the river so deep

Not sure what happened on Sunday morning, but by the time I got home from our services, I felt awful and went straight to sleep. I remained comatose from about 1p – 9p. Basically a night’s sleep. Thus explains why I began writing this post at a quarter past 4am. But what can I say? I’m a night-owl anyway.

Since Rock Band came into my life a few days ago, I’ve fallen way behind on my reading. Being up most of the night has given me a chance to catch up. Most of you know I read like it’s my spiritual gift. I read mostly fiction. My favorite books are either classics or sci-fi. I delve into fantasy and non-fiction every now and then as well. I don’t read many “Christian” books anymore. Why? A few reasons:

1. I ate them up like candy in college when I was still a new believer and got burned out.
2. I’ve read all the “criticals” like Mere Christianity, Desiring God, Wild at Heart, etc
3. It may be just me, but most of the “hot” authors nowadays just seem to be regurgitating Piper, but “edgier” or are trying to show how “hip” the way they “do church” is.

I will probably pick up Mark Driscoll’s newest soon though. I love that guy.

I am also one who enjoys/appreciates the quiet night provides. I made a late-night snack and went to throw away some trash using our can on the porch when it struck me how quiet downtown Dallas can be in wee hours. This is definitely the City that Sleeps. It’s incredible that the epicenter of over a million people can be so calm. I was also struck by how awesome it is that the weather is finally changing. It was at least 70 out with a slight breeze and part of me just wanted to stay out there on the Porch till sun-up.

Tonight/this morning has also given me time to reflect on the weekend. I’ll write more about this later, but over the last year and a half since coming to Texas I’ve been begging God to bring me a regular group of guys to do life with. I haven’t had much success in my past or present community groups yet, though granted my current group is very new and still getting to know one another. But this weekend made me realize I’ve begun to see that prayer answered.

Also, on Saturday, I was initially very disappointed that only one person showed up for my monthly AV training. Again, it’s another topic for another day, but though I went in with a hurt attitude, I left the training very excited. David, my new volunteer, was so anxious to get started serving with my Campus Tech Team that it reminded me how awesome it is to be doing what I’m doing. I feel like I’d lost a lot of my passion over the last couple years, but his enthusiasm was a welcome rejuvenation.

Whether it be sensing God in the stillness, seeing him in the changing of the seasons, or reflecting on his goodness and provision, it’s these simple things that I think we all tend to miss when we don’t find enough quiet during the day.

say your prayers

I could watch these all. day. long.

And the Cloverfield version (this is what it’s really like from the stands):

Man, we are awesome.

Stop-Loss

Rarely am I truly moved by a movie.

Tonight, some of my buddies and I went to the Angelika to see Stop-Loss. “Stop-Loss” is the term when the military forces you into another tour of duty in time of war even though your original contract has expired. The movie is about a soldier (Ryan Phillipe) who signed up after 9/11 and served in Iraq for several years and had planned on starting a life once he got back to the states when he learns he has been “stop-lossed.”

While the film is decidedly anti-war, you can easily look past the slight bias and involve yourself with the lives of Sgt. King and his friends. Phillipe is not one of my favorite actors, but this movie should easily get him an Oscar nod. He blew me away. All of us walked out of theater and over to Trinity Hall and could not stop talking about the movie.

Stop-Loss does everything that Jarhead tried to do. I liked Jarhead. I own it because I appreciate the message. But Stop-Loss is riveting. I haven’t been as captivated by a movie since The Departed or when I finally got to see Sunshine. If certain scenes had been any longer, the dam in my eyes would have broken.

You need to see this movie. 5 stars.

movie reviews: The Mist & The Island

The Mist: I’m a huge Stephen King fan. Even when I don’t dig the actual storyline of whatever book of his I might be reading at the time, the guy knows how to write. If it weren’t for his often profane nature, I’d easily consider him literature. The Mist is a little known novella found inside King’s 1985 short-story collection The Skeleton Crew.

For once, this film is actually an almost identical adaptation of its bound inspiration. This film is definitely one of the most solid horror movies to come out of Hollywood in the last few years. The camera-work is fantastic. The acting is a little uneven, but I’m not sure it’s the actors’ fault. Much of the dialogue was lifted straight from the book which, after re-reading on my Kindle, I must admit is a little unrealistic. No one really talks like that. It’s great in book form, just not actually spoken aloud.

I only have 2 complaints. The CG monsters look really fake at times, but I can get over that. The other was with the ending. While the ending of the book was bleak, it remained hopefully ambiguous. The film version takes a different path. And it’s cruel. The DVD cover art talks about how “shocking” it is. It’s certainly that, but it just felt like shock for shock’s sake to me. The ending had no artistic value in my opinion, but the movie as a whole is still a great, creepy ride. 4 stars (out of 5).

The Island: This movie is a few years old but I never caught it in the theater. I got it on blu-ray by importing it from Amazon UK. It too is a book adaptation, but surprisingly enough, I actually haven’t read it. (Try not to act so shocked.)

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Ewan McGregor is always a great lead. I watched this movie and Gattaca right after each other. I wasn’t expecting much of either, but they both entertained me far beyond my expectations. If you aren’t aware of the plot, it’s a sci-fi flick set in the near future and centers around clones (who don’t realize they’re clones) who are basically life-insurance policies for their “sponsors”, ie the people they are cloned after, the originals if you will. Their internal organs are harvested as required by the needs of the sponsor.

I don’t really have any complaints except for a strange introduction montage to the last act. It just seems thrown together. The acting is as good as an action film can be. The SFX are very well done.  Edit:  I was just rereading this review and totally forgot to mention the ridiculous amount of product placement throughout this movie.  I challenge any movie to even come close to this level of blatant marketing.  end rant.

If you’re into action-packed sci-fi, I can’t recommend this movie enough. It’s directed by Michael Bay, so anything and everything eventually explodes, but it’s still a great chase story with awesome cinematography. I hope it gets released stateside on blu-ray soon because the film is gorgeous. It’s well worth the import price if you’re that type of person. 4 stars.

jump in the mud

My mom usually takes it upon herself to pass along any and all news concerning fellow John Battle High graduates. Most of the time, I have no idea who they are, but this week, she passed along an obit for a girl a few years younger than me that happened to be the younger sister to one of my better friends from my early high school years. (That was quite a sentence.) She was kind of the type of girl you just knew was headed for some kind of trouble, but my heart broke when I saw that she had OD’d on something or another.

When I told my mom I had known her, she tried calling me later and left a voice mail advising me to use discretion if I had planned on contacting the family. “They’re into drugs and stuff, Matthew, so you probably don’t want them to know where you live.” That’s my mom for you. I certainly don’t mean to rip on her, but that’s the kind of environment I grew up in. Thankfully, my mom is a believer and active in her church…but I’m not entirely sure if that means a lot. I left that church because, quite frankly, it was what we at Watermark would consider a “dead church.” That’s been years ago, of course…and I hear the new pastor has definitely shaken things up, so I can’t speak with credibility about it now.

What my mom and most of the churched in my hometown (including most in the church I’ve been active in whenever home) don’t get is that peoples’ lives are messy. My life is messy. Your life is messy. And if we, as believers all have messy lives in some form or another, why would we ever consider that the lives of unbelievers are any less so?

They need Jesus too. And no, they do NOT have to put on a shirt and tie to be loved by him.

THIS RANT by Gary Lamb hits one out of the park on this issue. I found myself yelling “PREACH IT!” while reading it because he says what I’ve been trying to articulate for years. I hope his words admonish and encourage every one of us as we are all called to minister to the sick and hurting and lost…and yes, even the addicts.

Let’s get after it.