it wasn’t supposed to. Gracie never let that get in her way though, she always brought herself back and found a way to get to the end and keep the spirit and message of the play. God bless her
And then there was Marcel Metten, a wildly humorous, big hearted, light fingered man. My own first encounter with Marcel was over 7 years ago, roughly a month or so after I first arrived at Sanctuary. He had the lightest fingers ever. I didn’t notice for the majority of our conversation – 5-10 minutes or so – that he had my cell -phone; it wasn’t until he told me to hold on, he had a call coming through, that I noticed he had MY cellphone! The smile he had on his face was huge! The next week he tried to pick my velcro pockets – not so successful that time, and, on two separate occasions, he walked in on his own memorial service. Yep, you read that right. Different churches at different times held memorial services for Marcel; on one of the occasions, he simply walked in, sat in the back and waited until someone noticed. Didn’t say a blessed thing. Just smiled.
Joe Abbey-Colborne, pastor at Parkdale Neighbourhood Church, shared this memory with me that I would like to share with you,
Marcel was one of the guys who taught me that if I had an issue with someone; with the way he was behaving in the drop-in, that I should not come at them asserting “the rules”.
“Don’t tell me what ‘the rules’ are.” he said, “those are your rules, not mine. You guys make rules and then change them, anyway,” he jabbed. “You talk to me about rules, it doesn’t work ’cause that means you think you are above me.
Talk to me about ‘respect’…that’s different.” he explained, “That means we’re equal. We both need respect.”
I still feel like at some point he will knock on the door, or simply appear on the park bench outside, waiting patiently for a little help.
As I reflect on Marcel’s statement about respect, I realize that is something that I feel pretty deeply, especially when it is betrayed and then DEMANDED in the same breath. That is not easy for me. I don’t know how to love my enemy. I don’t know how to lay down my life for my brother. I don’t know how to bless those who curse me. I guess this is the journey I am on. It’s not easy. It definitely ain’t fun right now. But in the midst of all of this I am reminded that this is not the end. That I am as broken as my friends here. That my anger amounts to the same as their violence in God’s eyes and both sadden him greatly. But it doesn’t stop there…
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9
An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he’s indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James’ true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever. [Written by BWR Public Relations]
I really liked this movie. Quite a bit. Definitely deserved to win against Avatar, that’s for darn sure! The characters were interesting. The story was good and what surprised me most about the story is that it was a character-driven story, not a plot-driven one; it’s pretty unusual, I think. The action sequences were incredibly well filmed and the editing of the film was absolutely fantastic.
While the film was incredibly fantastic, I was a bit disappointed by the morale at the end. I mean, now that’s just my own personal opinion. This film is fantastic. I highly recommend it.
I was highly recommended this series by my dear not-genetically-related sister-in-law, and so when the whole trilogy went on sale on kobobooks.com I decided to pick it up, after all, my darling wife blessed me with a Kobo Touch for Xmas so, hey, why not; it was a great way to break in my Touch!
I was not as impressed as I thought I should be given all the hype. It’s garnered quite a bit of attention in the press and on the various book club message boards. Now, I am not a huge fan of the majority of YA fiction as, from what I have perceived, it doesn’t provide great role models for the youth who read them. And the Hunger Games, in my opinion, is no different. Katniss Everdeen, the main protagonist through all three novels, is a gifted and yet unbelievably dim and ignorant girl whom no one should try to be like. And really, only one character should ever be looked at favorably and that is Prim, Katniss’ sister. She is the true good one in this book, the shining beacon.
After reading all three, I decided I would do a little reading of some “professional” reviews of these books to see if I was missing something before I gave my own two cents worth. Here’s some snippets for you to read from some reviews:
While some young adult novels are content to read the way bad sci-fi movies look, both these books transcend their premises with terrifyingly well-imagined futures and superb characterization. {John Green, New York Times}
I couldn’t agree less with this statement. This is only just a bit better than bad sci-fi the way a made-for-TV movie is just a bit better than a bad TV episode: it’s not really. Sure, this takes place far in the future, but not a terribly well imagined future; think Running Man but with teenagers. And the future in HG resembles just about every other dystopian future since Blade Runner invaded our imagination. And the characterization is not really that good. It sure isn’t superb. It’s ok, but the only reason you care for the main character is because you’re told to. There are only two characters that you can even remotely develop feelings about and one is Prim, Katniss’ sister and the other is Peeta, her fellow tribute from district 12. He actually is a good person for boys to model themselves after. But I wouldn’t go anywhere near to say that the characterization is superb.
