Last April my family and I boarded a plane back from Nigeria. As we got settled for the eight-hour flight, my little brother and I scanned the list of available in-flight movies. There were little icons next to each movie to show why it might not be appropriate for children. Rather than scanning the movies by their titles, I scanned through the list by counting those icons. It went something like this: "violence, mature themes, language; violence, language; language, mature themes; violence; language; excessive violence; excessive language; nothing; violence." Wait, what was that? A nothing! My heart soared. There was one movie on this flight that was appropriate for all audiences! I investigated further and found this one and only innocent movie to be the TinkerBell movie. I will admit to you, dear readers, that I was a bit skeptical about this. A straight-to-DVD movie made for kids, starring that fairy who was always so incredibly rude to Wendy in Peter Pan? How good could it possibly be?
I will further admit to you, my friends, that this straight-to-DVD movie, made for kids, turned out to be one of my very favorite movies of all time. It was wonderful, it was fun, it was innocent. I fell in love. Back at home, I watched it again with a friend of mine, and we laughed and sighed and marveled at the beauty of it. Oh TinkerBell, how you have enriched my life.
Naturally, coming to college, I could not hide this great love for TinkerBell and her straight-to-DVD greatness for long, especially with a sequel coming out in the near future. Many of my conversations went something like this:
Friend: Did you see Zombieland?
Me: No, thank you.
Friend: It was like the best movie ever! So funny!
Me: Not like TinkerBell, though. That's the best movie ever.
Friend: Haha, good one.
.... (silence)....
Friend: Oh, you're serious.
Me: The sequel comes out October 27th.
Friend: Yeah...
After many similar interactions, one brave friend of mine decided that he needed to see this movie that had apparently so greatly impacted my life. I went home for a weekend and assured him that I would retrieve the movie and soon he would share in the greatness that comes from knowing this lovely and innocent TinkerBell.
When finally time and homework allowed us to watch it, I must confess I was terribly nervous. What if he hated it? What if everyone mocked my flitterific fairy friends forever? It was a risk I would have to take. They had to know the joys of TinkerBell. So we recruited a few more people and began the movie, and some of my dreams were realized as everyone laughed, sighed, and marveled at the beauty of it along with me. My friend Gavin even began planning to compose a Broadway musical version of the movie.
Pondering all this, I am drawn to the conclusion that I have some wonderful friends. I was first amazed by their willingness to watch my movies which to anyone would sound like a painful way to spend an hour, and then ecstatic as they accepted and enjoyed it. And I am drawn back to the passage in Romans 15:5-7 where Paul writes, "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." I am attracted by the idea of unity in Christ, an innate acceptance of each other, something that ought to come naturally to us because we have the greatest things in common. And I am compelled again by the idea that even as we try to live out this life of accepting each other in love, Christ has already given us the perfect example, and already allowed us to be truly accepted, and loved. It's just magical.
Truly His,
Caroline
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Waldo, where art thou?
Dearest Readers, I must apologize once again for the infrequency of my blogs. I do hope your week went well even without my ramblings. While I haven't been writing here, I have been researching what to wear for a Halloween costume. The girls on my floor at Biola are all celebrating Halloween together for what is called a GYRAD (Get Your Roommate A Date). This means that every girl is expected to come to this event with a guy, wearing matching costumes.
A friend of mine altruistically agreed to come with me, and then the true adventure began: figuring out what to wear. Seeing as it was my floor's GYRAD, the responsibility of making a decision and finding a costume fell to me. After much deliberation, a drop of inspiration came to me! My friend has a red and white striped shirt, and whenever he wears it, everyone points out how very much he looks like Waldo from the ever-popular Where's Waldo? books. It was perfect! He would be Waldo, and I would be... well, I didn't know who I would be, but at least now we had somewhere to start.
In the interest of finding a match for his costume I decided to do a little research. I went to my school's library catalog and searched for Where's Waldo? books, to no avail. Luckily for me, our library has access to many, many other libraries in the state, so if a student needs a book that another library has, she can order it and within a few days it will be available for her in our library. A very nifty tool. So I looked in the wider catalog and ordered one of the many Waldo books from another library. A few days later it arrived, and as I was checking it out the librarian observed, "You know, you didn't have to order this from another library, we have a few of these books here. They're just not in the catalog."
Waldo had evaded me again. How very fitting that he would be there, but inconveniently difficult to find. Searching through my newfound Waldo book, I had to wonder about the nature of searching. Why are so many great things hidden? In Jeremiah 29:13-14a God told Jeremiah, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you." I cannot say that I understand why some great things, like Waldo, and like God himself, are hidden from us. But I can see that the fact that they are hidden does not at all mean that they are not here, or that we cannot find them. We were made to seek the things that matter, to chase after the heart of God. And when we truly do so, he promises to let us find him. I don't know about you, but I'm going to start searching.
