The Sevens Meme
Update: I've gone back and answered #1 a little less defensively.
Thanks to John Schroeder at Blogotional for tagging me in the Seven Sevens meme. Here goes:
1. Seven things to do before I die
2. Seven things I cannot do
4. Seven things I say most often
5. Seven books (or series) I love
6. Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time)
7. Seven people I want to join in, too
Alas, those listed by name are either dead, fictional, or simply don't know that I or this blog exist. I have trouble with these things because (1) they're by nature virulent and (2) I'm soft hearted and wishy-washy and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by tagging some web friends and not others. So if you're interested in being tagged, let me know, and I'll gladly tag you.
Thanks to John Schroeder at Blogotional for tagging me in the Seven Sevens meme. Here goes:
1. Seven things to do before I die
* Complete a Ph.D. in biblical studies
* Do research, writing, and teaching to directly benefit preachers in the pulpit and Christians in the pews
* Become more like Jesus (In the words of Wayne Watson:
One Day Jesus will call my name,
As days go by, I hope I don't stay the same.
I want to get so close to him
That's there's no big change
On that day that Jesus calls my name)
* Hold my grandchildren in my lap
* Live to be 100
* Figure out two more things to do when I get there
2. Seven things I cannot do
* Roll my tongue
* Bear or suckle children
* Understand the appeal of theological schools of thought
* Go back and relive a single day in my past
* Choose the family I was born into
* Change another person's heart
* Understand Anselm's ontological argument3. Seven things that attract me to my spouse.
* She's female
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4. Seven things I say most often
* Hey
* Yes
* No
* Uh
* the
* Amen
* Peace
5. Seven books (or series) I love
* The Chronicles of Narnia
* The Lord of the Rings
* After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
* Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric (3rd ed.) by Howard Kahane
* Pensees by Blaise Pascal
* Preacher by Milton Stanley
* The Bible, of course
6. Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time)
* The Apostle
* The Mission
* This is Spinal Tap
* Honeysuckle Rose
* (That's it. There simply aren't seven. It's a stretch to come up with four)
7. Seven people I want to join in, too
* Blaise Pascal
* C. S. Lewis
* J. R. R. Tolkien
* Dumbledore
* Saul of Tarsus
* Wendell Berry
* Anyone who wants to leave a message and be tagged
Alas, those listed by name are either dead, fictional, or simply don't know that I or this blog exist. I have trouble with these things because (1) they're by nature virulent and (2) I'm soft hearted and wishy-washy and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by tagging some web friends and not others. So if you're interested in being tagged, let me know, and I'll gladly tag you.
posted by Milton Stanley at 9:16 AM
4 Comments:
My dear Milton,
I would encourage you to give Mr. G.K. Chesterton a chance. He might be someone you'd like to hang with for a while. Really, try his thrilling little novel, "The Man Who Was Thursday." Then, let's talk. If you do not like it, I will buy you another book.
As for movies, I dig the ones you've chosen. But I might add a few.
A) About the power of story, about the power of myth, in building relationships with one's child, there is the amazing film, "The Big Fish." It is a film for fathers and sons, like no other.
B) About the power of redemptive grace; about the road less traveled that is yet providential, there is hardly a better rompous adventure than "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Though it may be the retelling of the Odyssey, it is dripping with Christian truth, and it is a brilliant, fun throwback.
C)How about "Sliding Doors"? A sweet, sweet film, though it is thoroughly adult and worldly. But there is nothing quite like it: we've never seen a film that is reversed to show us what a character's life would be like if just one TINY thing was different. Watching the character in parallel stories is wondrous. It makes me love God.
D)"Amelie", a wonderful French film. My gosh, this film was so pure in its celebration of life I can't stand it. For me, it points out the thrill of simply breathing, and how, as most of us mature, we lose our awe of the simplest things. A movie full of grace.
E)"The Pianist" is perhaps the best introductory film ever produced regarding the Holocaust. Adrian Brody is amazing.
F)"Signs", perhaps the most misunderstood film of all time, is also wonderful. It is not about aliens at all; it is about a Christian who has lost his faith in God, and how prophecy delivers him. The aliens are a mere excuse for an exquisitely Christian message. I hated it the first time I watched it. But my second time through I saw my error: I was watching it too literally. Man, the very last image is of a cross that is a door. That's the sort of sign I like to see in film.
As I look at this list, I realize these films share one thing in common: those who interpret them literally will not like them at all (accept for "The Pianist"). That is why I loved "The Natural," which could also be on this list. It was a myth, a boy's daydream, full of the power of the second chance.
I will pray for you and your Ph.D. And I am with you on the theological-schools-of-thought thing.
Anyhow, my friend, I must be off. Too bad we live on different edges of the planet. Someday we shall meet.
Gnade
Now that you mention it, Chesterton's Orthodoxy is one of my favorite books of all time.
Thanks, Bill, for the recommendations. Most of them I have not seen but would like to now . Reading your list, I also remember that "Big Fish" and "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou" are movies I would like to see again (but since the exercise was a meme, I won't go back and add them). "Oh Brother" was haunting and fascinating with its depth of paganism (notice how well things go when they're with the man who's sold his soul, and how awful they go when he's away?). And "Big Fish," well, I've never wept as hard or as long watching a movie as I did during the final 10-15 minutes of that one.
If you like Chesterton's "Orthdoxy," check out Brian McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy."
For some reason, "Orthodoxy" caused me to do what I was calling "mental gymnastics" at the time. I think it is that mixture of philosopher/fiction writer/theologian that kept me guesing what he was really saying at a given time. Still, I have a text version of the book on my hard drive for reference. (I love his discription of the childlikeness of God!)
McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy" caused me to put aside my tendacy to immediately pigeonhole someone because of the direction their logic might be tacking. "Oh, he's forming such-and-such a stance." By the end of the book, I was giving thought to things that 20 years ago I would have labeled liberalism, or something maybe even worse.
Other favorites writers: A.W. Tozer, probably the closest thing we have to a Protestant mystic; Henri Nouwen, whom I quote enough to make people wonder if I'm a closet Roman Catholic; Malcolm Muggeridge, who can almost convince you that the RC Church is the one true church ... or, at least he convinced himself of that; and Brennan Manning, once a Franciscan and whom I'm told is now considered a heretic by some in the RC Church ... and whom I consider to have written a great treatise for the common man on radical grace -- "The Raggamuffin Gospel." (For a look at his text on radical discipleship, read "The Signature of Jesus.")
Grace and peace ...
Thanks, Frank. GO is on my list. Peace.
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