The Mirror: Failure

Saturday night in our home is family movie night. We take turns selecting a film, which we agreed beforehand we would either like, love or hate without criticizing the person who chose it. For my wife and daughter, I provide a selection to help them choose. (Yes, I know this means that I am in effect choosing the movie, but you're missing the point.)


Last week we watched Evan Almighty which we all enjoyed for the laughs as well as the positive message about obeying God and trusting him even when you don't feel like, when people around you don't get it or when the circumstances seem to dictate that your trust has been misplaced.

This week we watched All Saints starring John Corbett of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame. Also based on a true story, although much more closely aligned to the actual characters and events than Evan Almighty, All Saints is the name of a church which is about to be closed because it isn't financially viable. It only has a handful of members, so the decision has been made to sell it. John Corbett plays Michael Spurlock, the Anglican minister sent to All Saints to oversee its closure.

A large number of Kareni refugees turn up at the church, needing help and declaring themselves Anglicans. Spurlock feels he has to do all he can to help them. One night, he hears God telling him to save the church by turning it into a farm.

The film has a happy ending, but perhaps not what you would expect. I found myself again reflecting on how the world measures success compared with how God measures it. The truth is that what looks like a failure can actually be a great success. What looks and feels like suffering and hardship can be achieving a positive work of renewal. What feels like a waste of time for you can bear great fruit for someone else, and perhaps not until much further down the track.

All Saints church wasn't making money, but God wasn't even remotely concerned with that. His goal was to break down prejudice, build a community and do some healing work on individual hearts. God told Evan to build an ark, but it wasn't about the ark; it was about shaping Evan's character, transforming him through an extraordinary experience into a better man. However, sometimes the experiences don't need to be extraordinary. To the teachable soul, even mundane occurrences contain revelation.

We humans are rebellious by nature, but even our recalcitrance, our resistance, our lack of humility, can be used by God for our good and his glory. God's plans don't get thwarted by our stubbornness. He doesn't get surprise or shocked by what we do or don't do. He never says "I didn't see that one coming."

Our safe place is complete dependence on him. The words of the old hymn are ringing in my head "Trust and obey, for there's no other way..." When we do this, it does not matter what the situation looks like or how we feel about it, it's okay because God is good. Everything happens the way it is supposed to, when it is supposed to because God is sovereign.

Evan Baxter and Michael Spurlock both discovered this truth, and you can too. Just listen.

The Power of Words

I've been reading Churchill: The Power of Words which is full of wonderful and profound insights into human nature. This morning I quote from the book. Here, in a speech in March 1949 he reflects on the changes he had seen in his lifetime.

'Science bestowed immense new powers on man, and at the same time, created conditions which were largely beyond his comprehension and still more beyond his control. While he nursed the illusion of growing mastery and exulted in his new trappings, he became the sport and presently the victim of tides, currents, of whirlpools and tornadoes amid which he was far more helpless than he had been for a long time.

...this vast expansion was unhappily not accompanied by any noticeable advance in the stature of man, either in his mental faculties, or his moral character.'

Big Brother

Big Brother Australia 2014 has started, and I'm a fan. I know reality TV is frowned on and looked down upon, as are those who watch it but I can't see the point of such condescension and snobbery. It reminds me of the kind of ignorance typified by one woman who said that she liked all kinds of music: as long as it had a beat and a melody, but not heavy metal. (There's actually two ways to take that statement - make of it what you will.)

This year on Big Brother the contestants are playing as pairs. They have to make joint decisions. If one of them breaks a rule, they both get punished. They nominate together, and can be nominated and evicted together.

Two of the ladies were offered $10 000 each. The condition was that if they accepted the money, there would no food in the house for anyone, for one week, except for meal replacement shakes. They also had to inform their house mates about what they had done. Now I reckon most viewers were hoping they took they cash, but not because we admire selfishness. Part of us might have hoped they would do the 'right thing', but the other part of us hoped they wouldn't because if they took the money, it would make things much more interesting in the house.

This speaks volumes about human nature, and is the reason why I like Big Brother, (reality TV show style, not George Orwell style) Big Brother messes with the house mates heads for our entertainment, and I am not ashamed to admit that I like it.

Does anyone else like Big Brother? Any haters out there? Any comments? I welcome you all.

Ugly Ducklings and Devils

The Ugly Duckling was written in 1844 by Hans Christian Anderson. He may have been describing himself when he wrote about a bird which did not quite fit in, and was therefore rejected because he was different. Like Anderson, the Ugly Duckling survived an awkward and painful "childhood" by virtue of sheer determination. The message of this classic children's tale is clear, or is it?

The Ugly Duckling was not physically beautiful enough  to be accepted into the community of ducks. He was too big, and his feathers too gray. He was too awkward. The Ugly Duckling was not only rejected by his mother and his siblings but also by members of the wider farm community. They pecked, mocked and jostled him. They bullied him. The Ugly Duckling then survived the isolation which followed his decision to flee the cruelty and terror of the duckyard. He lived through the annual duck shoot, a face to face encounter with a dog, and a period of captivity during which he was expected to lay eggs and was abused by the cat and chicken with whom he shared the house, because he could not. The Ugly Duckling endured a freezing winter and would have frozen to death had he not been rescued by a farmer. The safe haven he thought he had found turned into a living nightmare because he was so traumatized that he mistook the playful affection of children for intended harm. He spent the rest of the winter alone, miserable and cold, but we all now how the story ends.

In Anderson's story, the Ugly Duckling is only accepted when his appearance changes: when he exchanges the gray down of a gosling for the beautiful white feathers of a swan. People who are different in some way from what society regards as "normal" have always been, and still are, ostracized. Bullied.Some people decide that the only way to be accepted is to conform, so they change themselves. Shouldn't people be accepted for who they are? Shouldn't the Ugly Duckling  have been accepted despite his appearance and clumsiness? Of course, I hear you say and yet we find ourselves, as a society, once again caught in the 'in between". Stuck in the middle of  "what should be" and "what actually is." This is the tension with which we struggle all of our days here on earth.

Over one hundred and fifty years after The Ugly Duckling was written its themes still resonate with readers but that should not surprise us. Human nature has not changed, nor will it. Millions of dollars have been spent by the government and various other organizations to wage war against bullying. The federal government recently launched a new internet based initiative called Bullying.No Way! All our schools have anti bullying programs. Much time and effort and money has been poured into the attempt to educate the little devils who bully the Ugly Ducklings but it goes on. It continues because there is a huge difference between knowing that something is wrong, and actually not doing it.

The Sauce of all Problems

Adam Jonathan Meyer was ordered by a judge to pay compensation to Gordon Price for repeatedly squirting him with soy sauce in a Brisbane shopping mall. Meyer pleaded guilty to assault, and had apparently attacked price on other occasions in the same way, although Price said he did not know Meyer.

In London, a dissatisfied customer tried to break into a pub to prove the chef had used HP sauce instead of the home made chili sauce promised on the menu. During the dinner an argument erupted over the authenticity of the sauce. Infuriated, the man and his wife, both professional chefs, stormed out of the restaurant. Several hours later, the man, armed with a hammer, returned to the restaurant wearing a balaclava, black gloves and a combat jacket, intending to break in and discover whether the kitchen had HP sauce in it or not. His attempt failed and he was fined $210 for damaging the door of the pub.

These stories are funny but they demonstrate a major flaw in human nature. Everyday all over the world, people are going to 'war' over such unbelievably trivial things. It's no wonder none of the serious problems society faces can be solved when people struggle to sort out minor disagreements peacefully.

Romans 12:17, 18-21 says, "Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all...do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

The source of all problems is our failure to live by these words.