A Cause and Effect God

I have struggled spiritually so much over the last several years. When you reach a dark place, it is very difficult to train your eyes to see even the tiniest spark of light. I would dare to say so hard that often in despair you close your eyes and surrender to the darkness. This is where I have been.
As I struggle back to the surface, trying to find some grounding, and allowing my eyes to adjust to light and my heart to surrender to the love that surrounds me, I see a flaw in how I have viewed God. So much of what we're taught about God makes us think of our relationships to him as "cause and effect". Do good things and be rewarded. Do bad things and be punished. It leaves a person in a bad situation to believe that they have deserved what they got, they were the map that led to this destination, the magnet drawing in the negative consequences. This line of thinking leaves a person in despair, hopeless, drowning without a life raft.
I have come to understand that good things often happen to people who do not deserve them. David knew this (Psalm 73) when he lost his footing at the sight of the prosperity of the wicked.
I have also seen good people suffer through ungodly circumstances. If this were not so, how would we account for babies born addicted to crack before even living one day on this earth? How would we account for the atrocities of war, the holocaust, the elderly rotting in nursing homes day after day with little more than having their basic needs met?
Our culture tells us that we are rewarded or punished for our deeds, and somehow this concept has been applied to God and spiritual things. I know it is not true. Moment by moment, in my pain and suffering, He has not abandoned me. I have suffered things I know that I do not deserve, but I know that through it all He has not abandoned me. He has been beside me all the way. My pain is His pain. It was for the hurts of humanity that Christ went to the cross. The next time I am tempted to close my eyes in despair and let the darkness swallow me, I will remember I am not alone.

The Guys in My Life

I have been grieving in that quiet, I can't even cry about it way over the implosion of my relationship with my dad since February. It isn't a crippling grief, but always there just under the surface. I can't really even go there. Daily reminders include an unopened birthday card that sits on my desk. It may seem a bitter pill that I won't just open it and cash the check - but this bank no longer accepts payments to assuage the payee's guilt. A $20, $30, $50 check a year does not a relationship make. I love my dad dearly - but he refuses to be a part of my life, and therein lies the fracture.
But this was to be a happy post. I have been realizing that Papa is filling in the gaps - a little at a time to help that aching void not be so big and he is doing so with those of the male persuasion in my life.
Earlier today I was working here on my computer, and I thought of Travis. I was thinking how much I love him and was just about to text him and tell him so, when the phone rang. It was him. He was just calling to tell me he loves me. Eros.
Just a little while ago, Kullen came into my bathroom and said he had to ask me something. He said, "Mom, do you think you've done a good job raising me so far?" I was brushing my teeth and not able to really say much when he continued, "Cause I do. I love you mom. You do a great job with me." Wow. I told him I didn't think I had a whole lot to do with it and that I think he is a pretty terrific person all on his own.
Then there is Mason, Dylan, Jonathan, Daniel, David, Josh, Noah...... Yep - they have reminded me of a lot of the guys that I miss in WV. They are playful, intelligent, funny, creative, thoughtful, polite, irreverent and funny. I have had this huge hole in my life for Kameron, Justin, Dillon, Cody, Devan, Jamie. I love the girls too - but the guys are just different. I have missed my boys - who are slowly but surely turning into young men while we are all so far apart.
I am thankful for the constant care of a loving Father.

The Shack-aloud

After talking with several of my friends who are reading The Shack for the first time, and catching their excitement and enthusiasm anew, I decided the other day to pick it up and read it again. The first time through, I have to admit as a mother I hated the first few chapters. I wasn't even sure I was going to keep reading at one point. Too painful. Too raw. Too scary. Monsters and boogey-men, blood and gore don't scare me. The stuff that really happens, that scares the hell out of me. So I knew at least on that level it would be a religious experience.
Then yesterday on Rob Horton's blog there were these two interviews with Paul Young, the author of The Shack. I love it when a series of things seem to be pointing you in one direction. I prefer this to the vague sense that you should move this way or that. There was a specific part of the second interview that I wanted Kendra to hear, addressing the "gender" if you will, of God. Yesterday morning we watched a video called The Case for Christ with Lee Strobel (which I would highly recommend!)- and this interview clip dovetailed very nicely into a discussion we were led into regarding patriarchal societies, and how much of what is taught in church and religious circles revolves around that mindset. She decided that she wanted to read The Shack too, so we decided that we would start it as a family read-aloud.
Late last night we started the book. Everybody was really into the story, even Travis which is rare. We typically can only read one or two chapters - but last night we read four together until 1 am. It grabbed everybody's interest, and I hope that it continues to do that, challenging our image of God, helping us together take the lid off of some old dust covered boxes.
If you are interested in reading the Shack, I stumbled on a website not long ago called Papa'sLove.org who will send a copy of the book to you and your friends for free. If you are uncomfortable doing this for yourself, consider me your friend - email me your address at julientexas AT sbcglobal DOT net and I will be glad to have them send a copy to you!

