I haven’t been this enamored by a movie in as long as I can remember. Several hours later and I can’t stop thinking about it, talking about it, and wanting to see it again.

At the risk of over-stating and over-promising, I’m still gonna say it: Avatar is one of the most innovative, original films to be made in the last 20 years.

James Cameron has spent the last 15 years writing and conceptualizing this EPIC film, a story that at its most basic is a love story wrapped in a war movie set in space. But that ignores the spiritual and philosophical dimension that makes this movie so unique.

We meet Corporal Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) first, on his trip to the planet Pandora, a world occupied by humanoid creatures called the Na’vi. There he meets a native woman named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who helps him to learn about the culture and their people’s beliefs and traditions.

Along the way, he’s faced with physical, emotional and moral challenges, not to mention a middle-of-the-night showdown with a pack of rabid doberman-like wild animals.

I don’t want to give away anymore of the plot. I want people to discover it for themselves. The only thing I will say is that the commercials and trailers don’t do this film any kind of justice. The movie is so much more than I ever expected.

When I first started seeing stills and clips from the movie, I had little to no interest in it. I love James Cameron and I think he’s an innovative filmmaker, but from what I could see, it didn’t seem to interest me. Giant smurfs controlled in a Matrix-like way on some crazy other planet? No thanks.

Then it became really hard to ignore. As the first reviews began to flow in, I began to think that my first judgement may have been incorrect. And the more I heard about it, the more my interest was piqued.

So we went today.

And like I said before, it was one of the best times I’ve had at the movies in my life. I was completely rapt for the full 2 hours and 40 minutes. I didn’t want to move, didn’t want to go to the bathroom, didn’t want to do anything but spend that time with the completely brilliant James Cameron and his perfect film. I leaned forward in my seat almost the whole time because I didn’t want anything else to distract me from what I knew 30 minutes in was the crowning achievement of this man’s illustrious career.

There I go again. People who know me know that I have a tendency to get over-excited and maybe overstate things a little. I promise, I’m not exaggerating on this movie. It really is that good.

This movie manages to make a statement without being preachy. It uses amazing CGI without being cheesy. It has an obvious romantic element without being sentimental. And it has action that is meaningful and exciting without sacrificing it for poor dialogue. When I consider that all of these things can mostly be attributed to Cameron, it’s hard to argue against him to win the Oscar for Best Director.

We will see. He’s certainly set the bar and he’s set it high.

Alli and I had the great opportunity to go see Rob Bell’s “Drops Like Stars” tour at the Uptown Theater tonight.

I’ve talked about Rob Bell on this blog before. Read my post from last week, Rob Bell vs. Joel Osteen, and my review of Velvet Elvis if you want a bit of a primer.

Bell’s “Drops Like Stars” tour is basically a two-hour multimedia sermon focusing mostly on the concept of suffering.

Suffering connects us in a way that health and wealth and money cannot.

His two-hour presentation covers four major issues:

1. The Art of Disruption, or how we are very good at making plans on how our life is supposed to go, but never does.
2. The Art of Honesty, or how pain has a knack for bringing out our truest selves.
3. The Art of Elimination, or what can you let go of?
4. The Art of Possession, which is not the same thing as ownership.

I loved every moment and every lesson and every story of his talk. Bell’s message is on point. His delivery is conversational. He’s funny. He understands people.

One of his true gifts is his ability to teach and present. He engages the audience in so many ways, not just through his content (although that is a wonderful start), he does so through his rhythm and timing, through his body language, through the tone of his voice. He is so amazingly talented, not just in his interpretation of scripture and spirituality, but also in engaging his audience in the challenge of his words.

Bell is phenomenal at what he does, whether it be teaching sermons at his home congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, or writing books like Velvet Elvis and Jesus Wants to Save Christians, or touring different cities and helping people to come to comprehend the purpose of suffering as he does on the Drops Like Stars tour or just inspiring regular folks like me.

If you’re the least bit interested in anything I’ve had to say about him, next time Bell is in Kansas City, I highly suggest going to check him out. You won’t be disappointed. And I will most certainly be there.

Thanks, Rob.

The theme was “Give Your All” and the focus scripture came from the 12th chapter of Mark — the story of the widow’s mite. And while I love that story, it was used enough in the service (including in my children’s focus moment right before my sermon). I wanted to bring something a little different.

So I talked a little about Gary Vaynerchuk‘s new book, Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion. I met Gary at Big Omaha and we had a fun interchange during his Q&A. His passionate approach to business got me thinking about what a passionate approach to God might look like.

I guess that’s enough of an intro.

I will say this, however. For the five years that I’ve run this blog, I’ve never actually posted video of myself giving a sermon. I’ve posted partial contents before and I’ve given a bunch of sermons at different congregations, but never actual video. This is kind of a momentous. So please be nice.

You can view it at Vimeo, too.

The theme is “Give Your All.”

Among the things I may talk about are the following:

• Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It!
• Jason Mraz
• King David’s “underwear-dancing joy”

Religion in the United States has seemingly never been more polarizing. Christians have gotten a bad rap and in some ways it is deserved.

