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Its characters display the full range of emotions -- lows and highs, tears and laughter, despair and hope, raw anger and genuine joy, and deep personal suffering answered by enduring faith. The movie evokes these sentiments in the audience as it identifies with the struggles of the characters and shares their emotional... |
The film shows how life's painful events and circumstances can lead even people of faith to turn against God -- to forsake and abandon him because they believe he first abandoned them. Loss of a loved one can destroy one's faith or strengthen it immeasurably, and we see both aspects here. |
I was taken by how movingly the characters reflect heartfelt agony and how such despair reverberates throughout the lives of the entire family and inner circle of the aggrieved. |
But though this brokenness can destroy everything in its path, it can also be the catalyst for the casting off of personal pride, the turning to God in repentance and the resulting redemption of the human spirit that only God can offer. In this process, we witness the power of prayer, the cleansing of forgiveness and t... |
Beyond these general themes, I don't want to include any spoilers, because you need to see the movie for yourself for maximum impact. |
It is a delightful antidote for the negativity currently bombarding us in the culture, a powerful faith-builder for believers and a winsome apologetic for doubters. |
I won't pressure you to watch this movie simply because we want to subsidize faith-based films. Movies should stand on their own merit -- and this one does. No, don't go see this movie to support a cause or as a favor to the producers; see it as a favor to yourselves. You'll thoroughly enjoy it and profit from it. |
Column Religion Christianity Sean Hannity David Limbaugh Kevin Sorbo |
David Limbaugh's picture |
Thursday, May 24, 2012 |
Why Would You Want To Do That???? |
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that question over the past couple of weeks....its pretty much become the standard question when I tell people I'm spending next week, my vacation, riding my bike from here to Lake Tahoe with my friends. |
The question comes from friends, family, people I talk to in the deli, everyone except my riding friends think I'm either crazy or just plain stupid. |
The unspoken question behind the question though has, at its foundation, as many different motivations as the answer does. |
Its dangerous - what if you get hit by a car, what if you crash, what if you get lost, what if you run out of water, what if, what if, what if.... |
Its hard - why ride a bike for 5 days when you can drive there in 4 hours, there are lots of hills, do you know how far Tahoe is, its going to be hot, windy, cold, raining, etc, etc |
Its not normal - why don't you relax on vacation - take 5 days and lay on the beach, go fishing, read a book, go to the movies, etc etc |
My standard response is that "its my 50th I needed to do something to prove I'm not old" but that's not really true. I'm actually not one of those guys that is worried about his age. I don't need a corvette or a young girlfriend to make me feel young. I'm actually pretty comfortable being middle aged. I have an awesome... |
This past week, I've spent quite a bit of time pondering why I'm doing this and I believe that there really are a lot of reasons....none of which probably make any sense and most of which would provide an interesting project for the local psychologist.... |
• Spending a week riding my bike is actually my idea of fun |
• I enjoy doing things that other people consider hard or stupid |
• I enjoy doing something that pushes me outside my comfort zone |
• I need adventure in my life |
• facing hardship enhances my ability to appreciate life |
• I get bored when life becomes "routine" |
Granted, not all of my decisions have been smart but only a few have had almost seriously bad results. Like when I quit a really good job that paid well because I was bored and didn't feel "challenged" (burned through our entire savings before I wised up and got another job) or when I encouraged our group on a multi-da... |
Despite these few minor setbacks, in living my life I've come to realize that life really isn't supposed to be a nice safe journey to the retirement home with all my parts intact and in good working order. Its supposed to be an adventure where at the end I can hold my grandkids on my lap and explain how I got this scar... |
And, on a grander scale than my own contentment Who knows, maybe even despite living in this scary, dangerous world they'll realize that life is about more than "stuff" and there are things more important than who has the highest score on the latest video game. |
