Category Archives: Faith
Describing Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’
This is how I would describe Terrence Malick’s tremendous, ‘not-made-for-masses’ movie, The Tree of Life:
Statements of truth followed by generous moments for selah.
We are more wicked than we dare to admit. There is no one righteous–no, not one. Selah.
The Creator’s might and beauty is evident in creation. Selah.
We know what is right but are unable to do it. Selah.
Grace begets grace. Selah.
“What is the Gospel?” for Redemption Bible Church
We came upon this location by accident. We were having lunch at a local tavern and saw that it had a special party room that wasn’t being used. The owner kindly allowed us to shoot there. You will notice real tavern employees working in the background. A beam of sunlight from the roof window became my key light—I used a reflector to direct the light into the subject’s face. An iPad was used as a teleprompter. This was also the first time I encountered the dreaded red thermometer. The closing shots featuring Palatine village were recycled from a previous video the church made. Music by The Antlers. Read more
The Estate Sale
One warm afternoon I visited an estate sale in my neighborhood. I began to root around the estate expecting to see outdated furniture, useless knickknacks and other decorative trinkets. You know—something an elderly person might leave behind. What I found were flat screen TVs, couches from Ethan Allen and many valuable possessions.
Inside the first bed chamber was a princess bed with elegant wooden posts. A spacious closet held pastel-colored tops and miniskirts. The second room belonged to a young boy, judging by the size of the bed, blue comforter and superhero t-shirts. I could not believe such sentimental things were for sale. I went into the master bedroom. Ornate furniture (the kind that takes many years to gather) filled this luxurious room. Sadly, whoever lived here had to leave quickly and sparsely. What happened here? What sort of fate met this young family?
An estate sale is different from a yard sale. Items in a yard sale are up for grabs because the owner no longer desires them. On the other hand, items in an estate sale are sold off because an owner—mostly due to morbid reasons—cannot keep them. I believe the heaviness I felt has been felt before:
“There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”— Ecclesiastes 6:1-2, the Bible (ESV)
Possessions. How little they count.
Posts on Discipleship, Mission
About the blogs I posted recently… I wrote them a couple of months ago for a group bible study. I based the study on Robert Coleman’s awesome book, The Master Plan of Evangelism. The blogs per se aren’t chapter summaries of the book. Rather, they serve to highlight a few maxims I’ve come to accept as reality, on my Jesus journey so far.