Demons, Devils and Ghouls, oh my!

To quote C.S. Lewis...

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

Satan and his minions. A force to be reckoned with, or creatures of our imagination? Let me preface to say that I believe that there are indeed spiritual forces all around us; forces of good and forces of evil. I believe that Satan is a foe of the believer, yet not God's equal opposite counterpart. I think sometimes we give the devil too much credit. Bad things happen, Satan's messing with me. Good things happen, God is good. On these lines, I think that it could be said a great cross-section of believers falls into the second error mentioned here by our dear Clive. Often I find, while stopping just short of saying, "The devil made me do it." the sentiment is implied as if we are victims, unwitting participants in the game being played in which overcoming us is the chief aim.

This is how it goes:
My AC is out - Satan is out to destroy me.
I got a new car - God is blessing me.
My husband and I aren't getting along - Satan is trying to undermine our marriage.
My son got the scholarship to college - Praise God! He's so good!
Mother has cancer - The devil is NOT going to win this one.
I got the promotion at work - I am so blessed.

Sound familiar? It takes on the tone of picking flower petals - He loves me, He loves me not.
I suggest this - God is good all the time. You can't have it both ways. If God is good, He is good when we have layoffs, loved ones get cancer, whether we have reliable transportation or have to walk on foot. He knows what we don't know. He knows how even the worst of circumstances are working for our good. If we believe this with all of our hearts, we can't always discern where to give credit or place blame.
This thought becomes a picture in the Hiding Place with Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie. While sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis, they discover the most horrific conditions in their bunks - the horrid stench of vomit and body odor, mixed with lice and fleas. Betsie urges Corrie to "give thanks in all circumstances" by praying and thanking God for these things. Corrie does so on her sister's urging, begrudgingly. Later they realize that these very conditions are what kept the guards out of their barracks, and in essence protected the women in their company from violation. To whom would we give credit for this terrible form of rescue?
I do not know the answers, and I am not a theologian. I am one person walking humbly before you trying to know God better in the day to day of it. I am not sure I always get it right, but I know that He will never fail me - devil or no devil!

Food for Thought - Salvation

This question was posed in another online conversation and I thought I would ask to my dear readers here.

If you knew, without exception that God would save every man - that no one for any reason would miss heaven, would you feel delighted or disappointed? and why?

Please don't forget the why part - one way or another how would you feel. I look forward to your comments, and please check back here for reply comments from others, as well as myself. It will keep the "conversation" here going in a fluid fashion.

The Truth - Vertigo

Turn off the player to the left - and be sure to watch to the end.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

This was on the Houston Christian radio station - and there has been a lot of hub-bub about the wisdom of this little man. I didn't know until my friend Carol sent me a link that they had it on YouTube.

Does Prayer Change Things?

Yesterday I passed a church with a message board out front that said "Prayer Changes Things". I've heard a hundred different flavors of this same message - "Prayer Works", "Prayer Can Change the World", etc. I suddenly don't get it. What is prayer?
Wikipedia says this:

Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate, commonly with a sequence of words, with a deity or spirit for the purpose of worshiping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing sins or to express one's thoughts and emotions.

I think this would be a fairly accurate assessment of the common understanding about prayer. My thinking is this – when we say prayer changes things, we make God the passive activist of our wills. It is God alone who changes things as He purposes or wills. Yes, He allows us to come to Him as a child to their father with our petitions, but in the end has to choose the best.

