Hanging Out in the Land of the Sadducees
- Knights in submission to God's will
Knight showing submission
- Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son
Obedience - The First Knightly Virtue
I had lunch recently with a young friend of mine, and I asked him to share with me his thoughts on the subject of obedience - what he thinks of when he hears that word, etc. He shared some ideas, and then said, "You know, a lot of people might interpret your articles as being legalistic."
"Really," I said with a wry smile. "But you've never actually read any of my articles, so how would you know?" He said that he had. "How many?" I asked. He finally confessed that he had only read a couple.
Then he clarified his statement: "My generation is so grace-oriented that anything other than grace sounds legalistic." I see. So, if I try to balance grace with, say, discipline, that's legalistic. I would agree with him that his generation is grace-crazy; but I would call it something else - LICENTIOUSNESS.
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, let me explain the difference between grace and licentiousness... and, for that matter, legalism and obedience.
Backpacking on Mount LeConte
Sunrise at Icewater Spring
Getting fresh water the hard way, with a microfilter pump
Charlie's Bunion: a magnificent rocky craig flanked on either side by a narrow walkway that is dangerously precipitous
My friend Larry Smith took all these photos. He has painted this view of Charlie's Bunion, as well as other scenes from the Appalachian Trail. See the banner ad at the bottom of this page.
There is nothing like an early morning walk in the woods. 
Me, with two of my friends. I'm on the left. We weren't this happy for the entire trip, believe me. Read about our trudge up "Mount Mordor" below.
They're not called the "Smokey Mountains" for nothing. This was the morning after the big storm, coming down the other side of Mount LeConte.
We were on the Appalachian Trail in early June, which is when most of the flowers are in bloom. It looked like a professional landscaper had come in and worked his magic. Well, the truth is, He had.
Coming back down on the Alum Cave Trail
There are some very clever, unique sections to Alum Cave Trail, like this staircase, which, I believe, was made of logs. Flowers and petals sprinkled much of our trail over the four days.
This is the river at the base of Mounte LeConte, which we followed out. Larry has painted this as well. Unfortunately, at a spot near the end of the trail, a bus-load of teenagers decided to walk up the river, disturbing the rocks and upsetting the natural balance of the river. The only bad thing about being out in nature is seeing how disrespectful humans can be.
Four Days and Forty Miles on the Appalacian Trail and the Tallest Mountain in the Eastern United States
I don't think I have to sell anyone on the beauty of North Carolina in general or Great Smoky Mountain National Park in particular. It is the most visited park in the national park system, boasting the greatest variety of animals in the world (with over 1,600 black bears), more flowering plants than any other North American national park (over 1,600 varieties), more native tree species than all of northern Europe (over 100), over 800 miles of maintained hiking trails (including the famed Appalachian Trail), and a range in elevation from 800 to 6,643 feet, including the tallest mountain in the Eastern United States, Mount LeConte. To say the least, it is spectacular and breathtaking.
In 2007, I had the opportunity to hike up Mount LeConte with three buddies as part of a four-day, 40-mile backpacking trip. Little did we know that the weather would turn against us, and we would almost be fighting for our lives before we reached the top. But starting out, it was very pleasant. That's the way mountains are: they change on you suddenly. One minute they're loving on you, and the next they're trying to kill you, as Jim Craig points out to Jessica in The Man From Snowy River.
Anyone Feeling Confused?
Sometimes Confusion is a Good Thing
I went to my Bible study group yesterday where we read a chapter together silently, and then the leader calls on people to share their thoughts on one or two verses or ideas. We usually have 12 to 15 people there. Yesterday, we read John 7, and then I sat there in quiet amazement as this group of seasoned Christians rambled and stumbled about things that, seemingly, had nothing to do with the text. Many were retrospective, recalling events from their past that also seemed to have little to do with what we just read. As I sat there listening, I asked God to show me what was going on. The best I could determine was that Holy Week is a very confusing time.
I don't know if it's this way for unbelievers, but for Christians, I think Holy Week is a time for reexamining who Christ is and what He means to us personally - and I don't think that is a comfortable or reassuring thing to do. If anything, it is humbling, because we realize how short we come up when we compare who we are and what we do with who He is and what He did. We bring nothing to the cross and He brings everything. We are weak, needy people who desperately needed Him to die for us.
As all the characters of the crucifixion stood there that day watching Christ die, I can understand why they were confused.
Field Of Dreams
Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella; Amy Madigan as his wife, Annie; Gaby Hoffmann as his daughter, Karin; and Dwier Brown as Ray's father, John.
Most Inspiring Film, 1989 - 5-Star Masterpiece
Field Of Dreams is about Lost Dreams and the Place to Find Them
And it's about baseball; but baseball is just a metaphor for something bigger. It's about an Iowa farmer named Ray who hears a voice that tells him, "If you build it, he will come." He knows the Voice wants him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield; which, oddly enough, he's willing to do because he thinks it will keep him from ending up like his dad - a man that "never did one spontaneous thing in his life." But he thinks the field is for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson - one of the infamous eight "Black Sox" that were barred from baseball for life in 1920 - so he will come and play baseball again... which he does, but that's not the reason for the field.
