Category / Life With God

by Greg

On Chick-fil-A… and diversity in general

Chick-fil-A Eat Mor ChikinFirst, I am not really a big fan of Chick-fil-A’s food. (But my wife really is, so it’s a special treat when we are in Chick-fil-A territory!) Thus, this post is not really about their food, or their fun kid’s meal toys, or the fact that they play Christian music in their restaurants, nor that they are closed on Sundays.

But you probably already knew that.

If you haven’t heard—and, well, it’s possible that you haven’t?—the Christian-owned, alternative-to-cows restaurant has been in the news for the past month thanks to remarks that company president and COO, Dan Cathy. Here’s what he said:

Re: the “crisis of fatherlessness”

As an employer, first off, just from that perspective, I see it as a real crisis, in the sense that there is a certain amount of emotional DNA—there’s physical DNA obviously that comes from the dad and also from the mom, but beyond that—there’s some essential emotional DNA that God intended for us to give, from a mother and a dad that, we observe over our life as children—in infancy, and then growing up—that we can only get from our dad, and we can only get from a mother. And we’re to get it in a home, dynamic environment where they’re interrelating together, to build the stability and the self-esteem that God wants us to have to get through our teenage years.

Now when we don’t have one side or the other, you know, I just have to tell you, I think we’re just emotionally handicapped. Doesn’t mean we can’t survive and have a happy life, but it means that we’re gonna have some odds stacked against us. Hopefully there can be somebody that intervenes to help make that up for us. But, uh, to have so many people today that are growing up in homes where they don’t have a mom and dad—I’ll tell you, as an employer, it makes it that much more difficult for us, because we sometimes actually have to have a parenting role.

As it relates to society in general, I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And, I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about.

Wait. Is that all?

Yep.

Where is the controversy? WHERE is the “anti-gay” that peppers every headline on from every “news” organization?

No really. Where is it?

See, so much of what we hear (and react to) is hype. And it’s predetermined. “What? Someone promoted a traditional, Mom-and-Dad-in-the-same-home family?? THEY HATE GAYS! Boycott!! Tell everyone you know!!!” And then the reaction, “What? They’re attacking my favorite Christian restaurant for speaking the truth against legalizing gay marriage??! Get out and support them! Buy ‘mor chikin’! Tell all your friends!!”

Ugh.

First of all, if you have the time, please listen to this clip—the one that started this recent fury… I mean, flurry of activity on the blogs, social media, and news sites. The whole Dan Cathy interview starts around 21:28, and the part quoted above starts at 29:43. Cathy was a guest on the Ken Coleman Show (never heard of it…) on Father’s Day weekend, talking about his Dad, and his own marriage of 40-plus years to his one wife, and the benefits of a Mom-and-Dad, stable family. Listen:

People. Please. PLEASE. Stop the knee-jerk reactions. Your favorite commentarians (that’s not a word) are NOT ALWAYS RIGHT. Probably not usually right. Take a breath… use Google (or other resources… talking to actual people is good, too!) 🙂 and try to find what is actually being said. If the headline says “Anti”-anything, plan on doing some major filtering. Find quotes, but find LONG quotes. Look for the sources of those quotes (like the show above).

I just can’t believe the agenda that nearly everyone has, one way or another. Truth does not appear to be as important as being first to post, or furthering one’s own worldview—whether or not the item being discussed actually supports or even has anything to do with said agenda.

I will keep pounding this drum till the cows come home. Listen to each other. Go to the source. Believe in each other.

We have to stop using the word “anti” unless it’s really true. Pro-traditional family is not anti-anything! (Except anti-non-traditional-family? But it’s still not anti if it’s FOR something.) Aren’t people who want women to have the choice to end a pregnancy nearly always referred to as “Pro-Choice”? But the opposite side of that argument—those who are actually against abortion—are called anti-abortion-ers. (Though, that side prefers Pro-Life, I believe.) That seems to be a case where words are used correctly.

But what Dan Cathy said, and those who think traditional, one man, one woman, married for life family is a better option (or, the best option), can not be labeled “anti-gay”—or anti-anything—when they are promoting, not protesting.