I understand the sentiment behind such a statement – but we need to always be cautious to remember that it is not the Lord who does our bidding, but the other way around. It is a common expression that tends to credit the power to the person praying, when indeed true prayer is an act of humility in relationship with Father, and a confession in the act itself that we are powerless.

Geesh, I wish I could just drive through neighborhoods and notice the colors of people's shutters!

Small Christianity

I get inundated with emails from time to time, typically forwards from lists that others are on with don't read this book, don't watch that movie, etc. I used to belong to every "family activist" type list you could imagine - and they spewed out this stuff in massive doses. Things were boycotted, banned, rallied for or against, etc. What I have learned is that I don't need another living person to tell me what is right or wrong, but the Holy Spirit that dwells in me. I am not scared to watch, read or listen to something that contradicts what I believe. In fact, quite often instead of weakening my faith, it makes me stronger. When the rubber meets the road, and I see, or read or hear something that causes me to dig deep into what I really hold to be true, and give voice to my faith, I grow. From a parental standpoint, I am trying to raise my kids just the same way. I am not afraid for them to hear things that are different from what we have told them. We have grounded them, and are grounding them in the truth, but allowing them to learn to voice the truth for themselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit in them. We want them to learn to hear the Lord's voice and not ours streaming through their heart and mind, shooting down falsehoods and discerning false teachers and teachings.
I do appreciate the information, but what I've concluded is this - if our faith comes down to a series of "dos" and "don'ts" on some man-made list of what we should embrace or avoid, I think our Christianity has gotten pretty small. Instead of being a force of abundant living, it is a crippling taskmaster. If God trusted us each enough to give us a free will, then He can certainly trust us to live free and not check our brains at the door!

More Than His Ten Percent

As our family has taken a step away from the church building, and sought to live more in the body of Christ, one thing that I have pondered was how we were going to give from what we have been given to the Lord. I have wondered how much of what is given in the rotation of the shiny gold or silver plates with the felt bottoms that go by with pomp and ceremony is done out of a sense of obligation with very little heart of worship. I know personally that I gave (when I did) hoping that God would bless me - and I think most of the time I was missing the point. A lot has changed in my heart. I have asked God to show me opportunities to participate in what He is doing, and l have been astounded in the last 24 hours at the ways they have seemingly fallen from the sky.

• Yesterday afternoon, I was heading out to get an alignment on my van. On the way I stopped at the closest gas station to my house to tank up, but for some reason that is even unknown to me, I decided not to get my gas there but go to the next station up the road. When I pulled in, Kullen helped get the gas pump started and the lady in the next lane said, "'Scuse me ma'am, but I'm trying to get to (a town an hour away) and I don't have any money for gas. If you could help me with five dollars of gas (which by the way would never have gotten her there), you could follow me there and I'll get my check, and pay you back." Let me also explain that it was about 2000 degrees in the shade and she was driving a car without air conditioning. I am always suspicious of such situations, and assessed it as quickly as I could, and I told her to wait and I would go inside and pay for some gas. Kullen and I also bought her a large coke with ice and sent her on the way, certain that God had put her in our path so that we could help her. She kept saying, "God bless you. God bless you."
  
• Tonight, a neighbor's adult son was here. He has been having marriage trouble, and financial trouble, and just generally an all around difficult life. He has recently given his life to the Lord, however his problems did not instantly vanish. He has gotten a job in Kansas, but does not have the gas money to get there.
  

Two opportunities to give and serve and love with the hands and feet and wallet of Christ. Isn't He the coolest?