There are some big personalities speaking for Christians in America. Joel Osteen. Rick Warren. Pat Robertson. Glenn Beck? It’s just like different versions of the same voice.

There’s one voice that I wish was speaking a little louder.

Rob Bell.

From the Mars Hill site:

Rob Bell is the Founding Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church. He graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

He is the author of Velvet Elvis and Sex God, and is a coauthor of Jesus Wants to Save Christians. He is also featured in the first series of spiritual short films called NOOMA.

I was introduced to Rob Bell through his NOOMA videos and I’ve been listening to him since. Velvet Elvis is one of the best books on Christianity that I’ve read, not because it is cool, but because it is true.

He puts scripture into context (and man, is he ever versed in scripture), he uses wonderful analogies to make points and he challenges his audience to think critically about their faith. I like that.

This week, I listened to the audiobook Jesus Wants to Save Christians, the terrific book he wrote with his friend Don Golden. How can you go wrong with chapters named “Swollen Bellied Black Babies” and “There’s Blood on the Doorposts of the Universe”?

Bell is a voice of Christianity that is tolerant and aware, but also extremely well-versed. He uses scripture in a relevant way that puts it into the context of the age in which it was written to help us understand it and apply it today. Some of the voices I listed at the beginning of this post can be a bit extreme and some of the best intentions can get lost and they can drown out people like Rob, who really need to be heard.

Today was about as typical of a Sunday as it could be. And that’s really one of the main reasons I love Sundays. They are predictable, sure; but there is a comfort to them like an old pair of sweatpants or your favorite chair.

We woke up and went to church early for a priesthood meeting, I ran around trying to fix computer issues I was having, and we had lunch with some good friends and an awesome 8-year-old.

We napped. I mowed. I showered.

It was a good day. Sundays usually are. And now, as I close out the first weekend of my Every Day in May project, I’m happy. I’m going to go hang out with my wife and dog and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

I was a little hesitant to follow up reading The Shack by reading Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell’s manifesto on “Repainting the Christian Faith”.

I’ve been following Rob Bell’s work since I first saw one of his NOOMA videos, which really do a great job of making Christian ideas accessible to a wide swath of the public. Even his sample videos on the site do a great job of getting across the messages of the videos.

I had a decent idea of what the book might be, but I was still really looking forward to reading Bell’s thoughts on Christianity in long form, rather than in 10-minute video consumption. Even despite what I thought the book might be, I was so thrilled when I read it.

Sometimes, it’s tough to be a Christian. There are people and organizations that don’t exactly give Christianity the best face. However, when reading through Rob Bell’s book, I got a glimpse of what Christianity could be.

Through the pages of Velvet Elvis, I took copious notes in the margins, underlined passages and phrases that I loved, and overall just soaked in the ideas that I appreciated most.

Now, this book will not be for everyone. It treats Christianity and Scripture as a flexible, living, breathing organism rather than a rigid set of rules. This form of Christianity is not for everyone. But I found a lot to agree with and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Shack has been sitting atop the bestseller list for much of the past year. William P. Young’s book has been lauded by many around me and after Alli finished it, I thought I would give it a shot. 

The story centers around a man named Mack who has lost his faith in a lot of ways. His family has encountered a huge tragedy (of which I won’t reveal) that he refers to as The Great Sadness. He receives a note in the mail from what seems to be God, inviting him to spend a weekend at the site of his greatest tragedy.

The result of this is a fascinating encounter with God — perhaps the greatest depiction of God that I’ve ever read.

I don’t really want to reveal more. What I’ll say is that The Shack is a very rare book. It is a well-told story of fiction that contains more truth than you expect. You’ll find yourself nodding in agreement, smiling and weeping as you journey alongside Mack.

This was a good book for me to read right now. I’ve had some issues lately that have caused me to question my own spirituality. It’s never been about doubting God’s presence, but more about what my own purpose is as a child of God…what am I called to do?

I’d recommend this book to believers and seekers alike. Each person will gain something different from it, but each person will find whatever they need. If you’re someone who has trouble describing or depicting God, I’d suggest you read The Shack. It might help you on your own journey.

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.

While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ”Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.

When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Merry Christmas.

One of the things that I do is I speak out in our district at congregations that are smaller and this past Sunday, I spoke at the Bethel Congregation off of Leavenworth road. Tonight I’m going to share with you an excerpt from the sermon that I gave, in which I talked about our experience in the summer of 2007 when we visited France and Italy, and more specifically, the Sistine Chapel. Understand that without delivery, it may not be quite as successful, but my sister-in-law suggested that I share it, so I thought I would.

This morning, the scripture I’d like to focus on comes from the Doctrine and Covenants, section 163:

“Faithful disciples respond to an increasing awareness of the abundant generosity of God by sharing according to the desires of their hearts; not by commandment or constraint. Break free of the shackles of conventional culture that mainly promote self-serving interests. Give generously according to your true capacity.”

I want to talk this morning a little about what our is meant by our “true capacity.” I think that our true capacity is probably a lot more than we think. Our true capacity is the capacity for greatness that God placed in each our lives.