Truly His,
Caroline
A friend of mine altruistically agreed to come with me, and then the true adventure began: figuring out what to wear. Seeing as it was my floor's GYRAD, the responsibility of making a decision and finding a costume fell to me. After much deliberation, a drop of inspiration came to me! My friend has a red and white striped shirt, and whenever he wears it, everyone points out how very much he looks like Waldo from the ever-popular Where's Waldo? books. It was perfect! He would be Waldo, and I would be... well, I didn't know who I would be, but at least now we had somewhere to start.
In the interest of finding a match for his costume I decided to do a little research. I went to my school's library catalog and searched for Where's Waldo? books, to no avail. Luckily for me, our library has access to many, many other libraries in the state, so if a student needs a book that another library has, she can order it and within a few days it will be available for her in our library. A very nifty tool. So I looked in the wider catalog and ordered one of the many Waldo books from another library. A few days later it arrived, and as I was checking it out the librarian observed, "You know, you didn't have to order this from another library, we have a few of these books here. They're just not in the catalog."
Waldo had evaded me again. How very fitting that he would be there, but inconveniently difficult to find. Searching through my newfound Waldo book, I had to wonder about the nature of searching. Why are so many great things hidden? In Jeremiah 29:13-14a God told Jeremiah, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you." I cannot say that I understand why some great things, like Waldo, and like God himself, are hidden from us. But I can see that the fact that they are hidden does not at all mean that they are not here, or that we cannot find them. We were made to seek the things that matter, to chase after the heart of God. And when we truly do so, he promises to let us find him. I don't know about you, but I'm going to start searching.
Truly His,
Caroline
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Arm in Arm
Disneyland again. I am truly sorry if you tire of hearing about Disneyland, but it seems to be where all the interesting events in my life find their meaning. This last weekend was Parents & Family weekend here at Biola, also known as one of the best weekends of my college career. My parents and my little brother (and by little I mean age, not stature; he's almost a foot taller than me) flew out to hang out with me, catch up on life, and explore my world. Sunday afternoon I spent a lovely time with my family in Disneyland, wandering back and forth between the two parks, eating ice cream, riding rides, sighing when rides were down for maintenance, and just generally enjoying being with my family.
At 7:20 that evening we had made plans to meet a group of my friends from Biola for dinner. This turned out to be a very interesting event to plan, because we could not figure out how many people were coming. In the span of two days the total went from 3 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 14 to finally 13. This all worked out great, the Disney people were more than gracious about accommodating us. After dinner my parents and I said our good-byes and we headed off in separate directions. After many of my friends went in turns assuring me that I have the best parents ever (they were right, by the way), we all headed off toward a ride called California Screamin'. On the way, someone decided it would be a good idea to link arms, so many of us formed a long chain as we frolicked toward the ride. This turned out to be an exceptionally dangerous endeavor. We nearly ran someone into every lamppost we saw, and we had to break our chain several times for many a terrified family.
Thinking on this little walk we took, I cannot help but marvel at how distinctly dangerous it is to walk with people, to trust them. In the case of our journey towards California Screamin', it was particularly dangerous to trust everyone else to lead us, or pull us along, without harm. So many times I almost ran into posts, and so many more times I nearly fell on my face. But that's the thing: scary as it was to almost do those things, I never actually ran into anything or fell over. When faced with the fear of running into something, I still had power to steer the group away from it, or to let go momentarily. And every time I lost my balance, I found that those people who were holding on to me inadvertently held me up. In Romans 15:7 Paul writes, "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." As dangerous as it may sometimes be to accept and to trust others, it is so worth it, because it brings praise to God. I encourage you to face the danger and accept each other.
Truly His,
Caroline
At 7:20 that evening we had made plans to meet a group of my friends from Biola for dinner. This turned out to be a very interesting event to plan, because we could not figure out how many people were coming. In the span of two days the total went from 3 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 14 to finally 13. This all worked out great, the Disney people were more than gracious about accommodating us. After dinner my parents and I said our good-byes and we headed off in separate directions. After many of my friends went in turns assuring me that I have the best parents ever (they were right, by the way), we all headed off toward a ride called California Screamin'. On the way, someone decided it would be a good idea to link arms, so many of us formed a long chain as we frolicked toward the ride. This turned out to be an exceptionally dangerous endeavor. We nearly ran someone into every lamppost we saw, and we had to break our chain several times for many a terrified family.