Sucking the Life Out of Me

I don't like to rant about my children, and what little ogres they can be. Honestly, God spared nothing in this mother's heart of affinity and affection for her offspring but there are days when you can at least relate with the animal mothers that eat their young. Tonight was one of those nights for me. I was very excruciatingly sleepy around 8 pm but was visiting with family and did not get in bed until closer to 11 pm. My 9 yo son was staying up with his sisters and cousins and friend, and asked if he could wait a while to go to bed - so I said he could come to bed at 11:30 but not to wake me. Then somewhere around 11:30 as I was just starting to doze off, he came in and leaned over my sleeping body and asked if he could stay up just a little bit longer - they had gotten into some game and he wanted to finish. I said alright, but NOT to wake me again. At 12:30, I saw the room where I was sleeping was lit up, and heard a loud buzzing sound - and found my son had turned on the light and had started a nebulizer (used for breathing treatments for asthmatics). It was his cousin's and he just wanted to check it out. I asked him WHAT on earth he was doing. He must have realized he had provoked some sort of murderous rage, and turned everything off and left the room. I laid there angry, unable to just drift back to sleep, when the realization hit me that it was almost 1 am and he is still awake and that whatever game he had been playing was obviously over. I am tired, angry and ever so frustrated at the inability to get this child to understand how hateful it is to wake someone when they are sleeping. I have two children that have no regard for this, and I am not sure how they have gotten the idea that whatever they want to do is more important than a person's rest. I stormed out there and drug his little butt to bed. He listened to me as I explained that tomorrow I have to function without having had enough sleep and he apologized. I am trying to consciously parent my children the way the Lord parents me, but the thought crossed my mind a little while ago - as I lay in bed too frustrated to sleep again that God doesn't experience sleep deprivation. I hope He will help me be patient, as He is always patient with me. I have never woken Him up - but I know I have grieved His heart.

Prayer Request - Our Pastor's Family

When we started visiting the church we are currently attending on the last day of 2006, the pastor shared with us that his mother had just been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He is a self-professed “mama’s boy” and you could tell it to be true by how he spoke of her. Sometime this weekend – there was some confusion at church this morning about whether it was Friday or Saturday – his mother went to meet Jesus. Please pray for this hurting family.

I would like you to especially pray for this precious man that they call “Brother Randal”. He’s a big old guy with the dearest heart, and he loves the Lord so much. But as I have recently read A Grief Observed, I have come to know that even those whose faith is strong can be shaken while grieving. Pray for his strength.

This morning, the substitute pastor preached out of Habakkuk – chapter 3, verses 17-19 – which say this:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

We can rejoice in the Lord in spite of our circumstances. And yet saying this to someone who is grieving seems as if you have no understanding of their pain. Through the grief, it is the enemy’s battle plan to take us out. Please pray for this man of God that he would be able to stand, even through this greatest hurt of his life.

While this was on my heart today, I read this wonderful post about death at a blog I read frequently – and it says it all. Death has been swallowed up in victory! I Cor. 15:54

Lord, please comfort the hearts of Brother Randal and his family with this blessed assurance.

False Sense of Security

The area where we moved took a hard hit by Hurricane Rita about a year and a half ago. (Sept. 05)The general area has cleaned up and recovered for the most part, although there are houses which nobody will ever live in again here and there. But, it really struck me on a hike in the Big Thicket how devastating that storm was. A large number of mature trees were laying on their sides all in the same direction. I just stood there and imagined what it must have been like. A truly terrifying experience. Many of the trees were mature with deep roots and yet pulled straight out of the ground. (What a picture as I prayed God would make me like the ones that were able to stand during the terrible storm.)
I have been having repeated conversations with people over the past couple weeks about how nothing is sure except Jesus. The people in our Sunday school class have shared much about their experience through the storm - and I have noticed how many life lessons they learned through that experience, as every subject of any depth that comes up seems to have a "Rita" story attached to it. Many of these people for the first time in their lives faced daily living without electricity, refrigeration, clean water. It was uncharacteristically HOT for that time of the year and there were epic proportions of mosquitoes.
The stories they tell make me think of the storms in my life. Seasons of my husband being unemployed, having a baby with serious health problems, having to move out of a rent house because the owners sell it or decide they want to move back in, my parents' divorce as a young child, rocky seasons in my marriage, the insecurity of leaving stable home and best group of friends I have ever known, etc. The strong winds blow over and over in this life. During those times of trial, you realize in a raw an tangible way that there is nothing secure except our Lord. No college education, job, family situation, no relationship, no lifestyle. Absolutely nothing, including our next breath is guaranteed us. Strangely we realize these things in times of trial, but when life gets good again, our minds shroud this truth of great importance. We start relying on our own abilities, and what our own hands have made.
Lord, make my heart ever aware that you are the only thing in this life that is faithful, sure and true.

Blog Referral

When you read a blog entry that inspires you, you just have to share it with the whole wide world -(okay, okay maybe with the 4 other people who randomly read your blog) so I had to share this post entitled "God Cannot Be Defined". It was authored by my own 15 year old daughter. She has some thoughts so deep that I feel like I need scuba gear to go there with her!

