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!

Man of Steel

Who has never seen a Superman movie? Who does not know the story?

Some people apparently don’t… one of my friends didn’t until this last one came out (I know… shocking lol) O_o

But I’m not here to tell you about the story; it’s the same as the ones before. I’m here to point out the reasons why I liked this one so much, why I would definitely watch it again and why, in case you haven’t yet, it might be good fun to go see it.

Superman’s real father is quite the warrior himself. I remember in the previous movies, sending his son away involved a lot of emotion. In this one however, he is more decisive and courageous. He even fights!

I think they chose the perfect actor for the role. He portrayed it very well :) Not to mention that they finally got rid of the curl on superman’s forehead. It was ok back in the 80’s but they still used it in the 2006 movie… come on!

I really like the relationship between Clark and his adoptive father. He believed in him so much! And even though he didn’t understand his son’s powers, he always made him see it as a positive thing. He made him feel especial and not “weird”. He believed in him, in his potential, in what he could become. It would be nice if all kids received such treatment from their parents nowadays. It would make it easier for them to believe it themselves…

Superman is not as confident as in the previous movies. He doesn’t think he was all that. And this is one of the things I liked the most about it.

There’s a scene in the movie where he doesn’t know what to do. He is not sure if he could trust and then someone tells him:

“Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.  Trust comes after.”

Confidence was something he had to build up with each step he took, with each decision he made and with each enemy he faced.

So to sum it all up, I liked this version of superman because it shows more than just an alien who had super powers. It shows his indecision, his vulnerability, his fears and most importantly, his decision to believe despite all that.

Now, there’s something we can all relate to ;)

And to finalize, there is a sentence his biological father says in the beginning of the movie. He says:

“You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards…”

This sentence stayed with me ever since. I really like it, but the reason I do has nothing to do with superman ;)

David - A man of Passion and Destiny

I have to confess that I first started reading this book 5 years ago. I probably read the first 3 chapters but never really got to finish it. Don’t remember why.

And then, last year there I was again. I went halfway through and then started reading something else. This is a very strange behavior for me because I always, ALWAYS finish the books I start reading, even if it’s just to tell others how bad it is, that they shouldn’t bother reading it.

So, after a few months and many other books in between, I’ve finally finished reading David and here’s what I have to say about it:

I LOVED this book! I loved it because I always liked the story of David in the Bible. There’s something about David that really captivates me. I guess it’s the fact that he was an ordinary man, with faults and mistakes but because of his sincerity before God, he could be used for something extraordinary. It gives us a little bit of background on David’s life and journey from a simple shepherd to a great king. It makes you understand how things unfolded in his life.

However, there are two things in this book that I really don’t agree with.

One is the idea that no matter what you do, you never lose your salvation. Once saved, once a person has the Holy Spirit, he can never lose Him. That’s not true. You have Him for as long as you are with Him; leave Him and you will be also leaving everything He has for you, including salvation. Including His Spirit.

The other is the idea that some things God will simply NOT give you. No reason, no explanation, He just doesn’t want to. What?!

Let’s say you want a family some day and you use your faith to achieve that. Perhaps you may find out that God doesn’t want that for you and you will die a single maid and that is just because. There will be no reason for it except the fact that sometimes God says no.

I don’t agree with this idea, certainly there might be some things God will not do because they ARE NOT good for you, but He’s not in the business of refraining from answering your prayers ‘just because’. Read the Bible and the promises He has for you and you will see that this idea doesn’t make sense.

Everything else in this book is really good and really teaches a lot of things about faith, humbleness, sincerity, struggles and success, but those two things… I just could not swallow.

There are many things I’d like to say about this book, but if I did, this post would be way too long. So, if you want to know what was the best part for me, just go to the comments section below 

If only...

God had a plan, one specific plan: To save the people of Israel from starvation. And so He chose a man, at the time just a boy, for the task. He chose Joseph.

God chose him among all his brothers and gave him a dream as a sign that one day God would make him great and exalt him in his household. Since the time God chose him, everything went from bad to worse. He was envied and hated by his own brothers and if that wasn't enough, we was sold as a slave and sent to a foreign land, away from everything and everyone he ever loved.

He probably thought and prayed that someone would come for him, that that would not be his life. But no one came and no answer came. God seemed to be silent. The only good thing was that everything he did was successful, he was promoted as the overseer of his master's house. He finally had some peace and some respect out of the whole mess his life had become. He  was probably praying and planning a way to be set free from slavery so he could go back to his own house, to his father. Right when everything seemed to be working for him, life gave him another blow. 

He was accused of something he never did, nor did he intend to do. All he was trying to do was be right in God's eyes and live according to the principles he was taught. Because of that unjust accusation, he was sent to prison. Nothing ever really worked for him, what was the use... he tried to do everything right, he kept using his faith in God, but it didn't help him when he needed the most.

He was given more work and more responsibilities. Now he was the overseer of the prison... what a joke! What good was that to him?

"And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper." Genesis 39:23

Again, what good was that, to have your work prosper when you can't use it for anything? When you are bound by your problems?

