Sunday Thoughts

I know I titled this "Sunday Thoughts" and it's now Monday, but I was too tired last night to write about my day, so I'll do it now.

We had a guest speaker in at church named Jamie Lash and he spoke on Stage Fright. At first I thought, "Wow, this is a great topic, but how does it relate to God. Seems more like a class you would sign up for to help you get over a fear." But here are a few of his points that I wrote down:

He talked about how it doesn't matter if you have a large audience or if you're just talking to one person, but you can be nervous either way.

Nervousness is a sympton of having the wrong goal (namely, to impress or avoid humiliation). In both cases, it's all about me. It should be my goal to bless the audience, not impress the audience.

He told a story about a Youth Pastor who said he was never nervous in front of the kids, but was always nervous when talking to their parents and the youth pastor said he realized it was because he was trying to impress the parents, but trying to help the kids (intention of your heart).

The intention of your heart gives birth to your behaviour. We should not be trying to impress people. On judgement day, we will be shown WHAT we've done and WHY we've done them. Scary thought? I know it is for me.

To help you get over your nervousness and to break that hold the other person(s) has over you, say to yourself, "I don't live for you, I live for God." Freedom comes when we live for an audience of one.

Do not put on another performance, but an act of love.

We're always so worried about what others will think of us. Instead of coming across interesting, come across interested!

He left us with this thought, "Will you be a person that God can use to impact/change people around you? Think about it like this: Would that person benefit from knowing a love so amazing that it would fill that hole in their life? You won't be nervous if your intention is pure. It may have the domino effect. You'll never know until you get to that judgement day. Don't let stage fright get in your way."

Then in the evening I went and saw Babel.

I'm having a hard time "rating" this one as well (not a very good movie critic, am I?). This is how it's described on the internet. "Babel is a film about the chaos of misunderstanding that often afflicts the world and how it can plunge us into confusion and tragedy. It's also an argument for truth and sympathy in a dangerous world." This is a true description of the movie, but I don't completely agree with how he went about portraying it. There were definitely scenes that didn't need to be in there and I wish I hadn't seen (almost all of the Japanese storyline). I also don't agree that those scenes needed to be in the movie to tie them together with the other story lines. It's not a fast paced movie by any means, and it jumps around quite a bit, but the underlying idea of the movie is great. I haven't figured out if I recommend this movie yet, but if you've seen it or know someone who has, I'd love to know their opinion. The acting was great and it definitely gripped my heart and I felt for the characters, but there was still "something" that holds me back from fully recommeding it. If you're someone who can't handle heartwrenching scenes with children, don't go see this movie (Rachel, that would be you).

On an aside, there's a little boy in the movie who totally reminded me of my nephew in Malaysia. There's a scene where he's crying and I lost it in the theatre. Really made me miss Sydney, Ashtyn and Jackson. It's hard to be so far away from those kids and to miss out on seeing them grow up.