Collins has done that rare thing. She has written a sequel that improves upon the first book. As a reader, I felt excited and even hopeful: could it be that this series and its characters were actually going somewhere? {Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times}
It is not that rare for a sequel to improve upon the first, at least in literature. If you read the rest of the article, you will see by this she simply means that the author has made the book even more page-turning. For me, this was not a good turn of events. Suzanne Collins has written the equivalent of a made-for-TV mini-series. Each chapter ends on a cliff-hanger, in the same way that a TV episode ends on a climactic note before a commercial; and each book ends on a bigger cliff-hanger the way a “to be continued…” episode ends in TV land. Wow. So she wrote a made-for-TV mini-series as a trilogy of novels. Yipee…*sigh*. I was annoyed at the lack of imagination that Collins used in being able to keep her reader wanting to read. It’s not good storytelling, it’s simply trite device after trite device.
After all is said and done, this would make a great mini-series on TV, like BSG or Game of Thrones, it should not be made into a movie, and it definitely should not be a critically acclaimed series of novels. I don’t care how many people compare The Hunger Games to high school social life, it’s a load of bull. You don’t go around killing, even metaphorically speaking, everyone else just to survive. You might form alliances, but not ones that end in death, ones that hopefully end in continued friendship. This book is thoroughly dys-tressing and poorly written. If you want a well written dystopian future go to The Handmaid’s Tale…it’s much MUCH better.
Ok. So I am super excited about the upcoming Ridley Scott movie Prometheus for 2 reasons, A) I love Ridley Scott and B) I love the Alien franchise. So, I will see this movie and you will know that I have seen it. However, even now I will tell you why I am severely disappointed with Ridley Scott: the technology in Prometheus is better than that in the rest of the Alien franchise. It’s got holographs and better spacesuits and better spaceships. I mean really people! If you’re going to revisit a franchise at least do some due diligence and make the technology similar to the original, otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not the same universe or reality as the rest of the franchise.
So, I usually do some kind of favorite movie and book thing for the previous year (my friend is much better at it than I am, that’s for sure). Here are my 5 favorite tv shows or movies from this past year (I had a heckuva hard time remembering much of what I saw this year…too much sleeplessness *blargh*)
Movies & TV shows
{click image to go to movie/tv show}
Ip Man
This has to be my favorite action/kung-fu movie of the year and possibly of the last few years. Donnie Yen is brilliant as Ip Man. He not only is a wicked martial artist, but he is a darn good actor too. Ip Man is a more complex character than many that I’ve seen in recent kung-fu movies and Donnie gives him a great life on the screen. Of course one can’t do that without the help of some fantastic supporting actors and a good director. The script was ok, but hey, you don’t really watch these for the dialogue…right?!
Exit Through the Gift Shop
I’ve loved Banksy’s work ever since a teacher friend of mine from Rosebud introduced me to his very political, brave and very artistic work. Then when I heard there was going to be a documentary on Banksy, I was elated! So, I watched it when it finally came available on Netflix and man, was I not disappointed in the slightest! If you like Banksy, watch it! If you like documentaries, watch it!
Banksy: I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore.
… Thierry Guetta: I don’t know how to play chess, but to me, life is like a game of chess.
{quotes courtesy of IMDB.com}
Hanna
This was my favorite North American action movie of the year. So much so that I went out and bought it right away! I rarely do that, especially these days with having so little time to re-watch movies (and with my lovely supportive wife not understanding my desire to own movies). Joe Wright, the director, took some huge chances with this and, for me, they paid off in spades! Not only was the story very simple and the dialogue succinct and, well, I wouldn’t say uninspired or dull, but it wasn’t very original. What Wright did right was cast some phenomenal actors and design some wicked cool sequences (some inspired by other movies) as well as take a crazy chance by asking The Chemical Brothers to do the score (probably one of the single best things about this movie is the original score by The Chemical Brothers — simply out of this world!). Mix these things together and with Joe Wright at the helm you have a movie that you will either love or hate. I…LOVED IT!
