a lamp unto my feet
I do believe God communicates directly with people, especially those committed to following His paths. I do believe scripture is truth, and so believe the promises therein to those who do believe. My own personal experience with this communication is mainly through the scriptures, but quite often other circumstances or things come together in my life to underscore things that are especially important for me to understand or know at the moment.
My husband and I went to see the new X Files movie on Saturday. I was never a diehard fan of the series, and it simply seemed preferable to Brendan Frasier's offerings or other films showing at our local theater. So I went with few expectations, and given that this was billed as a "stand alone", I thought it would be entertaining without having to know any background of characters or plot. It was called "X Files: I Want to Believe". So I figured, well, somebody needs to be convinced of something. The plot was mushy and a bit disappointing, but certain things stood out clearly to me. My mind has undergone a radical change. One of the main characters in the movie was a pedophile priest who was having visions. So part of the needing to believe was needing to believe that a vile and unclean vessel could be a holy messenger and that God does speak and direct in the world today. Scully and Mulder were back in action more or less, trying to crack the disappearance of an FBI agent and further, going through a crisis of faith each in their own way. Mulder wanted to believe, and Scully was quick to sharpen the axe over the neck of this priest whom she dismissed almost instantly on the basis of his unworthiness in her eyes. I accepted the priest and his visions almost without question because God DOES use the unclean. He uses whatever He will use. Our human vision is typically not 20/20.
At one point the priest tells Scully, "don't give up". It was a random statement without context in the scene and she could not figure out why he said it. She pressed him to explain and he kept telling her he could not. He didn't have the reasons why, he only had the word. We went to church the next morning and our pastor was not the speaker. It was a man from a local ministry, Camp Orchard Hill. His message to us, the congregation was, "don't give up". Give God your best. He used a film clip from the movie "Facing the Giants", a high school football yarn. The scene in the clip was of one player blindfolded, carrying another player on his back, and the coach walking in front of the player screaming out encouragement as this young man crawled on his hands and knees with the other teammate on his back. The coach's point was, if we know what is happening exactly and where we are going, we'll stop short or slack off. If we go on in uncertainty, or with just the kernel of knowledge that we HAVE to without knowing the outcome, we'll go further than we ever dreamed. How does this happen? Even outside of the context of the movie the message was used in lives of two church members and theater-goers.
My husband and I went to see the new X Files movie on Saturday. I was never a diehard fan of the series, and it simply seemed preferable to Brendan Frasier's offerings or other films showing at our local theater. So I went with few expectations, and given that this was billed as a "stand alone", I thought it would be entertaining without having to know any background of characters or plot. It was called "X Files: I Want to Believe". So I figured, well, somebody needs to be convinced of something. The plot was mushy and a bit disappointing, but certain things stood out clearly to me. My mind has undergone a radical change. One of the main characters in the movie was a pedophile priest who was having visions. So part of the needing to believe was needing to believe that a vile and unclean vessel could be a holy messenger and that God does speak and direct in the world today. Scully and Mulder were back in action more or less, trying to crack the disappearance of an FBI agent and further, going through a crisis of faith each in their own way. Mulder wanted to believe, and Scully was quick to sharpen the axe over the neck of this priest whom she dismissed almost instantly on the basis of his unworthiness in her eyes. I accepted the priest and his visions almost without question because God DOES use the unclean. He uses whatever He will use. Our human vision is typically not 20/20.
At one point the priest tells Scully, "don't give up". It was a random statement without context in the scene and she could not figure out why he said it. She pressed him to explain and he kept telling her he could not. He didn't have the reasons why, he only had the word. We went to church the next morning and our pastor was not the speaker. It was a man from a local ministry, Camp Orchard Hill. His message to us, the congregation was, "don't give up". Give God your best. He used a film clip from the movie "Facing the Giants", a high school football yarn. The scene in the clip was of one player blindfolded, carrying another player on his back, and the coach walking in front of the player screaming out encouragement as this young man crawled on his hands and knees with the other teammate on his back. The coach's point was, if we know what is happening exactly and where we are going, we'll stop short or slack off. If we go on in uncertainty, or with just the kernel of knowledge that we HAVE to without knowing the outcome, we'll go further than we ever dreamed. How does this happen? Even outside of the context of the movie the message was used in lives of two church members and theater-goers.
posted by Sue O. (aka Joannie, SS) at 2:45 AM
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