Maybe, just maybe I can be the motivation that convinces them to climb a mountain or go on a mission trip or even just finish college and make a difference in our world..... |
No comments: |
A Sweet Taste Under the Skin |
ingredients-498199_1280Santos glides in with his question without sounding too authoritarian. “Did you mean to not salt the kidney beans?” At first the question irritates John, grumpy from being inside all day during filming, his long limbs cold and tired, and he bobs his chin up to compensate before answering, if he a... |
Santos leans on his thick forearms, tattoos flexing like a sailor fresh off the boat, and he plays with his chin stubble. “I mean, it’s flavorful,” he looks up at John, “and I totally appreciate the plantains as a kind of banana cream pie, if you will,…very inventive…but…,” he grimaces and rubs his hands together, “I d... |
“I think you’re right.” Conant stares directly at John and then bends his head towards Santos, his wide frame enhanced by the padded shoulders of his dark-blue blazer. “I think…,” he folds his hands in front of him, pausing his response, scooting the plate off to his right, “for me…it is the lack of salt.” He emphasize... |
John looks up at the giant orange timer glowing over Guarnaschelli’s head and the rows of lights just above the top part of the glass background behind the judges’ table. She was the first judge he saw when taping started as he and the other three chefs entered the set for the appetizer round. He had no idea who would ... |
And as John stands there, wiping his forehead with the sleeve of the smock wardrobe has provided, he looks at the three judges with his dessert cooling and congealing in front of them, sitting there long enough for this part of the judging to be filmed. John knows that he could say to them time was a factor, but he bla... |
“Anything else, judges?” Allen asks, dapper in his pink tie with dark blue diagonal stripes, which matches the colors and pattern of his pocket square. None of the three have anything else to say. Adjusting his glasses, Allen pushes himself off from the table and turns to the lineup of chefs. “OK, our esteemed panel of... |
As soon as the PA points to the chefs to leave the kitchen and announces that it’s deliberation time, motioning to the crew to set up for the final verdict, John notices that the props master walks towards the pantry. She has no labels clinging to the tips of her fingers, and she’s not slapping them on bottles and cans... |
* * * * * |
“Same song and dance. Watch playback and comment, K?” the PA with frosted spiky hair says during his post-entrée interview. Her coffee-breath is more potent than the first time she talked to him, but John knows he’s had the same coffee she, the entire crew, and all four contestants have had, downing cup after cup since... |
The PA wheels the video monitor towards him and pushes Play. He watches his awkward galloping to the pantry to grab a blender; he then stops and stumbles to the big stainless-steel fridge, reaching over Julie to grab a fistful of fresh mint. Though the audio is unedited, the chorus of judges cuts through the action. |
What did he just grab? Cream? |
Oh no, no, no… |
That’s really risky right now. |
Does she know that other burner is on? |
It’s very bitter at the root. I personally wouldn’t do that. |
“You’re so much taller than she is,” the PA smiles, shaking her head, and scribbles on her notepad. “Do you think that’s an advantage?” |
“Maybe cuts down on some time,” he shrugs, knowing that she’s digging for more, molding the drama. He’s been pretty quiet this whole competition, which he’s gathered they don’t really like. |
“What about the salt?” she asks, glancing at him. |
“The lack of salt on your kidney beans… Chris brought it up. If you notice in the video, Scott seemed to agree too.” She turns her head to the video and rewinds before hitting play again. |
“Oh…,” John brushes it off, seeing the scheme, “it’s all right.” He thinks of his grandmother, who would have simply grabbed the saltshaker and said nothing at all, sprinkling salt until it was perfect for her. She would have eventually shrugged her shoulders and flat-lined her response in Dutch or in garbled English, ... |
The PA continues her assault on the competition, not just the dessert round, commenting on some more clips and decisions he’s made, second-guessing him, trying to get him to second-guess himself. “What’s done is done,” he shrugs, frustrated by this loop. They have to re-film some of his responses because “the shot wasn... |