Pit Dweller No More!

I am a frequent visitor at the blog of one, Boomama. One day while innocently visiting there, I read an announcement that she was going to be starting a "Bloggity Book Club". My first instinct was to RUN. I love to read books, and I love book discussions, but I don't have time, money, energy for another one right now, or so I thought. At the same time this announcement goes out, I hear that HSB is also starting up a Literary Club. And, (shameless plug) some friends and I are starting an Inklings book club reading C.S. Lewis and other Christian authors on a yahoo group. (See the sidebar to join us!)

At any rate, I digress.

I skimmed the post about the book club at Boomama's, learned that they were going to be discussing Beth Moore's new book Get Out of That Pit, and decided, nah. Okay, my first and most shallow reason for abstaining is that the book, being newly released would be in hardback only. I absolutely loathe hardback books, and especially ones that come with dust covers, even if cutie-patootie Beth Moore is on it. But, a week or so later, I was in Sam's club and saw "the book". It was only $12 which is very reasonable for a new hardback book, and when I picked it up, it just felt right. (not too heavy, nice paper) I know it's a weird way to examine a book – but reading is not just in the brain, it is kinesthetic and aesthetic for me as well. If the book feels weird, I just can't do it. I am certain there is medicine for this, however, since it is only this one little thing, I think I'll just allow myself to ruminate in this one itty bitty little quirky behavior. (Those of you that know me ITF "in the flesh" can keep your comments to yourselves!) Long story short - I bought the book.

All kidding aside, I just finished it, and while I'll reserve the majority of my comments for the discussion that I intend to participate in fully, I will share something that God spoke almost audibly, as if the words lifted off the pages and became sound – because I've been hurting in this specific way for a little over a week. On pg 176 was a statement that spoke right to my wounded spirit:

Nobody gets the right to keep you in a pit or to shame you for bailing. Not even your mama.

In context, Beth was explaining how some people (specifically family) get mad when you leave the pit of family dysfunction and seek to live life in the freedom that comes from Jesus Christ. I know what she means – boy, do I know.

I Saw the Lord

Evidently God wants to drive home the fact that He is all that I need. This morning I read this from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest:

"In the year King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord." Isaiah 6:1 Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the "passing of the hero." Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died – I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? Or I saw the Lord?

I will train my eyes to see the Lord. I was just telling my friend Joanne yesterday that God wanted me to learn something in this time of loneliness – that when He is all I have, I come to know that He truly is all that I need. Not a clique, but a ever present reality. I am so overwhelmed that He has taken such pains to speak to me over and over again.

There was also another verse this morning – Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me. Psalm 27:10 Thank You Lord – Thank You, Thank You.

The Fellowship of Suffering

After my post yesterday about being an open person, and how freely I share, I have been sitting on a tremendous hurt since yesterday afternoon. I opened my email to an emotional bomb - with devastating consequences. In fact, it hurt so much that I could not even muster up words. My sweet husband knelt with me at the foot of our bed and prayed while I cried. I am grieving a loss - for about the millionth time, which you would think would make it easier, and yet for some reason, it seems to make it worse. However, the Lord and I have walked a long road of fellowship in this. He continues to remind me that He knows what rejection feels like and while it hurts deeper - I am more able to handle it than ever before. I know that there is a spiritual principle here somewhere that I cannot identify, other than maturity.
My thoughts are slightly clouded by grief - someone that I love - in fact one of my parents - has chosen to sever a relationship with me. There is nothing I can say or do - as I know from past history. I am thankful that while it continues to repeat itself, God shows no limit of pouring love and forgiveness through my heart to strengthen me for the roller coaster ride that this relationship mandates. I am innocent of blame. Their perceived injury is that of Satan's design, and he continually blinds their eyes and encapsulates their heart.
This morning I was so comforted by this verse - John 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Jesus was familiar with the sting of rejection from those we would have expected to love Him the most. I know Christ better by sharing in the "fellowship of His sufferings". If walking this road is necessary to experience the power of His resurrection, fill my heart with courage Lord.
God spoke comfort to my heart this morning with this verse as well - (in italics)
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
I know the answer to this question is YES.
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
I know the Lord will not forget me. I know that He loves me. I know that all the things that have transpired in a lifetime Satan meant for evil, but my Lord intends to use them for His good.