David says in Psalm 8, “What is man that you that you take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and majesty. You have made him to rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” God designed us for greatness.

When I married Alli, I made her a promise. Well, I made her several promises, but this one was a little different. It wasn’t really a condition of marriage, per se, more of a goal for both of us to work toward. See, my wife is an artist. She has studied art for her whole life and is a self-sustaining painter now. My promise to her was to take her to Italy before her 30th birthday.

You see, one of the things that Alli never got to do through school was to go and actually stand in front of the masterpieces she had studied for so many years. This was an important life goal for her, so it was an important life goal for me.

We started saving up a couple years in advance and in the summer of 2007, we went on a 3-week vacation that took us from Paris to Venice to Florence to Rome — we went to every major gallery in those cities and stood in seemingly every church we passed.

We saw amazing architecture and artwork — from the Louvre to the Uffizi Gallery — culminating in our visit to Rome. While I might pretend that the trip was for Alli’s benefit, don’t let me kid you, this was one of the greatest trips I have taken in my life. I was particularly excited to visit Rome for a couple reasons. First, I was excited to see all the ancient ruins and history of a world we sometimes are blind to. Moreso, I was thrilled that Alli was finally going to be able to stand in one of the most significant places of art through all of history — the Sistine Chapel.

The Chapel is a part of the larger Vatican Museum — a museum that holds one of the largest, if not the largest, art collections in the entire world. There are 54 galleries in the museum and the Sistine Chapel is the final one — you have to walk through the other 53 just to get to the Sistine Chapel.

I can tell you, as tired as I was from standing in line in the blazing Rome summer heat for two hours and then walking through 53 galleries containing artwork and antiquities from all around the world, the wait, the exhaustion — it was all worth it.

Wow. Just wow. What an amazing testament to what we as humans are capable of with God. You know there are people who would want to claim that there are subtle things in the chapel that Michelangelo placed in there as a statement against the church, but standing in that room with about 2,000 other people, I didn’t see them. All I could see was the clear cut evidence of God’s presence. You can’t stand in the room and look at that ceiling and not feel God.

Alli and I spent more time in the Sistine Chapel than in any other gallery or church that we were in on our entire trip. We studied each wall, we listened to the stories of what the artist intended with each panel, and I watched as my promise to Alli was fulfilled. I saw the tears stream down her cheeks as she stared at the ceiling and mentally checked off that item on her “bucket list.”

Over the next several weeks, we would recount that experience over and over again to our friends and family. But the most insight that I got from the experience was listening to Alli explain the beauty of the chapel to her dad, who has a fear of flying and can only see the chapel through his daughter’s eyes.

She told him that one of the things that was most impressive about the chapel was that “Michelangelo painted all the way to the corners.”

When she said that, it really clicked for me.

It was something that I hadn’t even noticed at first, but yet something that was so crucial to the essence of the chapel. Michelangelo painted all the way to the corners. He probably could have stopped a few feet from the corner and very few people would have noticed. But he would have known. And God would have noticed.

So instead of “good enough”, Michelangelo blessed us with a space that is complete and marvelous — a space that is completely devoted to showing the world the essence of God expressed through paint.

There is a pretty great lesson that we all can learn from Michelangelo. It’s not how to paint buon fresco or to sculpt. No, the lesson for us in the current world is that we should paint to the corners of our life.

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought to yourself, I could have been better…? Have you ever thought that you could have been a better worker, a better partner, a better parent, a better friend? You have to wonder if you’d adopted Michelangelo’s philosophy to paint all the way to the corners of your life if you wouldn’t be asking yourself the same question.

One of the amazing things about a life with God is that the corners are closer and more accessible to our reach. God enables us to see the places we can be better. He shows us the places where we are not being good stewards over our lives.

Now that’s both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes God shines a light on a corner of our life that we might not want to paint. Maybe you have a relationship that in disarray and God’s request is that you heal the wounds. Perhaps God wants you to know that you aren’t reaching your full potential in your career or in your spiritual life. 

Some things like your career and your spiritual life — they aren’t easy to fix. They require of you work, commitment and even some faith. If you put your faith in God and you follow the path of Christ, you’ll find ways to accomplish the things that God asks of you. And God doesn’t really ask a lot of us. He just asks that in all of our life that we serve him first and ourselves second.

II Chronicles 19:9 tells us: “You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the Lord.”

This isn’t to say that we all serve the same way. In first Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 4 through 6, we get some amazing instruction: 

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”

That means that we aren’t all meant to be painters or teachers or graphic designers or accountants or pastors. We aren’t all called to serve in the same way. But our purpose is the same — to spread the word of Jesus Christ. We are all empowered to serve God in a variety of ways and our challenge is to find out the way that we best serve and do our best we can to bring about Zion.

Being faithful stewards isn’t just about money. God calls us to be faithful stewards over our whole lives. He calls us to tend carefully to all the corners of our being so that we might fully realize the greatness and blessings that David spoke of in Psalm 8. 

That means that even though it may be a challenge, in our spiritual lives, in our managing of our resources, in our relationships, we must always reach further than is necessary and paint all the way to the corners.