Confessions Series

I’m afraid to write.

Yes, that’s right. I am afraid to write, and even though this is not my first official confession, I thought I should get it out of the way.

I love writing and at the same time, I’m dead scared of doing it. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I know what I like to read and won’t accept to write anything less than what I would expect to read somewhere else.

Maybe it’s because I don’t know the reaction people will have when they read whatever I write, or maybe it has to do with the many other confessions I’ll be making here in the blog. I don’t know.

A lot of people who don’t know me personally, who only know me through this blog, social networks or even by just seeing me in meetings or church, might have the mistaken idea that I have it all together, that my life is wonderful, that I barely make mistakes or that I am very wise (I don’t know if anyone really thinks that but just in case lol).

Well just like in the movies I write about, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth and that’s why I’ve decided to start these series here in my blog.

I find that it’s easier for me to learn something through a person’s experience. For example, if a friend talks about all her achievements in life and how her life is so different and better from what it was once, I will celebrate and be happy for her and that will end there. But if she tells me her struggles, how hard it was for her, the times she didn’t get it right, I assure you, she will have my undivided attention because that’s the reality of things. That’s what I relate to.

Isn’t that why most people love to watch movies based on true stories? People want something real, something more than just a beautiful, moving story. They want something they can use in their own lives.

I know I’m not perfect and though I truly wish that was the case, I know I don’t get things right a lot of the times. I’ve made many mistakes, I’ve decided wrong many times, I have stood still when I was supposed to get moving and I moved when I was supposed to have done nothing. I’ve had wonderful days and I’ve had evil, dark days. And by sharing my experiences with you, I hope that you may learn something, anything that you can use for your own life.   

It’s impossible to talk about the things I learned without talking about the people who taught them to me, so yes, I will be talking about some of my friends (they don’t know hehehe).

But going back to the beginning, I am afraid to write. To this day, I have written 4 plays, a book and numerous blog posts and I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I know I have to write. Do I feel bad? Shouldn’t I be over this fear already? Yes and yes, but that’s not what matters. What matters is that I write regardless of how I feel. I overcome my fear every time I sit in front of my computer and start typing.

That’s how you overcome fear. Even though 90% of you say you can’t, that you are just not capable, you do it anyway. You don’t wait to feel brave. You act brave and you will soon find out you don’t need to feel anything. You just need to believe.

So stay tuned for my first real Confession next Tuesday. I call that episode in my life: “The kiss of Revelation” O_o

So see you next Tuesday ;)

* In “Kiss of Revelation” I’ll be talking about a friend of mine who without knowing, played a huge part in the start of my change. And although I can’t say her name yet, I think some of you may know her. So here goes a clue… she is beautiful, has long black hair, has a blog of her own and was in one of my recent Instagram pictures. Can you guess who it is?

Unbroken

This image shows my favorite part in the whole movie

Before I say anything else, let’s make an agreement, shall we?

Let’s pretend that I have been writing on my blog all along. I will not mention how I haven’t written a single word here for the past ten months and you will pretend that I have never stopped writing :)

No, I can’t do that lol

I’ve missed writing here so much!! And I have missed hearing from you so much that I’m nervous I might end up messing up this review and writing it all wrong.

But I’m going to try ok?

As some of you might have seen on my Facebook page, last week I went to the movies – to that nice movie theatre where the seats recline and the popcorn is free (yay!) – and I watched a movie that wasn’t talked about much, but that is so worth watching! It’s a movie called Unbroken.

It’s about this young man, Louis Zamperini, who when he was a child, never believed he could amount to anything, until his older brother encouraged him to join the track team in his school. He gave it a go and found out that he was extremely good at it. He started winning all the competitions and although he was still very young, he got to compete in the Olympics.

A few years later, he was sent to fight in the war in Japan. As he was leaving in the train, his brother told him something – now pay attention because it’s here you realize this is going to be a good movie. He tells him:

“A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”

And then his train leaves to go to war.

In one of his missions in Japan, his airplane crashes into the sea - killing 8 of his friends. Only he and 2 others survived. One of them, as soon as he entered the little boat that would be their house for the next 47 days, started saying, “We are going to die! We are all going to die!!” Guess what happened to him?

Louis and his friend survived 47 days at sea, eating raw fish and drinking rain water, but one day there was a very big storm and seeing he was probably going to die, he makes a prayer asking God to get him out of there and that if He did, he would serve Him forever and do whatever He wanted. So by now you know this movie is going to be REALLY good.

The storm passed and still they were stranded, no sign of rescue from anywhere. When all hope seemed lost, a ship comes and rescues them. But guess what? It’s the Japanese, the enemies they were fighting in the war!

He and his friend are taken to a prison camp and what happens after that is something beyond what I can describe here.  You have to watch it. All I can say is that I will never forget the messages given in this movie.

If I were to summarize all the messages in the movie in one word, it would be: Endurance.

The situations Louis went through and his reaction to them are just… You can see there was a Higher Power with him. You can tell God was with him in every one of them, otherwise he wouldn’t, couldn’t have survived.

This movie teaches us the importance of not letting other people’s actions change us; or the hard knocks life gives us, break us. It shows the power of not paying with the same coin but to hold fast to what you know is right and to remain strong in that faith. Yes, this movie is about faith and about believing until the very end.

You see, if this was just a regular movie, written by a talented writer, it would have already been good, but the great thing about it is, it’s a true story. A story about endurance, resilience, forgiveness, faith. It’s about an answered prayer made in a moment of desperation. It’s about how God never fails those who trust and believe in Him, even if for a long time it seems like He has.

I can’t say anymore, except that I love this movie and if you had no plans to watch Unbroken, you really, really should.

I will however leave you with this amazing quote from the movie, just to give you a little taste. When Zamperini said he wanted to kill his enemies, that he didn’t care if he died in the process; he just wanted to kill them, a fellow war prisoner said to him:

“This is not how we beat them. We beat them by making it to the end of the war alive. That’s our revenge.”

I mean… just awesome!

What is your deepest fear?

This is a question Carter from the movie Coach Carter kept asking his basketball team players. The question would always come out of the blue.

Nobody understood why he was asking that and the truth is, nobody knew the answer or wanted to think about it. Until someone gave him a very unexpected answer…

I watched this movie eight years ago but I never forgot that answer. I remember thinking about it for days. And after reading Cristiane Cardoso's post "She is the light", I remembered it and decided to share with you.

Here’s the answer shown in the movie:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It's our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You playing small does not serve the world.There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give people permission to do the same.As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others".

What do you think it means?

What could it mean to you?

Share your opinion with us in the comments. I will be sharing mine this coming Monday :)