“I could have done more,” Julie moans into the camera, and John can tell this happened not long ago because he was there when it happened, sitting at the same metal table in the green room, drinking the same bottled water. Julie crosses her arms after spinning her water bottle. “They complained about the thickness of m... |
The PA stops the video and wants John’s thoughts on Julie’s neo-French-cuisine style, specifically her attempt at making the chocolate-ginger reduction. She flips through her notepad and digs up the one comment he made out loud in the green room after the appetizer round. “You said…,” the PA pauses, looking down, “‘No ... |
“Ah…it’s all right,” John swipes the air with his chapped hands and feels a low heat open inside him, the camera positioned in front of him like a hackled dog tightening its stare. |
The PA asks, “Watching your performance here in the dessert round,” she taps the video monitor with her pencil as John, with an armful of plates, slides behind Julie, “how would you feel if you lost the $10,000? You’ve mentioned your daughter and the money before.” Lost it? he thinks, the heat inside him quickly flarin... |
John crosses his arms and leans back in the soft chair, the brightness he feels expanding. He wants to call his wife and his seven-year-old daughter. Mainly his seven-year-old daughter, because he and her mother are on the outs. It’s delicate and complicated right now. The words space and time have been tossed around s... |
Their respective careers were also an issue. Who gets to be in front, who needs to be in neutral for a little while. The owner of Pacific Crest Farm told him about the casting call, telling him that his story about pursuing his passion of cooking on his own, in his own way, would propel him past the other applicants. H... |
“Why would you do that?” his wife asked when he announced it at the dinner table that summer. He told her it was for the money, that he would be playing for the money, but not for him or his catering gig, but for Maddie. “I need to focus on my tenure package. If I don’t get it…,” Leslie exasperated that night. “We have... |
As the PA presses on about the contestants who have been chopped and the prize money and its amount and where he thinks he stands in the competition and how he’s taken big risks that have paid off and how she thinks he is better than his competition and how he’s the underdog because he’s self-taught and new to all this... |
* * * * * |
Disneyland was his idea after he found out he was selected as a contestant. “I want us to go…all of us to go,” he offered to Leslie, who nodded without looking at him. John thought that going there with his wife and his daughter would be a way to break the ice between Leslie and himself and would allow them to wear a d... |
The trip would the first time for Leslie and Maddie, at least the hundredth for John. He lost count after a while. But he remembers highlights: his first time in grade school when he lost a baby tooth in the Haunted Mansion, his grandmother avoiding the Matterhorn because it was “too German,” and his high-school gradua... |
“Does she need to get into this?” Leslie asked, wrinkling her nose one night as they washed the dishes, Maddie singing and dancing to Aladdin, spinning around in the room, the little genius of her private world. |
John knew what she meant. “It’s all right,” he said, swirling the brush inside a metal pot, letting the bubbles build, the smell of liquid citrus filling the kitchen. |
“Maybe we can all get jobs at Disneyland,” Leslie quipped, handing him a chafing dish. “I’m sure you can cook way better than any of the cooks they have there. It’s all fried food, right?” The silverware chimed on top of each other. “I mean, chef,” she corrected herself before drying her hands and turning off the kitch... |
* * * * * |
“We only have winter out here way up north with the mountains,” he said to Maddie, pressing on a map in front of them on her bed, letting her eyes and fingers travel from California to New York. “There’s summer, and everything else is spring.” Maddie’s eyes rested on the small island. “They don’t have flowers in Februa... |
She kissed him goodbye. “Why are you going there?” |
“Remember that game I told you about?” |
“Where you cook?” |
“Yep. I got to go to work.” |
“You’re always working,” she said, rubbing her eyes. |
“I know.” He tightened the blanket around her. “But remember what we’ll do when I get back. It’ll be so fun.” |
She smiled and nodded. “You can’t make snacks for me to take to school.” |
“Mommy will. I promise I’ll be home soon.” |
And then he turned out the little lamp by her bed. |
* * * * * |
“Maybe,” John opens up on his own in the interview room, “if I were a twenty-something chef, like Hunter, I’d be worried about prestige and reputation too. But there’s something about cooking for someone.” He takes a drink from his water bottle, leans forward in the seat this time, and keeps his arms from crossing his ... |
