Writer's Block

Hey folks........

I have probably started and stopped an entry at least 4 times in the last week and a half. I couldn't think of anything to submit to y'all and honestly have not had the energy to write!

Work has been hell lately, which is funny considering that I work in Christian Retail! Get it? I have been logging approximately 50-60 hours a week the last month or so and it all culminated in me getting sick and leaving early last Thursday (early being 4:00 p.m., I still put in a 7 1/2 hour work day) and taking Friday off (if that means that I was still there first thing to make sure that everything got started okay).

In other words I am overworked and underpaid. That's just the black and white, honest truth. But now that I am done whining let me go on with the rest of my thoughts.

So I have been reading this book by Ken Gire called Reflections on the Movies: Hearing God in the Unlikeliest of Places and I stumbled across something that got my creative juices flowing. Gire states in his chapter entitled Criticism of the Movies that -

Criticism is one way we can approach a movie. It seems to me, however,
that this way of approaching a movie contributes little, if anything, to
our growth as human beings. Critical analysis of a movie seems to me
something like the way we might analyze a sentence, diagramming its
subject and verb, its adjectives and adverbs, its prepositional phrases,
direct objects. When we're done with the diagramming, every word is in
its proper place, and there is something satisfying about that. It's the
same type of satisfaction an accountant gets when he balances the books
he's been examining. The difference between the two is that accounting
was designed for that kind of scrutiny. Art was not. Art was designed to
be experienced, not critiqued.

Okay.....let that sink in.
Think about art.
Its affect and its nature.

Now think about the Bible.
About God.
About the Church.
About Christianity.

These are things that are inherently meant to be experienced, not critiqued.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe that God gave us minds to discern and the ability to think for a reason. This is not a plea to believe everything that your pastor says wholesale and to never be critical. If that was the case we would have more Jim Jones' and David Koresh's than you could shake a stick at.

This is a plea to act on your faith. Make it an experience not merely a mental ascent to some truths that you hold.
Do the things that Jesus did.
Serve others.
Love your neighbor.
Walk somewhere for a change.
Wash somebody's feet.
Tell stories.

Experience the Kingdom.