He is welcome to believe and even promote what he believe (unless it actually injures someone else, or keeps them from doing the same), and everyone else can listen (or not) and then respond (or not) as they see fit. But, as I said above, the response should follow really listening. Not just a knee-jerk (“pre-programmed”) response to a second-to-forty-fourth-hand report about what “someone said”.

There are many more articles to read. Please browse at your leisure.

And be nice.

by Greg

To Write

I need to write.

And yet, I let my days go by without intentionally making that happen.

I have myriad reasons for it. Some practical, some less so. Quite often, I might just actually not have a moment long enough to flesh out these thoughts within me between all of the other things and people I am responsible for. Other times my heart is too burdened by the events of the day—and/or the current season of life—to allow the gates to be opened and the contents to spill forth upon paper; or, keyboard and data storage device, as it were.

But somehow when I take the time to pour forth my inner being through words chosen, crafted, formed in my mind and heart… somehow by that action my spirit is buoyed. My heart feels lighter, freer. It is because I am somehow made to be this way. Not just made to do this, but deeper. More true to me, as God fashioned me.

That’s not to say that I am somehow a great wordsmith or have honed any of this “way of being” into a craft or trade (or anything like it). My writing has at times inspired, encouraged, uplifted, even challenged other souls who may come across it, but in their essence, the times I take to write are meant for me. As I work out the thoughts that are nearly constantly “on” in my head, God speaks to my inner being and teaches me as the words form on the screen in front of my eyes.

It’s really quite humbling. Astonishing. Invigorating.

Again, this is more for me—likely—than for you, the reader.

I am also glad you are here, though. Because, even if your eyes should never come across this page… I write to you. I speak to you who listen intently. Who ponder these thoughts with me. Who allow all prejudices and biases and other cages we make for thoughts and realities and possibilities to be absent from this place; you allow your mind to wander with me down ways perhaps less (or even never) trodden.

It’s good to have company. It’s good to not be alone.

I must say, that I find God is recently stripping away façades that I myself have placed on others around me. Not anything of their own doing. Really and truly these are of my own making. It springs from my eternal optimism. (A friend once referred to it as PermaJube. I think he may have referred to me as PermaJube…) I always think the best of everyone, to the point of forgetting that we are all fallen, all broken. And so I hold people to higher standards than they can possibly achieve—unwittingly—until some event, direct or indirect, shows me that they are just as broken, weak, fragile, and needy as me.

And that leaves me feeling alone. Because, even in my brokenness, I know that I am redeemed. I am restored, healed, I have hope. And for the most part, I live that hope. What I’m seeing around me (I believe by God’s great grace given to me) is that so many of us don’t live in that. I’m sure that even though I feel that I am living that way, Jesus will reveal to me more and more deeply the ways that I can live in the fullness of life that is him. But somehow, in this season, I am seeing the frailty of even the people I most cherish and respect.

And again I am alone.

Just Jesus remains. Just he and I, navigating this path of brokenness. He, and I, and words. Words which meagerly attempt to capture the essence of these spiritual realities that my consciousness (and my unconsciousness?) merely grazes the outer edge of a much deeper, greater sea of truth that I can never really know.

But he does. He is that Truth. That Life. That Reality.

I’m so glad I have him. And that he has me. That’s even better.

And so I write. And by writing, by giving “voice” to these thoughts in my head, he reminds me of truth. Of him. I breathe hope. I exhale grief, weight, burden. I breathe him.

I am not alone.

I’m glad you’re here, too. I know you are frail and weak like me. I know we do have days when we feel more sure-footed, but I also know we look in the heart mirror at times and see the full blackness of us. But we have hope. We are loved. Even then. At our worst (or at what we think is our best)… we are loved.

You are. And I am. And we are not alone. We have hope.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. —John 14:16

And, since we have hope, we ought to live in the light. We can be free to be whom God made us to be. So I will write. I will. I must. And whatever it is that God has made you to be, be that.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. —Ephesians 2:10

Be you. As I am able to live in hope and light and freedom, I will endeavor to also be “me”. Thankfully, it’s not just me, but Christ in me.

It’s much better that way. As it was meant to be.

by Greg

Lessons From Our Garden

At this point, I’d have to say we are successful gardeners.

It’s kinda funny, because the last time we gave this a serious run, we were really pretty unsuccessful. We had many tomato plants that produced seven tomatoes. Total. All summer. And they were very tiny. (It really was sad.)

