Any of my family, friends or followers know that I LOVE stories. Give me a good book or movie and I’m in hog heaven. I rate a good story on a “box” rating versus a star rating. One box of tissues per star. So, if I give a story a “5 box” rating, you know it’s guaranteed to touch your heart, give you a good cry, or split your sides in laughter. I saw a marvelous “5 boxer” last weekend.
“Shenandoah” is a movie masterpiece. Charlie Anderson is a crusty patriarch (played by Jimmy Stewart) of a large family in the Virginia Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. He’s a widower who has no slaves and wishes to stay out of the war. He attends church weekly, though always late, and fails to give God credit for anything, blaming God for taking his wife, Martha, from him.
Eventually the war arrives at Shenandoah, and Charlie takes action to protect his family and retrieve his youngest son wrongly taken into combat. In so doing, several family members are killed. By the end of the movie, Charlie resolves his anger toward God, calling his family to get ready for church and not be late. All assume the youngest had been lost to the war, but the final scene ends with his teenager hobbling into the church embracing his father.
The day after I saw this movie, the world learned about the Orlando shooting. I’ve been embroiled like everyone in the emotions and horror of this act. My thoughts immediately turned to the movie and I realized how natural it is for we humans to not want to get involved since “it’s not my problem.”
One day something will become your problem. There will be a loss that you can’t explain and no one is guaranteed a perfect, care free life. (If you have a written guarantee, then send it to me, I’d love to see it!) The time will come when decisions must be made whether to get involved on an issue, take action on injustices, but most importantly make a personal spiritual decision.
When we stand in the middle of a life storm, it seems as if the storm has become our way of life. We cannot see a way out of this “valley.” and unable to chart a course back to smoother waters. We feel defeated – and broken. Will that brokenness produce a cynicism that will keep us forever in the mire of if only thinking? Or will we yield up that brokenness to the resources of God who calms the winds and the waves, heals the brokenhearted, and forgives the most grievous of sins? The choice is ours.
Will you stay in or get out of that valley?
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Isaiah 43:2
Tagged: church, Texas weather
