The Gospel According to St. Matthew- review

The Gospel According to St. Matthew, is a movie that not only is way older than me (1964, movie- 1982, me) its also Italian made. Supposedly back in 1965 or something this film was nominated for an Oscar or two. I say supposedly because I didn't do any research myself to confirm the truthiness of the Oscar nomination. While on vacation a couple of weeks ago I was given the opportunity to watch this "classic" film. As I was reading through the subtitles (remember its in Italian) of this seemingly slow moving movie I had never realized how little I understood about other perspectives of the Gospel. I know that there are many out there but most of those that I am aware of circle around an American point of view, or at least English. Not only is there a cultural perspective that is slightly different but there is also a religious perspective that made this movie look different from other biblical movie interpretations.

Most Jesus movies do not center around one of the gospels but rather a collection of points from each gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John). This Italian interpretation was solely from the Book of Matthew, which was quite different to me. My friend @ strangecultureblog.com, did the research that I did not on the director and the back story of this film. It was truly a slow moving movie, and on my own I would not have watched it. However I may have found a new interest/talent as I watched this movie. The "mystery science theater" mock was flooding out of me in a way that I never knew was possible!

All in all I was glad to have watched it. I would maybe not recommend that run to your computer to put it on your netflix cue but as a Christian I would recommend that you stretch yourself to watch, or read something from another religions or another cultures view on the Bible. Its something that not only could help your Christian "world-view" which seems very popular to have these days, but I believe it to be something that can help you to look at the scriptures with a fresh, more open mind and see that maybe there is more in the Word than what we (American churches) have traditional interpreted.

Choice to be open

There are always choices in life to be made, some are simple like getting out of bed in the morning while others are a bit more challenging like what to wear. Then there are those kinds of choices in life that can change you as a person and change relationships. Many thoughts pop into my mind as tempting choices but pop right back out of my mind because they are just things that I would never really do....like dreading my hair. But the hardest choice of all to make in life (in my opinion), is to open up and be vulnerable with others. Now I hope that you realize that the risk in this is not exclusive to relationships with the opposite sex. You could struggle with opening up to your boss and of course we have all struggled to be honest with our parents at one point or another in our lives. Tonight I took a step to be transparent to my Campus Life leaders. At this point I do consider them all to be friends but nonetheless it is always hard to make that choice to put a piece of yourself out there for others. Others are so human and vulnerable themselves...they have the option to except whatever you throw out there or to say I don't want any part of it. I know that we all have struggles and history's that make us who we are but I personally find it hard to share history with someone who didn't live it or walk through it with me. But since being in ministry there are soo so many things and quirks including history that make me the "minister" that I am. Making the choice to let others know those specifics hard. How should I expect to have true partners without being transparent and not just for leadership sake but for life-giving, community building, Christ-honoring realness' sake. I don't know if my leaders were blessed or encouraged about my openness tonight but even if they weren't I have to believe God had some point in it- Life is a challenge to attempt on our own, but is also a challenge to share with others.

My transition

So the last post that I had was a while ago about my blackberry and my addiction to it. Very unhealthy I know, but I didn't realize how much of that was truly Blackberry trait and not my personality until I got an iphone last week. There is a lot to learn and really a lot that I didn't learn about my blackberry that could have helped me in my "obsession," but so far I am finding that my favorite part of having an iphone is the fact that it doesn't consume me quite like my blackberry did. Like I have already said some of my problem could have been solved by me educating myself a bit more on my blackberry but the fact that the way the iphone is set up I have not had to educate myself on it at all. As soon as I turned my iphone on and began to add the basic apps (facebook, twitter, angry birds) the settings for each were already set so I didn't need read to figure out how to not be bothered by my phone or rather addicted to it. I feel like in retrospect my blackberry trained me like pavlov's dogs to constantly check it. Maybe I am an easy target for things like that but I am now sold on the idea that Apple is ligit and super user friendly. I am a person who is not techie nor do I really care to read directions. When it comes to technology I learn by trial and error but usually I am too afraid so I stick with basic functions but so far with my iphone I am finding it really easy to branch out! So here is my white flag waving, I have resisted joining the "trend" of Mac products but now see why people love them. I now see and believe that it is more than a trend...they are more than user friendly and long lasting then other technology products.

In other news I am going to attempt this week to try a new way to get myself to blog, and hopefully the few of you who read this will enjoy and maybe I will catch some new readers. I am going to try and blog each day about one element of my life...could be ministry, friendships, things I am learning or maybe a funny story as my life is really full of those! This will be a challenge for me but in an effort to be more disciplined in my daily life and to allow more people to see what my life as a single, female living in south Florida working in ministry is! Hope you all enjoy!

A real need for connection

- There is this little blinking light on my blackberry, and I love it! It blinks to tell me there is a message for me, a text message or an email, even facebook and twitter make my blackberry blink. I am constantly checking my phone, I go out of my way to pull it out of my purse or walk across a room in the middle of a conversation to make sure I haven't missed anything! This is sad partly because I allow my blackberry to interrupt my day and partly because I look forward to the interruption. I drive my friends nuts, they threaten to take my phone when we hang out because I will pull my blackberry out every couple of minutes. Seriously I can turn the sound off and put it out of my sight and a few times I have still been soo "connected" that I happened to check it at the moment I was receiving a phone call. More than likely that was a coincidence but for a second I thought I was pretty connected to my blackberry!

So I had this thought today that if I was as connected to God as I am my blackberry I could see and know where He is working and what He is doing around me. Even if I reached for God as much as I reach for my phone, my life personally would have so much more power and peace. I am not about to suggest that I give up my phone entirely, but I would imagine that connecting more with Jesus would decrease my interest in whatever my blinking blackberry has waiting for me!