God still seemed to be with him, but not enough to take him out of that situation. But he kept his faith and his integrity and allowed himself to be used by God even knowing there was nothing in that for him. After helping two of Pharaoh's officers, he specifically asked one of them to remember him once he was out of prison and mention him to Pharaoh, so he could leave that place too. I'm sure he thought that was his chance, who knows if now was the time he would finally have his freedom... This is what happened:

"Yet, the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." Genesis 40:23

Two entire years had passed and he was still there. I'm sure that the dream Joseph once had was now very dim, almost entirely gone from his memory, just a dream of a dream. Did he still have any hope?

But you see, all this was part of that first plan. How could God use someone greatly and give him a very serious responsibility if that person does not have any skills, or if he easily gives up on his faith, or if he leaves the principles of God as soon as there is any sign of trouble? He can't! And that's why God allowed Joseph to go through all that and He used every circumstance to shape and mold him into the man he needed to be to fulfill that plan.

Are you using your faith but have not yet seen the results you expect? Have you been trying everything you know to solve that problem you have but it's still there? Welcome to the club! 

It doesn't matter that you don't see the whole plan yet, it doesn't matter if you don't feel capable or appreciated. It doesn't matter if things don't seem to be working right now, it doesn't matter if you've tried before and failed. All that matters is that you remember the dream and you keep your focus on that. GOD WILL NOT FAIL IN WHAT HE PROMISED YOU, no matter how bad things seem to be right now. If you persevere in your faith and faith only, not what your eyes see or you heart feels, faith only, then like Joseph, you will have the realization of that dream, you will have what you've been fighting for all this time...

Or you can just accept things as they are, give up, rebel, follow what you feel and stay in that prison for the rest of your life, just wondering what it would have been like if only...

Pretty little liars

I have been in the church for 16 years now and I have learned many things throughout all these years. I've learned to be who I am, to be open about myself before God and before people. But I wasn't always like that...

I remember a time in my life where I knew everything I was supposed to do and I did it so 'perfectly' that no one ever suspected that it was all just pretense. I liked God and I liked the church, especially the Youth Group, but I also liked the friends in my school and the exciting life they seemed to live. And so I did both. I'd faithfully attend church and 'wholeheartedly' participated in all activities there, but whenever I was not in church or among my church friends, I'd behave just like everybody else in the world. 

I knew how to lie and I knew how to pretend...

And that's how I know that many young people who go to church, pray, talk about God and the Bible, who are even taking part in the 21 days of Fasting are actually... lying. Lying to themselves, lying to others and thinking they are also lying to God.

They raise their hands and seek the Holy Spirit and sometimes even cry - just like I did many times - but everything is just pretense. They will talk to the pastor and to God about all sorts of things, except about what truly matters.

They never receive any answers to their prayers, neither do they see any results from their faith because there is something they are hiding, something they don't want anyone to find out. Something they've done or are still doing. They are so concerned about what others might think when they find out the truth that they forget that the Person who should NEVER know about their secret, already does. The One who should never find it out, already HAS.

You pretend because you fear that people will get disappointed at you, you fear you might lose a certain position you hold in the church, you fear embarrassment, you fear rejection...

"But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" Luke 12:5

Do you want to keep pretending? Do you want to pretend that you never read this post or that it has nothing to do with you? Very well, but you know where these lies are leading you...

P.S.:In case you want to do like I did many years ago and vomit what's been chocking you, feel free to use my bucket.

I do it my way

She knows how to take care of herself and so everyone thinks she is really beautiful. She knows how to speak, how to be pleasant and the way she carries herself causes a lot of girls to admire her.

She is not the clueless type of girl, she knows what she wants in life and she knows how to get it. She is always busy with a new project, her job, her career, her family, her plans for the future and her friends. 

She has everything going for her, she feels content with the way she does things, she is bold and determined to fight for her dreams and that makes the future look even brighter. And to top it all up, she believes in God, goes to church and has even made some time for a few projects there as well. God is such a big part in her life...

Oh what an ideal way to live!!! Conquering what you want and having God being a part of everything...

Except... that's not the way things really work with God.

You can't have God as part of your life, like your family or friends are. God is not a gym class that you make time for three times a week! There is no such thing as 'I believe in God, but I do it my way, on my own time'. Either God IS your life and you fit everything else around Him or forget it, just continue living your life without Him.

Many people say, 'but God understands that I'm busy and don't have a lot of time'. Yes, sure... why don't you say that to your professor in college, or perhaps your family who expects you to spend some quality time with them, or even your boss? Yes, why don't you tell your boss that you can't work for a few weeks, because you are just too busy right now? 

So, why is it ok to say that to God? Why should He accept your leftovers? 

You are just kidding yourself if you think you can pull that off... and you know it. 

If you want to have a faith that brings results to your daily life, the secret is this: God FIRST, then everything else. 

Otherwise, just keep doing things your way and trusting in the strength of your own arm. You want to continue fitting God into your busy schedule? That's your right.  

Just don't expect God to do anything for you... better yet, expect Him to do just as much as you do for Him.

And that's the way it is.