Thinking on this little walk we took, I cannot help but marvel at how distinctly dangerous it is to walk with people, to trust them. In the case of our journey towards California Screamin', it was particularly dangerous to trust everyone else to lead us, or pull us along, without harm. So many times I almost ran into posts, and so many more times I nearly fell on my face. But that's the thing: scary as it was to almost do those things, I never actually ran into anything or fell over. When faced with the fear of running into something, I still had power to steer the group away from it, or to let go momentarily. And every time I lost my balance, I found that those people who were holding on to me inadvertently held me up. In Romans 15:7 Paul writes, "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." As dangerous as it may sometimes be to accept and to trust others, it is so worth it, because it brings praise to God. I encourage you to face the danger and accept each other.
Truly His,
Caroline
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
I wear many hats. Oh wait, maybe it was none at all.
For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know much about the two excursions I have had to Disneyland during my college career. Oh what merry times they were. On both occasions I spent a considerable amount of time trying on hats. The first time I wandered around a store with hats in many sizes, shapes, and colors, alternating wearing them and making faces in the mirrors. There seemed to be a hat for every style, and I debated with myself, switching hats over and over again, which one I should buy. But of course, on that first visit I had not brought enough money for a hat, so I was left with the excuse of waiting until my roommate's birthday to decide. In the meantime I would simply dream of all those hats and which one was best suited to my life.
Next time rolled around, and this time I was sure I would be able to find the perfect hat. The situation was similar, same store, same mirror, same hats; actually there were even more hats this time, along with the previous suspects. I ran back and forth across the store, holding armfuls of hats and wondering if the employees would be bothered if I just took every hat in the store and sat in front of the mirror until I had decided.
I narrowed it down to three. There was a green one, a sparkly gray one, and a multi-colored, semi-shimmery one. These hats danced on and off my head, chasing each other in circles as I debated. And finally, after an extended period of musical hats, I put them all back and left the store. Because, you see, I have no hats. You may be confused. I expect some of you are saying to your computer screen, "But Caroline, of course you have no hats, that's why you need to buy one!" This is, and always has been, my dilemma in shopping. I have a secret fear that if I wear something that I do not usually wear, people will look at me disapprovingly and say, "Caroline, who do you think you are?" This is why, if you spend enough time with me, within a few weeks you will have memorized most of my wardrobe(not all of it, mind you, because I have a collection of things that I don't wear for the same reason that I don't buy hats).
As I ponder this event, and most of my other shopping experiences, I have to conclude, as I'm sure you already have, that I am being ridiculous. I make my wardrobe choices out of fear of what some extremely bold, critical and angry people(whom I have never met but I still suspect is out there) might say. Psalm 56:4 says "In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" This verse is so simple, and in everyday life should be so easy to obey, and yet so often I have ignored its uncomplicated wisdom. Realizing this, I can only conclude, as I am sure you already have, that the only proper response would be to alter my ways of thinking, and to buy the hat. Look out, world.
Truly His,
Caroline
Next time rolled around, and this time I was sure I would be able to find the perfect hat. The situation was similar, same store, same mirror, same hats; actually there were even more hats this time, along with the previous suspects. I ran back and forth across the store, holding armfuls of hats and wondering if the employees would be bothered if I just took every hat in the store and sat in front of the mirror until I had decided.
I narrowed it down to three. There was a green one, a sparkly gray one, and a multi-colored, semi-shimmery one. These hats danced on and off my head, chasing each other in circles as I debated. And finally, after an extended period of musical hats, I put them all back and left the store. Because, you see, I have no hats. You may be confused. I expect some of you are saying to your computer screen, "But Caroline, of course you have no hats, that's why you need to buy one!" This is, and always has been, my dilemma in shopping. I have a secret fear that if I wear something that I do not usually wear, people will look at me disapprovingly and say, "Caroline, who do you think you are?" This is why, if you spend enough time with me, within a few weeks you will have memorized most of my wardrobe(not all of it, mind you, because I have a collection of things that I don't wear for the same reason that I don't buy hats).
As I ponder this event, and most of my other shopping experiences, I have to conclude, as I'm sure you already have, that I am being ridiculous. I make my wardrobe choices out of fear of what some extremely bold, critical and angry people(whom I have never met but I still suspect is out there) might say. Psalm 56:4 says "In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" This verse is so simple, and in everyday life should be so easy to obey, and yet so often I have ignored its uncomplicated wisdom. Realizing this, I can only conclude, as I am sure you already have, that the only proper response would be to alter my ways of thinking, and to buy the hat. Look out, world.
Truly His,
Caroline
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