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I just finished watching the movie August Rush and it was one of the most moving films I have ever scene. I wanted to take a second to write about how much it has to say about our walk and relationship with God, but I figured I would let the movie speak for itself… these some of the lines from the movie. they’re taken out of order, but I think it gets a point across…

August Rush: Listen, can you hear it? the music. I can hear it everywhere: in the wind, in the air, in the light. It’s all around us. All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do is listen…

Lyla Novacek: I’m trying to find my son.
Woman at Desk: Name?
Lyla Novacek: I don’t know.

Richard Jeffries: Why is it so important that you want him now?
Lyla Novacek: I’ve ALWAYS wanted him!
Wizard: You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.

August Rush: I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales. But I hear it. It came from my mother and father. Once upon a time, they fell in love.

Wizard: If you could choose any name in the world. Any! What would you want to be?
Wizard: Come on, kid. Any.
August Rush: Found.

August Rush: The music. I thought if I could play it, they would know I was alive. And find me

August Rush: Where I live they try to knock the music out of you. But when I’m alone it builds up within me.

Richard Jeffries: You know, a lot of kids don’t want to leave their first home, because they’re afraid that if they do, their parents won’t be able to find them. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

August Rush: The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen.

Wizard: You got to love music more than you love food. More than life. More than yourself.

August Rush: It’s like someone’s calling out to me, only some of us can hear it.
Wizard: Only some of us are listening.
Lyla Novacek<: I know it sounds crazy, but I can hear him! I swear I can hear him!

After watching August Rush I couldn’t help but think of this video. It says everything I could want to say…

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

Today was one of those perfectly beautiful days. It was one of those days that I wish I had hammock so I could just lay out in the sun and sway back in forth gently rocking in that heavenly breeze. I didn’t have to work this morning so I slept in and missed most all of the day before I had to go to work. My plan was to spend a couple hours out on my porch and read in a rocking chair. I was only able to get out there for about thirty minutes, but I loved every minute of it.

I just bought the Case for Christ at half price the other day and I read some of that while I was outside. It’s a really great book and I just got past the introduction, but I was really having a hard time concentrating. I couldn’t help but just sit there and stare out at the endlessly blue sky. I noticed for the first time that we had rose bushes planted out in front of our town home on campus. They haven’t been planted very long so they haven’t really had a chance to grow or bloom since it’s so early in the year. As of right now, they’re really ugly plants. They’re mostly bare and covered in thorns.

From there my mind took off. It just made me think about thorns in the bible. The first time they’re mentioned is relatively early in the bible, in the book of Genesis. Satan has just lead Adam and Eve to fall and God is basically telling each party the consequences of their actions. He gets to Adam and He says,

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

God tells Adam that because of what he did, life is going to get a lot harder. Mankind will now face the pains of living in a fallen world. He broke that direct relationship man had with God therefore Adam and the generations after him would have to work to rebuild it, but in the end man would never be able to bridge the gap themselves. But above all, God is telling Adam, “You will now know death…” He says man will return to ground from which we came… Because of sin were all bound to death. And all of our lives would be filled with thorns until we returned back to dust.

Then I thought about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the book of Matthew it describes the moments leading up to Christ’s death. Before he is hung on the cross, a group of soldiers dresses him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and forced it onto his head. Purple was a sign of royalty and obviously so is a crown, but the soldiers only intent was to mock him. By this time Jesus had already been scourged, which means he was beaten with a multi-lashed whip with metal and bone attached at the ends. So there stood Jesus covered with a now blood soaked purple robe and a crown of thorns. Bruised and bloody this had to be one of the worst sights a person could see. But then it goes on and Jesus is stripped naked, nailed to a cross and displayed for all the world to see until he finally dies.

This whole thing reminded me of the rose bushes that were planted in front of me. Yes there is the reference to the crown of thorns which made me think of the crucifixion in the first place, but then I saw something bigger. In his death Jesus was a hideous sight. He was literally bare naked beaten ugly, and anyone that claimed to associate with him would face a similar death. At that point Jesus’ disciples only saw the thorns. They could only see the ugliness of the time and they lost hope of the beauty to come. So they all abandoned him. But as the disciples would soon find out, there is more to the story. Jesus did die, but three days later he triumphantly rose from the grave. Whenever he presented himself to the disciples they didn’t recognize him at first. There was something different about the risen Jesus, but eventually they saw him for who he was. They even saw the marks of the nails in his hands and the spear in his side. You could say he still had the marks of the thorns, the scars of death, but there he stood alive as ever.

Here was what I realized. In his life and death Jesus was a lot like the rose bush planted out front of my town house. He was bare and poor, his life wasn’t very attractive. Those that got close to him often felt the prick of the thorns, the pains of life. But in his resurrection something changed; he bloomed and it was beautiful. He conquered death and brought forth life. He was no longer bare and ugly. With his resurrection he became a beautiful rose, the fragrance of which the world will never forget.