Then most everything else turned out even worse.

We discovered the likely cause of our pathetic “crop” was the presence (read: abundance) of walnut trees in our yard. The walnut tree roots make the soil too acidic for many plants? Something like that. Anyway, it definitely put a damper on our green thumbs.

But, several years later (I guess it was eight) we were determined to see a different outcome!

A potted tomato plant experiment (using the same soil from our yard, just removed from the walnut tree roots) produced a much healthier crop of cherry tomatoes. Delicious! (And beefsteak tomatoes as well, I believe.) So that was a good clue that the soil wasn’t really the issue.

Add to that decent soil our years of composting, and we had a pretty good place for some edible plants to grow.

And boy have they!

We’ve got tons of tomatoes, we have peppers, we have lettuce, we have carrots, we even have watermelon! AND, that squash you see is the first harvest of the season! The squash plants look great.

My favorite part are the four or five bonus tomato plants. We did not plant them, but they are growing very strong and look like they’re going to produce many tomatoes of their own. Fun!

As we’ve been watching the literal fruits of our labor growing, I’ve been noticing again that there are tons of great spiritual lessons one can glean from a garden. The one that has most often come to mind is what I wrote in this post from 2004. It’s really, really weird to me how the weeds mimic the good plants that they grow near. It’s happening again with this garden. Crazy.

Successes are fun. These successes are tasty. It really was a good amount of work getting to this point, but it’s also just astounding how much of it is not us. We just make sure it has a good place to grow and the programming takes over. God made it to grow in to a big health plant that yields much fruit, and it’s doing it! A lot! We’ve got lots of examples of his amazing design in our little 24 x 6 tilled plot of land in our back yard.

Definitely a fun thing to watch. We’re already looking forward to next year’s garden!

by Greg

Rick Boyer on Government Schools

Take Back The Land - Rick BoyerI am currently reading a book along with my son, Ian, called Take Back The Land, by Rick Boyer. Mr. Boyer is a home schooling superstar. If you home school, chances are you are already familiar with him. (If you’re not familiar with the book, I highly recommend it—and I’m only a few chapters in!)

The Boyers have 14 kids, they were home schooling when it was definitely only questionably “legal”, and they have spent 30 years not only educating their own family, but helping thousands of other families do the same.

(By the way… can you believe there was a time in the United States of America when it was potentially illegal to choose to educate your own kids rather than put them into the government education system?)

The book is aimed at young people (primarily home schooled young people 12-ish to 20-ish) and is a longer version of a speech he gave to a “graduating class” at a home school conference not long ago. His basic premise/challenge to the young reader: Grow up! Our culture has been steadily expecting less and less from young people, and so they play video games and don’t really do much of anything until much later in life than they could. He’s spot on so far in nearly everything he’s saying (and Ian thinks so, too).

I look forward to finishing the book (hopefully today) and probably discussing it more here, but for today, there was a section about Government Schools I wanted to highlight. I’ve offered my thoughts on this site a time or two. Mr. Boyer also described these institutions well:

One reason I believe home education is the key to revival in our culture is that it is a rejection of the system that I blame in large part for our present apostasy, the “public” school system. That’s a misnomer, of course. The schools are government schools. They’re not public at all, except in the sense that the public pays the taxes that support them and suffers the consequence of their existence. The government controls what is taught in those schools, and the parents who are rearing the students and paying the taxes for the schools have almost no input. Their values are not respected and in fact are often undermined.

The quote continues, but I just wanted to stop there and point out that this is really true… it’s not like a public library, or a public park where you can go and use it at any time you’d like, in any way that suits you. In many (most? all?) ways you’re either all in, or not in at all. And regarding taxes … do you remember this post?

Let’s keep going with the quote. This is the good part:

There was a time, early on in our history, when everybody would have laughed at the idea of compulsory school attendance. In the first place, it wasn’t needed. There was homeschooling, tutoring, and lots of affordable private schools. Literacy was much higher at the time of the American Revolution than it is now (see John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down). [editor’s note: Gatto’s books on education are on my to-read list…] Schooling wasn’t worshipped as the answer to all problems because people had been educating themselves for generations with little time spent in school.

