Okay, so maybe there wasn’t any rock’n’roll. But D wrote some groovin’ tunes, and I think that counts.
I’ve been thinking about the rescue/redemption theme of Moulin Rouge since we picked it to be the next video for our group weeks ago. (Now that we’ve done it, the actual next one is The Philadelphia Story.) I love the “freedom, beauty, truth and love” theme of Moulin Rouge, because I so believe in those things – I believe they exist, and they’re God. God is love, we always say. So God is freedom. God is truth. God is beauty. And I love the freedom, beauty and truth of knowing that God is a God who rescues us, no matter how deep and dirty the pit, and he redeems us, no matter what the cost.
It’s like the story of D.
D wasn’t a flashy entertainer like Satine, but D was a whore & an adulterer. And did I mention a liar and murderer? D was pretty down & dirty. I think the list of lovers ran well into the hundreds … and the marriages were countless. D was a bad parent, too, and the mistakes D made were enormous. Yet God never gave up on D. In fact, throughout D’s life, though D’s relationship with God ebbed like the tide, God held D up as an example – a good example – of a person who loved God wholeheartedly, and who God loved unreservedly.
It’s not just that God loves a rescue story ... he loves a comeback too. Like Satine, like D, after we’ve been rescued, sometimes we still fall pretty hard, right back into the muck we got out of. Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons, like Satine, and sometimes we forget what’s right and wrong, like D. The great thing about God is that he’s the God of second chances.
God knew the kind of person D was, and the kind of mistakes D would continue to make throughout life … and none of it gave God pause. This is what D wrote about their relationship: “God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask your aid.”*
And you know, God himself said that D – King David – was a man after God’s own heart. Not because he was a murdering whore, and not exactly in spite of it, but through it. Whatever his ups and downs, David was repentant. I wish he hadn’t made his mistakes to begin with, but he did. And God honored him because when he messed up, he admitted it, repented, and made things as right as he could. While David changed, God’s love for him never did. What do you do with that? When in your life have you needed that kind of love?
*Psalm 73:26 & 86:5
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
"Sex, Drugs, Rock’n’Roll, & Jesus"
Okay, there’s no drugs. But Absinthe was supposed to be a pretty wacky drink, so I think it counts.
I’m in a life group for single women, ages 18-25, where we eat dinner and watch a movie and then discuss the movie along with biblical themes. (Since I’m neither single nor under 25, you might have guessed that I’m the hostess.) This week we watched one of my favorite romances. So, as opposed to my previous movie post, I’ll tell you what this one’s called, so you can A) judge me for hosting a bible study on it, or B) go watch it yourself.
Here’s what “Dinner & A Movie: Chick Flicks 2” from Group Publishing, our curriculum, says about the flick in question, Moulin Rouge:
I don’t write movie reviews anymore, but let me tell you about a few of my favorite scenes: Satine one minute sings about her dream of a new life – “someday I’ll fly away/leave all this to yesterday” – and the next acknowledges the hopelessness of such a dream – “why live life from dream to dream/and dread the day when dreaming ends?” She at once has both hope and no hope; she yearns for change, but thinks she will never be free, and knows what even a small measure of freedom will cost her. She is trapped by her past and by her own view of her self-worth. As she later shouts to her father figure/pimp, “My whole life you made me believe I was only worth what someone would pay for me.” But now she has real hope for the first time: “Christian loves me, and we’re going away…”
Even after Christian’s love for her changes her life, she still falls back into her old patterns – she does the wrong things for the right reasons. This is what reminds me of our relationship with God. Not only does he come right down into whatever mess we’re in and love us in the middle of it – giving us true freedom, hope and love – he remains faithful to us when we screw it up and push him away. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “[Even] if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful.”
Just like the aforementioned Gomar, wife to the prophet Hosea. Gomar wasn’t a nice, sweet hooker like Satine or Vivianne (Pretty Woman) who fell into the trap of prostitution to survive. She was kinda nasty. Her biblical portrait is not pretty. And even after Hosea marries her, rescuing her from a life of misery, she falls back into the trap. She leaves her husband, sells her body and winds up a slave. And what does Hosea do? What the Lord advises: “Go and love your wife again.” So Hosea writes in chapter 3 of his self-titled book, “So I bought her back.” The study section of my bible says this: “No matter how low we sink, God is willing to buy us back – to redeem us – to lift us up again.”
Now that’s something worth living for. In Jeremiah 31:3, God says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; with unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” As Moulin Rouge states many times, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”
I’m in a life group for single women, ages 18-25, where we eat dinner and watch a movie and then discuss the movie along with biblical themes. (Since I’m neither single nor under 25, you might have guessed that I’m the hostess.) This week we watched one of my favorite romances. So, as opposed to my previous movie post, I’ll tell you what this one’s called, so you can A) judge me for hosting a bible study on it, or B) go watch it yourself.
Here’s what “Dinner & A Movie: Chick Flicks 2” from Group Publishing, our curriculum, says about the flick in question, Moulin Rouge:
“While they may or may not have known it, the creators of Moulin Rouge! offer us a picture of Christlike love. Our young hero, Christian, ventures into a sinful and lost world in search of his love. Instead of being taken up by that lost world, he brings his own purity of heart into it – rescuing his beloved Satine from the grips of a desperate and sinful life. It recalls the biblical story of Hosea and Gomer as well as Christ’s own time on earth.”