And as I write this, I can hear my children down the hall singing from Matthew West's song, Only Grace, these words, "there's only grace, there's only love, there's only mercy and believe me, it's enough, your sins are gone without a trace, there's nothing left now, there's only grace". The Lord has freed first me, and then my children. I am so blessed. I am so very very blessed.

Bridge to Terabithia - Movie Review

I took the kids to see the new Bridge to Terabithia movie yesterday afternoon. I am glad that we had a chance to read the book before the movie came out. It always gives me a sense of accomplishment, and is nice for the kids to use discerning eyes and notice differences and similarities.
The story is sweet and sad. It is a story about unlikely friendship, and sincerely loyalty. Two children, a boy and girl that need each other become friends and conquer the world - both enemies in the real world, and foes in the imaginary world of Terabithia that they create for themselves - an escape from their not so rosy reality.
I love the imaginations of the main characters, and the example of how a vivid imagination can be contagious. I like that a boy and girl can be friends, innocently.
One thing that was a little more exaggerated in the movie than in the book is when the female character, Leslie Burke goes to church with her friend, Jesse Aaron's family. On the way home they are talking about Jesus and God. She doesn't believe that God would "damn a soul to hell", yet she goes on to say that the story is beautiful. She tells Jesse that he has to believe it (evidently because it is his "religion") and hates it - but she doesn't have to believe it and thinks it is beautiful. It is one of those conversations that might make you uneasy if it weren't for the fact that it is incomplete.
The story is sad, and we can all relate to the sense of regret, and the sentiments of "if only" that resonate in the sadness. I don't mind a sad story sometimes. There is an understanding that into each life a little rain must fall (although some people seem to get a torrential downpour and others seem to get drizzle), that connects us all as part of the human experience.

Current Mood: Vulnerable

Have you ever seen those blog buttons that some people put up that express the "current mood" of the blogger? I've always thought those were interesting. In the vast forms of awkward communication available on the internet, body language, facial expression and tone of voice cannot play into how the message is being transmitted or received. Sometimes these little buttons help you with depth-perception, and understanding of the written word. If I had one of those cute little stamps right now, it would be say that my current mood is "vulnerable". It seems that situations happen in clusters that make me feel insecure, and I can be overwhelmed by this sense of worthlessness.
Several specific things have happened that I can pinpoint:

• Someone I love is playing games with me - not returning my calls, etc. (this is a cyclical situation with this person)
  
• At work, a group email goes around - and as soon as I give input it goes silent
• Not finding a niche where I fit in at a new church, or making any personal friends

I know that I am particularly prone to these feelings. A few years ago I did a Bible study called "Loving God With All Your Mind" by Phyllis George and it helped me to understand that women in general are prone to these kinds of feelings. And I am thankful that I can apply truth to my feelings - and don't have to be overcome by them.
One of my most mature Christian friends, and someone who helped me learn to walk with Christ helped me understand years ago that there is this battle constantly raging in our minds. It helps to know you're not alone. Perhaps that is the very best motivation for sharing a post such as this!

Lessons From Facing the Giants

I watched Facing the Giants for the second time tonight at church with the youth group - Kullen went too. I am sure that by now most everyone has heard of it - but if you haven't seen it yet, please don't miss it. I have taken away so much from the movie - here are some of the lessons I've learned:

1. Never, never, never give up - keep going, keep going, you can do it
2. When you win, you praise Him - and when you lose, you praise Him
3. Even during times of pain and trial, God is still God and He deserves our love and praise
4. God is into giving us the desires of our heart
5. With God all things are possible - nothing is impossible with Him
6. No matter how big the enemy - God is bigger still
7. You give it your best and you trust God with the results
8. Keep praying - P.U.S.H. - pray until something happens

#7 is my favorite - that is going to become a life motto - very motivating! This can be applied to absolutely any part of life.
I have heard more than one person say that they weren't interested in seeing the movie because they think it is all about football. This movie was not about football - but used the coach and the team and the picture of coming against an enemy to show spiritual truth. I don't like sports movies either - but thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
More later - I have a lot of thoughts about this movie, but it's too late to articulate them all!