Later, Ray gets a second message that tells him, "Ease his pain," which sends him off on a road trip to pick up Terence Mann - really J. D. Salinger, author of Catcher In The Rye, according to Shoeless Joe, the book on which the film is based - and a small town doctor named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham. Kevin Costner plays Ray, Amy Madigan plays his wife Annie, Ray Liotta play Shoeless Joe, James Earl Jones plays Terence Mann, and Burt Lancaster plays Moonlight Graham. Together they find their dreams on a baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. But, as wonderful as all this is, that is still not why Ray was told to build the field.
At the climax of the film, Ray has to make a choice between selling his farm in order to keep from being foreclosed on, and risking everything in order to keep the baseball diamond. At that point, Terence Mann makes a little speech about what is best about America, and how baseball has marked the time throughout the years and helped keep us on track. Both he and Ray's daughter, Karin (played by Gaby Hoffmann), tell Ray that if he keeps the baseball diamond, people will come and pay to see it, and that will save the farm.
But what is the baseball diamond, really?
Technology Meltdown
I already nearly lost one close friend to texting and driving. I don't want to spend the next several years attending funerals of younger friends. Is the ability to text really worth your life?
No one knows the full extent of damage the gaming industry is causing to the psyches of younger Americans, but movies like this one, starring Gerard Butler, show how sick the industry is.
They say you become what you look at. Based on what we're looking at, what are we becoming?
The monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein may be strangely prophetic.
What are we becoming?
What are our children becoming? This is a sad, lonely picture.
Get ready for...
Is This Thing We're So Proud Of Destroying Us?
For the past couple of weeks, the eyes of most Americans, and the world, have been glued to their screens watching the world's greatest athletes perform wonders in the snowy Canadian countryside. And rightly so. But is this thing we're so proud of destroying us? I'm not talking about the Winter Olympics, which have been inspiring. I'm referring to the technology that is bringing those games into our homes, cars, offices, and basically every place we now occupy. We are a technology-saturated, technology-obsessed society, with new devices being introduced almost faster than consumers can absorb them.
Is all this technology destroying us?
Before you poo poo that idea, let me offer some examples.
Example #1: A good friend of mine was recently driving 70 mph, ran off the highway, hit a parked car, rolled twice and was almost killed because he was using his iPhone when he should have been concentrating on his driving. The Department of Transportation says that it is 10 times more dangerous to text and drive than it is to drink and drive.
Waitsel’s Best Movies of 2009
Grab your popcorn and drink and let's talk.
It's that time of year, when everybody and their brother publishes a "Best of 2009" movie list. It's really becoming annoying. What makes my list different, I hope, is that I try to have a certain amount of objectivity and discernment about it. Just because I personally like certain aspects of a film or certain actors that are in it isn't enough to include it on my list: the film has to have some major redeeming values; which, today, is becoming increasingly more difficult to find. But, there are still some good movies out there, and I hope at some point there will be more. Among the values I look for are artistic merit; spiritual, cultural and historical relevance; humanity; and just plain good story-telling.
I apologize for the length of this article, but it contains a lot of information I think you will find interesting. After my list of the nine movies I liked best from 2009, I offer my comments on six films I was supposed to like but didn't, ten films to look forward to in 2010, and some reflections on the film industry in general. So, here we go.
BEST DRAMA / MOST INSPIRING - The Blind Side - 5-Star Masterpiece
If you don't see any other film from 2009, you have to see this one. Not only is it good drama and even inspiring, Sandra Bullock (The Proposal, Crash, Miss Congeniality) is to die for. She plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a real-life, very high-mainteance, incredibly focused, tenacious wife, mother and interior designer, living a very wealthy lifestyle with her family in Memphis, Tennessee. One fateful rainy night, the family meets and decides to help a young, homeless black student from their children's private Christian school. He is Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), future All-American and first round NFL draft pick; but at the time, an introverted, poor student with only two qualities that might possibly help him to become a football player: his size and his protective instincts. Leigh Anne, with the help of husband Sean (Tim McGraw), son S.J. (Jae Head) and daughter Collins (Lily Collins), along with coach Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon), help Michael to see his potential and use it to become, not only a talented football player, but a good student and an honorable man. So that, by the end of the film, he has coaches from all over the South vying for his recruitment.
This is a true story, based on the book by Michael Lewis (The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game), and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Alamo, Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, A Perfect World), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Lewis. Country music recording artist Tim McGraw is enjoyable as good-natured husband Sean, and also does the soundtrack. But Sandra Bullock steals the film. I know how good she is because I grew up in a Southern family with interior designers, and they're all high-maintenance, focused and tenacious like that. What makes Bullock's character extraordinary is the courage, heart and vision she adds to those qualities. But she never smiles... until the end of the film, and it's a classic moment. Another terrific scene is when the coaches from different universities are looking at a video of Oher blocking an opposing player that has been antagonizing him all game, and pushing him all the way down the field, into the end zone and over the fence. That's just one of the many times you'll laugh and cry simultaneously. This movie makes me glad there is still a movie industry.
PG-13