Everyone Deserves a Movie

A couple of days ago, I saw the movie The Glass Castle, based on the best-selling book. The story tracks the trajectory of a family from the viewpoint of the daughter. It is an insightful and heartbreaking journey, filled with bravado, alcohol, and pain. The mother and father end up in the Lower East Side in the late 80's and 90's, living in an abandoned building.

We at Graffiti knew that couple, the mother much better than the father. The mother, Rosemary, was a painter and she came to a number of our events--food, care for animals, clothing, and so forth. If someone told me then that she would be the subject of a best-selling book and a Hollywood film, portrayed by a famous actor, I wouldn't have believed it. She was simply one of many remarkable characters that were associated with the Graffiti mission--unsinkable, unique, plucky, artistic.

Small is big. She seemed like one more small life in a sea of people, but now her story has been shaped and expanded for millions.

I think today of all the other amazing people who haven't gotten a movie. What depths of feeling do I walk by every day? Who is that person really when we give out a sandwich in the park? Everyone deserves a movie.

If You Start Fast You End Up Slow . . .

If you start fast you end up slow . . .

And if you start slow, you end up fast. This isn't always true, but it sometimes is. I've been encouraging some young adults in ministry this week. Numbers are strange things. They can encourage us when actually things aren't going well, and they can discourage us when things really are going well.

It doesn't seem like much was happening for Jesus when he was 22 years old, or 25, or even 29 years old.

If he was tempted in all the ways we are, I wonder if he ever had times when he felt as though he was on the slow track and all his friends seemed as though they were on the fast track. Here he was, still lugging lumber around and setting masonry in a small village, and he wasn't getting any younger.

Oh well, I've seen ministries that touched thousands in the beginning, but not many results came from them after a short while. I've also seen hidden ministries that worked with very few, and later, sometimes a lot later, what was done just took off beyond anyone's imagination. It's just the way things are sometimes.