Sorry for the long quote. I felt it was a necessary context for this:

More importantly, the compulsory nature of today’s schooling would have seemed both weird and offensive. In the early days, when Americans could remember the struggle to become a free country, the idea of a law confining innocent people to government institutions for most of each day, five days a week, nine months of the year would not have been tolerated. It would have been seen for what it is: imprisonment of the innocent. Promoters of compulsory attendance pointed to the very small percentage of American children who were not being educated and used them as an argument for their agenda. Once again, the needs of a very few were used as leverage to infringe on the freedom of all.

Emphasis mine. Almost done. (This one is not fully quoted… just a few key phrases):

Once compulsory attendance had become the law of the land (around the early 1900s), the public school system gave the government and those who had influence in government the opportunity to effectively brainwash a large percentage of the population. That’s partly why public attitudes toward moral, economic, and political issues changed so radically over the last hundred years.

…I blame government education for a lot of the problems we have today, especially the erosion of our freedom. Our public schools provide just the kind of young people one would expect a government to want: passive, uncritical thinkers who are unlikely to start any revolutions; conditioned by long practice to do what they’re told, moving in groups, with weak family loyalties and strong peer dependency.

There are many reasons we home school. He listed some of them. We can’t really imagine not home schooling our children. Again, for all of the reasons he mentions here. We want our kids to be fully who they are. To learn about the world in whole, not the world with God—who planned, and made, and holds it all together—wholly removed from the picture.

There really is a lot more, but… you might want to just buy the book. 🙂

Now, time to stop writing, and get back to reading!

by Greg

The Way Things Are

When I think of the ugliness of the way most of us selfishly fight to get what is “ours”, often based on an unnecessary fear of rejection and/or insecurity… my heart is saddened almost to the point of despair.

Why, God? Is this the beautiful world you created?

Quickly my mind is ushered to the images of a young man choosing to bravely face his quite-likely death on the beaches of Normandy, or the story of Desmond Doss who stood firm in his beliefs, and personally saved dozens of fellow soldiers… without a weapon of any kind. Those stories and thankfully many more (including non-wartime stories) remind me that God did place beauty and strength and courage and honor within the human heart.

But so often we misplace it. We so often get trapped by trying to “get ours”.

Then I think of the hurt in the world that is not (directly) caused by the ugliness of man, of the flesh. I think of our friends whose daughter is daily faced with the very real threat of her own death… for over two years now. (And still no real end in sight.) I think of another friend who lost her dad far too soon, and of a precious little boy who only spent four very difficult months in his present-earth body, leaving behind a hole in his family that will never be replaced.

But again, I am quickly reminded that in those four months that little boy brightened the lives of so many dozens—even hundreds?—of people without speaking a word. And that even in the very midst of pain, joy can be found in little things. I’m even reminded of the incredible intricacy of design that keeps any of us living and doing mundane daily tasks at all (have you seen what happens in a cell??)

There does seem to be two sides to the story.

I think of the hopelessness of our battle with sin. But then I think of Jesus.

I think of our society’s continuing to push God away, deny him at every turn. Then I think of the many people who are living lives of Grace that draw people back to their true Father (not some dusty religious version of him).

I think of my own struggles (internal and external) and then I am reminded the Jesus is walking through them with me. I am not alone.

Though I won’t even pretend to understand it… there is some incredible beauty in the midst of the seemingly hopeless brokenness of our world. I really don’t get it. (Shaking my head ‘no’ even as I think and type these words.) But the Spirit is so quick to remind me any time I ask “Why?” … there’s no answer to my direct question; only a reminder that there are just as many evidences of good as there are of evil.

That doesn’t fix anything, but it does help me breathe.

Jesus, please fix my eyes and heart and mind on all that is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable…excellent and worthy of praise.

I think that’s just you, Jesus.

See: Philippians 4:8, Hebrews 12:2.

by Greg

Pure, (Truly) Awesome Creativity

We use the word “awesome” far too often in our culture. That sounds like something you’ve heard your grandpa say, or your great-grandpa. (Or his grandpa…) We assign it to anything and everything: sporting events or just a moment in said event, a movie, a meal, and pretty much anything that may happen in the course of a normal day.

But today, as I was reading Genesis chapter one, the first word that came to mind was “awesome”.

