i love when you have friends that just know that when you say “can we talk” that really means “i need to talk to you right now, i really don’t want to cry all by myself and i need to feel validated please please please pay attention to me.”
i love that i have a friend that can tell me, “it’s not the feelings that you have that are wrong- it’s what you do with those feelings.”
i love that i have a friend that can tell me that i don’t have to try. and she really means it.
for the record, i also love friends that will come to book club when it’s evident that no one read the book and the ones who did (partially) will testify that it’s really not that good, but they make the trip anyway because it’s a good time and you made a lot of food.
i love friends that will give me her clothes to wear for an entire weekend because my husband forgot to bring the bags i packed.
i love good friends. i need good friends. not just because it makes life better, but i really think i’d go crazy without them. and because i’d have to go to a redwings game without any pants.
Author: Michele Minehart (Page 308 of 311)
i went this evening to watch 27 dresses as a compensation of sorts for sitting through the superbowl. for a quick review, the movie is 200% stereotypical chick flick (can you say how to loose a guy in 10 days?), but i enjoyed.
donald miller gave a sermon at mars hill once on the use of story. listen to it. then you’ll know that i’m going to steal some of his concepts and make them my own.
the key to a good story is that you identify with the character. thus, the correlation to me not really connecting to Rocky. but romantic comedies, though completely fake (if you notice they never have a boring day at work and always have time for elaborate breakfasts and late night “drinks” with friends), still have their charm in that they take a small spark of something you feel on the inside and they “fan the flame” if you will.
which, for a movie about “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” is very interesting to me. 3 of the 4 gals i was sitting with were married. yet we were all somehow emotionally tied to this movie. which goes to show, in Rob Bell’s words, “this is always about that.” (read SexGod for more).
so, back to characters and movies. i have this crazy feeling that every girl in the theater was envisioning themselves as the main character, Jane. no one in there really saw Tess, the beautiful, spoiled little sister who took the guy from Jane without knowing it, and thought “hey, that is so me!”
it’s amazing the emotion a chick flick can evoke. it’s like the movie takes that which you feel deepest (be it loneliness, anger, feeling overlooked and under appreciated… just to name a few that this particular movie centered in on), and highlights it. the movie takes it and becomes your voice because everyone in the theater knows that it’s not right.
the problem is, as much as i felt jane’s pain, as much as we all feel like her, we’re not her. there are pieces of us that ring true, and that’s why we feel that way. but there are pieces of each of the characters that are alive in us. i am also the loud-mouthed bff who says things she shouldn’t. and i’m the demanding sister who doesn’t think about other people’s feelings before she rips up an heirloom wedding dress.
i love movies because i can identify with the hero. i hate movies because i see the vileness of the villan in me. i love movies because when the heroine’s wrongs are righted, i feel justice. i hate movies because i must come to grips with the fact that i’m part of the problem in someone else’s wrongs.
“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for 2 more days. After the 2 days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” (John 11:5-7, The Message)
I was stuck on this story in the not-so-distant past and I think I might go somewhere with it in the near future. This morning I was pondering the timing of it all. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that Lazarus is not doing so hot. Now, we know that previously Mary was at the feet of Jesus (the story introduces her this way), so we have an idea that maybe M&M aren’t requesting that Jesus come sit shiva with them like good friends do. It wasn’t a “get in your final goodbye” or “I need you here with me in this hard time” request. I don’t think so. I think it was a “please, please Jesus come and save him or he’s going to die.” I’m going on a hunch that Mary and Martha were 2 ladies that “got it” that Jesus was the Messiah and did have the power to restore Lazarus back to health, so they asked him to do it.
Jesus hears the message and waits for 2 days before deciding to go back to Judea. On the third day (*ahem, note timing), he says, “welp, there’s 12 hours of good travel time. Let’s go.”
There’s a brief sidebar conversation by the disciples, and if left to their devices they never would’ve went to Judea at all- but that’s a later conversation.
So they get to Bethany and they find that Lazarus is dead. Not just a “ooohhh, you just missed him.” He’s 4 days dead. In nowadays time, the funeral is over (in Jewish time, they’ve still got 3 days left).
So let’s add this up… 4 days dead. Day 4 was the “12 hours of daylight” travel time. Day 2 and 3 was when Jesus was apparently sitting around and proving a point. Day 1- well, that’s when Jesus got the message. And if you account for the 12 hours for the messenger to get to wherever Jesus was (which is a bit of a mystery at this point), we find that by the time Jesus learns of Lazarus’ sickness, he was actually already dead.
So, this is my question to you: Why did Mary and Martha wait until Lazzie was on his deathbed before they called in Jesus? Why not when he was coughing and sputtering? Why is it that at the first sign of needing Jesus we think that we “shouldn’t bother him” but when it gets to life and death all of a sudden we’re sending urgent messages and yelling at him when he shows up 4 days too late?
I’m not putting the blame on M&M for Lazarus’ death- Jesus said outright that it would be an occasion for all to believe. But I think we can look at M&M’s actions and learn a little something about ourselves. But what kind of faith-test do we put ourselves, and Jesus, in when we wait until the moment of desperation to seek after Him? Why do we only want him at the very end, when it really, really counts?
Now, I know there’s a place for desperation- I’ve been to that point when you need to realize that there’s no other rock to which you can cling. But I wonder how the story would be different if Mary and Martha had asked Jesus to stop by a few weeks earlier because Lazzie had a hacking cough he just couldn’t lick. Mary and Martha wouldn’t have been frustrated with Jesus showing up a bit late. He would’ve had perfect timing, then.
But then again, there would be no miracle- a “turnaround sign for many of the Jews” (11:45).