Big Lies

I was reading this article in a local Christian newspaper about lies people believe as truth. There were 12 of these lies, which a few I don't know if I totally agree with but there are a few that I most certainly find to be true especially working with teenagers. The first one that caught my attention is people have this belief that they are inherently good. It shocks me that people think they are "good." Maybe there is a little logic that goes with this thought in that good is relative from one person to the next and if we can make our own definitions of it then how can anyone be classified as such. Which brings me to the next lie believed to be truth.

The belief that there is no such thing as truth. In my opinion this is a really scary thing to believe, and so many teenagers even "Christian" teens are buying this one. I am not sure if its something we are teaching them in schools or if parents are not being direct enough about right and wrong. The ideas though maybe not termed in a teenage mind are easily pointed out to be relativism, subjective, and objective truth. Even Christian adults 20's and 30's have trouble with these. And the more that I think about it the more angry I become. I believe we have all gotten to this place as Christians by believing that what is sin and conviction to one person does not apply to all. I really don't have the time or the brain to really attack any of these, but I do have the heart to say that it concerns me and I honestly don't have answers. I just know that unless absolute truth is sought and bought into younger generations of Christians will learn to accept anything and therefore not stand for anything at all.

There are so many other lies that are out there everyday that we buy into as Christians especially here in America, as we desire God's best for our lives yet somehow mistakenly think that that is to own a home w/ a white picket fence, and having 2.5 children. I am not saying that can't be what God wants for you but I am thinking that in order for God to accomplish what His desires are for the world that it can't be true for all of us. I believe God's will is just as creative and interesting as the many personalities and gifts that He has given us as humans. If you struggle to know if you have clouded The truth with lies don't read another book or blog about it...read the Bible because real absolute truth lies in the person of Jesus Christ and not our own revelation of our own reality!

The Network...

To my understanding the Youth Pastors in this area of South Florida have been having "network" meetings for years. I was made aware of this pretty early on in moving here to Florida, working for a Christian clothing store. And when I came of staff with Youth for Christ almost 3 years ago I was excited to be apart of this "network" of youth Pastors and youth workers. In the last 3 years however this network has changed so many different times in so many different ways. It is after all logical that it would have changes, I mean the average stay for a youth pastor is like 18 months or something crazy like that, and leadership is hard for one person with other obligations to prioritize when "networking" isn't a part of their job description.

Well this week we had some miscommunication that took place between some members of the network, and not only am I unclear as to what happened, but there was another organization that may have gotten the impression that YFC was not for them or with them. This is not really the point of this post but this situation got me thinking what does networking mean and when it comes to the Kingdom and His causes how do we accomplish this.

I would never dare to suggest that I have any answers or that my ideas are correct, I just think when it comes to the kingdom and reaching the lost we all have lost the purpose of networking. We constantly pin larger churches in competition with smaller churches, and one organization against another. And this is sad, I can't help but believe that satan is having a hay day with this kind of philosophy, being able create this idea that we don't ALL have the same mission and calling to reach the lost and to disciple believers. This individualized understanding of different talents and gifts doesn't mean we reach out in different ways, doesn't it in fact mean that we work together to do it more completely???

Well I could go on and end up in a very long dialog that has nothing to do with this topic, but I want to know what do you think about networking, have you seen it done right? Or maybe I'm way off and the purpose of a network should be something else- maybe encouragement or accountability? Either way I'm not positive but I don't think the word network is even used in the Bible....however "unity" is used several times in scripture, perhaps we should strive for more of that?

28 things

I recently celebrated my 28th birthday, which by the way was a lot of fun and very well celebrated. But in honor of this "milestone" in my life I want to share 28 lessons/insights that I have learned about myself and life in the last 28 years!

1. Candy is great, always was always will be! I like dark chocolate best!

2. Meatloaf is seriously over-rated---I do not like, it never have, sorry mom!

3. Climbing trees is really cool until your like 20 then it just looks awkward.

4. Learning how to throw a football is a must for a girl to learn.

5. Skateboarding was easier when I was in the 3rd grade.

6. Having the biggest room in the house is great until cleaning day :(

7. Putting extra sugar on your cereal is really not necessary.

8. Saved By the Bell, was the last great Saturday morning show!

9. 90210 was not a show to learn life's lessons from.

10. When you hide a present don't hide it too well, otherwise it may never be found.

11. I forget birthdays all the time and people still love me? (So its ok to forget, sometimes)

12. Cheesy pick-up lines are fun to try on strangers.

13. I like cake, not frosting though??

14. I'm very glad that flannel was only a temporary fashion trend.

15. I think that when you graduate high school you should move away whether or not you move to go to college.

16. There is a lot more to do in Las Vegas than gamble.

17. I love 4 seasons, (missed them while living in Vegas, still miss them in Florida)

18. Its important to make your bed everyday if you can.

19. Say no to Kava....if you don't know what that is, don't even bother investigating really just say NO.

20. Musicals are the best form of entertainment for a woman...singing/dancing/acting, fabulous combo!

21. The older I get the more I appreciate my time alone.

22. Chick-a-filet is addictive, so stay away if possible. (no not really, but think about it)

23. Cats are disgusting- enough said

24. I am seriously grossed out and afraid of birds.

25. Being single at this age is kind of the bomb!

26. Internet networking like facebook and twitter can't replace actual human interaction but are really cool.

27. Exercise and eating right is important, because after 26 its harder to keep up the look of a 19 year old.

28. Jesus can change a lives.