Jen and I are going to try to read through the Bible together in 90 days (using YouVersion.com‘s Bible in 90 Days plan). We just wanted to ingest Scripture again, not in small chunks, but in its entirety. Might be aggressive with all the other reading we enjoy doing (have you seen my “currently reading” list in the right sidebar of this website??), as well as the daily to-dos with work and family…

But it seems it will worth the extra effort. And there already has been a “wow” (“awesome”) moment.

(Not that there will be those every time, nor that such moments are the reason for such an undertaking. But… it was kinda neat, so I am sharing.)

Two things struck me about Genesis 1. First, in the New Living Translation, the phrase they used for “and it was so” was, “And that is what happened.” It made me chuckle out loud the third time I read it. So matter-of-fact: And that is what happened. Period. I love that the reality is, God spoke it, and that is what happened. Certainly something I’ve seen, noticed, considered before… but somehow I was struck this time with the simplicity of it.

Which led me to the second point: the account is incredibly simple, but the actual result is so complex what we have learned about the processes behind the operation of the universe in the subsequent millennia completely blows us away.

And I thought, God merely spoke a simple command, like, “Let there be lights in the sky” and “that is what happened.” The enormous complexity down to the quantum level and the vastness of the “lights in the sky”… all from a couple sentences.

The sheer power of this Creative Being created that vastness, that complexity, by only speaking a few words.

We would take years and years of planning and testing and building (and failing) until we had something pretty close to good. God spoke our entire universe—reality itself—into its intricately complex and ridiculously vast existence in six days.

We can argue about what a “day” is, or if God used “evolution” to create everything… or if he made things and let the process work itself to what we know in modern/recorded history. Certainly he placed adaptive capabilities into all that we know as life (and even other processes) on our planet and beyond.

But evident to me today was the unfathomable power of creativity that couldn’t help but produce greatness… seemingly without any effort whatsoever.

Awesome.

Amazing. Beyond words.

And that is what happened.

by Greg

[From The Archive] Distorted View of God?

Highlighting Articles from the GregsHead.net Archives!I re-discovered this post recently via a few related links from something else I had been writing. I really can’t recall how I got there, but as it might have done for you, the title grabbed my attention. I wondered, Now what was I thinking here…

Turns out it was one of my more favorite “recent” discoveries of a grander truth in Scripture than I had previously seen.

It’s easy to have a distorted view of God. It can come from listening to the perceptions others have of God, and incorporating them into our view of who he is. (Even if your source is the most learned and revered theologian or scholar.) It can come from our own guilt or shame, pushing us further from the God who loves us. It can come from simply not knowing him well enough, from a lack of knowledge, understanding.

Whatever way it comes, it hinders our relationship with our Father, and our living life to its full, which Jesus said is his desire for us.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this one. Respond however you’d like (Facebook Page, comment below, or comment on the original article) but please do let me know what you think—agree, or disagree.

Original Article: Distorted View of God

by Greg

Disappointment

Everywhere I turn these days it seems I am dealing with disappointment. Failure. Unachieved goals, unmet expectations. Nothing is going the way it is supposed to, or like it used to…

One disappointment after another.

And I’m not just talking about being let down by other people. In fact, I think the disappointments that affect me the most are those that are perpetrated by me.

It’s most disappointing of all when you let yourself down.

And I think our Enemy knows that. I think he uses that. The forces of failure, and guilt, and inability to accomplish something you feel is within your power to do… all keep you down and out. And even can lead to deeper self doubt that leads to hopelessness, apathy, and even just throwing in the towel.

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:10-12

I’m not throwing in the towel. I’m not even feeling hopeless. But I’m tired of being beat down.

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
Matthew 5:3 MSG

I know. I know.

But right now, I’m just tired.

The beat down slowly erodes at my internal understanding of my friendship with God, of my worth (which he places on me) and then it depletes all of the reservoir of grace and other Spirit fruits whose abundance I can usually share with the people around me; starting with my family.

But when the cycle of disappointment takes too strong a foothold (and when I forget Who can break it) then there is a tipping point that is reached, and disappointment turns into despair.

I don’t want to go there.

I won’t go there.

These thoughts, and putting on my armor, and tapping into God’s living water and bread of life are definitely needed; they are foundational. But unfortunately, there are also consequences to action and inaction, no matter what the cause. (My fault, or some scheme of the devil against me and my household.)

