Posts Tagged: “A Wrinkle in Time

“Regaining the Outward Focus and the Upward Focus”

On April 28, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer


“Today, by God’s grace, I am not focused on my weaknesses, but on the strengths God gives me for His glory and the well-being of everyone.  I will be upwardly-focused and outwardly-focused today.”

I tend to beat myself up for my weaknesses.  This, of course, makes my weaknesses much stronger.

So, because my weaknesses are becoming stronger, I focus on them even more intensely.  Round and round the mulberry bush I go.

If a strategy or habit isn’t working, it might be best to try something else.  If a strategy or habit is making the problem worse, it would definitely be best to try something else.

My mom used to get after me sometimes when I was growing up for being too concerned about myself.  She even thought my attempts at improving myself were sometimes too selfish.  I have long since realized that she was right.

But how to get out of this hellish echo chamber?  Is there a twelve-step group called “Self-involved So-and-Sos Anonymous”?  Perhaps there should be.  Or, perhaps, such a group would only be perpetuating the problem?

Two things might help my preoccupation with my weaknesses, faults, and failures.  One is outward focus.  Be grateful for things that are not me.  Be interested in other people.  Do some kind things for people every day.  It doesn’t have to be anything big.  Little kindnesses are often all that is needed to brighten someone’s day.

And then, there is the upward focus.  I find that, when I look around in an appreciative and kindly manner, I am more about to look upward toward God.  The converse is also true.  Sometimes, I have to look up, even when I’m not sure that God is even there.  Faith is not the absence of doubts.  Faith is trusting God even when you have profound doubts.

Don’t get me wrong.  It is sometimes necessary to look inward, and is not always an easy thing to do.  However, if that is all that I do, if I never look around or up, I am going to get terribly cross-eyed.

I need to remember what Mrs. Whatsit said to Meg in A Wrinkle in Time: “Meg, I give you your faults.”  Accepting my weaknesses, my faults, is absolutely vital to looking upward and outward.

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“ ‘A WRINKLE IN TIME’: MOVIES VERSUS BOOKS”

On March 12, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

DTEB, “ ‘A WRINKLE IN TIME”: MOVIES VERSUS BOOKS”

My wife and I went to see “A Wrinkle in Time” on Saturday.  It was worth going to see, and I would recommend it to others.  However, I still like the book better.  I generally like books better than I do movies.  I wonder why?

I don’t think that it has anything to do with the fact that Oprah Winfrey had a minor part in it.  I actually like Oprah Winfrey—at least, some of the time.

Nor was it the fact that Meg (one of the main characters) was the daughter of interracial parents.  I was surprised by that, but not terribly put-off by it.  I think that my preference for the book “A Wrinkle in Time” (as well as my general love for books) stems from other reasons.

I think part of it may be that, with books, I can read at my own pace.  Movies drag me along at their own break-neck speed.  While reading a book, I can pause, or go back and read a sentence or a paragraph again.  I can ponder.  In the case of movies, there isn’t a lot of pondering time allowed.  You’ve no doubt noticed some of the announcements that they run just before the movie.  “TURN OFF YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES!”  That sort of thing.  Perhaps they should make an announcement “NO PONDERING ALLOWED!”

Then too, movies tell me and show me too much.  Good books suggest, but also leave room for imagination.  Movies suggest too much.  (It gives “suggestive movies” a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?)

As a particular aspect of books leaving more room for imagination, books let me identify with the various characters more than movies do.  In the case of movies, I am seeing characters.  In the case of books, I am being characters.

Of course, as a lover of the Bible, you would expect me to say that I like the Bible better than movies based on the Bible.  And you would be right!  The Bible (the book, not the movie) draws me into it, causes me to ponder, argue with it, fuss and fume.  The Bible gives me time to ponder . . . and ponder . . . and ponder some more.

 

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