I don’t write movie reviews anymore, but let me tell you about a few of my favorite scenes: Satine one minute sings about her dream of a new life – “someday I’ll fly away/leave all this to yesterday” – and the next acknowledges the hopelessness of such a dream – “why live life from dream to dream/and dread the day when dreaming ends?” She at once has both hope and no hope; she yearns for change, but thinks she will never be free, and knows what even a small measure of freedom will cost her. She is trapped by her past and by her own view of her self-worth. As she later shouts to her father figure/pimp, “My whole life you made me believe I was only worth what someone would pay for me.” But now she has real hope for the first time: “Christian loves me, and we’re going away…”
Even after Christian’s love for her changes her life, she still falls back into her old patterns – she does the wrong things for the right reasons. This is what reminds me of our relationship with God. Not only does he come right down into whatever mess we’re in and love us in the middle of it – giving us true freedom, hope and love – he remains faithful to us when we screw it up and push him away. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “[Even] if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful.”
Just like the aforementioned Gomar, wife to the prophet Hosea. Gomar wasn’t a nice, sweet hooker like Satine or Vivianne (Pretty Woman) who fell into the trap of prostitution to survive. She was kinda nasty. Her biblical portrait is not pretty. And even after Hosea marries her, rescuing her from a life of misery, she falls back into the trap. She leaves her husband, sells her body and winds up a slave. And what does Hosea do? What the Lord advises: “Go and love your wife again.” So Hosea writes in chapter 3 of his self-titled book, “So I bought her back.” The study section of my bible says this: “No matter how low we sink, God is willing to buy us back – to redeem us – to lift us up again.”
Now that’s something worth living for. In Jeremiah 31:3, God says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; with unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” As Moulin Rouge states many times, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
"Gifts"
According to the Bible, we each have a special gift given to us by God. Obviously we have different personalities, different strengths and weaknesses, different tendencies and different talents. But we also, according to Romans 12:4-8, are given a “gift” by the Holy Spirit when we become followers of Christ.
It’s different from the “fruit” of the Spirit, the side-effects of having a growing relationship with God. Those are listed in Galations 5:22 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it. Those are the things that happen naturally when we’re in a growing relationship with God, because that’s what blossoms in our lives when we’re obedient and engaged. It’s an organic thing. You plant closeness with God, you grow love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
Being a rather “particular” person (let’s say) I tend to get hung up a lot on “shoulds,” as in, I should be perfect. It’s quite the burden. Self-inflicted, of course. God never told me I should be the best at everything and play all the parts in the musical of my life. In fact, he seems to be saying in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 that I will play only one role in the “body” of Christ. Hand, foot, armpit...not all three.
I think, in this modern age of multi-tasking, that we assume the “one” part of gifting isn’t a hard rule. I’ve heard people say you often get two or three. Why excel in one area when we could be reasonably good in three?
It leaves me feeling underachieved. I don’t need any help being my own biggest critic. I don’t need encouragement to trot out the “shoulds” and berate myself. So I find it very liberating to realize that God only expects me to be really, really good at one thing: the one thing he himself has given me. It takes a lot of the pressure off. Pouring all my energy into my “one thing” is exciting and fun. As opposed to spreading myself thinner and thinner trying to be good at everything. (It’s almost as freeing as when I realized that not everyone is going to like me, and that’s okay. It was quite the revelation. It freed me from trying to make everyone like me, which can be exhausting. Now I just accept that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea; in fact, some wonderful people can’t stand me at all. And that’s fine. We can respect each other without being besties.)
Have you ever taken one of those “gift” assessment tests that indicate your level of spiritual gifting? Do you have a sense of how God may have especially gifted you to participate in the body of Christ? What are you doing about that?
(And no, unfortunately, sarcasm is not a spiritual gift. Nor crafting. Bummer.)
It’s different from the “fruit” of the Spirit, the side-effects of having a growing relationship with God. Those are listed in Galations 5:22 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it. Those are the things that happen naturally when we’re in a growing relationship with God, because that’s what blossoms in our lives when we’re obedient and engaged. It’s an organic thing. You plant closeness with God, you grow love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
Being a rather “particular” person (let’s say) I tend to get hung up a lot on “shoulds,” as in, I should be perfect. It’s quite the burden. Self-inflicted, of course. God never told me I should be the best at everything and play all the parts in the musical of my life. In fact, he seems to be saying in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 that I will play only one role in the “body” of Christ. Hand, foot, armpit...not all three.
I think, in this modern age of multi-tasking, that we assume the “one” part of gifting isn’t a hard rule. I’ve heard people say you often get two or three. Why excel in one area when we could be reasonably good in three?
It leaves me feeling underachieved. I don’t need any help being my own biggest critic. I don’t need encouragement to trot out the “shoulds” and berate myself. So I find it very liberating to realize that God only expects me to be really, really good at one thing: the one thing he himself has given me. It takes a lot of the pressure off. Pouring all my energy into my “one thing” is exciting and fun. As opposed to spreading myself thinner and thinner trying to be good at everything. (It’s almost as freeing as when I realized that not everyone is going to like me, and that’s okay. It was quite the revelation. It freed me from trying to make everyone like me, which can be exhausting. Now I just accept that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea; in fact, some wonderful people can’t stand me at all. And that’s fine. We can respect each other without being besties.)
Have you ever taken one of those “gift” assessment tests that indicate your level of spiritual gifting? Do you have a sense of how God may have especially gifted you to participate in the body of Christ? What are you doing about that?
(And no, unfortunately, sarcasm is not a spiritual gift. Nor crafting. Bummer.)
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