So tonight, after posting my thoughts for the day (at 11:59!) 🙂 … sleep will come later as I must tend to some tasks that will put food on our table. There’s still that.

Thankfully I have not neglected things that are more important than food. I think that will have a more lasting impact than keeping bellies full. But, there’s still that.

And so… we press on.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
2 Corinthians 4:8

by Greg

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

Being a fan of documentaries, and, having many thoughts on the nature and condition of the church, I was intrigued enough by the title and description of the movie above to click the play button on a recent visit to Hulu.com.

As the video began, I wasn’t entirely sure which “side” was being presented. I like that! I continued to watch and felt that the issues addressed were handled fairly and with an open mind. That’s pretty rare. Usually you just have to filter out the bias, but they really did a decent job of doing that themselves.

There were many eye-opening scenes depicting the blatant ignorance of Christian men and women, young and old, who were simply unaware of the arguments—no, the people—of the “other side”. There were also some incredible moments of true connection between people who really don’t see the world the same in most ways.

One particularly powerful scene was when the filmmakers set up a “Confession Booth” at a gay pride event in Portland, except, rather than taking confessions, they gave them. They confessed (and asked forgiveness for) the church’s treatment of homosexuals, its stance on AIDS, and other related actions taken by the church. The result was a unanimous (at least, what was shown) open, emotional, welcome response to someone for whom they previously harbored great contempt.

What happened was, they listened to each other. Each found a place where they could meet, and treat the other with loving kindness. It’s amazing how powerful that is: in life, and just to watch it unfold on the screen.

When you have some time—a goodly amount of time—I recommend a thoughtful viewing of this documentary. Particularly Christians, but I think the point the filmmakers are trying to make is that it sure helps when we listen to each other, no matter what our worldview. So there’s a bit of something for everyone, for sure.

Also, the filmmakers’ website: www.LordSaveUsTheMovie.com

by Greg

Letters To God

The reviews of Letters To God are either glowing, or not kind. And, I can see where most of them are coming from.

In some ways this movie was pretty hokey. Some of the acting was bad. Some of the story was a tad unbelievable. Some of the “Christian” part seemed a bit too forced.

But I’ve seen some bad Christian movies. (There’s one with Mr. T in it, that is really only watchable because it’s funny to see and hear Mr. T say he needs to get his guns to go take down the “Antichrist”…) And, don’t forget the Left Behind movies…

But somehow this one was just different.

Cheesy, yes. Hokey, yes. Christian, yes. But there was not a dry eye in our living room. All seven of us, down to even three-year-old Emma connected with the emotional messages in this movie. And we loved it.

First, the “Christian” part was fairly authentic, and not “churchy”. (Meaning, a major portion of the film was not set inside a church building, or at church functions. Those moments were rare in this movie.) The story unfolds in the setting of “real life”. I think the movie makers wanted to keep this film accessible to the widest age range possible, so some of the more “real” stuff is toned down a bit (which leads some reviewers to say it’s less “real”) but there were good discussions on many parts of the movie amongst the three decades of ages covered by our family in the room that night. (Ages 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, and 37!)

Without giving the ending away (though, since it’s based on a true story, you already know “the ending” going into the movie…) the very real, very authentic, deep trust that an 8-year-old boy lives daily in his God is so infectious that an entire town (it seems) is affected, even changed.

The best part for me was that everything this boy (sick from cancer and the treatments he underwent to try to cure it) was only focused on other people. On top of his sickness, his Dad had died not long before he got sick! And still he only thought of his brother, his Mom, his best friend, his neighbors, the new mailman (who has a world of his own hurt) …

Do you remember that I recently was talking with our teenager about what (generally) distinguishes heroes from villains? Well that clearly stood out in this movie again, too (though there weren’t really many “villains”). The clear hero of this story is Tyler, the boy who could so easily not care one bit about anyone else. He only thinks about everyone else.

It’s because his focus is on God, and not on himself, good or bad.

We really do recommend this movie. If you just hate anything that might present life with Jesus as a reality or a real possibility, then you probably won’t much like this video. But, if you love feel-good, family-friendly, make-you-cry, “heart-warming” stories that spawn multiple further discussions…

Letters To God is for you, too.