Problems are for Solving

Last night our family watched an old movie A Man Called Peter together. It was a fun movie to watch as a family, though certainly not perfect. The love story between Peter and Catherine was wonderfully told, and Peter’s receiving a call from God and waiting for His timing in all things (though not always patiently) was beautiful to watch.

I highly recommend the movie, especially if you haven’t seen it.

It did, though, raise some thoughts.

First, the movie tells the story, with honor to Christ, of a man who loved Jesus and lived for Him. Preaching right up to the last minute. But never once did the producers let the Gospel of salvation through forgiveness in Christ alone by grace alone shine through. Not surprising, even in 1955, but sad.

Second, the church that Marshall pastored is still there in Washington DC. The seminary he attended is still standing. Both are abominably liberal (in the theological, not political sense). They have a wonderful history, and yet today they stand as a shadow of what they used to be. I found that sad, especially since this is less than 100 years ago.

Marshall’s highlight sermon (though I don’t know the veracity of this part of the film) was to a group of Naval Graduates on the day of his son’s birth and just before Pearl Harbor. He changed his sermon at the last minute, and preached, not knowing what was to come, about the brevity of life and the importance of liberty.

It was a great film, and despite its flaws I encourage you to see it if you haven’t. You will laugh and cry, and while there’s some singing it’s not a musical (that’s for you, Seth).

Marshall is a man to be admired, who went to Washington and made a difference. And he made a difference not by flowing with the town, but by rightly ministering to the people that God brough his way, including a freshman senator. I look forward to meeting Dr. Marshall one day.

I’m in the car (Seth is driving) on the way home from Indianapolis. I have some thoughts on the whole experience, but I probably won’t get any flesh on them, at least in written form, anytime soon. Here are some extremely brief (possibly overly simplified) reflections from my week, in no particular order:

1. If I come again I want to figure out a way to bring more of my family, in particular my wife and oldest son. My wife because I have missed her horribly (and she, me) and three nights is just a long time to be away when I’m taking vacation. My oldest son because he missed his brother terribly and would have loved to share the experience. This, however, was Toby’s 10 year old trip and as it ought to be was just him and me.
2. I got some good time to talk with Toby and get to know him a little better as he’s growing. And I’m looking forward to our friendship growing as I pursue things with him that he takes interest in.
3. Everyone in the known universe is a geek. Some people are geeks about sports (quoting batting averages, etc.), some about fast engines, some about games, some about music, ad infinitum. And among different types of geeks there are geek specialties. And this week I got to see many of the sub-specialties of gamer geeks. And some of them were quite interesting, others disturbing.
4. While I consider myself to be normal (don’t we all) I did not feel as out of place among gamers as I thought I would. Certainly there were times when I thought, “do I really belong here?” but most of the time I thought “except for some morality issues that separate us, Toby is a lot like people here.” And since I like hanging out with Toby and Seth and Ralph, there was no feeling of non-belonging despite various differences.
5. I like playing games. I also like games to keep moving. I found myself losing patience with the slowness of moving by our opponents in the massive heroscape scenario we took part in this week. (See my FB account for some pretty cool (and some awfully taken) pictures of the event. Some of this is my need for more patience, and some of it is my desire to have things moving, and some of it is my lack of desire (possibly to a sinful extent) to stop and enjoy the moment when the next moment is more attractive to me.
6. Gamers need Jesus. I overheard just enough conversations sitting around while Toby talked with the homestead to realize that there are hurting, self-centered people just like me that just happen to be immsersed in stuff that I am not. And in that context, Christians need to engage this subset of people who need Jesus just as we need to engage the stockbrokers who need Jesus and the street people who need Jesus and the people on our street who need Jesus.

I’m sure I”m forgetting something, but if I didn’t write this down right away I’m sure I’d forget it. I’ll close the post with a nice picture of Toby doing what Toby does well–concentrating on a visually pleasing art project. I’m thankful for this time with him.

before my eyes
Wondering
Lazy
Thoughtless
Confident
Misguided
Friendless
Waiting
Impatient
Empty
Worthless
Overbearing
Hopeless
Proud
Fearful
Knowledgeable
Sad
Despised
Tearful
Vain
Hateful
Protecting
Falling Down
Lonely
a man
in the mirror

Prayer
Empty passionless words
Spoken into the air without hope

Memory
Fades too easily
Regarding the good

I
Can hide in a corner
Invisible to all but One
All the while
The center of attention

If all
Is vanity then why
Do we get out of bed?

Darkness
Dwelling in solitude
Wishing for a friend

Life
Draining away
Was it ever there?

Blindness
No light in my eyes
But seeing is more than sight