Movie Magic

When I'm pregnant and unusually emotionally sensitive, I usually try to avoid books or movies that are stressful or depressing, and try to focus on the whatever is positive, inspiring, or funny. This week I really hit the jackpot when it came to movies. The first was a film about the life of Mother Theresa. The lead part was played by an actress I'd never heard of, Olivia Hussey, but I thought she did a fantastic job. She nailed the famous nun's accent and mannerisms to a T. At any rate, I found her story very inspiring. This is what true Christianity looks like, I thought: no political agendas, no debates or protests or petty arguments, no desire to shove her views in other people's faces. All she wanted to do was show Jesus' love and compassion to the hurting, the lonely, the dying, the poor...and let God take care of the rest. Our ideas of how things should be, who's right and who's wrong don't matter to God. We're simply called to be His hands and feet to a hurting world, so people know how much He loves them. It's that simple. Why do we let so many unimportant things get in the way of that? It's just our own stubborn selfishness and pride. Certainly food for thought. The next movie was "The Pursuit of Happyness". It falls into the genre of "pick yourself up by the bootstraps and conquer the odds". My Dad loves movies like that, like "Rudy" and "The Rookie". Only this wasn't some impossible sports dream. This was a guy just trying to make ends meet, to provide for his son, to make the most of every opportunity to chase the American dream. I love how he chose not to feel sorry for himself or consider himself a victim, but instead persevered in spite of every obstacle. Stories like that give you hope for this world.