Thursday; March 21

For several weeks Jeane had suggested that I should watch the movie, “Saving Mr. Banks” so we watched it the other night.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is the story of how Walt Disney obtained the rights to the book “Marry Poppins”.   I have to admit that the setting and costumes were very good and Tom Hanks was remarkable in his portrayal as Walt Disney; however, I did not like the movie.  As I reflected on the show, I think the reason I didn’t like it was that I just couldn’t connect with P. L. Travers.  I don’t know if it was Ms. Traver’s nature or the way Emma Thompson portrayed her, but I found her disposition to be self-serving and augmentative.  I might have been able to tolerate a little bit of it, but it lasted too long which soured me on the rest of the movie.
The reason I bring this up is not to critique the movie (and honestly, I don’t figure that the director, John Lee Hancock, really cares about my opinion), but I did get to thinking about how people perceive us as Christians.  Our goal should be to teach the gospel to others, but what happens if we come across as negative and unlikeable?  We might convince ourselves that it doesn’t matter what people think of us, but the truth is that the opinions of other people do matter.  No, we will never please everyone, but unless we try to be pleasant and appealing to the people around us, we aren’t going to be effective ambassadors for Christ. 
As Jesus began His ministry He challenged His disciples, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).  If that verse doesn’t connect with us, maybe this saying will – a spoonful of sugar can help the medicine go down.
           Think About It!

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday; May 3

I have a fish tank that allows my three Bettas (Larry, Darrell and Darrell) to live in the same structure, but remain hidden from each other – well sort of.   When I go to feed the fish, I believe that one of the Darrell’s can sort of see that the other Darrell is getting fed and he will linger over on that side of the tank even after I put his food in his tank.   I have to tap on the side of the tank where his food is floating to help him refocus and eat.   I get the impression that he is so interested in what is going on in the other Darrell’s tank that he can’t enjoy his own food. I have been told that the brain of a fish is pretty small – which explains their inability to process “blessings”, but are we guilty of the same malady as Darrell?   Are we so worried (or consumed) by what happens to the people around us that we fail to realize what is going on with us?   Are we envious of the blessings that others are receiving and end up missing out on what we have been given?   Are w
Read more

Thursday; February 14

         While most of us are familiar with today being Valentine’s Day, there are some who actually refer to February 14 th as “St. Valentine’s Day”.  This title is often affixed to a criminally historic event known as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” on February 14, 1929 in Chicago, but that is another story for another time.  Not knowing much about the history of “Saint Valentine” I did a little research and found out he was a Roman religious leader who was martyred in 269 AD.  According to my limited research Valentine was killed because of his encouragement of Roman men (especially soldiers) to marry which was in violation of Claudias’ edict that prohibited marriage to keep their minds singularly focused on their task of defending the Empire.  Somehow, from this beginning – and possibly embellished by Chaucer – St. Valentine became intertwined with the concept of romantic love.           I am not really sure how February 14 th became connected with love, but inspired by thi
Read more

Wednesday; December 6

What does it mean to be a leader? I subscribe to the belief that a leader is someone who seeks the best for others and works with them to achieve their potential. There are others; however, who define leadership as the ability to have a vision and the tenacity to get their own way. Leaders who are this way are often portrayed as having developed the maturity to manipulate people to do things their way. However, is the ability to drive people in our direction mature or is it childish? The Christians of the 1st Century came from a lot of different backgrounds and had to work hard to work together. As the Apostle Paul challenged Christians in the city of Ephesus he challenged them to accept individual differences, “… until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. “ (Ephesians 4:13). Bossiness was not to be viewed as a sign of maturity, a willingness to wo
Read more