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What Mary Poppins Can Teach Us About Life’s Disappointments

It was a quiet Friday night as I sat down on the couch with my dog to decompress after a long week. Sometimes I like to just kick back and watch a good movie. Navigating through the seemingly endless ‘on demand’ cable menus, I stumbled upon ‘Saving Mr. Banks’. The Disney theme was woven into my fabric as a kid and I always enjoyed watching Mary Poppins with my kids when they were younger. I even remember bringing home a tuppence for them on one of my trips to England.

I decided to check it out and here is what I discovered.

What ‘Tron: Legacy’ Can Teach Us About Seeing What’s Right In Front Of Us

As the illusions of this worldview spin around me out of time and frame, the walls of my tower of Babel crumble and fall! One could almost hear the demonic laughter and cheers coming from the darkness of the abyss as each stone smashes to the ground like hardened drops of rain.

It is always night when a man goes from Christ to follow his own purposes. It is always night when a man listens to the call of evil rather than the summons of good. It is always night when hate puts out the light of love. It is always night when a person turns his back on Jesus.

—William Barclay

“We have to tell the kids,” she said. [About the divorce]

Life Is A Beautiful Struggle

A colleague of mine let me borrow ‘Ragamuffin: the true story of Rich Mullins’ and wow did it wreck me in a very positive way.

Here is a quick synopsis from the DVD box:

Ragamuffin is based on the life of Rich Mullins, a musical prodigy who rose to Christian music fame and fortune only to walk away and live on a Navajo reservation. An artistic genius, raised on a tree farm in Indiana by a callous father, Rich wrestled all of his life with the brokenness and crippling insecurity born of his childhood. A lover of Jesus and a rebel in the church, Rich refused to let his struggles with his own darkness tear him away from a God he was determined to love. As he struggled with success in Nashville and depression in Wichita, Rich desired most of all to live a life of honest and reckless faith amidst a culture of religion and conformity.

As I was being drawn into the story with vivid similarities with my own life, minus the music success, I froze as the movie came to the scene where Brennan Manning was sharing a word with a church congregation. I couldn’t hold back the tears as this message went through me like a plow.

Here is that narrative by Brennan Manning…

Remember The Fallen

For most of us, Memorial Day means the “unofficial kickoff” of summer when we go away or get together with loved ones to grill up some great food.

Not at all suggesting that there is anything wrong with this, but I challenge you to pause and think about what it means when a soldier dies fighting for your freedom. Think about the scene playing out in slow motion as the loved one of a fallen soldier hears that knock on the door.

Will you pause for a moment and remember the fallen brave as that familiar bugle sound plays in the background…”Taps”.

Here is a bit of history of Taps.

Let It Go And Just Be Held

Hold it all together
Everybody needs you strong
But life hits you out of nowhere
And barely leaves you holding on

And when youre tired of fighting
Chained by your control
Theres freedom in surrender
Lay it down and let it go

So when youre on your knees and answers seem so far away
Youre not alone, stop holding on and just be held
Your worlds not falling apart, its falling into place
Im on the throne, stop holding on and just be held
Just be held, just be held…

Lyrics: Casting Crowns (2014). Just Be Held [Recorded by Elton John]. Label: Reunion Records.

What Mary Poppins Can Teach Us About Life’s Disappointments

What ‘Tron: Legacy’ Can Teach Us About Seeing What’s Right In Front Of Us

Life Is A Beautiful Struggle

Remember The Fallen

Let It Go And Just Be Held

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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