Avatar: The Last Airbender
So, I wanted to watch the movie inspired by this series. I mentioned that to a few people who almost forcefully demanded that I watch the cartoon series first. Then they forbade me from watching the movie. Well, I watched the cartoon series and was BLOWN AWAY! Everything about this series is what makes good TV: complex characters (and not just the main ones either), a rich world, a good balance between action, exposition and setting, good acting…ya know, I could just go on and on about it. One of the best parts of this series is that it has an end, and end that they are working towards and you get excited about it as it goes on. You know it’s going to end. And you are compelled to watch it. I’m glad I didn’t discover it while it was still being released, that would have driven me INSANE.
Well, let’s just say right here and now, that it was AMAZING, I think everyone should watch it, I think kids should watch it (when their parents are ok with it), BUT no one, absolutely NO ONE should ever watch the movie version. I gave the movie a ZERO; that’s right. There is nothing, not one good thing I can say about the movie…NOT ONE GOOD THING! The series = brilliance! It’s on Netflix, you can go watch it now, it’s totally worth it!
Battlestar Galactica
I wish I could say that we are done this series, but we aren’t. So, it makes it in for one of my favorite TV shows of 2011 and will definitely turn up again at the end of 2012.
What makes Avatar: The Last Airbender so good are the same things that make BSG so good: complex characters…well, just look above and you’ll see the list again. And, like Airbender, BSG only lasts for 4 seasons. Then it’s done. Finito! They have accomplished what they wanted to. And I honestly think more series should go this route. It’s much more compelling and interesting to watch.
China Miéville’s amazing murder mystery, sci-fi, weird, thriller is a study in awesomeness! Miéville was an author I discovered late 2010 and so made it my mission in 2011 to read what I could get my hands on by him. Well, of those novels, which were all fantastic, The City & The City is the one that hit me the hardest. The social implications of the world he created is one that, once you get it, will (hopefully) smack you right in the face! If you enjoy a good weird, sci-fi/murder-mystery thriller then read this one…you will not be disappointed!
Understanding Comics
I LOVE comic books. I have, well, it seems like forever. But it’s never been much more than a hobby at best. Well, when several comic books (and graphic novels) got made into movies, I started to get the itch back to reading them…and man, have they changed in the last 20-25 years. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics was a fantastic re-introduction into the art form and really solidified it as a true art form. He makes a case for comics as an art form by writing his treatise …. as a COMIC! It’s brilliant! And not only is it brilliant in concept, but in execution he has truly done it. It can seem intimidating to start with, but soon I could not put it down. If you like comics or graphic novels at all, then go out there and find this book! It’s hard to find, so you can order it online or get it out from your local library…you will not be disappointed.
Slaughterhouse Five
I had always wanted to read a Kurt Vonnegut novel, but never got around to it…until this past year. I decided to start with the one that he is probably best known for and I was not disappointed. I didn’t get all of it my first time through, and not even on my second. I hope to read it again soon, because it is a clever, disturbing, witty and thought provoking read.
I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.
…
I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.
{quotes from Slaughterhouse Five courtesy of wikiquote}
Still I Rise
So, I got back into comic books/graphic novels this past year and a bit. It was tough to pick one to put on this list and this one secured the spot even though, technically, it isn’t as good as some of the others I read. I found the paneling too cluttered and the art work, which was all-around great, was not always consistent. That having been said, this secured the spot for me because of the material and the way the authors and illustrators present the material and educate their audience. It’s a book about the history of African Americans in the USA. Now, obviously it is insanely difficult to communicate so much history in a readable way that doesn’t put the reader off by the size of the tome. Well, Roland Owen Laird, Jr. & Taneshia Nash Laird do a bang-up job of making the history concise, thoughtful, informative and engaging (even though at times there is too much information per panel). I highly recommend this. I would love to find more like this, you know, histories of people groups by those people groups.
Crazy Love
I was introduced to Francis Chan through his book Erasing Hell. I enjoyed it. Then someone at my work recommended this one by him. Well, this is the book to recommend! From my point of view, he has done a great job of calling those of us who profess a faith in Jesus Christ to really live it.
Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call. [from publishers weekly]
RSS
Twitter
Deviantart
Youtube
Google
Facebook