There are going to be times when all we can see are the thorns in our lives. There are going to be times of pain and hurting, but we can’t give up hope. Jesus died that we all might live. Though one day our bodies will in fact return to the dust, we have hope that God has given us a new life through His Son, Jesus Christ. I pray that we will all be able to see the beyond the thorns and look to the roses in our lives. It’s just a little while longer until spring, when everything will be in bloom.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

A couple of nights ago I was hanging out with my roommate and we went and saw the most amazing movie that I’ve ever seen. It’s called Once. It is the story of two people with one passion and how their love for music brings them together in this mess called life. Many who see it, might be let down. There are no mind blowing actions scenes and no riske “love” scenes. It is a simple story of two simple people and an extraordinary love. Some will say that it’s too slow or too simple, but personally I find that to be apart of its beauty. And it was in this most real film that I found a piece of heaven…

Today at work I was watching the show Man Vs. Wild on the discovery channel. It’s a show where this guy Bear Grylls puts himself out in the middle of nowhere and shows you how to survive and get to safety. It’s such a great idea for a show (and cool idea theologically too…). In the episode I saw today he finds himself in the middle of the jungle in South America and things aren’t going so well. He can’t get a fire started because of the rain, he’s starving and drenched. Then after a sleepless night he’s fighting his way through the forest and something catches his attention. The camera then focuses in on a single violet flower in the mass of green of the canopy. Then Bear stops and says,

“Nobody’s ever going to see that flower. That’s God’s extravagance. Even though no-one’s ever going to see it, he just can’t help but create something beautiful.”

I was absolutely amazed at this truth. (For an interesting interview with Bear Grylls check out this site. He’s got some great things to say.) Now think about this for a moment. We are so loved by God that He creates beauty in this world even though we might never see it. God isn’t hiding these masterpieces away so that we won’t see them, but too often we don’t see them because we’re not really looking. He has created so much beauty that it’s simply kept all over the place. The northern lights and rocky mountains, the oceans and the deserts, the warmth of a thousands sunsets and the melodies of a choir of songbirds… All created for our pure enjoyment and appreciation, but there is so much more out there than wonderful scenery. God’s beauty is really all over the place… in everything.

Now I’m a huge Donald Miller fan. I’ve read all four of his books and strongly recommend them. There’s an awesome scene in To Own A Dragon where Miller is with his mentor who’s a part time landscape photographer. They’re on the side of a mountain waiting for a good shot and one never presents itself, so John, Miller’s mentor, decides to go back after hiking a couple of hours up there. When Miller hesitates to leave and argues they should take the time to appreciate God’s creation, John replies, “You know, I do this all the time. I really love God and all, but why don’t we head back home. God made my family, too.” Again an amazing and simple truth.

I guess my point is that it’s easy to stop and appreciate a beautiful sunset, and it’s right to do so, but there are a lot of blessings out there that are worth appreciating outside of nature. In the rare occasion that I get to go out to my grandparent’s house, I always delight in staring directly up at the billions of stars only seen in the countryside. Yet, when in the daily grind, I’m always quick to ignore the beauty around me. I think that’s why I found Once to be such a brilliant film. There’s so much beauty in the simple things that they do. That same beauty is surrounding us everywhere in everything, yet we tend to ignore so much of it. God really did create our families as well as mountain ranges. How often do we stop and look longingly in appreciation of our families as we do sunsets?

I have so much to be thankful for, and I don’t even realize most of it. I hope that we can all realize these blessings in our lives. And maybe with the realization of these things, we’ll be more inclined to share what we’ve been given.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

I was looking through some quotes on beauty and I was amazed at what I found. Here are a couple of my favorites:

For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it. – Ivan Panin

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. – Maryanne Williamson

These are such powerful truths. In Psalm 50:2 it says ” From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.” That is just so amazing to me. God is so absolutely beautiful. He is the painter of the most remarkable sunsets, the author of the most inspiring stories, and the most passionate lover. He is the essence of everything beautiful and He lives within each one of us. Just thinking about it makes my heart race.

I think that too often we don’t appreciate what that means. I know that so often I try to make myself more attractive to the world around me by the clothes I wear, the way my hair is done and all that stuff. But it’s so unnecessary. Our worth and value doesn’t come from all of those things. It comes from who we are to God… His most precious children. One of my really good friends has taught me a lot about this. She and a couple of friends in a bible study had a conversation along these lines, discussing their beauty from God. Afterwards the group of them began going makeup free as a statement of their true beauty. Now my friend doesn’t wear any makeup at all, and she’s stunning. It’s not because she has perfect features or anything, but it comes from her confidence in the love of her Father.

There is a great song by the bad Three Cord Wonder called Made Perfect. You can play and download it off of their page: www.purevolume.com/threecordwonder Check it out. I love this song…

So many of us have suffered at one time or another because of the way we look or dress. I know how much that can hurt, but you have to let that pain go. You are beautiful. God thinks so… Everyone our lives is important to Him. I am just as beautiful to God as the pope or a terrorist. He may not like the things we do, but He reaches out to us none the less. He calls us to leave behind our stubborn ways, to drop them all and run into His arms. He wants to hold us close and confess His love for us. He reached out His perfectly clean hands and got them dirty cleaning each of His masterpieces off. What can be more beautiful than that kind of Love?

When we recognize this beauty within ourselves, we begin to shine. And when we shine others around us begin to shine. And thinking about all of this I realized one thing, beauty is contagious… God, I hope it spreads like a wildfire.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty