Hillside Laughter

We finished the morning service at WFMC on February 27, 2011 by singing the gospel song:

Would you live for Jesus, and be always pure and good?
Would you walk with Him within the narrow road?
Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load?
Let Him have His way with thee.

His power can make you what you ought to be;
His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free;
His love can fill your soul, and you will see
’Twas best for Him to have His way with thee.

Hear it at:   http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/i/hiswaywt.htm

Quite a contrast to the Frank Sinatra song “I did it my way.”

We watched Heidi this week.  Certainly a great story although I am sure there are several versions and it is hard to figure what goes in one version and what is left out.  This one is the 2005 version starring Emma Folger, Max Van Sydow, and Diana Rigg.  I suppose there is an original book which would have the “real story.”  I enjoyed the beautiful alpine vistas and the grumpy Frau Rottenmeyer.  Clara’s recovery seemed a bit contrived.

There are of course parallels to the specifically Christian story Treasures in the Snow by Patricia St. John.

Altogether this is a wonderful story for children and adults.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi for details.

Today we are back in Wilmore and we attended WFMC this morning. It is quite different than Bayview Glen Alliance. And, I must say, WFMC “wins.” In fact Wilmore wins in so many ways over Toronto. Maybe the biggest difference is that the culture here is just friendlier. We are loved and many people care about us. And the weather is so much better! Still, it is hard. I feel anxious coming back. Why is that?

Don’t misunderstand. For me, personally, going to Toronto has been a wonderful experience. I love the communal life of our world on Tyndale’s sixth floor. I love being grandma/mom to our two adopted families there. I love exploring the big city–there’s a never ending world to discover.  But it is not always easy.  For example, there is no pleasant chit chat in the grocery line; sometimes just a struggle to communicate!  Our church there has many good people, but to this point we can only claim one couple as true friends, outside the Tyndale world.

I’m really not looking forward to the disruption of life that our move will precipitate. I don’t really know well how to anticipate life beyond May. I do think it will be good, but I’m not eager to fall back into the same patterns of “the before”; I don’t really just want to keep doing the same things for the rest of my life–until I die. Not that I anticipate that it will really be that way. We now will have more freedom than ever to do all the fun things we’ve wanted to do, and hopefully the money will be there for my crazy dreams! So, yes, I do think it will be good . . . but the unknown is still a little unsettling.

Courtesy of a friend we watched the movie Amal this week.  It is an Indian (New Dehli) movie with subtitles.  It is essentially a morality play of what happens when greed takes over one life and honesty and faithfulness controls another.  The one life leads to dishonesty and eventually murder.  The other life leads to love and compassion.  What roles does money play in all of this?  Let’s not give away the plot.  A worthwhile “watch.”