“Again,” she says, throwing her head to the interview room, her voice echoing in the hall as she looks at John, the camera whirring, “exactly what you said in there.” Before John can say anything to her and the camera, her radio buzzes, and she slides the headphones over her icy hair like huge black ears. “We’ll do it ... |
“The final decision is in. We’re ready to crown the champion. Are you ready to find out whose dish has been chopped?” Allen asks, staring into their faces before lifting the lid. |
* * * * * |
Three texts sat on his phone as he stood in the glass foyer of the network studio after the taping, waiting for the hotel taxi in the winter night. One was from the owner of Pacific Crest Farm who let him know that she had e-mailed her list of upcoming crops and available herbs, and was looking forward to working with ... |
The other two messages were from Leslie. The first was a picture of Maddie dressed in operating scrubs draping off her body, the stethoscope around her neck pressed against the toy bunny’s belly. She’s a “vetrinaran” the text read. You two should go. I guess I’m fine if she does. He knew what the second text meant. |
As snow fell, blinking in the streetlights, John couldn’t help but think of warmer air and the uncovered blue sky and the fuzzy green mountains dotted with pinks and yellows, as on the day he flew to New York City, and he thought of Disneyland, which he wanted to unfold as quickly as he could unfold it after his plane ... |
WILLIAM AUTEN’s work has been published in CahoodaloodalingDrunken BoatfailbetterHayden’s Ferry ReviewNimrodNotre Dame ReviewOrigins, Canada’s Saturday Night ReaderSycamore ReviewTerrain, and other publications. Work was read at the 2015 bicentennial celebration for North American Review. You learn more about William a... |
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 |
Matthew 18:1-5 |
"Christ points to little children as the model to which the members of his kingdom must assimilate themselves. The special attributes of children which he would recommend are humility, unworldliness, simplicity, teachableness, - the direct contraries of self-seeking, worldliness, distrust, conceit." ( |
Kids are thirsty sponges ready to soak up all you give out. If your output of words is pure, surrounding children are going to absorb those pure words. If your actions are honorable because others praise them as such - in front of children - then kids will drink-in those moments too. Why are they so absorbent, so immer... |
The flip side to this coin is that Christ calls us to be like children. He does not ask us to keep all the attributes of a child, no, that would keep us from spiritually maturing. What I believe Jesus asks of the child in each of us is to keep alive the God ordained, useful traits like humility and a teachable spirit -... |
The question of rank posed before Christ, by His Disciples, is "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" The Lord's response looked past the actual question and into the very troubled hearts that asked it to deliver what they really needed - a perspective and attitude adjustment. Christ answers - first, re... |
One of the great things about humility is that you get a tag-along - a teachable spirit. If you have one, chances are extremely good you have the other. This is what Christ asks us to be like - a well-mannered child, humble and gracious, sitting attentively in the presence of The Teacher, learning as His Forever Studen... |
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 |
Introduction Of Agarwood |
Introduction to Agarwood |
The origin agarwood trees can be traced to the trees of Aquilaria genus found in the evergreen forests of South East Asia. Other than the North Eastern states, they are found in countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Laos, Japan, and so on. |
When agarwood trees are damaged either naturally or artificially, fungus enters the tree. As the fungal infection progresses the tree produces a dark aromatic resin in respond to the attack, which results in a very dense, dark, resin embedded heartwood. The resin embedded wood is commonly called Resinous wood or Infect... |
Why does Agarwood cost more than perfume? |
Have you ever put on perfume in the morning only to find that the fragrance disappeared or changed by the afternoon? This is because commercial perfumes are mass produced from cheaply manufactured synthetic aroma chemicals, and rarely contain any genuine aromatics. The average $80 bottle of perfume can cost as little a... |
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